Picture Quality Issue

[redelephants]

I have recenlty purchased a new 52" LCD Tv in hopes that my picture quality problems were related to my previous RPTV, however thats not the case. These problems come and go but mainly stay on both E* and OTA. I have noticed the same problem on various sets and different locations within my hometown. However the problem is not seen when I drive to a adjacent area approximately 50 miles away from current location. It is extremely annoying to have a HDTV and not be able to receive HD content without the picture being ruined by this mess. I guess something in the airwaves is jacking up my picture qualty. What could I possibly do to figure this out? Attached is a screenshots taken today from my VIP 722k of programming on SPIKEHD. BTW I have sent in an email to dish quality.

 

[3HaloODST]

Pretty hard to tell from those pictures, but my guess is compression artifacts/macroblocking. Not much can be done about that. That's just how it goes with DISH and even as you stated OTA does it too.

 

[redelephants]

is any other provider going to be any better?

 

[KAB]

is any other provider going to be any better?

Only FIOS. Cable is generally even worse. And don't even think about Uverse.

 

[3HaloODST]

Only FIOS. Cable is generally even worse. And don't even think about Uverse.

Seconded on the U-verse thing.

I had U-verse. It's more like watching an "HD" YouTube video than it is watching TV.

Even FiOS will only be as good as the source. So you may even notice artifacts on FiOS, especially if you are noticing them on OTA.

Maybe try sitting farther back from the TV?

 

[lsilvest]

You show your location as panhandle fla. There are a lot of military installations, especially air stations in that area. Their scanning equipment can raise havoc with signals. I lived close to a marine air base and couldn't get any local OTA signals and all were in close range.

 

[Scherrman]

I would have to say that OTA usually has the best picture quality compared to any provider. OTA is uncompressed brought straight to your home. How does it get any better. Now if your takling about SD programming, thats just the nature of the beast.

 

[KAB]

OTA is uncompressed brought straight to your home. How does it get any better.

Sorry, but that is incorrect. They are indeed compressed, just not as much as the providers do. Even more so when they have several sub-channels.

 

[Scherrman]

Hmm. I was always told by one of my distributors it was the some of the best PQ available on an HDTV.

 

[KAB]

Hmm. I was always told by one of my distributors it was the some of the best PQ available on an HDTV.

It is indeed the best available (generally)....but it is STILL compressed. No home will ever see an uncompressed image.

 

[Bobby]

Hmm. I was always told by one of my distributors it was the some of the best PQ available on an HDTV.

That is true, but consider this: OTA has compression of their own and when satellite and cable companies redistribute it they add even more compression. That is why OTA should be better.

 

[rocket69]

il take a sat feed at 48mbs in 4.2.2. any day over fios quality. i will say ota is better then the dish hd feed for local.

1 fios
2 dish / direct ( some better on dish some better on direct)
3 Cable Charter tested AKA Cox
4 Uvers. i wuld say worse then youtube hd on 56k modem

 

[Scherrman]

I know the OTA feed is suppose to be better but I can't really tell. I have Dish HD and my antenna hooked up.

 

[thedamaja]

I know the OTA feed is suppose to be better but I can't really tell. I have Dish HD and my antenna hooked up.

People will say that OTA is better but it all comes down to the broadcasting stations equipment and how they use their bandwidth.

My local CBS multicasts 2 additional channels along with the main CBS feed. Splitting the bandwidth 3 ways doesn't yield much of a difference over watching the same channel on Dish.

On the other hand my local FOX doesn't multicast at all and the improved OTA quality is evident.

 

[whatchel1]

I have recenlty purchased a new 52" LCD Tv in hopes that my picture quality problems were related to my previous RPTV, however thats not the case. These problems come and go but mainly stay on both E* and OTA. I have noticed the same problem on various sets and different locations within my hometown. However the problem is not seen when I drive to a adjacent area approximately 50 miles away from current location. It is extremely annoying to have a HDTV and not be able to receive HD content without the picture being ruined by this mess. I guess something in the airwaves is jacking up my picture qualty. What could I possibly do to figure this out? Attached is a screenshots taken today from my VIP 722k of programming on SPIKEHD. BTW I have sent in an email to dish quality.

Constantly that way? Does it go in & out? If the later what are time intervals between good & bad? Is it worse at certain times of day? If so when? Start with all those Q's. Once those are answered then we can proceed to diagnose the problem. Also more info on the LCD & has it been calibrated?

