Not happy with StarzHD quality

[cebbigh]

I've no doubt others are seeing it but I haven't. The monitor I am using is a 53" rptv connected via component and the signal comes off 129 (129 is another issue). Agree the PQ is not on a par with HBO but I've noticed improvement since 3.60 on motion issues. Sounds like this effects some display forms and not others. For those effected, is it any channel in MPEG4 or StarzHD only? What kind of display are you using?

 

[Walter L.]

Question: Can those of you seeing the ghosting and bluriness post what kind of receiver you have and the series?
I have a 622 'E' series and I'm not seen those specific artifacts.

 

[retorq]

I thought it was 1440*1080 like the rest of the down resed channels??

Probably due to the fact that StartzHD is being downrezzed by E* from 1920x1080 to 1280x1080.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I have a 622 and have noticed occasional blocking/pixelization on StarzHD, but very rarely. For the most part I have though the picture has looked good; not as good as HDNet which I believe is broadcast in true 1080i, but I have been very happy with it.

Plus, the movie selection has been good too. If only Showtime would have half the decent films that starz has.

--------------
Vip622
SONY KD-34XBR970
Dish 1000 on 110, 119, 129

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I have a 622 E, using component, off of 61.5, to a CRT RP.

The problems I'm seeing are not present on other channels, for the most part. I saw much less obvious blocking on TBS during their NBA games earlier this year, on motion shots. Watching sports on HDNET, the images are excellent.

During "The Waterboy" the only times the image was crisp and stable was during still action or slow action shots. During the final Bourbon Bowl game, blockiness was present every few seconds while they showed football game action.

 

[DWS44]

TV in sig; 622 "F"...I have this on both the real MPEG4 channels...had since they were added. Never have had any issues with the MPEG2 channels.

 

[nlk10010]

I've no doubt others are seeing it but I haven't. The monitor I am using is a 53" rptv connected via component and the signal comes off 129 (129 is another issue). Agree the PQ is not on a par with HBO but I've noticed improvement since 3.60 on motion issues. Sounds like this effects some display forms and not others. For those effected, is it any channel in MPEG4 or StarzHD only? What kind of display are you using?

I haven't been able to check NFL-HD because I've never been able to catch an actual HD program on that channel.

I have not noticed the smeariness/swimming on my NY Locals, although I haven't specifically looked for it. I HAVE looked during Leno and did not see it; again this may have more to do with the time that show is broadcast.

I see the problem on both my 622 (don't know what revision I have, don't know how to check it) and my 211.

=NLK=

 

[MikeD-C05]

I have not seen any smearing on my 622s on my toshiba tvs. I am using hdmi and hdmi to dvi adapter. Starz hd looks fine on both of my tvs and I record a lot of hd movies off of Starz and make dvds of them. I don't see it on the dvds either. I think this is either momentary problems with the show or everyone else having problems , their tvs are not able to hide the artifacts as well as mine.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

A comment, the only way a TV can "hide" artifacts is for it to have a much softer picture, and that softness is obscuring artifacts. A TV cannot recognize a digital compression artifact and intelligently remove it. The better a TV, the easier it will be to see artifacts because it will display them in sharp resolution.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I noticed that Starz was again showing "The Waterboy" tonight. So I recorded 3 minutes of it, mostly of high motion football game action. Then I watched it at 1/4 speed to look for compression artifacts, most notably pixelation & blocking.

I found 18 distinct examples, some of them lasting several frames. In one scene where the team was jumping up and down in the endzone, celebrating a victory, every single orange uniform was blocked. When paused I could see pixelated edges around every uniform number and around the edges of their orange uniforms against the green grass background. All detail on the uniforms, such as folds & creases in the cloth, was smeared.

I could play these scenes back and forth at any speed and all of the artifacts remained.

On scenes with low motion, the image was fine.

Again this is off of 61.5.

I immediately went to other channels and recorded fast motion scenes, played them in slow motion, and there were no artifacts. I tested HDNET, Discover HD, ESPN HD, RAVE, and GAMEPLAY.

