HD picture quality on 811

[merekm]

I have a question about picture quality on my 811 and Mits 48" HD monitor. As I was watching ESPNHD tonight, the picture quality was less than I expected. While the quality was certainly better than SD, some of the same effects showed up in the HD broadcast. On the regular angle showing the field, the grass looked solid with sort of a smooth, oscillating effect. Tight shots up close, looked much better. Is the problem my 811, E* network compression, my monitor, or a combination? I have noticed this on DiscoveryHD also. It has been less noticable on HDNet.

OTA HD broadcasts have a different set of problems. My PBS feed has pixelation with any fast movement. All have the sound problem described in other posts, it is not in sync with the video and frequently the sound drops out. The picture also shows "blotches" and other digital artifacts. These are also on the sat channels, but to a much lesser degree. I also have the slow frame rate, although this is not as bad on this 811 as it was on my 1st one.

I have the 811 hooked up through all inputs, these problems are the same no matter which one is used. Any comments or help would be appreciated. I don't know if D* would be any better, or cable, which will be available in my area in 2005.

 

[nippjas]

Likely due to overcompression and crappy up-conversion of the broadcast...Of course some users will place the blame with the 811. I doubt your monitor contributes much...I've always liked Mitsu's pictures...

 

[Eric_C]

HD broadcast quality varies from program to program, station to station and city to city.

If HDnet and HD Movies look good then there probably is no problem since Mark Cuban requires his stations to be broadcast at a proper rate. PBS stations broadcast at different bit rates also, I pick up PBS out of Lansing and PBS out of Detroit and they look slightly different. Also PBS gathers their HD programming from everywhere so you never know what gen of HD camera is being used.

CBS here in Detroit is stunning, but others have mentioned their's is dumbed down on the bitrate and doesn't look as good.

ESPN HD is hit or miss, its either great, or crappy...I flipped through it last night and during a few shots it looked good and on the far pull away shots looked bad, this was on a 60" Sony LCD.

Overall PQ seems to be superior to D*, especially on SD, but still not as good as V*.

 

[hancox]

PBS also tends to experiment more with multiple sub-channels (one around me has 5!). This almost always leads to compression artifacts during fast motion. I wouldn't peg too much on the 811 here - I'm now on my 4th HD box (1 cable, 1 811, 1 internal to my set, and a Samsung OTA only one), and the 811 is in the better half of them.

 

[Jaspear]

On the regular angle showing the field, the grass looked solid with sort of a smooth, oscillating effect. Tight shots up close, looked much better. Is the problem my 811, E* network compression, my monitor, or a combination? I have noticed this on DiscoveryHD also. It has been less noticable on HDNet.

I see this "oscillating effect" all the time on Discovery HD. Light to dark and then a jump back to light once every two seconds, over and over. More noticeable in dark scenes.

 

[GaryPen]

Jaspear - Love your sig. I see your leader is an imbecile, too.

 

[Ziuck]

For a month or so now I have had a "jagged" look to the outer lines of images that are not completly focused. It looks as if you zoomed into the edges of a jpeg image and start to get the blocky squares. Sometimes it looks like the lines are moving "ants".

I get this on many of my OTA signals and most HD over Dish. I keep thinking it is the 811 but I am not sure. Never had it before and now most channels are doing it, even OTA!

 

[NightRyder]

I see this "oscillating effect" all the time on Discovery HD. Light to dark and then a jump back to light once every two seconds, over and over. More noticeable in dark scenes.

This has been a problem since Dish went to 3 channels per transponder just before the Olympics. So far our attempts to get them to correct this have fallen on deaf ears.



NightRyder

 

[Jaspear]

This has been a problem since Dish went to 3 channels per transponder just before the Olympics. So far our attempts to get them to correct this have fallen on deaf ears.

NightRyder

I almost never watch Discovery HD now because of this. In the near future, Dish may very well have $10 per month less revenue from me. If enough $10 per month drops in revenue occur, perhaps they will regain the ability to hear.

 

[merekm]

Thanks everyone. Seems like most of the problems I see is due to compression, from dish & OTA. Hope someone wakes up and understand we didn't spend the money on our expensive HD equipment to see a crappy picture. The only other problem I'm having is with the splotchy drop out in the video. It only happens on HD sources, more frequently with OTA sources. Oh, and the sound sync problem. I guess if this latest upgrade doesn't help, I'll call Dish back.

 

[nippjas]

Thanks everyone. Seems like most of the problems I see is due to compression, from dish & OTA. Hope someone wakes up and understand we didn't spend the money on our expensive HD equipment to see a crappy picture. The only other problem I'm having is with the splotchy drop out in the video. It only happens on HD sources, more frequently with OTA sources. Oh, and the sound sync problem. I guess if this latest upgrade doesn't help, I'll call Dish back.

Not all Dish's fault....And not to start another war, but this is one of the objectives MPEG4 will provide, better PQ.