EPIX picture quality

[CubsWin]

I recently resubscribed to EPIX and the HD picture looks nothing short of awful on my TV's. It is very soft and washed out. By comparison, the EPIX streaming app looks significantly better. Has anyone else noticed the same thing about EPIX on Dish?

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[edisonprime]

As much as I like the Hopper 3, Dish's picture is definitely inferior to DirecTV's.

 

[mwdxer1]

I don't notice anything different about Epix. the pq looks the same here. Epix Drive In is only in SD. The rest are in HD. Epix does run a lot of off the wall movies and some of those did not have the best quality when they came out. Epix is a budget service compared to Showtime, HBO, Starz. I get it with the movie pack. The On Demand side is great but some looks like it was in done in 16mm. I like Epix as they do run a lot of stuff I have never seen elsewhere. Back in the 70s, there was a movie channel called "Spotlight" and they ran a lot of Grade B type stuff.

 

[bookworm370]

I dropped Epix a few months back as mxdxer1 said that it is just a budget version of Showtime and Starz. But a lot also depends on the AVR equipment you have in the middle. I have a Denon X4500 which will upscale SD to HD 1080 and a Sony XBR oLED Bravia that will take that and upscale it to 4K. Other than some softness (you can't add information that isn't there, only interpolate it, the major difference I notice is that the volume on the SD channels is a bit louder then on the SD channels. The Denon will take the normal Dolby Prologic which is sent on the SD channels and create a DTX NEO Neural-X simulation of 7.1 based on relative L/R volumes. Pretty amazing post processing stuff.

 

[tornado]

I don't have anything to compare Epix picture quality on Dish to, but I recently noticed the picture quality on a news channel was awful. I thought something was either wrong or the picture quality was horrible. It wasn't that the pictue qualty was horrible. It was that something was wrong. The setting in the Hopper for the display was set to 720P. I changed the setting to 4K, 1080p, or 1080i. I think it helped. My television is 4K.
As an audio and video enthusiast I know there are a lot of variables that affect picture quality. I have seen some of the best displayed images I have ever gotten come out of the Hopper, Winter Olympics 4k with HDR. I am very happy with the image quality I am getting with Dish through the Hopper with my television, but I have the best display that I have ever had, and the tv has been changed from factory settings to optimized picture settings from an engineer from Consumer Reports.
I don't know if this helps with the Epix picture quality.

 

[Yragha]

I just resubscribed and King of Queens on Lifetime is definitely worse than thru my ROKU.

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[Nebugeater]

I dropped Epix a few months back as mxdxer1 said that it is just a budget version of Showtime and Starz. But a lot also depends on the AVR equipment you have in the middle. I have a Denon X4500 which will upscale SD to HD 1080 and a Sony XBR oLED Bravia that will take that and upscale it to 4K. Other than some softness (you can't add information that isn't there, only interpolate it, the major difference I notice is that the volume on the SD channels is a bit louder then on the SD channels. The Denon will take the normal Dolby Prologic which is sent on the SD channels and create a DTX NEO Neural-X simulation of 7.1 based on relative L/R volumes. Pretty amazing post processing stuff.

So the SD channel is lounder that the SD channel. That has to be hard to pull off!

 

[TVEngineerArk]

There's no comparison between the PQ on most streaming services to Dish. Streaming just looks SO much better. I really noticed it during the free preview of Fox News after watching the on demand stories on the Fox News app the last few years since I switched to the Flex Pack. But it's really that way on all Dish programming including movie channels. I've given myself another month to copy things I can't get anywhere else onto DVD from my multiple hard drives attached to the trusty old 722. After that it's farewell to Dish after more than 20 years. I just can't justify even the price of the Flex Pack anymore for the little use it gets in our household. I would have considered keeping it if there was a cheap enough way but I can't justify $40+ per month (minimum) for storing movies and memorabilia anymore. Copying to DVD isn't optimum but I can't think of another more convenient way to keep the stuff.

