Hbo Pq

[Tom Bombadil]

The HD PQ from E* has been spiraling down since the summer of '05. We've discussed this many times on Sat Guys. Over that time I've become accustomed to less than razor sharpness of the down-rezzed channels. I've seen thousands upon thousands of over compression artifacts in scenes with low light levels, low contrast levels, fast motion, and on saturated colors (particularly reds).

But tonight I watched the worst HD PQ I've ever seen from E*. I viewed a recording I made a few days ago of "We Are Marshall" off of HBO. This movie was well it, with much of it filmed under daylight. There were few low contrast scenes. The movie itself had good, sharp images, as the low motion scenes were sharp with good colors and brightness.

However on almost every camera pan, even moderate speed pans, there was substantial macro pixelation. Likewise for shots of football players in motion even when the camera wasn't panning. All colors were breaking up. This didn't happen 5 times, or 10 times, it happened maybe 250-300 times during the movie. At times it resembled a YouTube video.

This is a premium movie channel. I'm paying a double fee on top of my standard package to watch this channel. Yet I'm getting a terribly bandwidth-starved product.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've watched a number of movies on DVD, for the first time in many months. While they did not have the image sharpness of this movie on still scenes, their PQ on motion scenes was far better.

I never dreamed E*'s HD PQ would get this bad. What a shame.

 

[richiephx]

B.b.b.b.but E* is the leader in HD. I completely agree with your observations. I will strongly consider my options unless E* makes improvements soon.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Try an email to the following address for pq /audio concerns :

dishquality@echostar.com

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I'm not going to waste my time contacting them for what would be either the 7th or 8th time over the past 2 years. That is a dead letter office that generates a standard form letter response and nothing more.

 

[tigerfan33]

I'm not going to waste my time contacting them for what would be either the 7th or 8th time over the past 2 years. That is a dead letter office that generates a standard form letter response and nothing more.

If you do contact them plaese tell them about ESPN hd pq. I have and have not heard back.

 

[JEFFinINDY]

I'm not going to waste my time contacting them for what would be either the 7th or 8th time over the past 2 years. That is a dead letter office that generates a standard form letter response and nothing more.

Well, bitching about it here surely won't help. You should let them know.

 

[KAB]

Well, bitching about it here surely won't help. You should let them know.

+1.

 

[aperry]

E-mails to Dish quality seem to go ignored. I have an issue that I have reported to them twice, getting ready to send it a third time, and still no reply whatsoever from them.

Their reply is not in my spam folder either, I checked.

 

[darrencp22]

Dish "Quality"

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Well, bitching about it here surely won't help. You should let them know.

And you think sending them an email will "let them know?"

I don't. I don't think anyone bothers to read them. Well, some office lackey might glance at them and then check a box on a form that is tabulated, which then sends me an automated email response.

They know the quality of their own broadcasts. They carefully allocate bandwidth and observe the effects. They have been in this business for well over a decade and have several people employed for this purpose. They know very well what the decreased bandwidth does to their channels.

The only result I've seen from my previous 6 or 7 emails on this subject is that PQ continues to worsen.

 

[ralfyguy]

Tom, I agree with you 100%. I bought a Philips DVP-3960 upconverting DVD player, and at first I was sceptical. Since you can't add resolution, upconverting from 480i or 480p to 1080i sounded like a worthless gimmick to me. But for $40 you can't go wrong. Boy I was impressed after I hooked it up. Some shows on the HD premium channels were so mediocre, the picture off of some DVD's on that player blew them out of the water. So you're absolutely right.

 

[JEFFinINDY]

And you think sending them an email will "let them know?"

I don't. I don't think anyone bothers to read them. Well, some office lackey might glance at them and then check a box on a form that is tabulated, which then sends me an automated email response.

They know the quality of their own broadcasts. They carefully allocate bandwidth and observe the effects. They have been in this business for well over a decade and have several people employed for this purpose. They know very well what the decreased bandwidth does to their channels.

The only result I've seen from my previous 6 or 7 emails on this subject is that PQ continues to worsen.

I guess you're screwed. But thanks for sharing...

Seriously, report it. If not it is like complaining about not winning the lottery without buying a ticket...

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I guess you're screwed. But thanks for sharing...

I agree that I'm screwed. I'm paying E* $20/month for Dish HD. Getting screwed is one of the services I'm paying for!

Odds are that it is only going to get worse, as E* adds more HD channels in an effort to keep from falling woefully behind D*. They don't have the bandwidth available for them. I don't think they have enough bandwidth to offer the number of HD channels they are providing now.

So until the new birds are flying, mediocrity is the word.

 

[tnsprin]

E-mails to Dish quality seem to go ignored. I have an issue that I have reported to them twice, getting ready to send it a third time, and still no reply whatsoever from them.

