Picture Quality

[infoghost]

I had the Dish installed last week, and the picture quality isn't too impressive. I went from digital cable, and it's a huge step down. It's about on par with standard cable, maybe a little less. Dish claims I should be getting quality about the same level as the digital cable. They did run into my existing cable wiring, and the Dish folks says that could be why, so I replaced it with brand new RG6 cable that was pre-made, with the connectors, so there shouldn't be a grounding issue. It's hard to compare the picture - it's not very sharp, and the colors look odd sometimes. They best I can compare it to is watching a decent quality AVI or DIVX on a pc. Also, once or twice the sound (speaking) got out of sync with the picture.

I've never seen another Dish picture, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but I thought it was supposed to be better than it is. Do I just need to get used to it?

Also, DISH said I have 90 days after the install if something is wrong, but I need to go thru my dealer for that. (who just called DISH and has them come install) Should I have them come back and check the setup? Will they charge me if it's in the first 90 days? Is there anything I can do on my end? I've got it going to 2 tv's, both look about the same.

Also, I have superdish, which the DISH folks say is supposed to use 121 I think, but I get half signal on that, But a full signal on 119, which is what the installer kept pointing out. Not sure if this affects anything or not.

 

[gpflepsen]

What is your equipment list?

How are you connected to the displays?

 

[SatinKzo]

DId they replace all the cabling in the house? ALso, if they used couplers or wallplates, did they replace them with higher rated equipment? I had a problem with Directv when I had it where 1 tv looked bad compared to the rest, turned out to be a coupler used in the wall plate was not rated high enough in frequency.

I am not an expert, that is just my experience.

 

[infoghost]

He installed a two new couplers, and connected them to the existing wires going to my TV's where the digital cable was. One of the wires was older (going to the TV) so I replaced it with RG6.

I have the 510 PVR and the 301 standard.

The 510 is just using coax to the TV, and the 301 is using s-video. I've tried coax, s-video and composite on the 301. While S looks best, they all get that...odd look.

TV's are a 27 inch sharp about 5 years old on the 510 and a brand new 32 inch sanyo on the 310. Certainly not top of the line, but digital cable looked perfect on both.

 

[SatinKzo]

I am still not clear on stuff. Do you have cabling the the walls/through the basement? You make it sound to me like they replaced everything from the wall plate to the tv, but not the stuff between the wall place and the grounding block.

While my picture isn't blowing away cable, it is still better when it comes to SD. HD from dish is much better than the digital cable.

 

[DarrellP]

Dish PQ stinks, period. A 27" TV is about as big as you can go and still think it looks good, that's why I dropped Dish SD 6 months ago then picked up Voom. Until Dish starts caring more about PQ than adding locals, nothing will change.

 

[GaryPen]

Infoghost - That "odd" look is due to the heavy compression that Dish uses to fit all their channels into limited satellite space. The locals generally look the worst, while the premiums (HBO, Showtime, etc) look the best, with the standard "cable" channels somewhere in between.

Actually, the HD channels look the best, even when showing SD material, much better than even the premiums, due to the minimal compression. But, you don't have HD, so it's moot. The other advantage of Dish HD is that you can also receive OTA (over-the-air) digital broadcasts from your local stations. They absolutely blow Dish locals away.

 

[gpflepsen]

It's important to use RG6 cabling between the dish outside and the receivers inside. The lower frequency RG59 is fine for connecting the receivers to the TVs.

Your dish equipment and my dish equipment are practically the same. My three TVs, a 50" DLP and two 27" Sonys, all have very acceptable pictures. I consider the 27's to have very good pictures. They are fed with S-Video and RF via RG59.

Ensure the cabling and connections between the dish and receivers are rated for satellite frequencies.

 

[SatinKzo]

Now, I just don't have the picture quality problem many complain about I guess. I have two 40 inch RPTV's and a 27inch CRT. The picture quality is better than Charter Digital in the area and on par with Directv. At times I do notice compression artifacts on my 40 inch tv's, but it's not a problem considring Charter can't keep a consistant picture on any channel here.

The comment by gary on the OTA picture compared to the dish locals is where I notice the big difference, but I can't get my OTA channels to all come in where I am at, plus I have the 811 receiver and that is another story.

 

[rsebolt]

I have a 50" lcd hdtv hooked up to the dishplayer 7200 and it looks great!
I am impressed at the basic quality I get without having the HD receiver.
I love DISH and am recommending it to everyone!
It must be something with your connections/wiring.

 

[infoghost]

In my basement, I had a splitter that my digital cable ran into, with two cables going to each TV. They are BOTH properly grounded RG6 cable. Both cables go from the dish box outside into my basement, where the couple with the RG6 going to my TV. Each cable runs to it's own coupler from the outside, then right into the boxes.

I am just a little bummed, because it irritates me to watch it. Also, they said I had 72 hours before my contract kicked into effect, and that was 3 days ago. I DO recall my dealer saying, and having a sign up saying no contract required, I need to look into that I guess.

