New Mits HDTV and Dish Network

[RWebb71980]

I finally broke down and bought a 55" Mits SilverPlus Series HDTV.

Right now I have a 721 hooked up to it with the S-video cable that came with the 721.

The picture quality is quite substandard when compared to a DVD in 480p AND 480i.

So, my question to you is this:

Is it the cheap S-Video cable or Dish Network's high compression that is the problem? Is a Monster S-Video cable worth the $70?


Thanks for any input. I have 30 days to return the TV, and would like to hear about any experiences that you have had with a SD box and and HDTV.

Also, does anyone have any idea how the 921 will pass a SD signal? Will it upconvert the 1080i or 480p through the component outputs? Will it look better than the 721?


thanks,
Rob

[dfergie]

Dishnet, and Direct both look poor on a hd ready set in SD. My 6000 is marginally better on SD, but I get CBS HD and the Upconverts look pretty good, Survivor and Big Brother. I cant really comment on the cable issue as I use a "cheap" 20$ or less Svhs cable myself.

[dfergie]

I also have a 501, and a sd hughes direct reciever.

[marko]

I have the 48 inch silver plus model running on a 4900 receiver. Yep, the dish channels do not look the best, but I've gotten it to the point where it is acceptable to me. I wouldn't think it would be the svideo cable. I've read that sometimes people prefer the composite input over svideo (although I don't). Also, did you just get your tv? Certain settings might help (VSM turned off, contrast at a certain setting, etc). I remember when I first got the tv, I set the dvd input settings first, and realized I also need to set the settings for the satellite input. All the changes I made helped improve the picture some.

Also, from what I've read the dbs/cable picture on these new model mitsubishi's is a good bit better than older mitsubishi models, and comparable to some of the better RPTV cable/dbs pictures out there. So you might be looking at one of the better possible picture you can get on a tv that size.

But your dish picture is still probably better than cable though (it was for me, except locals). And dvds look great, and hdtv is incredible.

[Mike Richardson]

I generally find that a cheap S VIDEO cable will cause things like very minor sparklies and maybe some vague wavy lines and such. If you're using some 50 cent cable, you could try maybe a nice extra shielded cable although $70 is too much.

[styxfix]

I hope you got the new 2004 model 55" Mits SilverPlus Series HDTV.(model # ends with ....13 with and not the 2003 model that ends with ...11. The new models are suppose to be much better with standard (non HD) images.

[RWebb71980]

I hope you got the new 2004 model 55" Mits SilverPlus Series HDTV.(model # ends with ....13 with and not the 2003 model that ends with ...11. The new models are suppose to be much better with standard (non HD) images.


Yep,

I got the 2004 model. It was on sale at The Good Guys for 2069 with 32 months no interest. I just had to bite.

The picture does not look terrible, but on a SD TV I could not tell the differenct between DVD's and Dish. Also, On dish I really can tell that the the signal is interlaced.

rob

[Mike D-CO5]

I had a 50 inch mitsibishi tv last fall for 3 days and then I called Best Buy and told them to pick it up. I then went to Conns and bought the same tv in analog. On the hdtv ,the faces were smearing and breathing on their skin. The backgrounds were fine but I couldn't stand the moving skin. No matter what I did I couldn't calibrate out this problem. Cable looked wonderful on this tv. I had the same setup ; 721 with s-video . Sd does not look good on hdtvs at all. I have seen this same thing on other hdtvs at Sears with Dishnetwork and they all look as bad on sdtv.

[dfergie]

You will get used to the poor PQ eventually, it just helps the dvds, and HD look that much better. My off the antenna analog stations look better than either dish or direct.

[scottchez]

A couple of weeks ago I had the same MITs. I returned it and got a Sony. The Picture is much better. I think the new 2004 Mits have some problems. I did get the LOW end Mists, the 55313. The "3" in the middle of the number tells you the type "Silver". Did they maybe send you the wrong low end model?

My personal Review on the Mits- why I think you should NOT buy one
==============================================

I got the new 2004 model (ends in 13) Mits 55"

Reason 1:
I could not stand it. My Wife could not stand it (similar to the problem the other person had with His Wife).

I had to return it. I could not sleep at night it was so bad.

Reason 2:
The glare on it was terrible. Could not watch it unless all the curtains were closed. The picture quality was great but you could not see it even at night unless you turned most of the lights off.

Reason 3:
The stretch mode was also bad on ER and the West Wing on Sat.
DVDs did not stretch correctly either.
The stretch modes always left some important content off.

