SD artifacts, grain on MAX HBO

[dgray9]

Past two months I've noticed increased grain and mosquito artifacts on Cinemax and HBO recordings
from my 625 DVR.

This is most apparent on PAUSE where the pixel grain and artifacts are obvious.
Earlier recordings, from last year and earlier, are clean.

This is true for all connections; composite, s-video, component connections to the TV.

Has anyone else noticed this on their SD or HD DVR's ?
Is this a Dish DVR or a Cinemax/HBO issue ?
Is there anything I can do about it ?

DVR is a 625 connected to a small Proscan 26LB30Q TV usually through an s-video cable.
I connected it through a DVD recorder using component cables, but this just made the grain and
mosquito noise more visible.

Thank you.

 

[Tampa8]

HBO has been and continues to be one of the best looking channels on Dish for me. I have not watched it in SD for quite sometime, but HD looks good.

 

[ZachS@DISH]

dgray9,
Is this only happening on HBO and Cinemax recordings or does this also happen while you are watching live HBO and Cinemax? Also you can check the signal strength off of the channels by pressing Menu 6-1-1, HBO 300 will be Satellite 119 Transponder 10 and Cinemax 310 will be Satellite 119 Transponder 17. Let us know what the strength is, if it happens on recordings and live tv it sounds like a signal issue to me.

 

[dgray9]

Is this only happening on HBO and Cinemax recordings or does this also happen while you are watching live HBO and Cinemax? Also you can check the signal strength off of the channels by pressing Menu 6-1-1, HBO 300 will be Satellite 119 Transponder 10 and Cinemax 310 will be Satellite 119 Transponder 17. Let us know what the strength is, if it happens on recordings and live tv it sounds like a signal issue to me.

HBO-E Tuner Input 1: Signal Strength 67
MAX-E Tuner Input 2: Signal Strength 74

It happens when I am watching HBO and MAX channels live; also during delayed and recorded modes.
Some programs are worse than others.
It seems especially visible during so-called True-HD programming but this may be a coincidence.

Older recordings of these same programs look O.K.
I really don't think this is a signal strength issue.
My speculation is that it may be related to downscaling the program from HD to SD; and I may just have to get used to it.

Turning down the sharpness on the TV helps but that's not exactly the sol'n I was hoping for.
Thank you.

DVR: SD 625 TV: Proscan 26LB30Q