HDNet Movies on Eastern Arc looks terrible as of late

Lance Rock

Active SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Nov 23, 2010
23
0
Cleveland, OH
Anyone else noticed this? Really washed out, soft and color faded, overcompressed and with poor contrast. I can roughly tell that the bitrates for this channel have been low for some time by the amount of space being used up on my DVR (compared to older broadcasts of the same movie prints), but this seems to go beyond even that, visually, in the last couple of days. Are they doing something with it, or is Mark Cuban in the doghouse...lol? Just curious, how does it look on Western Arc?

Thanks in advance!
LR
 
I see no such thing on the EA and watch HD net often. I just checked off the WA and no difference.
 
Looks fine on WA. I saw a straight to video promo...crisp, vibrant, good blacks. May be some of the movies you've seen. They all have various levels of quality depending on age, transfer quality, etc. Honestly, if the commercials look good, then it's the source material.
 
Looks fine on WA. I saw a straight to video promo...crisp, vibrant, good blacks. May be some of the movies you've seen. They all have various levels of quality depending on age, transfer quality, etc. Honestly, if the commercials look good, then it's the source material.


Well, one thing I did notice was that the bitrates seemed to be quite low over the last few overnights for the channel on EA, whereas, checking this afternoon, it seems to be better. That is, even though they're not the same movies, and thus making the comparison moot from an authoritative standpoint, two fairly static movies with low motion were averaging about 3:35-3:40 seconds per minute of DVR used the last couple nights (which seems quite low even by Dish's standards), vs. about 2:45-2:50 per minute of DVR used for a movie that I just checked right now (an animated film which generally requires even less bitrate). So, maybe they were/are tweaking some stuff? Right now, it looks good again, so I will be keeping my eye on it. Love the channel and watch it a lot. :)
 
Well, one thing I did notice was that the bitrates seemed to be quite low over the last few overnights for the channel on EA, whereas, checking this afternoon, it seems to be better. That is, even though they're not the same movies, and thus making the comparison moot from an authoritative standpoint, two fairly static movies with low motion were averaging about 3:35-3:40 seconds per minute of DVR used the last couple nights (which seems quite low even by Dish's standards), vs. about 2:45-2:50 per minute of DVR used for a movie that I just checked right now (an animated film which generally requires even less bitrate). So, maybe they were/are tweaking some stuff? Right now, it looks good again, so I will be keeping my eye on it. Love the channel and watch it a lot.
smile.gif

Hmm I've never heard of seconds per minute as a measurement before besides the whole 60 seconds per minute thing. Are you saying that a minute of actual recording time is taking 3 and half seconds off your available recording space? I don't think those numbers are meant to be accurate. They are just an estimate.
 
Hmm I've never heard of seconds per minute as a measurement before besides the whole 60 seconds per minute thing. Are you saying that a minute of actual recording time is taking 3 and half seconds off your available recording space? I don't think those numbers are meant to be accurate. They are just an estimate.

My apologies for not being clearer. My scenario was confusing. :)

I'm saying that for every *minute* of DVR space used/elapsed, "x" amount of a movie (in minutes and seconds) elapses. That is, the faster the minutes of the DVR are ticking down (i.e. more DVR space used), the higher the average bitrate of the movie. Of course, to get that bitrate as an actual number (i.e. kbit/sec), the data transfer speed of the DVR/hard drive would be needed. I believe this is possible when using an external HD/DVR if the data transfer speed is known..

That is, in the case of the past few nights, approx. 3 minutes and 40 seconds of movie elapsing were occurring for each minute of DVR used. Today, only 2 minutes and 45 seconds. Thus, DVR ticking down faster/higher average bitrate today.
 
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If you use an EHD you don't need to know transfer speeds. It will actually tell you the file size of each show or movie after you transfer it to the EHD.
 
My apologies for not being clearer. My scenario was confusing. :)

I'm saying that for every *minute* of DVR space used/elapsed, "x" amount of a movie (in minutes and seconds) elapses. That is, the faster the minutes of the DVR are ticking down (i.e. more DVR space used), the higher the average bitrate of the movie. Of course, to get that bitrate as an actual number (i.e. kbit/sec), the data transfer speed of the DVR/hard drive would be needed. I believe this is possible when using an external HD/DVR if the data transfer speed is known..

That is, in the case of the past few nights, approx. 3 minutes and 40 seconds of movie elapsing were occurring for each minute of DVR used. Today, only 2 minutes and 45 seconds. Thus, DVR ticking down faster/higher average bitrate today.


And...I'll just add that, checking the John Wayne movie playing now, El Dorado, a quick static scene sample also yielded 2 minutes and 48 seconds of movie elapsed per minute of DVR elapsed. So, perhaps they did indeed tweak the bitrate for the better compared to the past few nights. Looking better now.
 
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