HDNet show looks better on DishOnline than satellite!

[smooth28la]

I downloaded an episode of Art Mann Presents on DishOnline but found the picture quality MUCH better than the version I recorded on satellite.

There's no motion artifact, the colors are vivid and resolution very detailed.

Anyone else agree?

p.s. I did notice many shows are incorrectly labeled as HD when they're SD shows from Comedy Central, BET, etc.

 

[hammerdown]

I can believe it just because the "HD" channels on Sat look horrible most of the time IMO. I did recently watch a Ch501 "1080p" movie that looked excellent, very close to Bluray picture and way better than movies on CinemaxHD and other "HD" channels.

I just downloaded a show I've never watched before (heard of it on Howard Stern)- Brook Knows Best VH1 . It is supposed to be HD, but it's letterboxed 4x3 SD. The picture quality is bad, looks like youtube quality.

Maybe next time I select an HD download it will actually be HD, who knows?

 

[kstuart]

Downloading can be higher bitrate than real time, because:

- It can spend more than 30 minutes downloading a 30 minute show, which real time can never do.
- You can devote your whole bandwidth to downloading one show, while the satellite bandwidth is split amongst hundreds, if not thousands of channels.

 

[riffjim4069]

I can believe it! The current "Enhanced" TV version on Dish Network looks nothing like their HDTV of 3+ years ago, and nothing like the HD I receive on FiOS TV. Hopefully it will someday improve.

 

[hammerdown]

I couldn't find anything on Tv to watch last night so I popped a DVD of ALIENS into my htpc (ffdshow upscaled to 1080i). I couldn't believe my eyes! The last 30 minutes of the film is full of strobe lights, smoke, flame-throwers, fast moving action... and there was ZERO macroblocking. It was so refreshing to watch a movie in such clarity! What a sad age we live in where the picture on "HD" channels is worse than SD DVD!!!

 

[tigerfan33]

Downloaded several episodes of Royal Pain in hd using Dishonline. PQ is amazing! Blu Ray quality. Watched some of the same episode on USA hd the other night and the pq was not nearly as good.

 

[TazmanianD]

I downloaded an episode of Art Mann Presents on DishOnline but found the picture quality MUCH better than the version I recorded on satellite.

It would be interesting to hook up an external hard drive and get the file sizes/bitrates for the two versions.