honest answers please

[jcbender]

I have 8 ft. solid dish 4dtv coolsat pro and a sony trinitron tube tv.The picture quality is outstanding. I,ve been to best buy, circuit city etc. looking at hdtv and i don,t see much difference in picture quality.am i missing something? thanks for any and all replies. JAYCEE

 

[GeorgeLV]

I have 8 ft. solid dish 4dtv coolsat pro and a sony trinitron tube tv.The picture quality is outstanding. I,ve been to best buy, circuit city etc. looking at hdtv and i don,t see much difference in picture quality.am i missing something? thanks for any and all replies. JAYCEE

Yes. Your vision is either impaired or the stores you visited aren't doing a very good job demoing their products. If you ever get a chance to take a look at something like an NFL game in the snow -- there's just no comparison between SD and HD -- it's an entirely different experience.

 

[Shawn95GT]

If you aren't going to a larger television, you aren't missing much.

4DTV has absolutely excellent PQ. SD from the 922 looks killer on my 50" DLP .

What's nice in HD is the native 16x9 format. It also looks noticably better on larger television displays. With good HD content it almost looks like you could reach into the TV and touch the subject matter.

I'm having a hard time justifying the cost of the HDD200 (HD decoder). I'm hoping to pick up a working used unit on ebay.

 

[daveyhouse]

Chances are, the HD you are seeing is from Dish Network or Directv. That is why you sre seeing no difference. They compress their signals if I am not mistaken. Your SD off of your big dish is probably just as good or better than their HD on their LSD
When is the last time you ever seen a C Band setup at these chain stores (never)
They get kickbacks everytime they sell a pizza dish.
They make more money by them, then bud

 

[nailzs]

I'm having a hard time justifying the cost of the HDD200 (HD decoder). I'm hoping to pick up a working used unit on ebay.

It's worth the cost. Discovery HD is amazing. The SD is really good, but the HD from a BUD will knock your socks off.

 

[Kb Cool]

I have 8 ft. solid dish 4dtv coolsat pro and a sony trinitron tube tv.The picture quality is outstanding. I,ve been to best buy, circuit city etc. looking at hdtv and i don,t see much difference in picture quality.am i missing something? thanks for any and all replies. JAYCEE

My kids were watching cartoon network on galaxy 1 today and as I passed by them I thought damn that channel looks just as good as that AnimaniaHDlite channel on Voom. True story I swear.
Its really sad that dish jacked up the voom channels. When I first got the Vooms and I was watching RUSHHD I wondered why it did not look very good and then I thought well maybe its not filmed in hd but is upconverted SD. But now I know the truth its just HDLite.

 

[Shawn95GT]

It's worth the cost. Discovery HD is amazing. The SD is really good, but the HD from a BUD will knock your socks off.

I have no doubt about that .

I'm just a bit spooked to invest in dead-end hardware. This being said, I don't expect that we'll see a consumer Mega-pipe / SA receiver so if I want some more HD I'll have to buy what 'is' obtainable .

I'll likely be a HDD200 owner before long.

Shawn

 

[iammike]

I've been using MyHD cards for OTA HD for about a year and a half now, I've also got a Dish 811, and have also seen a fair bit of FTA HD from C and KU band. I've also got a 4dtv receiver that I've watched SD on, and will soon have HD capability via an r5000hd mod.

From all the sources I've seen, HD is definitely better than 4dtv SD content. Some of my OTA channels are quite awesome. I watch them on a 100" screen projected with an Infocus X1 projector, and also on a 32" Sony LCD. Football is the best as its shot with HD cameras. The film transfers done with most TV shows and movies vary in quality. I think it has a lot to do with the quality of the equipment used to shoot the program. They're still generally a lot better than SD. The C and KU HD can also be extraordinary. Again the source material tends to be the deciding factor, but sports are awesome and TV shows and movies vary but are always way better than SD. Dish network HD is usually better than 4dtv SD, although the Voom channels are just mediocre in my opinion. I'm not sure if that's do to HD-Lite or just poor source material. Dish also tends to have some artifacts in their picture which I would assume are the result of too much compression.

After all that is said, the first generation 4dtv/Cband SD signal is without a doubt the best SD I've ever seen. They totally blow away the pizza dishes. Some of the channels that NPS reuplinks, are of similar quality to Dish however.

 

[gizzer777]

HD is worth it!

I have 8 ft. solid dish 4dtv coolsat pro and a sony trinitron tube tv.The picture quality is outstanding. I,ve been to best buy, circuit city etc. looking at hdtv and i don,t see much difference in picture quality.am i missing something? thanks for any and all replies. JAYCEE

Hi:
I have the HDD200 on my 4dtv and it is beautiful on my 43" Plasma HDTV.
Next time you are at one of those stores, ask them to switch a large screed to a standard SD channel (on the pizza pan)...looks pretty bad!

