HD Picture Quality Improving?

[JoeSp]

WOW -- Last night (Mondayh) I turned on my Pioneer Elite and put on GuysTV and was blown away. The PQ was unbelievable!! Then I went to Rave and was equally blown away. In fact , every VOOM channel looked impressive -- much more so then when I got VOOM two weeks ago. They must really be doing a great job getting the most out of the signal. Even TNTHD looked and sounded better. Is everyone seeing an improvement?

If you haven't picked up the VOOM channels and you want HD you cannot find a better way to spend 5 bucks a month --- period!!! @party

 

[BFG]

I think they are improving quality on the channels also. They are looking better, and most of the glitches are gone.

 

[les017]

I must say that even my wife mentioned that the big CBS shows are looking crisper this last week or so. I agree completely.

 

[DarrellP]

I watched DiscoveryHD "customer request" tonight and it was awesome. It's the best I've seen DHD to date. Equator had lots of judder on the show in Australia but the PQ was decent.

 

[BFG]

Yeah I saw a short subject on DHD that amazed me as well

 

[jsb_hburg]

My point of reference has been the Animania promos on Animania which had looked softer post-Voom DBS. I noticed last night that the Animania "Palette" guys looked much sharper. So, I guess they are wrapping up work on those new encoders?

 

[waltinvt]

But for how long ?

It would be good if someone could somehow archive some shots of the current HD to compare with later.

Many of us that have had HD for a while have noticed a sharp decline in the HD PQ over the last 6 months. Now that Dish is in promo mode with the addition of Voom etc, all of a sudden the PQ is better again.

It's amazing what good 'ol competition will do. I've even read where Dish IS actually giving some existing customers the lease option on the 942 through their executive offices.

I'm not trying to be cynical about Dish - I've been with them for 9 years; but in those 9 years I've concluded that Dish thinks ONLY of the $ and has no quams about letting customers get to that "edge" of disatisfaction if it can save them a dollar. IMHO they've often been penny wise - pound foolish. Right now they definitly have the momentium - at least in HD.

 

[Wally]

Last night I switched instantly between Discovery HD on cable (Adelphia) and on Dish, and Dish was better, definitely.
And yes, some of the VOOM channels looked quite good.

 

[gutter]

Yesterday my DISH was finally installed after having to remove a tree. Together with the 942, I would have to agree that the PQ is significantly better than the old VOOM. Sharper and with more detail. The DISH DEMO Channel still looks a bit soft compared to the others. That suprised me. The SD with the 942 is surprisingly very watchable. I would not have expected that.

 

[John W]

Damn, Good picture quality and Dishnetwork in the same post. I have been on these forums for years and don't ever remember hearing that. Maybe E* is getting their act together! WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!

 

[DarrellP]

Guys, I have the email address of the head compression tech at Dish, so if you ever have any compression gripes, PM me and I will forward it to him.

 

[kfried001]

WOW -- Last night (Mondayh) I turned on my Pioneer Elite and put on GuysTV and was blown away. The PQ was unbelievable!! Then I went to Rave and was equally blown away. In fact , every VOOM channel looked impressive -- much more so then when I got VOOM two weeks ago. They must really be doing a great job getting the most out of the signal. Even TNTHD looked and sounded better. Is everyone seeing an improvement?

If you haven't picked up the VOOM channels and you want HD you cannot find a better way to spend 5 bucks a month --- period!!! @party

Since I switched to Dish, I originally pruchased a 921 at Costco, but returned it because of Mpeg4 and the fact that the interface sucked compared to Tivo. Anyway, I leased a couple of 811's and a 322 hooked up to rwo rooms for my kids. In my room I have my 811 hooked up to my Pioneer Tivo H10. At Very Fine mode it records at 480p and has progressive scan output. I have been recording shows the last couple of days and the quality is fabulous. I can tell the difference between true HD, but it will definately hold me over until an MPEG4 DVR comes out. With the quality of the transmission from E*, I never thought I could ever get this quality from a non-hd dvr. Keep it up E*. Now just add the rest of the channels, plus Universal-HD, InHD1 & 2, CinemaxHD, StarzHD, TMCHD and keep the current quality and no provider will be ablt to match. Go Charlie!!

 

[Dan Rapp]

I got Dish w/942 installed today after having Voom and to me the PQ is comparable. The demo channel's PQ, which I presumed is reserved extra bandwidth, looks as good as any HD I've seen with the least motion breakup I've seen from satellite. I agree that SD looks better.

Dan

 

[kfried001]

I got Dish w/942 installed today after having Voom and to me the PQ is comparable. The demo channel's PQ, which I presumed is reserved extra bandwidth, looks as good as any HD I've seen with the least motion breakup I've seen from satellite. I agree that SD looks better.

Dan

After admiring the PQ the last couple of days, I watched Passage to Vietnam last night and thought the PQ was degraded a bit as was the PQ on several of the other channels. Maybe it was just the time of night.

 

[DarrellP]

That sounds like a show on EquatorHD, it still has issues from the source.

 

[NOHDjunkie]

Equator has the most PQ Problems. Mostly mosquito noise. Drives me nuts.

 

[vurbano]

I always thought that Equator's PQ problems were not a function of Rainbow1 or compression or downrezzing but rather a problem at the source.

 

[tdti1]

Damn, Good picture quality and Dishnetwork in the same post. I have been on these forums for years and don't ever remember hearing that. Maybe E* is getting their act together! WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!

I agree, though when Dish and DTV first came out they had pretty good SD, and then look what happend, I would not keep my hopes up on this quality, If they do what I think they will, it will look great, and then when they cram more channels on the same transponders, they will once again look bad, I hope when mpeg-4 comes out they will keep the quality nice, but again they may even cut transponders since they can compress more and pack the ones they have left as much as they can and save money.

 

[gutter]

I think the problem with some of the Equqrtor programs is the original source production material. Those were shot with the first HD cameras on the market and not the newer type.

 

[sixbears]

Guys, I have the email address of the head compression tech at Dish, so if you ever have any compression gripes, PM me and I will forward it to him.

I vote you send him a nice thank you email, to let him know that his efforts to improve PQ have not gone un-noticed. Bads news travels quick, and many times good news never travels at all