New HD Upgrade Not Clear Picture

[plumerman]

I just upgraded to HD yesterday with a VIP722 DVR. The HD channels while they are look ok, sometimes the screen looks blurry around people and the screen pixelates. Watching football games the closeups look great sometimes but when the camera pans out and is from a further distance it gets blurry. Also the movie channels don't look as good as I thought they would. I have a HDMI connector to a brand new Sony Bravia 4100W 46" TV. My signal from Satellite 61.5 is 62-63. It is almost like sometimes I am watching a SD channel that looks okay in widescreen. The installer installed the smaller HD dish and ran the cables to my existing dish. What resolution is the Dish broadcast HD. Thanks for any information.

 

[Skibum]

Hit MENU -> 6 -> 8 for HDTV setup. Make sure your 722 is set on 720p or 1080i output resolution.

 

[plumerman]

Thanks,

It was set on 480. I did change it, it looks better. It still looks blurry sometimes around the outline of players on a football game, even when they are not moving, or even the grass gets blurry around a player when they are walking on it

 

[hammerdown]

Ah the wonders of HD Lite... Satellite HD channels are reduced in resolution by ONE THIRD. High Def channels start out as 1920x1080i, by the time we see them they are reduced to 1440x1080i and some even 1280x1080i. The second hit they take is bitrate. The channels start out at very high bitrate (usually mpeg2 @ 20Mbps and more), by the time we see them they re-compressed to a very low bitrate (mpeg4 @ 4Mbps). Dish does offer ONE "downloaded" PPV per month that is supposedly 1080p at good bitrate. Most people here say it's almost bluray quality.

You can get better quality on the local channels by using an over the air antenna. At least they are not downrezzed, but may have a low bitrate. Still better is Bluray disc.

 

[plumerman]

Are indoor ota's anygood, or would I have to install one outside

 

[hammerdown]

Depends how far you are from the broadcast HD tower(s)...

 

[kstuart]

In this case, skibum is wrong. For your set, the menu->6->8 setting should be 1080, otherwise it will decrease the quality.

If you set it to 720, it will convert 1080 channels down to 720 and then your TV will convert them back up to 1080, losing quality each time.

Only older sets (2006,2007) that are 720 native resolution (like mine) should be set to 720.

 

[HobbyTalk]

Are you hooked up via HDMI or component cables?

 

[plumerman]

about 40 miles

 

[plumerman]

it is set at 1080, I got his point

 

[plumerman]

I am hooked up using monster hdmi cables

 

[whatchel1]

2 in 1 answer

40 miles is unlikely that you will get good enuff signal w/indoor.
Comparing MPEG 2 TO MPEG 4 is apples to oranges.

 

[Skibum]

I am hooked up using monster hdmi cables

Ouch. I cringe guessing what you paid for those.

 

[highdefjeff]

Sounds like mosquito noise.

But, it is likely that you need to calibrate your TV.
Check this out:

Do's & Don'ts - How to get the best HDTV picture quality.

 

[8bitbytes]

Sounds like your tv has some kind of noise enhancement turned on. Turn all that stuff off since you are using HDMI, not Component.

 

[Character Zero]

Only older sets (2006,2007) that are 720 native resolution (like mine) should be set to 720.

Of course this is still somewhat of an ongoing argument. It all depends on the scalers involved. If the Dish box's scaler is better than the Tv's then the box should be scaling, or vice versa. I find on my 720p TV that the Dish box 1080i signal looks better than its scaled 720p signal. Of course it up to your own eyes as to what looks better. Even if it supposed to look better when it comes in at native resolution, it still trust my eyes. Plus some of the 720p sets are actually something like 768p so there is scaling being done regardless. I would just play around with the settings, forget the Tv's native resoltion, and see what looks better to you. Also I am not sure what Dish does with 720p signals anyway. Is my local Fox channel passed on without any modifcation by Dish? Is ESPN scaled to 1080i and then put on the stream, or is it beamed at 720p?

 

[HobbyTalk]

Many 720p sets are actually 768p. Most of those sets will take a 720p signal, upscale it to 1080i before it downscales it to 768p. If the TV is given a 1080i signal the TV does not have to do the 1080i upscale first.