NYC locals look like a pixelated mess now - will we ever get back the good quality?

[Doppy]

NYC locals have looked like an ugly pixelated mess ever since this uplink occured: http://www.satelliteguys.us/uplink-...tivity-4-24-08-1-30am-report-138-changes.html

Now I don't know much about this technical satellite stuff so maybe someone can explain to me what was done to make these channels look so noticely pixelated. It looks like the old channels were also MPEG4 so what's the difference?

Recordings from these channels also now take up a much smaller amount of DVR space, nearing SD size. 30 minutes of HD used to take up about 22 minutes of remaining HD time, but now only takes about 12.

I wish I had someway to show you the differences with screenshots, maybe someone else can. But basically the picture gets very pixelated whenever there is a camera change then begins to smoothen out after a second or two. Also when there is a lot of movement the pixelation is worse than I have ever seen before.

Now I'm all for new national HD, but if I have to sacrifice the quality of the HD channels I watch the most, then I really don't know anymore. Will we ever see Dish up the quality of these channels when a new satellite is up or are New Yorkers and soon every other city stuck with sh!tty locals?

 

[garys]

Are you having problems on all four or just a specific channel? I watched CBS and ABC tonight and have not seen what you stated on either of these two channels.

 

[Doppy]

It's all 4. Maybe you don't watch as closely or don't watch these channels as much as I do so it's hard to find a difference, but it is a very annoying one for me. Do you have a DVR? Have you been noticing that recordings from these 4 channels take up much less space than before? So there is definitely a quality decrease. None of the national HD channels I record from have seen a dip in size.

 

[DBS Commando]

NYC locals look fine on my TV. I really don't see any of this pixelation that you are referring too.

Since you seem to have older DVR events that are reportedly larger than newer DVR events, can you take pictures using a camera to give us a side by side comparison?

 

[TheKrell]

OTA locals will be bigger because they're at full res mpeg-2. Is it possible that the bigger recordings were made from the OTA tuner?

 

[garys]

The difference in the recording time is that they were finally switched over to mpeg4 last month. They were mpeg2 up until that time but masked as mpeg4.

 

[Voyager6]

NYC locals have looked like an ugly pixelated mess ever since this uplink occured: http://www.satelliteguys.us/uplink-...tivity-4-24-08-1-30am-report-138-changes.html

Now I don't know much about this technical satellite stuff so maybe someone can explain to me what was done to make these channels look so noticely pixelated. It looks like the old channels were also MPEG4 so what's the difference?

Recordings from these channels also now take up a much smaller amount of DVR space, nearing SD size. 30 minutes of HD used to take up about 22 minutes of remaining HD time, but now only takes about 12.

I wish I had someway to show you the differences with screenshots, maybe someone else can. But basically the picture gets very pixelated whenever there is a camera change then begins to smoothen out after a second or two. Also when there is a lot of movement the pixelation is worse than I have ever seen before.

Now I'm all for new national HD, but if I have to sacrifice the quality of the HD channels I watch the most, then I really don't know anymore. Will we ever see Dish up the quality of these channels when a new satellite is up or are New Yorkers and soon every other city stuck with sh!tty locals?

Where are you located? Have you checked the signal strength of the TP that the NYC locals are on? You may be on the edge of the spotbeam and need to repeak your dish to try and get more signal.

 

[goober]

You know..it is spring time

 

[Doppy]

No my old recordings are not OTA. It makes sense now that you say before that uplink the channels were not MPEG4, that would explain the space difference. But what I'm noticing now then is the reduced quality of MPEG4 vs. MPEG2. I'll be able to record something on Monday that I have already have stored on my receiver from before this and I'll try to get some comparison shots as well as I can with a 6 megapixel camera.

And my signal strength to 61.5 west is 65, is that too small?

 

[garys]

Which transponder? It should be 15.

 

[tnsprin]

I also am not seeing the problems you are seeing. It may not be as good as OTA, but the channels NY HD channels have been looking pretty good. What signal strength are you seeing on TP 15 on 61.5? Perhaps your dish shifted in the winds recently. Or perhaps you are at the outer range of the Spotbeam.

 

[Doppy]

My signal strength on TP 15 on 61.5 ranges from 62-65. Is that too low? Here are the pics comparing the MPEG2 and MPEG4 recordings.

The old MPEG2 larger size recording: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3024/2526985582_1de0c71798_b.jpg

The new MPEG4 smaller size recording: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3290/2526155731_ff8e50d4fb_b.jpg

Like I've said before, the MPEG4 doesn't always look this bad, but it does everytime there is either slightly quick movement or the image on the TV changes whenever the show switches to a different camera.

These pics are taken immediately after the camera switches as you can see the faces of the two on the right also have alot of pixelation although they are not moving in the scene. The guy hand's on the left are moving and you can see they become very blurry in the MPEG4 one.

The MPEG2 one obviously looks so much better and I see this big pixelation as a pretty big distraction.

 

[Doppy]

anyone?

 

[digiblur]

The difference in the recording time is that they were finally switched over to mpeg4 last month. They were mpeg2 up until that time but masked as mpeg4.

No they weren't. They've been MPEG4 for a long time. They were on older encoders that only allowed 4 channels per TP though. I'm sure they were moved to the new style encoders that are used on the national HD MPEG4 channels.

 

[Yes616]

I thought they were all MPEG-4 since they appeared in the 6300's. WCBS-DT used to be in the 9400's until the distant network shut-off. That was MPEG-2 for sure.

Could the OP be a "mover" right on the edge of the spot beam the NYC channels are now on? That might be the problem.

 

[garys]

No they weren't. They've been MPEG4 for a long time. They were on older encoders that only allowed 4 channels per TP though. I'm sure they were moved to the new style encoders that are used on the national HD MPEG4 channels.

Yeap, I wrote that line wrong, NY HD locals were moved to spot beam last month, the change from mpeg2 to mpeg4 was some time ago, but the amount of HD time they take up is a lot less than when they were first offered and a lot less than OTA takes up currently.

 

[Doppy]

Well I live in the middle of Brooklyn, is there anyway to know where the end of the spotbeams are?