Israeli channel picture quality

[PSB]

Whats up with the quality of the above channel? I done an install today at 61.5, great signal (108) Great picture on the free channels, but the quality on the Israeli Network was pretty bad, the customer was not too happy. I told him it was because of the quality of the feed from Israel but he comes from there and said its perfect quality over there? Maybe just a bad copy of a video at their end?

[P Smith]

Same thing happen from 148W. I think it source of programming not provide adequate quality for digital (MPEG-2) distribution in NA.

[Mark Holtz]

I would have to do some research, but it could be a differing TV standard and thus requires conversion.

[Mark Holtz]

See http://www.total-av.com/Library/wrldtvstndrds.htm .

The United States, Canada, and Mexico use the NTSC broadcast standard, which consists of 525 lines (480 lines displayed) at ~30 frames per second. In contrast, Isreal, the UK, Jordan, and Cyprus use the PAL broadcast which consists of 625 lines at ~25 frames per second. If they are rebroadcasting the feed live from Isreal, then there is a conversion from PAL to NTSC followed by the MPEG compression.

[PSB]

Thanks Z....
Thats what I said to the customer, almost my exact words, I come from the UK so I know all about the PAL format and the NTSC format here but this customer could not grasp it or did not want too! I cant say I blame them as the quality was poor, but they made a BIG mistake when they tried to swing things round to blaming my PERFECT install, done to NEC and local codes, and done with a pride in my work that I rarely come across on my travels. As I said above all the free channels on 61.5 were perfect, but everyone just loves to blame the lowest common denomenator, other wise known as "The Installer" Thanks for everyones input!

[Mark Holtz]

It would be interesting to find out how the channel gets sent from Isreal to the uplink facility in Wyoming, or for that matter, any of the channels from the other side of the world. Mulitiple satellite hops?

[gcutler]

I have done conversion from PAL DVD to NTSC DVD and the PQ was very good. So inherently reconverting does not mean bad PQ, but the source material and method of conversion would make a difference.

[Mike123abc]

It is easy to blame the installer because the installer is the only one you really see. DBS is a disembodied voice over the phone at most.

[gcutler]

It there is another channel on the same transponder, perhaps you can show them how the identical transponder shows great image, ahw, actually that probably wouldn't help, sounds like trapped between a rock and a hard place :(

[PSB]

Looks like I have to go back to this one, seems " it worked when the installer was here then when he left it went out" Thats the first time thats happened in thousands of installs! Seems this customer has been unhappy for the last two months now they have got round to saying it was a bad install ! : ) I was wondering how long it would take to try to blame the installer!
This was a picture perfect install! Does anyone actually have this channel and can tell me what the quality of picture is! I have a FTA system myself so I know the quality is VERY different from channel to channel!!!!

[Mike D-CO5]

Right an E-mail to Dish at Dishquality@echostar.com and tell them what you see.

I have done this about my ABC affiliate out of Houston and just this week I e-mailed them on my NBC affiliate and today they called me twice and worked with me to get the quality up to good picture quality. They seem to really respond when you go to the trouble to e-mail them like I have done and they were interested in getting the picture as good as they could.

Eric worked with me from the uplink center along with Dave from Dish on the same phone line and viola : one satisfied customer. Of course no one else in Houston has ever complained on the quality of any of their stations according to Eric , which I wonder if that is really true, but it worked for me to e-mail them.

Try it for yourself and see if it works for you and also include your phone number and area code so they can call you.

[PSB]

Wow! That is customer service! Thanks for the tip! But I fear the quality issue with this international channel is at source or in the conversion process, but I will give the e-mail a try, thanks again!

[music_beans]

Odd. I just emailed them about ghosting problems on Sioux Falls local KCSD (9236), and did the same a few weeks ago for out-of-sync audio on KDLT. (9232)

from PSB: I come from the UK so I know all about the PAL format and the NTSC format here but this customer could not grasp it or did not want too!

Well, if you are from the UK, do you know how good BBC (not BBC America) and ITV are? And if there is any chance that they could get carried here in the future as an international package?

[PSB]

Your guess is as good as mine when the above channels will get here, if at all! I think Skynews will be here first, then the rest. As for the BBC and ITV (Pal) the quality of picture is just as good as the quality here (NTSC), I would really love to see some more UK soccer games here, I am really thinking about getting FoxSports World for the upcoming new season, but there is not enough Scottish games for me, I may have to just subscribe to the Glasgow Celtic Web site and watch the games on broadband. I am proud to say I was born in Scotland and came here about 6 years ago, here is a good web site for digital UK, TV news, maybe you have seen it!
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk

[music_beans]

OK, I know how the PQ is on BBC and ITV, but what about programmes? (I already know about Who Wants to be Millionaire on ITV, but not much else.) I am pretty intrested in UK tv.

[PSB]

: ) I get it now ! I really miss my UK TV channels, (and radio, not so much cos I can listen to ANY BBC radio channel for free in Broadband, and totalrock.com, of course) There were only 5 channels over the air when I was there, but satellite was just about to go digital, it was all analog when I first got into satellite. What can I say about the shows! I grew up with them, and so I may not be the best person to ask, I enjoyed the music shows (The Tube, Top of the Pops, and the best one The Old Grey Whistle Test) The comedy shows were really good but I dont know if you guys would get all the jokes, but some of the best were "One foot in the grave" Kids shows were good too, like "Blue Peter" its been running since the 60's and still going strong, there are loads of American shows over there of course and I mostly watched them and the news, just like now if its not live TV/News I am not really interested, remember that reality TV started there and I watched alot of that, "Airport(coming here next year) and The Village" Other than that it was all soccer all the time for me, I had the choice of every single game live from any where in Europe on match days, many with four or five different views of the playing field! They were FUN days and nights! All for free and legal, just put it this way, I had a lot of friends wanting to see the games.

[music_beans]

BTW, I frequently visit a site called TV-ARK that has loads of RealVideo of some of those classic shows. (I wish ITV's classic 'Jamie and the Magic Torch' toon was here in the US. It is from 1976, so you might not recognize it)

www.tv-ark.co.uk

Another thing, have you sent anything to that dishquality@echostar.com address? It works really well.

[PSB]

Thanks for that great web site! I have been there a long time ago but forgot about it or lost it in one of my many computer crashes. I looked at that Magic Torch cartoon trailer and it indeed rings a small bell, what a great toon, I wish they would play all the old UK shows here I am sure everyone would get a kick out of them, man I am going to be busy with this site! I have not tried the e-mail to echostar yet as I will wait and give it to the customer with the problem and let her take it from there, maybe she should get the Israel channel from Globecast as it might be a better picture. Back to the Ark!