 

[bnewt]

I really don't see that streaming has a better quality than Dish. Maybe it is my internet service speed is only 25. I have used on demand several times & it is no better than the Dish picture.
You tube is no better either. Can't say much about Direct TV as I have only seen it a few times in limited instances, but it didn't look any better to me than Dish

 

[olds403]

I have tried streaming and currently have Dish. I have a roku 3 that I have put numerous apps on as an alternative to Dish when there is a bad storm or simply nothing I want to watch. The VOD on dish had been very glitchy as well so the different discovery apps for the roku were an option to watch something that wouldn't cooperate on the Dish VOD system.

That being said, I will say that anything that I watch through the Dish VOD looks much better than the channel app on the roku. The same program (deadliest catch for instance) has much more contrast and seems sharper than the same show through the Discovery GO app on the roku. The shows watched directly on the Discovery GO app or History app are kind of washed out, contrast looks much better through the Hopper.

My TV is a calibrated Panasonic plasma from 2014 (the last and best of the pannys) so the washed out quality is VERY noticeable. I also used to have Hulu, and currently have Netflix and those always have/had outstanding picture quality. I think the quality of the streaming depends on where you are streaming from.

 

[TVEngineerArk]

I really don't see that streaming has a better quality than Dish. Maybe it is my internet service speed is only 25. I have used on demand several times & it is no better than the Dish picture.
You tube is no better either. Can't say much about Direct TV as I have only seen it a few times in limited instances, but it didn't look any better to me than Dish

25mb internet should be adequate for streaming high quality video. Are you using any other streaming services or just You Tube? We have Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix, Disney, HBOMax (it's included with our cell phone package) and several others including free services. If you compare a 1080P movie streaming from any of the services I mentioned, the PQ from Dish doesn't come close. It almost seems like watching through a dirty window on the HD material from Dish. We are using a 4K Firestick on a non calibrated 50" Panasonic plasma display from 2013. Now, if I watch for a while my eyes grow accustomed to Dish but in the first little while it's very noticeable.

Just my opinion though.

 

[mwdxer1]

I dropped Epix a few months back as mxdxer1 said that it is just a budget version of Showtime and Starz. But a lot also depends on the AVR equipment you have in the middle. I have a Denon X4500 which will upscale SD to HD 1080 and a Sony XBR oLED Bravia that will take that and upscale it to 4K. Other than some softness (you can't add information that isn't there, only interpolate it, the major difference I notice is that the volume on the SD channels is a bit louder then on the SD channels. The Denon will take the normal Dolby Prologic which is sent on the SD channels and create a DTX NEO Neural-X simulation of 7.1 based on relative L/R volumes. Pretty amazing post processing stuff.

I like having the movie pack as the content is more important than the perfect pq. I would rather have access to a movie in less than perfect quality that not have it at all.

 

[phatal]

Not sure I agree with you regarding Epix being a budget version of other premium channels (it's owned by MGM). The last couple years their original content rivals Showtime and dwarfs Starz, and these aren't low budget affairs either.
Some of my favorite series on Epix.
1) Pennyworth
2) Berlin Station
3) Get Shorty
4) Godfather of Harlem
5) War of the Worlds
6) Perpetual Grace

I would agree they don't run as many current releases like Showtime and HBO do, but they do release exclusive movies you won't see on the other channels.

 

[eddie willers]

Get Shorty is one of my favorite shows over the last ten years. Wickedly good.

 

[bnewt]

25mb internet should be adequate for streaming high quality video. Are you using any other streaming services or just You Tube? We have Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix, Disney, HBOMax (it's included with our cell phone package) and several others including free services. If you compare a 1080P movie streaming from any of the services I mentioned, the PQ from Dish doesn't come close. It almost seems like watching through a dirty window on the HD material from Dish. We are using a 4K Firestick on a non calibrated 50" Panasonic plasma display from 2013. Now, if I watch for a while my eyes grow accustomed to Dish but in the first little while it's very noticeable.

Just my opinion though.

we don't do a lot of streaming...…..just some youtube and some on demand movies
I would say that most of the time the streaming is basically the same quality as the Dish picture