Picture quality levels

[Sharpie]

Guys,

I have directv and my picture is to say the least bad. I know about the compressions issues but I am still trying to get the best picture I can. When I say bad, I really mean that the quality is less than cable. I am curious what others on the forum have for their settings on their tv's. I know all tv's are different but I would like a general consensus on what people have their Sharpness, Tint, Contrast, etc... levels set at. Thanks.

 

[arachide]

Sharpie-
I think a good place to start would be to get the Video Essentials DVD to set up your TV. Settings do vary from TV to TV, but I used this disk to set up my Sony RPTV and I am very happy with the directv PQ. As a basic guide, try turning down the contrast and sharpness- they are usually set way too high at the factory. What is it about the PQ you are not happy with? I just turned off my cable and I can see two major differences from cable and directv. On cable's analog channels, the picture was grainy, most likely due to the Motorola 5100 receiver. On the digital cable, I saw quite a bit of artifacting, most likely due to Comcast's compression. I watched VH1 Classic last night on D* and the picture was much better.

 

[charper1]

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6463_7-5085739-1.html

 

[jpurkey]

Sharpie,

Do all channels look bad? Take a look at the premium channels or the PPV channels during the 5 minute previews at the beginning of a movie. Those channels have the least compression and should always look good unless something is wrong with your setup.

 

[charper1]

I don't have any PQ issues. My SD video looks as good and better than digital cable and the HD quality is sweet.

 

[Sharpie]

Yes I do see a difference in quality from specific channels. For example, the channel that you get to see the free monthly concerts looks much better. I told the wife that I would be overjoyed if all channels looked like that. I swear when I first got Directv four years ago that it did have that great quality. Now, a lot of channels are grainy and pixelated. Flesh tones are especially patchy and when USA was broadcasting the last big golf tournament the quality was horrid. The green was patchy and the golfball was blurry. I swear if I didn't know any better that my eyes were bad because the picture quality during the tournament was absolutely the worst I have ever seen.