ABC's 720p vs CBS 1080i on my 6000

[Larry]

I have a Mitsubishi WS-55908 and a DISH 6000. I know the Mits only uses 1080i for HD. One of my local OTA stations flipped the switch on their DTV tower Monday. They are an ABC affiliate. With the 6000 in SD mode, the DT channel 28-1 and subchannel 28-2 both look great. When I run the 6000 in HD mode, 28-1 (primary channel) shows scan lines pretty bad. The picture is quite bad. Their subchannel 28-2 is fine in HD but it is a different screen format that shows only a still picture of the local radar.

I was under the impression that the 6000 upconverted 720p to 1080i but unless I have something wrong, I don't believe it does. One (advanced??) DISH tech assured me today that the 6000 does not upconvert, that it only passes through to the tv set whatever type signal it receives. Non-HD and HD programming both are the same crappy clarity in HD mode on 28-1. This new DT station assured me they were not having any issues and after reading around on another small local maillist group, it sounds like other folks with, I don't know what type setups they had, were getting the station's picture just fine. I am getting an excellent signal strength so that is not an issue

I get a CBS affiliate with excellent picture in any mode. I assume because it is in 1080i.

The DISH rep told me that I should be able to find a converter that would convert the 720p to 1080i.

Anybody know about such a critter? ($cheap$)

Any other comments welcome.

[MarkA]

Hmm, in projection, a scaler is used to make TV look better on high res projectors than the built in conversion. I assume something similar, except for this conversion either exists or will exist soon:) It's a problem many people may find with TV sets that only do 1080i and don't convert very well.

[MarkA]

Here's one I found but it might be a little (just a little though :) ;) :) ) too expensive. It does look nice:

http://www.avmall.com/kore/catalog/Accessories/Video_Processing/Scalers_&_Doublers/5OR1V8UNH94DAED91OPW/product.html

My guess is now that you know what a good video scaler costs (though some are cheaper. Like the kind they use in churches and in schools and offices for video projection are usually a fair bit cheaper, but they don't do as many conversions - like the HDTV. And the quality is a little worse), you'll learn to love the scan lines:)

[MarkA]

I also found a $20000 one that looks really nice, but I doubt you're even willing to look at it:)

[Chris Blount]

Larry,

What you have is a common problem when the 6000 receiver upconverts 720p to 1080i.

To fix it, what you need to do is to go into the menu options on the 6000 and adjust the horizontal position of the picture. Here's what you do:

Select: Menu - System Setup - Installation - HDTV Setup - Adjust

While on your ABC Channel, adjust the position until the scan lines go away.

That's it! The picture will look great and you won't need any external converter.

[Mark Lamutt]

Larry,

To add to the discussion, you shouldn't need to adjust the picture position very far - I only had to adjust mine one or two clicks horizontally and that cleared up my problems.

[MarkA]

That's good:) Probably more practical than my idea of outputting 720p and using a scaler:) But hey, an external scaler would give you a better image and more control over the picture ;) :D

[Larry]

Thanks for all the info. The horizontal setting in the 6000's menu was the ticket.

Why doesn't DISH include hyperlinks to DBSTalk.com and other forums in their tech rep's help screens.

I asked my wife to slap me if I ever were to forget and call them for help again.

Larry

[Chris Blount]

Originally posted by Larry
DISH tech assured me today that the 6000 does not upconvert, that it only passes through to the tv set whatever type signal it receives. A can't believe they told you this. The 6000 upconvert capabilites are very well known. Dish really needs to train their people better.

Glad we can help you Larry. I have found that the upconverted 720p to 1080i looks quite good and not much different then a native 1080i signal. The ABC HDTV programming is very clear and crisp so your 6000 will serve you well. Enjoy!