Is this normal? Just got DVR service installed by DTV after having the basic box for the last ten years.. After installation of the new DVR receiver, Iam a bit disappointed in the quality of the picture from what we had from the old Panasonic box..The picture seems to have what I call motion ghosts.. another words, when a person is moving there are faint images outlining the person, which we never had with the old receiver.. We checked the signal strength and it's great.. most transponders are in the ninties, with afew at 100%. The tech blamed our new Panasonic 42" HDTV, which capable of 1080I. (we tried to get HD DVR service, but we have too many trees from the nieghbors..) We using new HDMI cables.
Picture quality ?
- Thread starter Clint22
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 15
- Views 2K
- Status
First of all, standard definition or SD will not look as good on a HDTV as it does on a regular TV. HDTV will show more of the imperfections of a SD feed. I think everyone when they got a HDTV said the same thing about SD channels. You can adjust the picture settings some and it may make the picture better but it will never look as good as your regular TV unless you get a HD feed going to it. Did they try to find another place they could put the dish so you could get HD? You could always call and see if they could send someone else out to survey your property for a better line of sight. Since you don't have HD, you could unplug the HDMI cable and try hooking it up with standard RCA cable( red, white, and yellow) or S-video. HDMI is really only good for HD signals or upconverting DVD players. Component cables (green, blue and red) may also help too.
I am not comparing the picture to HD, which I do receive using my outside antenna.. I am comparing the picture from my old panasonic reciever to the new DVR receiver on SD channels.. We did switch the cable over to the rca cables and no improvement. I have not tried the S- video cable, but I will....good idea.
We did have DTV come out two weeks ago and there is no clearance between the trees to get HD..
One interesting note however....The tech said that DTV is now working on a new satellite system that only uses one satellite for HD/SD which would help people like me who have a lot of trees to dodge around.. Maybe less than a year away he said..
Did you have the old panasonic receiver hooked up to your new TV or was it hooked up to a regular TV? You said it was a new TV and I wasn't sure if you got the DVR at the same time as you got the TV. They are trying to move people who need an additional satellite to get their locals to only needing one satellite dish. Maybe that was what he is talking about.
Yes, the old panasonic receiver had been hooked up to you new TV for several months. So we got use to the picture quality.. But, now as soon as we switched to DVR receiver, we noticed the difference.. never had ghosts before.
The tech did replace the dish receiver head with a new one.. maybe it is bad.. I still have the old one.. maybe I will swap them out..(they are both dual cable type).
Yep, i am not getting my hopes up for the new satellite system.. we will see..
I am going right now and hook up the S video cable... I will let you know the results..
The tech did replace the dish receiver head with a new one.. maybe it is bad.. I still have the old one.. maybe I will swap them out..(they are both dual cable type).
Yep, i am not getting my hopes up for the new satellite system.. we will see..
I am going right now and hook up the S video cable... I will let you know the results..
Some receivers do a little better job scaling the signals, but I don't know if it would be that much of a difference. If it was pixelating then I might say it is the dish, but you say it is just ghosting. Not sure what it could be.
If you have good signal strength, then there is nothing wrong with the LNB on the dish itself. The dish/LNB has nothing to do the picture quality. If your picture is pixilating bad & searching for sat signal, then that would be a dish problem.
Is the new DVR on the same input as the old one was? Most TVs have inputs in the front as well as 2 or 3 or more in the back. Most TVs I have seen have seperate settings for each input for the color/contrast/sharpness/brightness & all that jazz. If you had the old receiver tweaked to your liking & the new DVR is on a different input, it may still be set at factory defaults for those levels.
Is the new DVR on the same input as the old one was? Most TVs have inputs in the front as well as 2 or 3 or more in the back. Most TVs I have seen have seperate settings for each input for the color/contrast/sharpness/brightness & all that jazz. If you had the old receiver tweaked to your liking & the new DVR is on a different input, it may still be set at factory defaults for those levels.
Then it must be the receiver. Without seeing it I couldn't tell you it's normal. I know it's normal for SD signals on a HDTV. I know you say it didn't do this with the old receiver. Do you have your picture stretched to fit the screen? If you do, did you have it stretched with the old receiver? I am not sure if the old Panasonic box had an option to stretch the picture. in that case you would have had to stretch the picture through the TV. With the new box, it has a Widescreen or 4:3 option in the menu. Do you have a R22 DVR?
Yes, i agree.. it must be the receiver somehow..
With the old panasonic, it went from the receiver directly into the antenna jack on the HDTV. The new DVR (R22-200, mfr date 3/10/09,) does not have a output jack like the old one had.. No way to do it.. So we tried the S Video, RCA or HDMI methods without any improvement..
I have readjusted all the settings which helped a small amount, especially the sharpness..
It not only me, but my wife sees the poor quality picture also..
No stretch feature on the old one.. used the TV.. The new DVR is set on 4:3 now.. Adjusting the stretch feature doesn't seem to affect the picture quality..
Thanks for all your input... you guys..
So the old receiver went into the TV via the RF input. That would theoretically give you the least desirable picture quality coming out of any device hooked up to a TV. It is possible that you were used to a softer picture provided by the conversion to RF & with the new sharper picture everything seems more harsh. I never had one of the Panasonic receivers, maybe they did a better job of converting the digital signal to analog...???
I wonder if the tech based his assesment on trying to find the 110 & 119 sats. They are no longer needed for HD. HD is on the 99 & 103, with the 101 being the main SD sat. I'd bet that you could prolly get the 99 & 103 even if the tech couldn't see the 110 & 119...
Interesting.. I do remember the tech saying they need 5 satellites to get HD.. so maybe he has NOT been trained to the latest info... I will call them tomorrow and see if I can get another assessment.. Is the 110 and 119 further to the left or c'clockwise looking SSE (from washington state) ? The tech was saying the a tree was in the way and it was to the left of my present SD dish pointing direction..
With the Slimline 5 dish they use the signal from the 101 & 119 to peak the dish, so if the 119 is blocked they would have a hard time making the alignment. But like I said before HD is all on 99 & 103 anyway. The Slimline 3 only picks up the 99,101 & 103 so it won't matter if the 119 is blocked.
Give them a call!! HD is worth the extra 15 bucks a month no matter how you slice it.
This is what I was thinking, if he got the 101 chances are he could get the 99 and 103 sats from where he's at.
- Status