 

[Bradtothebone]

The first picture above seems to show what we used to call "ghosts" in the analog days, but the ghost image is above the main image, rather than to the side, as would be caused by analog multipath. That is very wierd. No disrespect intended, but were you holding the camera steady? I've never seen a digital artifact like that before.

Brad

 

[redelephants]

The first picture above seems to show what we used to call "ghosts" in the analog days, but the ghost image is above the main image, rather than to the side, as would be caused by analog multipath. That is very wierd. No disrespect intended, but were you holding the camera steady? I've never seen a digital artifact like that before.

Brad

Hah, I see what you mean about the first picture. You are correct indeed that the must have moved during that snapshot. However the artifacts are not fancy camera work at all. They are as they appear in the pictures. I think alot of my problems are attributed to screen size. Most of the content I have seen that displayed little to no artifacts was on a 40". My one and only OTA channel I can receive is multi casting 3 channels so therefore probably not a very good test channel. As to the tv, I has been calibrated with test patterns and is a 52ex700.

 

[lobosrul]

I'm a long time lurker here and have been a dish subscriber for over a year. Wanted to chime in about a few things.

I'm terribly disappointed by the picture quality that E* puts out. Calling some channels HD is a mere technicality IMO.

However, over the air television can suck too. Here's a screen cap I took last year during an NBC Sunday Night Football game with a digital OTA tuner:


(click to make it big)

FOX uses a different setup than the other major networks, FOX sends out an HD stream that their affiliates aren't allowed to touch. So wherever you are in the country, your FOX station will have the same quality video. The stream is small enough to allow for one SD sub chan. NBC/ABC/CBS send a high bitrate stream to their affiliates which they then re-compress down to whatever they like.

Cable systems in some parts of the country look far superior to Dish. Here in Albuquerque I'd rate Comcast far better, and the local channels are exact duplicates. They have FAR fewer channels than Dish though. However, I have seen in other parts of the country absolute junk picture from cable. So it just depends on where you are.

My local CBS multicasts 2 additional channels along with the main CBS feed. Splitting the bandwidth 3 ways doesn't yield much of a difference over watching the same channel on Dish.

Dish is just taking the fee you see over the air, and further compressing it with MPEG-4 AVC. That is unless you have access to CBS's national feed on DISH which is very unlikely.

 

[whatchel1]

I'm a long time lurker here and have been a dish subscriber for over a year. Wanted to chime in about a few things.

I'm terribly disappointed by the picture quality that E* puts out. Calling some channels HD is a mere technicality IMO.

However, over the air television can suck too. Here's a screen cap I took last year during an NBC Sunday Night Football game with a digital OTA tuner:


(click to make it big)

FOX uses a different setup than the other major networks, FOX sends out an HD stream that their affiliates aren't allowed to touch. So wherever you are in the country, your FOX station will have the same quality video. The stream is small enough to allow for one SD sub chan. NBC/ABC/CBS send a high bitrate stream to their affiliates which they then re-compress down to whatever they like.

Cable systems in some parts of the country look far superior to Dish. Here in Albuquerque I'd rate Comcast far better, and the local channels are exact duplicates. They have FAR fewer channels than Dish though. However, I have seen in other parts of the country absolute junk picture from cable. So it just depends on where you are.



Dish is just taking the fee you see over the air, and further compressing it with MPEG-4 AVC. That is unless you have access to CBS's national feed on DISH which is very unlikely.

They take a feed from the individual OTA stations, either by an OTA ant or from a fiber feed. It just depends on which station as to how they get it. Then it goes to 1 of the uplinks via a fiber line. and then converted to MPEG 4. I've lived in several different areas and have never seen a cable picture that wasn't junk.
BTW

 

[lobosrul]

They take a feed from the individual OTA stations, either by an OTA ant or from a fiber feed. It just depends on which station as to how they get it. Then it goes to 1 of the uplinks via a fiber line. and then converted to MPEG 4. I've lived in several different areas and have never seen a cable picture that wasn't junk.
BTW

I actually recorded some HD feeds via firewire from an SA cable box on network stations (almost everything else had HDCP encryption copy once turned on) back when I had Comcast. They were MPEG-2, and exactly the same size as from over the air. MPEG-4 to me, on Dish anyways, look distinctly different than MPEG-2. Its softer but doesn't have giant blocks every during fast motion scenes.

I didn't know any cable systems used MPEG-4, however I'm sure that Comcast does not here. We are however still in the stone age here in NM they have maybe 30-35 HD channels on cable.