Sparklies

[raj2001]

On D*, I'm seeing some "sparklies" on certain channels, like Comedy Central. They are mostly minor and show up when the picture information is high contrast.

I know this has nothing to do with my setup, because D* is digital. I am thinking it has to do with a problem at D* itself, with the reception of the original C-Band signal. Can anyone shed any light on this?

[PSB]

Sparklies are a symptom of analog signal breakup, so it sounds to me that you are right, the problem seems to be at the D* end or rather the satellite uplink that D* rebroadcasts to us in digital mode! Digital signal breakup is more like picture freezing and going patchy, with blocks of picture. I am sure you have seen it your self, most folks have never had an analog satellite system I guess, so they have never seen sparklies!

[Mike123abc]

DBS providers get a lot of content from analog C-Band. Weak C-band will result in sparkles. It is odd though because usually D/E* have huge dishes locked on each satellite so they tend to get an excellent signal.