New HD customer dissatisfied

I guess I am just being to picky. I did sign the contract and knew that loca hd was not available. I am over 40 miles from Cleveland and will attempt the ota antenna. I am looking at gettingthe biggest that Radio Shack has to offer and put it in my attic. Any more suggestions?

Unless your HOA does not allow antennas (and they are not even allowed to do that) I would not put the antenna in the attic. Shingles are very good at blocking the signals.

For the DIY'er you can get a 70 mile antenna from Home Improvement stores with a mount and cable for less than $100.00. This would work well for many people.
 
I live about 10 miles outside of Cleveland, but all of the Cleveland transmitters are about 2 miles from me. Most of them are really in Seven Hills or around due to the higher terrain. I've had a lot of problems getting "tuned in" with OTA due to my proximity. The best antenna to pick up channel 8 was a paperclip stuck in the OTA input on my 622!

Cleveland's locals are very nice in HD, and when I previously lived about 70 miles away, I was able to get all of them with a small outdoor UHF antenna on a 40' tower. Tower wasn't really necessary, just used it because I already had it. Of course, back then, OTA was really the only way to get HD locals.

Given the quality of OTA, I'd say get an antenna no matter what you do. Plus, when you do get HD locals via DISH, you'll be able to record 3 network programs at once!
 
Don't take some of the responces as indefference to your situation. This is a problem that all people new to HD and HD format tv's deal with.

There are several things to consider when in this situation. SD programing displayed on the large format of HD tv's will look far worse than on and old format SDTV. First thing that most people do is strech the picture to fit the new 16:9 format screen. This distorts the picture in the first place. Second because the HDTV is most of the time a larger screen with the ability to show a sharper image, it will show the flaws in an SD picture that an old SDTV would mask.

The next thing is in the perception. After you have been able to watch the great picture that you get with your tv in HD, that picture that you now see on your locals in SD really looks bad. The picture is really no worse than it was before, you just think it looks worse now.

So we really need more info from you to help you have a better viewing experience. Did you just change tv's when you went to Dish HD? How do you have you TV setup to view SD programs? Do you have the ability to add OTA into your Dish system?

There are several things you can do to try and improve your locals. Settings on your tv and Dish system can be changed to improve picture. Adding OTA locals is the best option, but not always possible.

We look forward to helping you work through this.


Quit BS'ing dude, DISHNET SD is SH!T period!

I can stretch the SD's that I get on 4DTV and some DVB channels and they still look great.
Bottom line is. Dish is overcompressing their channels including HD.:eek:
 
Quit BS'ing dude, DISHNET SD is SH!T period!

I can stretch the SD's that I get on 4DTV and some DVB channels and they still look great.
Bottom line is. Dish is overcompressing their channels including HD.:eek:

GO crawl back in your little hole. THis customer does not care about how great your BUD(BIG UGLY DISH) is. You have nothing to add to this conversation other than to instigate trouble. IF you can't help then keep you mouth shut.
 
Dish and SD

I live in California in an area that Dish doesnt broadcast locals in HD and OTA is really not realistic...therefore we watch many programs in SD...For the last 3 years we have watched a 50" Sony Plasma TV monitor linked to a Yamaha RX V2500 AV receiver and a 622 DVR. While the SD picture quality is not equal to HD, most SD broadcasts are very good. Even the Distant Networks and Super Stations. None the less they do not equal DVD quality and I think that is what most people expect when they get HD TV.

If there are knowledgeable technical experts available it might be worth your while to have them tune your setup for optimum viewing or at least assess what is causing the poor PQ....
 
To the OP:

Like someone else already stated....your best bet is to (a) either get a decent (non Rat Shack) OTA....or somehow convince your wife to allow the OTA to be installed outside.

Like I tell a lot of my HD customers, your television was NOT designed with SD in mind. Much like putting 85 octane in a Corvette. Sure it will work. But it won't give you optimum performance.
 
GO crawl back in your little hole. THis customer does not care about how great your BUD(BIG UGLY DISH) is. You have nothing to add to this conversation other than to instigate trouble. IF you can't help then keep you mouth shut.