Reason 4: They tricked me
I returned it and got a new Sony today. They have Anti Glare and the the Stretch modes actually work on the things that I atually watch (who watches the HDTV demo channel on Dishnetwork like they have at the stores anyway).

Reason 5:

Before you by a new 2004 year Mits check out the Glare and the Stretch mode to shows on Prime time on ABC, CBC, and NBC. Some of these shows are in letter box. Make sure the stretch works for them.

DO NOT let the store confuse you with them showing some kind of HDTV feed. You will not be watching HDTV all the time. Infact few, shows are actually in HD right now so make sure the Stretch modes work.

Reason 6:
Size does matter. The Mits is 2" smaller than everyone else at 57"

Remember to buy the bigger screen. 65" is better then 55" You are talking about the diagonal of a rectange not a square like the old TV, dont compare diagonals between wide screen and a standard TV. A 53" Standard will look small compared to a wide screen 55" Go with a 65"

Reason 7: Cant play Xbox on Mits

There are now 4 Games that the Mits cant play on Xbox as Mits DOES NOT have 720p built in up convets. In the future there may be other issues with the Mits NOT have 720p like maybe with the new VCR or DVR recorders, you never know. Today only the Xbox is efffect by the lack of 720p Next year maybe there will be more things effected. It is too risky

Reason 8:

If you set anything on the top like a Stereo receiver or a DVD the top board may warp down. This has been reported by several on here.
The sonys fixed this issue by making the Top NOT flat (you cant put anything on there except they left room for just one item (like a DVD).


Reason 9.

Take the front speaker pannel off. The Speakers are soooo small.
Size does matter.

Reason 10. Consumer reports says so

Consumer Reports rated Mits 9th place in the March 2003 review on the older models becuase it does not have 720p and auto convergence.
They think these features are important for a reason and there test proved it in the lab I guess or they would not of rated Mits so low.

They also rated Mits 2nd place in repairs behind Hitichi. I guess more Mits are now breaking now than two years ago when they last checked.

[scooper]

If you still want to keep your new TV, (or even if you get a replacement), one of the first things you should do is get a copy of the Avia or Video Essentials DVD's and adjust your set, if not get an ISF technician do his thing. New TV's are typically setup to stand out on the showroom floor (brightness and contrast turned way up (TORCH mode), sharpness set too high for DBS, etc.) After the initial proper setup, you may notice that the picture looks "soft" - give it a few days so your eyes adjust to what a "Good" picture looks like. As you said, you may well need to do this on each input of the TV if the set hold the settings for each input seperately.

[wiz]

I have a 2003 Gold+ Mits ws55311, SD on Dish is terrible, but the 6000 make SD look acceptable but not great upconverted to 1080i. The HD channels however are flawless and the offair HD is unbeatable. The whole problem is MPEG compression artifacs from DISH Network on thier SD. Junk in, Junk out. If you think Dish is bad though, I tried the local Digital cable and it wasn't worth turning on. You don't see the compression problems on a 36" or smaller set, but put it on a 55 and its very evident. Don't give up on Mits though, there the only company with a upgrade available for 1394 networking ($995 though) and that will be the future of HD recording. That is unless your set is the integrated one then your ready.

[HTguy]

...The whole problem is MPEG compression artifacs from DISH Network on thier SD. Junk in, Junk out. If you think Dish is bad though, I tried the local Digital cable and it wasn't worth turning on...No, if that were true DISH wouldn't look as good on analog sets either. Sure, on the biggest analog sets you see more artifacts, too. But the DISH PQ is better than DirecTV.

The real problem is putting a SD signal (esp. w/digital compression) thru a bad upconverter. The digital "line doublers" in the HD sets can more than double the PQ problems and should be disabled if possible.

FWIW, the DRC scalers in the Sonys seem to do a better job than most.

[wiz]

Dish's SD PQ is fine on my anolog set (27"). But I hate to be bearer of bad news but the compresion is whats cause the poor PQ on the large HD sets. Otherwise, why would off-air HD have the "to die for" picture and SD on Dish be so poor. HD compession on Dish is suposed to be better than D, that I know and don't doubt it, but when dealing with a 55" WS HDTV SD from Dish is not 480i uncompressed. If you don't believe me compress a DVD usind DIVX or MPEG2 and squeese onto CD and play it back on the same set, it will look terrible on the HD set and fine on the 27". Thats the best way to show compession artifacts.