Not happy with StarzHD quality

[tnsprin]

Maybe I should swing 61.5 over to 129.

Where some of us are 129 is not visible.

When some of the earlier complaints were occurring, StarzHD was doing ok on 61.5. But Hitchhiker and Fun with Dick&Jane both had Mpeg4 type Pixel problems the other day. Probably too low a bit rate. The picture was really bad.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Where some of us are 129 is not visible.

Like 61.5 isn't visible for others of us...

 

[tnsprin]

Like 61.5 isn't visible for others of us...

Actually 61.5 is visible to more people then 129, but Dish has decided to push 129 to even some areas were it is marginal (Atlanta and Seattle). 129 is completely not useable in the NE as far including all NY, most of Pennsylvania, much of Florida, and Southern Texas. 61.5 is visible (assuming no obstructions) throughout the continental us, although often hard for the west coast.

 

[gdarwin]

Are they still running MPEG2 on one sat and MPEG4 on the other? If so which is which.

 

[ChetK]

This is more than just a low-bit rate encoding. There is something wrong with the software or hardware encoding the signal. There are trails being left behind on objects with high color contrast. For instance, on the sides of people's faces, etc.

 

[psumattDE]

I sent another email to DishQuality today telling them to look into it.

 

[MikeD-C05]

dishquality@echostar.com for all audio/video complaints.

 

[Mark Strube]

Put simply: This is because DISH switched the MPEG4 feed to 61.5, while the better-looking (even though it's lower bitrate) MPEG2 feed is on 129.

Dish's MPEG4 encoders still suck, they never were good. I'm surprised there weren't more complaints as soon as DISH switched 61.5 to the MPEG4 feed quite awhile ago.

 

[dfergie]

I tooks steps to improve my 129 quality today, first trying a dish 300 with small improvements and then a 500 with slightly better signal than I was getting with the 1000....

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Put simply: This is because DISH switched the MPEG4 feed to 61.5, while the better-looking (even though it's lower bitrate) MPEG2 feed is on 129.

Dish's MPEG4 encoders still suck, they never were good. I'm surprised there weren't more complaints as soon as DISH switched 61.5 to the MPEG4 feed quite awhile ago.

Its interesting that I read a thread the other day (I am clueless at to what one it was - maybe even this one) that argued that since HGTV switched to MPEG4 that PQ has been good, with little complaints.

I don't really watch HGTV, so I don't know. But I suspect we will be discussing MPEG4 at length as more and more stuff gets switched over....

 

[long_time_DNC]

Is Dish using MPEG4 encoding on much content yet, or is it just carrying an MPEG4 header?

 

[Mark Strube]

Last time I checked, 129 has no actual MPEG4 content, but some channels have the MPEG4 headers (so older receivers can't "see" those channels), while 61.5 has a few MPEG4 (I believe Starz and NFL... not sure about others).

 

[long_time_DNC]

Interesting. I wonder why there's no true MPEG4 on 129, just headered channels...?

 

[dfergie]

I'm not complaining ... my Locals are MPEG 4 from 129 and I saw no problems with the Cowboys game last night ...

 

[long_time_DNC]

My locals (HD) are on 110 and I'm happy too. 129 still gives me problems out here in the NW...

 

[Mark Strube]

Interesting. I wonder why there's no true MPEG4 on 129, just headered channels...?

Simple, to sell the new receivers.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Digging up an old thread.

I previously reported in this thread on the terrible PQ when attempting to watch "The Chronicles of Narnia" on Starz HD. So bad that I couldn't continue watching it.

I believe that was back in October.

So I decided to try one of my old SD tricks. Keep recording it over and over in hopes of finally catching one on a good day, where it was allocated more bandwidth. Back in the days where SD was very bad and Dish was significantly altering the bandwidth between channels, there were times when the same movie airing on different days on say an Encore channel, would have astoundingly different PQ.

I haven't seen this as much on today's HD channels, but have seen it on occasion.

So wanting a good copy of this movie, I decided to give it a try. Over the past 5-6 weeks, I recorded the movie 5 times. The first four were all mediocre. But the one I captured on 12/10, and just took a peek at tonight, was good.

Perhaps E* has improved the MPEG4 encoding on Starz HD. I haven't been watching much on it because the PQ was so consistently poor. I receive Starz HD off of 61.5, which has never been exactly the same as getting it from 129.

 

[Julien]

Digging up an old thread.

I previously reported in this thread on the terrible PQ when attempting to watch "The Chronicles of Narnia" on Starz HD. So bad that I couldn't continue watching it...

On a side note: I wish Starz would go to OAR. I refuse to watch butchered films like TCoN.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I wish all of them would go OAR, but at least 16:9 HD is a LOT better than watching 4:3 SD versions of these movies.

2.35:1 is simply not liked by many people. This is why HBO, Showtime, and Starz rarely ever show anything in that format. Even Dish PPV tried to support it more, by one time offering 4 or 5 LBX PPV channels. But over time they reduced it to 2, because they didn't sell well.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I wish all of them would go OAR, but at least 16:9 HD is a LOT better than watching 4:3 SD versions of these movies.

2.35:1 is simply not liked by many people. This is why HBO, Showtime, and Starz rarely ever show anything in that format. Even Dish PPV tried to support it more, by one time offering 4 or 5 LBX PPV channels. But over time they reduced it to 2, because they didn't sell well.

I agree that 16:9 is 100 times better than watching 4:3 versions. Personally I am happy if my whole screen is filled, and not stretched. But I only have a 34" screen, so I probably notice the black bars more than on a much larger screen. The plus side, of course, is that with the smaller Sony XBR CRT, my PQ is usually pretty darn good too...