HD pic quality

[truckracer]

today i finished up a home theatre installation for a customer. In their recreaction room with a bar I installed a 5.1 surround system(speakers wall mounted)all wiring fished, and surround receiver and satellite receivers in the next room closet using remote repeater etc). Three TV's were put up on the walls using componet video distribution amp (ce labs 400comp). TV specs are LCD 37" 120HZ 1080P capable.

My customer has Pizza Dish HD, you all know the one that has worked feverishly to eliminate c band subscription.

after making componet video connection to the HD receiver and firing up the tv's i was amazed at how average the HD looked. It was nothing spectacular either. It was ok but not stunning. I flipped through the channels and played with the tv settings. No HD channel the provider had was overly fabulous.

This is not just a rant on pizza pans thread but i swear to my eyes the HD did not look "HD" to me ..not really.

I am so used to looking at c band masters HD feeds that the other stuff seems pretty soft.

 

[tvropro]

Dish Networks HD is sad it's not HD. Direct is better but not by much. C band masters are much better. The day I bought my Sharp Aquos 32" 1080p (I bought a floor model) it was hooked to Direct HD, when I looked at it I was like this ain't that great. That night when I hooked it up at home the Disney Master feed on G-14 was ITC. Anyone who seen Disneys SD master knows how great it is. It blew away Direct HD! Now remember Direct is better than Dish. I've seen Dishes HD in stores and it's sad. The reason I only got Direct SD was the HD ain't worth it for all the extra you need to do to keep it when its not overwhelming. Its lite HD and thats all it will ever be.

 

[truckracer]

i agree and of course i didnt tell my customer how lousy i thought hos HD looked. i connected a piece of rg6 to the tv's coax input and stripped back a quarter wavelength uhf of the shield to make a sort of ota antenna. i did a scan and the digital locals in 1080i looked spectacular! i switch inputs over to dish and it looked pretty sad!

mom has Directv SD (she lives in my house with me)and i also dont think the HD is worth paying for on their system. i modulate a couple of d-12 boxes onto analog tv channels and they dont look any worse than they already are on composite video.

 

[Lak7]

One thing I noticed with HD channels on DirecTV, they are not all the same.
Some channels are better than others, and on the same channel, some shows are better than others.
To me, a Live Sports Event on TNT and Versus has the best Pic of all.
And on ESPN, some games just look better than others.

 

[truckracer]

theres a lot of variation on fta hd too like you describe

 

[Asket]

HD quality

Some OTA and other broadcasters do not broadcast over 720p. This can account for variations in quality. Others cheat by not doing red info in HD. In many ways HD in broadcasting is a fiasco but it sure is a pleasure when HD and SD are done right!