HD pix qual D* vs E*

[Hemi 6.1]

Since I don't keep up w/them I didn't know. So when did they finally move to MPEG 4?

D* only ever had a Handful of Mpeg 2 HD they where on the 110 satellite.
I think it was HBO,Showtime,HD Net,HD Theater,TNT,Universal HD,and HD Net Movies,PPV HD, PPV Event HD.

And these were Dropped completely Earlier this year.
But they also have had a Mirrored Mpeg 4 version since I believe when D11 went live.


When They Started using Spaceway 1 and 2 then Some DMAs got Mpeg 4 Locals in HD first, back in 2006,Then D10 went live in September 2007 which was a Full MPEG4 conus satellite with also spotbeams.
So D* was doing more Mpeg 4 HD long before E* was.

Voom was Mpeg2 when I started service with E* in July of 2007. I'm not 100% sure if Voom moved to Mpeg 4 before they were Dropped.

 

[whatchel1]

I don't think so

D* only ever had a Handful of Mpeg 2 HD they where on the 110 satellite.
I think it was HBO,Showtime,HD Net,HD Theater,TNT,Universal HD,and HD Net Movies,PPV HD, PPV Event HD.

And these were Dropped completely Earlier this year.
But they also have had a Mirrored Mpeg 4 version since I believe when D11 went live.


When They Started using Spaceway 1 and 2 then Some DMAs got Mpeg 4 Locals in HD first, back in 2006,Then D10 went live in September 2007 which was a Full MPEG4 conus satellite with also spotbeams.
So D* was doing more Mpeg 4 HD long before E* was.

Voom was Mpeg2 when I started service with E* in July of 2007. I'm not 100% sure if Voom moved to Mpeg 4 before they were Dropped.

I don't think that VOOM was still around when E* went MPEG 4 but could be wrong.

 

[DodgerKing]

Since I don't keep up w/them I didn't know. So when did they finally move to MPEG 4?

Years ago. There first big HD roll-out was all Mpeg4. The only time they had Mpeg2 was when they just used those 5 or so HD channels (TNT, HDNET, HBO, ex) off an SD bird.

 

[jerryez]

SHOULDN'T THIS THREAD BE MOVED TO THE WAR ZONE.

 

[teachsac]

It has been very civil. Moreso than other threads.

S~

 

[primetimeguy]

I am a big fan of E*, have had them for 10+ years and wouldn't change. However, I did notice recently that on our 2 42 LCDs in our office, 1 running an E* 722 and the other a D* HR23, that D* HD quality was a lot better. Any chance E* might do something to catch up with D* in that department? I am surprised that D* isn't using it in advertisements, it was a fairly big difference. FWIW they are both hooked up w/HDMI.

Brad

Same TVs, both calibrated the same, same content, same viewing distance?

 

[RandallA]

Same TVs, both calibrated the same, same content, same viewing distance?

At least for me, it's the same TVs, same settings and same channels. The picture quality on D* is slightly better than E* in some channels and a lot better on others. For example, picture quality on MLB HD is fantastic but I can't compare it with E*. But I watch my local RSN HD (Giants games) and the picture quality is a lot better with D*. I also watch movies on HBO, Starz, etc and the picture quality is better.

I have no idea how they do it, better encoders, higher bitstream, I don't know but it just looks better with D*. Other family members have said the same thing.

 

[vaylon]

Its all in the amount of compression each service uses in the transmission.
For years Direct was notorious for compressing the heck out of all their programming.

Up until last week, I would have said that dish has better image quality or that they were the same.
But
I did an install of a nice entertainment system with a new Direct system and was shocked at the picture quality. The image quality was as close to blueray as you could get.But only on some HD channels. Others were still HD but just not perfect.

When I got home I watched part of Iron Man on Epix, Then I watched the same scene from the blueray player. there was a noticeable diferance. The edges on the Epix version just wasn't as crisp.

Was it enough to make me want to jump ship and head to Direct?
If I was paying full price for my programming? Yes.
To give up my HD Absolute package? No way. I can live with it.


But I did get to see her bill from Direct and was shocked.
It looked like this.

Choice basic---------------------------- 59.99
3 receiver fee --------------------------15.00
HD Programming fee------------------10.00
protection fee--------------------------- 9.99
Taxes------------------------------------- 9.77
----------------------------------------------------
Total--------------------------------------104.75

This was of course before she gets her new customer discounts for 6 months.

 

[primetimeguy]

At least for me, it's the same TVs, same settings and same channels. The picture quality on D* is slightly better than E* in some channels and a lot better on others. For example, picture quality on MLB HD is fantastic but I can't compare it with E*. But I watch my local RSN HD (Giants games) and the picture quality is a lot better with D*. I also watch movies on HBO, Starz, etc and the picture quality is better.

I have no idea how they do it, better encoders, higher bitstream, I don't know but it just looks better with D*. Other family members have said the same thing.

I have no experience with D*, but the majority do seem to agree D* is slightly better than E* and so I go along with that. But the OP said a 'fairly big difference' and I think a lot of times people make these statements without taking all the variables into consideration. S I was just looking for more details on how the decision was made.

vaylon's post above is a good example. No way you can make a comparison from one home to yours. Different TVs, different viewing distance, lighting conditions and not even comparing side by side.