I imagine it won't bother me as much in a month, but right now it does. The only thing keeping me with the DISH right now is the cost vs. what I get with cable. 39 for 2 boxes with guides and a dvr per month can't touch what cable offers. The basic cable package with no boxes/remotes starts at 41.

 

[boba]

Find a dealer for Directv and look at their picture some people like it better than DISH. You should have looked at a DISH picture before you dropped cable.

 

[cameron119]

Find a dealer for Directv and look at their picture some people like it better than DISH. You should have looked at a DISH picture before you dropped cable.

You should also know that boba is the resident troll. Ignore him whenever possible.

 

[mike123abc]

The cabling from the Dish to the reciever has nothing to do with picture quality. The cable from the Dish to the reciever will cause lost picture with the looking for satellite signal message to come up. Either the signal is strong enough from the dish to decode and you get a picture, or it is not and the picture locks up audio drops in and out and the satellite search screen comes up.

If you have an HDTV set you should be using DVI or Component. If not, you need to use SVideo. The connections of last resort are composite or RF.

Many TVs need adjustment. Turn down sharpness some, and turn off any edge correction options. It is trying to compensate for analog cable type signal losses where the signal get softer as it degrades. This in fact highlights the compression of satellite.

Now as to whether satellite or cable is better, it depends where you live. Some cable systems are better than ANY of the DBS companies on standard definition.

 

[NightRyder]

Find a dealer for Directv and look at their picture some people like it better than DISH.

Which will tell him very little. The only way to compare apples to apples is to find a dealer who Carry's both systems, and that is setup to demo them through the same type input to the same display.

I'm lucky enough to live within a 20 minute drive of such a dealer and spent 30 minutes comparing SD, Premium and HD on a 60" RPTV. The differences are minimal at best and vary from channel to channel. The only "good" SD picture on this big a display was from C-Band. The dealer didn't have VOOM at the time so I can't comment on picture quality from that service.

NightRyder

 

[infoghost]

Thanks for all the input guys. As long as I know it's not 'just me.' I feel a little better. I've been tweaking the display which is helping. The channels all vary so much, what looks great on one is not so hot on another.

Had I been doing this strictly for picture quality, maybe I would have done comparisons. But I did it for one reason - the price. I was looking for a way to bring down some monthly payments, and cable was really the only thing I could. I pay 39 for the 60 plus, one 301 and one 510. To get the same thing from Time Warner I'd be looking at about 70+. Price was my motivation here, and I can deal with a slightly lesser picture quality for what I am paying, as long as it's not complete crap. Basic cable alone without boxes is 41.00, and the picture is no worse than that.

Of course, my wife wasn't too happy when she lost some signals during the rainstorm this morning, but hopefully that won't happen all the time. She thinks it may have just been the local channels.

 

[charper1]

Pq

Well, I have had all 3 systems (self installed, except cable) and when viewing the same non-HD channels as a comparison, I have never seen any one as being 1% better than the other. When using the entire package of channels as the comparison, I see both satellite systems as about 5% better. Everyone's eyes will see things differently, so just choose based on your own eyes, because a lot of views you may read about can be scewed by some bad feelings a customer might have had at one time and not 100% reflective of their true experience. Your monitor quality also has a ton to do with what you see, and vitually no one will have the same monitor (or A/V) setup. For a few bucks ($25) you can buy a quality rain cover for your dish, even the multi-sat models. It does not hamper singal quality.

 

[GaryPen]

Infoghost - You should use s-video or composite, instead of coax, as you already discovered it looks the best.
However, you probably won't ever totally get rid of that "odd" look, as it's normal for Dish (and DirecTV as well.) As I said, it's the way the signal is processed from their end.
You can try to back down the "sharpness" setting on your monitor. That usually helps. You can also try using one or both of the following DVD's to adjust your monitor for optimum viewing: Digital Video Essentials, or the Avia Guide to Home Theater.

 

[maximum]

I live in Phoenix, AZ and we haven't had any rain since we got DISH installed last month so I haven't experienced rain fade yet. Probably won't until monsoon season. Anyway, Chapter1 mentioned a rain cover. What is it and what is it supposed to do? As I understand it, rain fade is caused by the water in the air blocking the signal. I don't see how a cover can fix that. Our installer said that even a really dark cloud with a lot of moisture in your line of sight will disrupt the signal.

 

[SimpleSimon]

I live in Phoenix, AZ and we haven't had any rain since we got DISH installed last month so I haven't experienced rain fade yet. Probably won't until monsoon season. Anyway, Chapter1 mentioned a rain cover. What is it and what is it supposed to do? As I understand it, rain fade is caused by the water in the air blocking the signal. I don't see how a cover can fix that. Our installer said that even a really dark cloud with a lot of moisture in your line of sight will disrupt the signal.

You're right - it won't do anything about rain fade. I don't even see why it would be called a rain cover - the dish hardware is rainproof.

What they are VERY useful for is preventing snow from building up on the dish surface, which DOES affect signal quality.