HBO HD pq?

[cebbigh]

Added HBO yesterday. Thought the HD was good pq when I had it several months ago. Now it looks substandard. Some pixelation and soft images. Has something happened to explain this? I'm using a dish1000 and a 942.

 

[chipvideo]

Added HBO yesterday. Thought the HD was good pq when I had it several months ago. Now it looks substandard. Some pixelation and soft images. Has something happened to explain this? I'm using a dish1000 and a 942.

Dish sends out a pretty piss poor bit rate on HBO. Less than 12 on the 129 bird. I understand that with my cable company it is above 15.

 

[mdonnelly]

Comparing it now to HDNET and Disc-HD, looks about equal on my 65".

 

[NightRyder]

Dish sends out a pretty piss poor bit rate on HBO. Less than 12 on the 129 bird. I understand that with my cable company it is above 15.

FYI - HBO-HD is on the 110 and 148 satellites, not 129.


NightRyder

 

[cebbigh]

Dish sends out a pretty piss poor bit rate on HBO. Less than 12 on the 129 bird. I understand that with my cable company it is above 15.

That probably explains it. Since I went to the Dish1000 and removed the other dish 500's, I don't have the 148 anymore. Does anyone know if the pq for showtime might be better?

 

[dfergie]

Pq on 148 is much better on Both HBO and SHO... better bitrate...

 

[Gary Murrell]

Pq on 148 is much better on Both HBO and SHO... better bitrate...

Very True

-Gary

 

[chipvideo]

FYI - HBO-HD is on the 110 and 148 satellites, not 129.
NightRyder

OOps your right. What was I thinking. :devil:

 

[cebbigh]

Thanks Gary,
I'll add the Dish bitrates to my favorites list so I can recall it in the future. And I see that Showtime is actually worse. I called Dish and cancelled HBO with an explanation that it was for PQ. I then sent the following to dishquality (for what it's worth):

After adding HBO yesterday, I called and had it removed today. Since installing the Dish 1000 I no longer receive signal from the 148Sat. I found the signal from the 110 to be very poor with pixelation and very soft picture quality. After doing an online check I found that although you are broadcasting at 1920/1081i (happy with that) the average video is only 11.75Mbps (its 12.94 Mbps on the 148sat loc.) I am hoping that you will consider increasing the bps on the 110 loc for HBO. Discovery HD is on the same sat (110) and is at 14.33 Mbps and I find that PQ is excellent. Aside from wanting to add HBO or Showtime I have no reason to want another dish pointed at 148. And I will certainly never buy HD-PPV now that I see it is broadcast at an average video of 11.25 Mbps on the 110 Sat.

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

Discovery HD is on the same sat (110) and is at 14.33 Mbps and I find that PQ is excellent.

DiscoveryHD bitrate has been dropping constantly over the last year.

Sunrise Earth Episodes that took up to 7.5Gig of space a year ago now take in the mid5's - with Ninagiak Island coming in less than 4Gig yesterday during both airings. It was 4.5Gig 30 days ago.

Those are apple to apples comparisons of same shows and content.

And fwiw, HBO HD East distribution feed isn't even as high as you quote. Most see the same bitrate from Dish as they do from 4DTV. Showtime HD East is much higher - and higher than Showtime HD West.

 

[cebbigh]

DiscoveryHD bitrate has been dropping constantly over the last year.
Sunrise Earth Episodes that took up to 7.5Gig of space a year ago now take in the mid5's - with Ninagiak Island coming in less than 4Gig yesterday during both airings. It was 4.5Gig 30 days ago.
Those are apple to apples comparisons of same shows and content.
And fwiw, HBO HD East distribution feed isn't even as high as you quote. Most see the same bitrate from Dish as they do from 4DTV. Showtime HD East is much higher - and higher than Showtime HD West.

Thanks. I was just going with the info I had. The reason I sent the email to Dish was prior to my cancellation I called and spoke with an "advanced tech" who tried to argue that my point was baseless because "hdnet is on 110 too and its signal is fine so HBO HD has to be okay too."

 

[Gary Murrell]

HD Fan is correct, Discovery HD bitrates just seem to keep creeping down and down, lots of stuff hits around 13 Mbps and for a 1920x1080i Non-Movie channel, this is way to low

-Gary

 

[ashgrov]

Say, how does one determine if I am receiving HD (1920/1081i ) or HD-Lite, and also how does one determine the bitrate? Do I need any special equipment or software, and if so, what's the easiest (cheapest) way to do it?