Also the TV will upconvert anything coming into it to 720P so what you feed it must be good! I imagine cable in SD would look terrible on this TV. All my 4dtv digital channels look excellent even in SD. HD is simply beautiful (not only PQ but color saturation as well)...I also have the Discovery HD channel and Starz HD. I also get a beautiful HD OTA picture from our local PBS.
Jeff

 

[gizzer777]

Can you imagine

I've been using MyHD cards for OTA HD for about a year and a half now, I've also got a Dish 811, and have also seen a fair bit of FTA HD from C and KU band. I've also got a 4dtv receiver that I've watched SD on, and will soon have HD capability via an r5000hd mod.
From all the sources I've seen, HD is definitely better than 4dtv SD content. Some of my OTA channels are quite awesome. I watch them on a 100" screen projected with an Infocus X1 projector, and also on a 32" Sony LCD. Football is the best as its shot with HD cameras. The film transfers done with most TV shows and movies vary in quality. I think it has a lot to do with the quality of the equipment used to shoot the program. They're still generally a lot better than SD. The C and KU HD can also be extraordinary. Again the source material tends to be the deciding factor, but sports are awesome and TV shows and movies vary but are always way better than SD. Dish network HD is usually better than 4dtv SD, although the Voom channels are just mediocre in my opinion. I'm not sure if that's do to HD-Lite or just poor source material. Dish also tends to have some artifacts in their picture which I would assume are the result of too much compression.
After all that is said, the first generation 4dtv/Cband SD signal is without a doubt the best SD I've ever seen. They totally blow away the pizza dishes. Some of the channels that NPS reuplinks, are of similar quality to Dish however.

I am always amazed that people with very expensive plasma TV's (and LCD's too) accept the pizza offerings. The little dish pales in comparison to 4dtv, and the poor picture is magnified many times on a large screen!

I guess it is better than cable (although I have never had either!)

 

[iammike]

I am always amazed that people with very expensive plasma TV's (and LCD's too) accept the pizza offerings. The little dish pales in comparison to 4dtv, and the poor picture is magnified many times on a large screen!
I guess it is better than cable (although I have never had either!)

It's better than analog cable, although I've heard people say that the digital cable is starting to surpass the pizza dish picture quality. I'm sure the quality of cable varies widely though.

 

[jcbender]

oki guys maybe what ishould have said is hd alot better than your dvd rentals? I see no difference between 4dtv and dvds. Thanks again for all the info but until i see something to knock my socks off i just can,t justify the costJAYCEE

 

[tdti1]

oki guys maybe what ishould have said is hd alot better than your dvd rentals? I see no difference between 4dtv and dvds. Thanks again for all the info but until i see something to knock my socks off i just can,t justify the costJAYCEE

HD blows away DVD's if you have a quality line scaler then DVD's look pretty damn good, but HD is still better, though whatever HDTV you buy get the set collaborated by a pro to take full advantage of HDTV.

 

[Satellite Expert]

oki guys maybe what ishould have said is hd alot better than your dvd rentals? I see no difference between 4dtv and dvds. Thanks again for all the info but until i see something to knock my socks off i just can,t justify the costJAYCEE

So you are comparing a 480i feed to a 480p source and then deduce that a high quality 1080i feed doesn't knock your socks off.

Until you have seen a 1080i Nova or Nature show on PBS or a Discovery HD presentation on a properly setup HDTV, ..... I will say no more

 

[jcbender]

Anybody know where i can see properly setup hdtv near GREEN BAY WI. PLEASE LET ME NOW> Thank you JAYCEE

 

[gizzer777]

I would try

Anybody know where i can see properly setup hdtv near GREEN BAY WI. PLEASE LET ME NOW> Thank you JAYCEE

Hi:
I would try on a Sunday when the games are on. if you can get a Best Buy or similar to go to off the Air HD...you should see a dramatic difference from SD TV. PBS usually has the good Pictures as well!

I am a lucky one. HD comes in great with my 4dtv-hdd200 as well as off the air. Additionally my HP (I think made by Pioneer) 43" Plasma has a great line doubler and even the SD Tv signal stuff looks excellent (not to mention DVD's) The OTA signals in HD are excellent on the stations using good quality Broadcast equipment, but really poor on the Channels that are faking it!! PBS OTA is the best quality here in Reno. On the 4dtv, Discovery HD is spectacular!! (we are talking PQ and color saturation!)

I am surprised that you do not see a difference even with those outfits using the Pizza dish in HD though. It ain't great, but still should be way better than SD. Final words are if you do not think it worth it...wait for prices to drop as they continue to do.

if you have a costco, and want to try one out...they have a great return policy where you can actually get the beast home and set up...then decide. Costco here encourages you to take it home and try it...if not satisfied, they say to bring it back!

 

[tdti1]

Anybody know where i can see properly setup hdtv near GREEN BAY WI. PLEASE LET ME NOW> Thank you JAYCEE

If you have a small HT store that would be best to see real HD (well most of the time) because the big stores do not have that great of a picture because of the lighting and stuff like that, many small electronic stores may even have the set's collaborated to show off in a small well lite room.