HD Picture Quality

Flipperdoodle

Active SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Feb 19, 2008
22
0
Is it just my imagination, or has the overall picture quality of DISH HD offerings declined over the last month or so?

I watched some VOOM, but not exclusively, not a lot. So its demise can't alone explain why I think PQ has gone down hill.

For example, even the ESPNs don't look as good to me any more, where once they did.

Maybe I'm just jaded, and the whole wonder of HD has worn thin, with an assist from DISH and the general slow advancement toward HDTV nirvana.

I dunno...
 
there is another thread around here about this topic:) and yes your right the hd quality has gone down but hopefully that will improve.
 
I was thinking just the opposite. This morning my daughter wanted to watch Tigger & Poo (yeah, riveting TV). It was in STUNNING...I mean STUNNING HD. I was really blown away.

I have also noticed a few other channels looking better than normal.

Maybe my eyes are getting worse??
 
PQ has gone up. I don't know, really, but I often wonder how many people w/HDTVs have them set up right in the first place to get the best picture they can.
 
I checked out finding nemo to see how it looked and it's .....well, freaking amazing.
It's not a national HD but I have never seen the perfection I can see on my TV right now
 
Transformers is a blurry marco block mess. It is a sad day when my trailer downloads on my ps3 look much better than E*
 
Euro 2008 matches today on ESPN2-HD looked amazing, like you were standing there in Austria.

NBA Final looked excellent - you could see detail in the beads of sweat on Kobe's face.

Discovery-HD looked just fine for the remastered NASA films ( don't miss the repeat on Saturday if you missed it, the Gemini spacewalk footage is awesome. )
 
They did zoom in on several of the interviews to create the proper aspect ratio... I think. The top of the head of many were cut off.
 
NBA Final looked excellent - you could see detail in the beads of sweat on Kobe's face.

Close-ups may have been fine, but the typical court view shots were not good at all. There are postings on many forums complaining of the poor PQ for the NBA finals.

This is why it is so hard to assess picture quality, everyone sees different things.
 
I had no trouble w/ Transformer Macro-blocking.

either you have a smaller tv or you need to get your eyes checked. A friend and I were watching it on my 60" SXRD and we thought it was terrible. We didn't even finish it. It seems to be this way on any HD channel I watch with high action. Not to mention that every person on screen always looks pasty or sick because of the poor color pallet.

Anyone know when the next bird launch is?
 
Isn't max hd still mpeg 2 or is that showtime? Anyway, I don't agree with you that transformers macroblocked, but still doesn't hold a candle to my hd dvd. I am getting a lot of pixelation issues on Fox Prime HD. Also, MHD looks really bad compared to my cable. The colors are all washed out and in fast scenes you can see pixelation on dish. The cable is Mpeg 2 though and on clearqam, free is much better.
 
If you don't see it great, but I'm with AekaGSR and it is way too distracting to even watch.

Different screen size, different viewing distance, your eye sight, etc.....too many variables.
I think it unlikely that any of those variables are causing problems as severe as macroblocking for some, while others don't see that at all. Yes, the satellite transmission is digital, but if the SNR drops too low, error correction will not be complete. Then error compensation will take over, e.g. freezing the picture or taking some sort of average for regions where the data do not exist.

If it's 129 we're talking about, you are aware of the fact that the satellite is on it's last legs, are you not? Momentum control wheels have failed, and the only reason 129 is usable at all is because they are using little bursts from their attitude control thrusters! So the transmitting antenna is basically scanning back and forth across the country in between thrusts. This means that anyone near the edges of the beam will likely see SNR problems at certain times.
 
TheKrell I beleive you probably have hit the nail on the head. See I have NO problem with 129. Reason being I have a .9 meter dish on that bird. My feeling is that these guys have larger screens than I do but little dishes like the 1000. BTW my visual acuity is not a problem I'm the manager operation of a TV station and so I have to see pretty well for my job.