I'm glad they've added some new HD channels, but I must say I am very underwhelmed with the quality of StarzHD... perhaps this has something to do with the mpeg4?
I'm viewing this on a 50" 1080p Sony SXRD. All of the other HD channels (HBO, HDNet etc) look very nice and smooth, no major issues. I'm viewing on a ViP622 connected thru HDMI.
StarzHD just can't seem to achieve full fluid motion. Anytime there's a scene with the camera steadily moving, it's slightly choppy. Also, there's slightly jagged edges in some scenes, as if my hdtv cannot properly find the progressive frames or something (it's in CineMotion mode which has no issues producing a beautiful 1080p image from all of the other HD movie channels).
Also, in moderate to high motion, there's a good amount of "ghosting."
I don't know if these issues are due to their encoders or my box's decoding, but I've forced it to update and then rebooted, which has fixed none of these problems.
I hope these are just early issues that will be corrected soon, with an update or by fixing the encoding on their end. But if not, then mpeg4 is far from ready for prime time.
I've also sent this to Dish's picture quality control email address: dishquality@echostar.com
I'm viewing this on a 50" 1080p Sony SXRD. All of the other HD channels (HBO, HDNet etc) look very nice and smooth, no major issues. I'm viewing on a ViP622 connected thru HDMI.
StarzHD just can't seem to achieve full fluid motion. Anytime there's a scene with the camera steadily moving, it's slightly choppy. Also, there's slightly jagged edges in some scenes, as if my hdtv cannot properly find the progressive frames or something (it's in CineMotion mode which has no issues producing a beautiful 1080p image from all of the other HD movie channels).
Also, in moderate to high motion, there's a good amount of "ghosting."
I don't know if these issues are due to their encoders or my box's decoding, but I've forced it to update and then rebooted, which has fixed none of these problems.
I hope these are just early issues that will be corrected soon, with an update or by fixing the encoding on their end. But if not, then mpeg4 is far from ready for prime time.
I've also sent this to Dish's picture quality control email address: dishquality@echostar.com