Help With Cleaning Up Signal/Quality

[aviolante]

Hey guys, I have a question maybe you experts can help with. I am a big NFL fan and I notice that almost every game, no matter what channel, as beautiful as the picture is, has some strange flaws. Don't get me wrong, overall it's an amazing picture and like all HDTV's the farther away you are the better it looks, however the main issue is I noticed around the players is this strange transparent blur, and the ticker at the bottom or score box in the top corner around the edges isn't 100% crisp its very grainy, now I have heard that the signal from DirecTV is compressed so it's not going to be "Blu-Ray quality" but wondering if there is anything I can do to help the quality? This issue isn't just happening on NFL/sports events I notice it on most channels, so wondering if it is in fact that the signal is just compressed and it's the best I'm going to get. One theory I had was could it be because we have a large house and the signal first comes into a multiswitch then 10+ cables going out to 5 HD-DVR's, could the quality suffer because of that?

By the way, the TV I am using is a new 37" Samsung Smart HDTV, I am also using $150 Monster HDMI cables. Any input would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[gadgtfreek]

First off, take the $150 cable back if you can. Buy one from Blue Jeans Cable, or a Media bridge off amazon for $15-20. The expensive HDMI cables are a mass profit ripoff.

Secondly, what you are seeing is mosquito noise. If I get close enough to my 65", its easy to see on fball, and some broadcasts are better than others. ESPNU usually looks like crap, but ABC and ESPN games mostly look pretty good. Directv has one of the better PQ feeds out there, and unfortunately all providers compress. You can even have certain programming on the same channel that will look better than the other, depends on how it was filmed. Example, watch Blue Bloods, NCIS LA or CSI, then watch NCIS and Mentalist. NCIS is fuzzy as hell and overly warm, Mentalist is real drab. Just the way they are filmed.

Also, are you using Native on the DVR? Do you have your display set in a 1:1 pixel mode (no overscanning) if it has it?