SD Channel Quality

[jls1986]

Hey guys, I've had Dish now since Wednesday just a little concern about the SD channel quality. To me, they look comparable to a VHS tape. Really really bad. And also I'm watching HBO 2 right now and there's a red stripe on the right edge of the video. Is it supposed to be this bad?

I have the 722k box with a 42" 1080p Panasonic S1 Plasma.

Is there anything I can do in the settings to improve quality? This is almost unwatchable. In my channel guide it says that HBO2 as well as many of the other channels I have been watching are in HD but its very apparent they are not. Please help.

 

[TheKrell]

Make sure you're using either component or HDMI, and set your receiver to output something other than 480p. There is no native-mode passthrough of HD or SD; the receiver scales (if necessary) to your setting for all channels. IIRC, the default is 480p. Some TVs do a really really crapppy job of upscaling Dish's non-standard SD resolution, plus even HD downscaled to 480p and then upscaled again by your TV, will not look very good.

 

[jls1986]

It's connected with HDMI and the guy set the receiver to 1080i when he was installing it.

 

[TheKrell]

Double check! SD does not look that bad to me, and HD is usually pretty spectacular on my 722 when viewed on a 42" Westinghouse via HDMI. Of course I did the install myself, so I know it was done right.

 

[jls1986]

I just checked the setting and it is intact 1080i. Hd channels look pretty good it's just sd that's bad. Also why in the channel guide does it say channels 300 to 309 are hd and the only one I'm getting in hd is channel 300?

 

[TheKrell]

OK, that leaves the cabling. I'll bet your looking via an NTSC channel rather than HDMI. Is there an "info" button on your TV's remote?

Your HBO problem is a total mystery to me. I don't subscribe right now, so I can't check it. But as I recall, you should see a double-inventory of HBO channels; one is SD and the other HD. Do you see this double-inventory of channels?

 

[jls1986]

I have it set on hdmi 1

The only HBO I have 2 of is 300, which is the only one I'm getting in HD. Weird.

 

[TheKrell]

Huh. I'm getting suspicious of your 722k. What you describe should not be happening.

When I hit the Info button on my Westinghouse, it briefly tells me what the resolution is. Does your Panny do that too?

Also, hit the 722's Menu 6-1-3 and tell us what satellites you see. I'm wondering if you lost one due to LNB problems.

 

[jls1986]

Yeah it shows 1080i when I hit info. When I go in to the satellite menu it has 119 and 110 listed under satellites with green signal on both of them.

 

[TheKrell]

That explains HBO's missing HD channels. Most HD channels come off 129 and that's AWOL. Same screen what does your device line say? It probably says 1k2 (for Dish 1000.2) if you're in the state of Washington. I take it you didn't have this professionally installed? I can't imagine they would install a 722k without a triple-LNB dish.

 

[gdarwin]

Yeah it shows 1080i when I hit info. When I go in to the satellite menu it has 119 and 110 listed under satellites with green signal on both of them.

Missing 129 where all the HD is at....

 

[jls1986]

Device says: DPP Twin, Twin(1), Twin(2)

It was professionally installed but the dish was already on the roof before I moved in here over a year ago so I don't know how long it's been up there.

 

[TheKrell]

One wonders how any "professional" would leave you with a Dish 500 on the roof? The DishPro Plus twin goes on a Dish 500 and it's sold into the SD receiver market. Assuming that is really what is up there, you will have to call and get the installer back out to do the job right. You can only receive a small fraction of Dish HD channels pointed at only 110 and 119.

Your SD channels shouldn't look that crappy either!

 

[jls1986]

Would the better dish make the SD channels look better as well?

 

[gdarwin]

If this is the first time you have watched SD on the 42" they are going to look like C**p.... Get the HD fixed and quit worrying about the SD.

 

[TheKrell]

No, unfortunately the SD picture quality isn't going to improve with a 1000.2 dish. I think there's something else wrong there. Many Dish SD channels don't look half bad to me. Not DVD quality, perhaps, but definitely not crappy (except for an occasional bit-starved channel). VHS tape... Now that is definitely crappy.

 

[jls1986]

If this is the first time you have watched SD on the 42" they are going to look like C**p.... Get the HD fixed and quit worrying about the SD.

No. I had cable before and SD looked fine.

 

[DishSubLA]

Have to say that on a CRT, SD looks pretty good, but not as good as years ago. However, on the LCD's, Dish SD's do look pretty bad. However, some TV's do a better job of processing than others. Sony's Bravia processing engine really cleans-up Dish SD's to the point that they really look pretty darn good on mine and others TV's with the Bravia engine.! However, the same SD channels look like yuck on my Sharp in the next room.

 

[Jim S.]

I hardly ever watch SD on Dish anymore since most of the channels I like are in HD. There are still a few clunkers in SD only, Chiller for example. (Ironic because dark scenes are the ones that really need to be sharp.)

You can sometimes smooth out bad digital SD channels a little by reducing the brightness, contrast, and sharpness. No, that's NOT admitting defeat -- those settings were originally intended for tweaking ANALOG channels where you had smooth color transitions. On over-compressed digital channels, the color transitions WON'T be smooth, and any enhancements you try to make will only make that MORE obvious! But TVs will usually ship with everything cranked up in demonstrator mode since a good store will try to sell its TVs with a good HD video source. (Not all stores are good stores of course -- the local Sears used to have all of its big-screen TVs on the local Fox analog channel, with its third-hand transmitter, last-choice frequency, and last-choice antenna location. Why? Because the digital signal didn't reach here, but that's where the football was.

 

[jls1986]

Thanks for the replies guys. I talked go the guy that set my dish up and he said that the trees in the back of my apartment complex are blocking the signal to the 129 satellite. He never mentioned anything about the dish itself. What do you guys think because right now I'm almost to the point of canceling dish all together and going back to cable. I'm not even getting my local channels in HD. This is pathetic.