OTA channels more reliable than LIL from satellite?

[Richard Chalk]

Since this area now has locals in HD off the satellite, I opted to go to the HR20's, and take advantage of what I thought would be improved performance. So far, however, this has not been the case.

Watching the satellite signals, I get frequent glitches, momentary freezes, brief losses of audio, and audio burps and belches.

When I switch to my off-air antenna, I get much more consistent signals. Still the odd interruption, but overall less objectionable than from satellite.

This happens on three different DVRs, so it is not an internal problem. All satellite signal strengths look fine, so it does not seem to be a dish issue either.

Is it possible that small glitches in the MPEG2 signal, when received, decoded, re-encoded to MPEG4, actually come out worse?

Comments? Thanks...
Richard

[BudShark]

Possible - yes. It is also highly dependent on where D* is getting their signal from. They may not have placed the antennas in the best possible location and may be fighting some multipath issues that you aren't. Do you happen to know where DirecTV placed their source antennas?

I don't have issues with quality/reliability of my LiL vs. OTA - but I do start having issues with LiL when a storm is coming because D* antennas are to the west of my house - so they typically get hit with the storm fade first.

Chris

[packfan909]

It's commonly known as encoding errors at the uplink fascility. Either related to the way the signal is coming in or with the encoding equipment itself.

Let me guess, this is when your picture pixelates and can look green for a period of a second or two up to a minute.

There still can be issues with HD transmission quality at the broadcasters end. Their uplink or equipment will have an issue. In this case, the issue will effect both the Satellite and OTA delivered signals. If you are close to the transmission towers and get a good signal (70% and up) I would say that OTA is more reliable. I get both and I typically watch and record local programming over OTA. I am about 40 miles from the transmission towers and have a good external antenna. I get anywhere from 75%-100% on the OTA meter on the HR20.

Plus...There are other channels/multicasts that D* does not distribute.

pf

[davring]

Only drawback recording OTA is it is MPEG2 and uses alot more HDD space than the D* version on the sat.

[packfan909]

Only drawback recording OTA is it is MPEG2 and uses alot more HDD space than the D* version on the sat.

Very true. If there are space issues, you can purchase and connect eSATA compatible drives (external).

pf