Not trying to cause trouble. I just want the truth to be known.




Kbghdg
E* subscriber since 2005 :eek:
 
Don't listen to none of these DISH apologist. If you want your SD to look good? Watch it in the EPG window or buy a 13" tv. :up
 
To the OP:

Like someone else already stated....your best bet is to (a) either get a decent (non Rat Shack) OTA....or somehow convince your wife to allow the OTA to be installed outside.

Like I tell a lot of my HD customers, your television was NOT designed with SD in mind. Much like putting 85 octane in a Corvette. Sure it will work. But it won't give you optimum performance.

What do you tell them when the customer says "SDDVD's still look good" .:eek:
 
well, you may wnt to try some decent rabbit ears first..I live 30 miles from downtown chicago, and I bought some amplified rabbit ears from Best buy for 35 bucks,. and I get a signal close to 100 on most of my locals...worth a try, and you can always bring it back to Best Buy..
 
Most likely you don't have anything else to compare it with. If you did I think you would have a different opinion. I do.:D
Dude, I live in Southern California and receive 12 HD stations OTA as well as 18+ analog stations. During baseball season I subscribe to Cox Cable HD for Padre games. I have two big flat panel HDTVs. One you would think is junk (but I think it's damn decent) and one is a 42 inch Panasonic Plasma 1080P top of the line 2007 model. In addition I have three 27 inch analog "picture tube" sets and four 20 inch analog tube sets.

One of the two TVs in my bedroom turns on by timer at 7:00 AM and turns off at 2:00 AM. I drag a 22 foot trailer to the desert to "get away" but have 7 and 10.5 inch analog LCD sets connected to a Dish analog receiver tied to a Dish 500 antenna and a amplified analog antenna. Power comes from two, dual battery banks charged by dual solar panels so I have am never without power to operate the system (and I have a crumby gasoline generator for extended cloudy periods).

If I visit my brother or my son, they both live in the San Fernando Valley and have an assortment of HD and regular TVS between them. One has cable only but the other has OTA and cable. Stations are plentiful in each house.

If I go elsewhere I take my 7 inch Pocket Dish player.

When San Diego was just beginning to get widespread cable I lead a committee and got my neighborhood wired for cable when there was just 13 stations total (San Diego & L.A. combined) and I got my first Dish receiver just after the launch of Echostar III.

I WATCH A LOT OF TELEVISION and I have watched a lot of television.

Dish SD is just fine.
 
have 7 and 10.5 inch analog LCD sets connected to a Dish analog receiver tied to a Dish 500 antenna



Those 2 little Tv's I am sure look just fine on DISHSD.:D
Your 1080P has to look like hell. Or your just gotten used to it or your kidding yourself. Maybe we can get one of the TP analyst guys we have here in the forum to give us a actual bit rate of the DISHSD channels and see how it stacks up to other services available, including feeds that are available free or with sub but require a BUD to view. :cool:
 
SD looks fine on my 65-inch Mitsubishi DLP. One of the main reasons I went with this set is it's ability to display a nice SD picture. It was as good as others in displaying HD, but clearly outshone them when viewing SD.

I am sorry for the problems the OP is experiencing, just putting this here to let people know that not all HDTV's display SD like crap.
 
Don't take some of the responces as indefference to your situation. This is a problem that all people new to HD and HD format tv's deal with.

There are several things to consider when in this situation. SD programing displayed on the large format of HD tv's will look far worse than on and old format SDTV. First thing that most people do is strech the picture to fit the new 16:9 format screen. This distorts the picture in the first place. Second because the HDTV is most of the time a larger screen with the ability to show a sharper image, it will show the flaws in an SD picture that an old SDTV would mask.

+1 for this. Don't stretch that picture. I bought a 36" sony vega CRT 7 years ago, and I started seeing all kinds of crap I never saw on my 27" Sanyo. Its especially bad on TV stuff from the 80s. I'm not going hidef until I talk the old lady into a full on projector. :D