 

[RandallA]

I have no experience with D*, but the majority do seem to agree D* is slightly better than E* and so I go along with that. But the OP said a 'fairly big difference' and I think a lot of times people make these statements without taking all the variables into consideration. S I was just looking for more details on how the decision was made.

I don't think it's a big difference except for maybe a few HD channels. As mentioned above, quality in some channels is very close to blue ray. I must admit that D* has less HD channels and maybe that allows them to offer better quality. As far as SD, I'd say in general they're about the same as E*. Some are better, some are worst.

 

[MikeD-C05]

In my experience back in 2007 when I had both services, the Sd channels with DIRECTV looked worser than DISH and their sd channels. Now I have eastern arc and all my sd channels are in mpeg 4 , which looks much better to me than mpeg 2 sd. Also takes up less room on my hard drive. Of course with DISH I have less sd channels since they have more in the way of hd now ,not counting the recent loss of Disney and Abc family channel due to contract disputes.

 

[primetimeguy]

quality in some channels is very close to blue ray.

This I find hard to believe. For me, every time I put in a Blu-Ray I am wowed by the PQ. Nothing OTA or via satellite can compare. Blu-Ray has 4x or more the bandwidth that satellite allows per channel. And it has 2x the bandwidth compared to OTA with compression schemes that are nearly twice as good.

So for me comparing anything to Blu-Ray just is not fair. Maybe on some still shots of a movie they can look very similar, but that is about it.

 

[lparsons21]

In my experience back in 2007 when I had both services, the Sd channels with DIRECTV looked worser than DISH and their sd channels. Now I have eastern arc and all my sd channels are in mpeg 4 , which looks much better to me than mpeg 2 sd. Also takes up less room on my hard drive. Of course with DISH I have less sd channels since they have more in the way of hd now ,not counting the recent loss of Disney and Abc family channel due to contract disputes.

In 2009 when I had D* their SD was very bad compared to E*. And to my eyes, the HD on each was different, but I would be hard pressed to say one was noticeably better to my eyes. This viewed on a 54" Panasonic plasma HDTV.

 

[MikeD-C05]

In 2009 when I had D* their SD was very bad compared to E*. And to my eyes, the HD on each was different, but I would be hard pressed to say one was noticeably better to my eyes. This viewed on a 54" Panasonic plasma HDTV.

I agree the hd picture quality was slightly better using DIRECTV over DISH, but the sd reeked . And since in 2007 there was still more sd channels that I watched , I chose to stay with DISH and lose DIRECTV. DISH still has more hd channels now that I do watch, compared to DIRECTV and their sport centric channels.

 

[bnewt]

so most everyone agrees that ea has better picture quality than wa......is that what I am reading? If that is true, then I want to switch from wa to ea & be able to receive my locals in hd. But everytime I call E* and ask about this I am told that I can't or that it will cost me.........why should it cost me to be able to receive the hd locals when I am already paying for the locals in sd????????? The last time I called, I was told that my hd locals would soon be available on wa.........has anyone else heard that?

 

[womboughjj]

Nahhh...Just a Direct PQ is better than Dish PQ, which is probably true. Of course there are many things in which Dish is better than Direct, such as number of HD channels, most of their equipment, and price.

Price? yeah if you only want one receiver or only 3 tvs HD. Dish is way higher if you want say 6 tvs not to mention what you would pay to get all 6 HD!!

 

[tigerfan33]

I remember we were all excited when we heard sd was going MPEG4. Then we saw how many they put on each transponder. Goodbye excitement hello compression!!!

 

[lparsons21]

Price? yeah if you only want one receiver or only 3 tvs HD. Dish is way higher if you want say 6 tvs not to mention what you would pay to get all 6 HD!!

Not necessarily. 5 Vip211's @$7 each is $35, add in one of anything as #6.

With D*, that would be $25, but the subscription would be higher too. Kind of a wash.

I will admit that if you have to have 6 HDDVRs it could get expensive, but really how many are going to do that?

 

[womboughjj]

Not necessarily. 5 Vip211's @$7 each is $35, add in one of anything as #6.

With D*, that would be $25, but the subscription would be higher too. Kind of a wash.

I will admit that if you have to have 6 HDDVRs it could get expensive, but really how many are going to do that?

Well going to their website and putting it in for 6 tvs 3 hd which is max amount of HD tvs one can get and one DVR adds 28.00 to it where direct is only 25.00. plus that is only 3 tvs with HD what if I want all 6?

 

[Jhon69]

In my experience back in 2007 when I had both services, the Sd channels with DIRECTV looked worser than DISH and their sd channels. Now I have eastern arc and all my sd channels are in mpeg 4 , which looks much better to me than mpeg 2 sd. Also takes up less room on my hard drive. Of course with DISH I have less sd channels since they have more in the way of hd now ,not counting the recent loss of Disney and Abc family channel due to contract disputes.

You know what the difference is between Dish's MPEG2 SD and Dish's MPEG4 SD?

With Dish's MPEG2 SD you can use Dish's 625 with it's 2 hour pause and 2-120 minute live buffers!.Man when Dish switches me over I'm going to miss those features the most of all.That and Dish's MPEG2 SD is 544x480(according to The Krell,thank you Krell) a very good SD picture.I have not seen Dish's MPEG4 SD yet,but when I do I'll let you know what I think.