Then I came back to Starz HD, recorded two more minutes, and found several more compression examples.

So it isn't my TV, nor is it a problem with all 61.5 channels, or the 622. At least not for MPEG2 channels. The problem is confined to Starz HD from 61.5. I can't test it from 129 to see if it might be due to Dish overly compressing it on 61.5.

 

[DWS44]

Just stopped by StarzHD and watched a few minutes of Stealth. Slow scenes werent too bad, but ghosting was terrible if there was any action at all.

 

[LASooner]

I've not experienced any of the problems mentioned I've been watching off of 129, is anyone on 129 having these issues? I have a 60" LCD RP.

 

[dfergie]

Merged duplicate threads...

 

[ripnbigc]

I watched the Incredibles today and the picture looked great. Didn't see any of the above mentioned problems. I had been having problems back when this thread started. But Starz HD has been great lately.

 

[MikeD-C05]

IF ya'll are seeing these artifacts I will suggest again that you need to email the dishquality folks at : dishquality@echostar.com .

Just because I and some others can't see the artifacts ya'll are reporting, doesn't mean they aren't there. I would start with the dish folks and keep updating them to instances that you're seeing . If you do this consistently and give your phone number so they can call you back, they will get back to you with their comments. This is the only way to effect a change in the picture quality that you are seeing or not seeing in my instance.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Just because I and some others can't see the artifacts ya'll are reporting, doesn't mean they aren't there.

Of course it doesn't mean they aren't there, because they most certainly are there. At least from 61.5. I now have four 3-5 minute recordings where they are there in large numbers. If I watched all four and counted the number of times where I saw a compression artifact, it would probably be up close to 80 times. Always in the exact same places, there is no randomness to this. All of them are 100% repeatable.

Right now, I'm watching "Elf" and they are present again. Not as noticable, but at about 7 minutes in when the elfs are jumping up and down in their red and orange coats, the texture of the coats are blocking and pixelating, some of the faces too. Classic digital compression artifacts. Reds and oranges are always where they show up first. And pans or motion on low contrast surfaces.

But as Elf doesn't have near the motion of a movie like "The Waterboy" they are far less prevalent.

Very disappointing on a HD channel! I've put up with these same artifacts on Dish's SD channels for 8 years.

My wife never notices them, as she pays attention to the story. But to my eyes, these things just jump off of the screen.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

So, can someone enlighten me as to how Starz HD relates to Universal HD, in terms of compression algorithms, measured bitrates, transponders, etc?

I ask, because I'm watching "Army of Darkness" on UNIHD right now and it is rife with exactly the same compression artifacts as I've seen on Starz HD. In the first 12 minutes I counted 14 instances where I saw significant blocking in fast motion scenes. And this was at normal speed, I'm sure I would have found many more if I had played it back in slo-motion to search for them.

 

[ChetK]

No offense (because I want HD quality to be top notch without compression artifacting too), but I think it's time to throw in the towel. Compression artifacts are here to stay. In the digital world, these artifacts will never stop. Sure, it may get better as compressors/codecs get better. But I think it's time to just say, "Just deal with it, cause it ain't going away."

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Just deal with it?

Just learn to live with HD crap?

I just finished watching the movie. The final action scene was like watching a Quicktime movie. Right now I'm replaying it at 1/4th speed, about 50% of all frames show blocking. Some of the frames look like 320x240 resolution.

I am shocked at how bad it is. This is bad for a SD channel. The crapfest continued for about 3 minutes.

Whatever compression they are using for UNIHD, it cannot do lower contrast, fast motion scenes at all.

 

[Mark Strube]

UniversalHD generally hangs around anywhere from 6mbs to 12mbps. They have a VERY good encoder (most other stations at that bitrate and at full 1920x1080 would look even worse), but the bitrate is a bit too low for even that encoder to make things look good. From what I've seen, the majority of the time UHD looks pretty good, but if there's a decent amount of action or the 'wrong' type of grain in a film... forget about it.