Their reply is not in my spam folder either, I checked.

Actually it works better than some of the other email addresses. They do get looked at. Sometimes they get quick action, esp. when its a technical problem. However if its a policy decision (i.e. more pq vs more channels per transponder) you need to go elsewhere.

 

[uhf]

I have always gotten a response to emails to Dishquality. They've gone as far as to duplicate the setup I have to find glitches that they weren't seeing there. They once found a bug in the 4900 firmware that was causing macroblocking. Once they duplicated it, they got software engineering to fix it.

 

[kokomogator]

I agree that I'm screwed.* I'm paying E* $20/month for Dish HD.* Getting screwed is one of the services I'm paying for!Odds are that it is only going to get worse, as E* adds more HD channels in an effort to keep from falling woefully behind D*.* They don't have the bandwidth available for them.* I don't think they have enough bandwidth to offer the number of HD channels they are providing now.So until the new birds are flying, mediocrity is the word.

Is this also a situation with Direct as far as pic quality?* I have emailed about our local fox station several times and I have to say, they were really helpful and I saw a substantial improvement but this was not an HD channel.Let me know about the HD quality on D as I am seriously considering jumping ship for that reason alone.* thanks!

 

[riffjim4069]

The HD PQ from E* has been spiraling down since the summer of '05. We've discussed this many times on Sat Guys. Over that time I've become accustomed to less than razor sharpness of the down-rezzed channels. I've seen thousands upon thousands of over compression artifacts in scenes with low light levels, low contrast levels, fast motion, and on saturated colors (particularly reds).

But tonight I watched the worst HD PQ I've ever seen from E*. I viewed a recording I made a few days ago of "We Are Marshall" off of HBO. This movie was well it, with much of it filmed under daylight. There were few low contrast scenes. The movie itself had good, sharp images, as the low motion scenes were sharp with good colors and brightness.

However on almost every camera pan, even moderate speed pans, there was substantial macro pixelation. Likewise for shots of football players in motion even when the camera wasn't panning. All colors were breaking up. This didn't happen 5 times, or 10 times, it happened maybe 250-300 times during the movie. At times it resembled a YouTube video.

This is a premium movie channel. I'm paying a double fee on top of my standard package to watch this channel. Yet I'm getting a terribly bandwidth-starved product.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've watched a number of movies on DVD, for the first time in many months. While they did not have the image sharpness of this movie on still scenes, their PQ on motion scenes was far better.

I never dreamed E*'s HD PQ would get this bad. What a shame.

Tom, I fully agree....we just canceled service last week. We purchased three 622s and loved them...and we were generally satisfied with the Dish Network customer service, billing, etc., but I just plain had it with DishHD-Lite. Enough is enough and I would rather wait on FiOS than continue being disappointed with Dish-HD PQ.

 

[JEFFinINDY]

But tonight I watched the worst HD PQ I've ever seen from E*. I viewed a recording I made a few days ago of "We Are Marshall" off of HBO. This movie was well it, with much of it filmed under daylight. There were few low contrast scenes. The movie itself had good, sharp images, as the low motion scenes were sharp with good colors and brightness.

However on almost every camera pan, even moderate speed pans, there was substantial macro pixelation. Likewise for shots of football players in motion even when the camera wasn't panning. All colors were breaking up.

I'm watching this movie now too. You're right, it's horrible. I wonder if it's an HBO problem at the source, or a problem with just this movie, because other movies on HBO aren't this bad. Superman seemed pretty good to me the other day.

Jeff

 

[drdroo]

I've emailed dishquality a few times in recent months about the guide data for my subchannel FOX feed not working (because it's 22 on Dish but 7.2 on OTA), and also about problems with the picture and the audio levels on FOX over Dish. They've taken care of these problems AND kept in good contact with me.

If people are emailing them using free e-mail addresses, they should consider using a real e-mail address instead. Their spam filters might be throwing away hotmail, gmail, yahoo, etc. mail.

The quality of responses could've gone down in the last few months too, but I find that unlikely.

Hold a copy of your e-mail for a week and resend it a second time if you don't get a response too. I've always received a response in about 2 days from an actual person.

That's not to say they'll fix the problem. Wonder when they have to go to the HBO PQ standards for bitrate?

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I put on HBO HD when I started reading this thread, and Bridge to Terabithia is on. PQ is crisp. Looks very good. I watched We are Marshall on HBO, and did not notice anything.

But then again I have - in the world of HD - a small 34" SONY CRT HDTV; and its PQ is always better than what I see when looking at bigger LCDs/Plasmas.

You can always write to ceo@echostar.com as well; it can't hurt to let them know you are upset with the quality of the product you are receiving.