DISH vs Cable PQ (HD&SD) questions??

[the4lams]

Hello All,

First time poster, so take it a little easy on me ! I know that a true digital signal normally results is a better PQ than analog (cable); However with the compression that E* (and D*) have on there SD channels is it still truely a better PQ than cable? I use to have D* (about 2 years ago) and now thinking of signing up for E*, but want to see how there SD PQ is. When I had D* it seemed that the colors in the picture were better than cable (and sound was obviously better), but the amount of jiggles (for lack of a better term) were almost to much to handle. It was as if there were little things moving all over the screen. Is the SD PQ on E* better than what i am discribing? Also, how would you compare HD PQ between the two? Does one compress the HD picture more than the other? Any help is appreciated!!! Let me know if there is more info needed.

 

[oggusfoo]

Just had a dish installed and got new cable run because I may end up keeping both. Honestly, the TV Guide station on the dish looks more faded than the one from the cable company. It's not unwatchable, but not near as vivid. As for the squiggly distortions, I haven't noticed any yet from the E*. I got a 1000 model dish and it pulls +- 80% because of trees and the fact that it has 3 targets. The HD is the reason for my getting the upgrade, and I'm not at all disappointed. Occasionally when watching at 1080i there will be a stutter not exactly artifacts on the screen, but just it will pause and it may take a split second to catchup with the audio. It's done this twice but it is worth mentioning. As with any SD on a HD tv, its not wonderful but that is more of a function of the television's resolution.

 

[DWS44]

One thing that is hard for the comparison you are asking is that different cable companies and locations can vary quite a bit. In my area, E*, even though highly compressed blows away cable on a good day. Part of it may be my eyes, in that I prefer a soft digital pic, even with occasional artifacts, than a...umm... snowy-ghosty image on analog cable.

As for HD, well my cable company couldn't even make it work in my house, so I can't really draw a comparison there, other than that I've never had a problem with Dish Network's HD.

 

[oggusfoo]

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