Dish Network Picture Quality

[feelingfine]

Does Dish Network plan on improving its picture quality so that big screen tv users can enjoy it. I have a 50 inch Toshiba tv and the amount "digital artifacts" is quite annoying. Lots of pixelation and posterization. My smaller tube tv's look great but big size projection tvs look just awful. Friends with big screen projection tvs all have the same problem. It's not a signal problem, most channels show 95 and above. I have a feeling that adding so many local channels has made the picture quality suffer. Does Dish Network have any plans to remedy this? The DVDs on my tv look spectacular but Dish Network looks so bad sometimes that i actually prefer a grainy analog cable signal better.

HELP!

[Tomsoundman]

There are a ton of posts about this. Do some searches on archives.

[Good News on Friday]

Then start saving your money for a BUD.

But wait, I have good news. HITS will be available on G4R Ku to the homeowner starting early in 2003.

So get those old Primestar dishes out of the garage - all you will need is a Motorola 905 receiver

[jrbdmb]

As a result of locals moving to spot beam (esp. on E*8), there are generally fewer channels per CONUS beam now than several months ago. The transponders at 119 average about 10 or so, and on 110 only two transponders carry more than 9 channels. (When I looked at the channel info earlier in the year, many CONUS transponders carried 12 or 13 channels.) The reduction of channels / transponder should result in better PQ.

If you want to really see some good PQ, try a few of these channels:
Fox Movies / HBO Comedy / Showtime Beyond (3 channels / trans.)
Fox Sports World / Nick GAS / National Geographic (3 channels / trans.)
Boomerang (2 channels / trans.)
Starz West / Starz Cinema West (2 channels / trans.)
Encore West / Encore Action (2 channels / trans.)

Any feedback from those with a big screen on how the above channels look would be appreciated.

[zimm0who0net]

Originally posted by Good News on Friday
Then start saving your money for a BUD.

But wait, I have good news. HITS will be available on G4R Ku to the homeowner starting early in 2003.

So get those old Primestar dishes out of the garage - all you will need is a Motorola 905 receiver

Don't expect HITS to have better PQ.  They typically put 12 channels per transponder and their symbol rate per transponder is lower than E*. 

[Doug E]

To Good News on Friday......I already have a BUD, but have no idea what you refer to by "HITS"?? Also, I have a Motorola Model 920, will this model work as well?

Thanks, Doug

[Doug E]

Looks like zimmO also has some knowledge of HITS. Maybe you can tell me about it??

[Dorf]

Hits, as far as I know uses a 10 to 1 compression ratio. Not 12 to 1.

[zimm0who0net]

Go to www.hits.com and checkout their lineup. In general they put about 12 channels per transponder.
HITS stands for Headend In The Sky. It's a service from AT&T that currently is delivered to most cable head ends. Basically they aggregate all the channels you might want to deliver to your subscribers onto two satellites. That way a cable company doesn't have to have a field of satellite dishes and grooming hardware to get a full channel lineup. Just two KU band dishes and a Motorola IRD for each transponder.

[Doug E]

Now I get it. Thanks, zimm

[TopCat99]

Has anyone else noticed PQ even for the small screen (say 20") has gone downhill rather noticeably?

I about fell over when I saw a certain local analog cable company has better PQ on my locals than does Dish.

This is precisely the reason I went with E* over D* in the first place oh so many moons ago. I understand *why* it's happening, but shouldn't they have most of the must-carries up and running by now? Why is it continuing bto worsen?

It's gone from the color bands in the background (expected and not a problem) to Splotchy Face Syndrome (tm) in a matter of days it seems. :sigh:

[Mike123abc]

Dish is in more of a bind even though they have more transponders than DirectTV. DirectTV has the advantage of 32 transponders on thier main satellite, where Dish only has 21.

And through backwards compatibility, Dish300 is all that is needed for AT50 and AT100, not to mention most of the movie channels.

So, in essance Dish is stuck having to cram 119, and having empty air on 110.

Dish needs to bite the bullet and say after so and so a date (like 1/1/03 but probably need to give 90 days notice), you will need Dish500 for AT100 and the movie channels. This would let them have the flexability to balance out their satellites. They could then go down to 7-8 channels/transponder. Problem is that I do not think that they would risk losing a ton of customers if they made the customer pay for the dish upgrade, and it would cost a lot of money for Dish if Dish were to pay for it.

[Bogey62]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by TopCat99
[B]Has anyone else noticed PQ even for the small screen (say 20") has gone downhill rather noticeably?


I have only had a PVR721 for 4 months, but the PQ on my 27" RCA is horrid as compared to my C-band (analog) PQ (HBO especially).

[Marcus S]

No!!! I have actually seen at least a 30% improvement of PQ. But then again there are many that don't reboot their E* receivers and complain bitterly or would simply justify the complaint by having to replace your smart card every 3 months? :confused:

[TopCat99]

I'd like to know how you quantified a 30% improvement :D

Rebooting receivers is a fact of life. Some much more than others (just like OSes). I've never had an improvement (or worsening) of PQ as a result, though.

I'm lost about replacing the smart card, though. Short of breaking it, why would you have to or even want to?

Anyway, we know it's a perennial problem at this point, we know the cause, and we know how to fix it. But as Mike123 says, it's not likely going to happen without Dish losing some serious $$$ in the process :(

[Marcus S]

*D subs get new smart cards in the the mail. Surprise :) I have yet to ever replace a E* smart card, but at least it's a good way to make you go away for awhile. I am not suffering from any PQ issues on the 150 as of tonight, all look great, local and distant nets need dramatic improvement. :):)

Mike123 stating the issue about PQ is not going to make subs go away... Hosing rurals at $5.99 for the top 4 distant nets in any given distant net package, + another $1.50 for WB, + $1.50 for UPN, + $1 for National PBS will. A none issue for *D subs because Super Stations are not available to rural/distant subs.