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Disappointed in DISH HD Picture Quality on 4K TV

31K views 53 replies 21 participants last post by  krel 
#1 ·
The faces of people are way too smooth.....like they have no detail at all. Is this normal with DISH? Would DirecTV be better quality?
 
#3 ·
It is possible that you need to do a lot of experimenting on all the different settings available to adjust your TV to what you like. My settings are quite different than the 46" LCD that it replaced.
 
#5 ·
You've solved your own problem. Because you are very picky about these things and DirecTV seems to fit the bill for you better, then get Direct and forget about Dish. Problem solved!! :)
 
#9 ·
I agree Dish quality is less. I was with D for 12 years and in Feb switched to Dish. Lot more blur of faces especially if they are farther in the background. I've tried numerous settings and while it has been somewhat improved I am still considering paying my ETF and using Dtv again. The smallest mosquito noise etc that my eyes picks up is enough to ruin my personal viewing pleasure when watching via Dish. I visit family a week ago in Nebraska where they have Cox Cable and even their cable was clearer than Dish. I love Dish equipment Hopper 3 which makes it hard to leave but for me PQ is priority.
 
#11 ·
I'm on Direct TV and I'm thinking of switching to dish to get the new customer discounts. But I hesitate to do so because Dish is HD Lite, lower quality HD than Direct TV. At least that's what everyone says. Dish is 1440 x 1080I where Direct is 1960 x 1080I. My TV and my AVR upscale to 1080P. When I upscale with AVR, my TV already gets an upscaled picture. I might go with Spectrum cable because they do not have a contract, although they do have a set up fee. But $100.00 for TV, 100 bps internet, and phone which I won't use, is quite tempting. Right now I pay $158.00, taxes included for the lowest plan on D* and 18 bps on Uverse internet. I'm going to check out streaming tv for quality.

I don't know what Spectrums HD resolution is. I know they are low quality HD, even if they say crisp HD in their commercials, I wonder if I could upscale Dish or Spectrum to a higher HD using my AVR. My aVR has upscaling capabilities. Any Ideas anyone?
 
#12 ·
Ever hear of the "garbage in garbage out" rule? If the content or signal is low quality upscaling would be like putting a silk hat on a pig. I get my internet through Spectrum and seen their HD display in their office where I pay my bill. It's not as good as DIRECTV's.
 
#21 ·
Do we actually know what resolution Dish or Directv HD are broadcasting at? How about anyone on this forum with software/equipment to test raw signal input or is it so bad it must be kept a secret or just impossible to measure?
I'm not interested in what the receiver sends out because after rescaling to 1080i you still have pixel loss and the softness many see. Its like putting lipstick on a pig. I know whats been posted on WiKi but that's old information.
 
#25 ·
Correct ... no "native mode" for DISH receivers. And it should be noted that even DIRECTV receivers do not pass through the exact satellite signal. That would require the AVR/TV to do satellite decompression.
 
#27 ·
Are you expecting that ANY satellite receiver would actually do that? Or is DIRECTV's "native" mode simply scaling the output to the closest standard HD that matches the satellite transmission of that channel (720p via satellite is output as 720p, 1080i via satellite is output as 1080i).
 
#31 ·
All TV's show what the signal is rescaled too, but this doesn't answer what the raw signal being sent is before image gets rescaled by receiver, TV, or video processor to 1080, 720 etc. Example with FireTv I can look at the actual signal being sent before the TV. Its UHD,1080,720 even less 520 all depending on source.
 
#33 ·
Bottom line is in the eye of the beholder. We had the Hopper since day one until about 6 months ago when we switched to "D". Sitting 18 feet from a Sony 75X850C my wife and I immediately noticed a PQ improvement with "D". Even after 6 months we will both sometimes mention the PQ difference.
 
#34 ·
This is what a lot of people who have had dish, uverse, or cable, have said. Direct tV has a much better PQ. I think D* has a very good PQ. Whether it's the satellite or the receiver providing the resolution is of no consequence. The issue for me is the PQ that is being sent to my TV from the provider.

I use my smart tv to view Netflix. Sometimes you can see in the stats, via the info key on my remote control, how it goes in steps from a poor resolution to 1080. Whether it's my internet, my tv, or Netflix doing it, I don't know. The Pq from Netflix when it settles, in my opinion, is excellent. Amazon prime, on the other hand, does not offer as much HD as Netflix. They provide a lot of SD 4x3 material. I don't watch SD. I'm curretnly testing HULU free for 30 days, and they also have a very good PQ. I have to see how good their content is.
 
#38 ·
I had both and matching side by side 4K Sony TV's. At times with different channels like Smithsonian on Directv, it was ultra sharp almost 4K looking but on Dish it was just so so.

Now HBO I found both very close even after freezing channels to look for subtle differences it was close. I really have my doubts longer distances say 15' anyone can actually pick out PQ difference. Inside of 8' absolutely you can but much further out it would be real tough. Where I saw the biggest difference was on football broadcast but when you have different network sources its not the greatest comparison.
 
#41 · (Edited)
I cant speak for E*/Dish...
but I will say Cable co's are absolute TRASH

I compared D* and Cox cable on the same tv and NBA was unwatchable via cox's new Contour 2 box testing on both 1080i and 1080p settings. Cable was microblock city for the fast motion of NBA.

D* won hands down vs cable .

I have also see Optimum TV (prior to Altice1 box) and that was hot garbage as well

also comcast is compression all channels to 720p so they are garbage as well.
Comcast downgrading all 1080i HD channels to 720p - Xfinity Help and Support Forums - 2806786

IMO your best bet is SAT , TELCO or OTT
 
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#42 ·
I cant speak for E*/Dish...
but I will say Cable co's are absolute TRASH

I compared D* and Cox cable on the same tv and NBA was unwatchable via cox's new Contour 2 box testing on both 1080i and 1080p settings. Cable was microblock city for the fast motion of NBA.

D* won hands down vs cable .

I have also see Optimum TV (prior to Altice1 box) and that was hot garbage as well

also comcast is compression all channels to 720p so they are garbage as well.
Comcast downgrading all 1080i HD channels to 720p - Xfinity Help and Support Forums - 2806786

IMO your best bet is SAT , TELCO or OTT
you should try spectrum only a dual tuner DVR. and they compress the **** out of there picture to the point where it breaks up and pixelizes macro blocks
 
#47 ·
If your looking for 4k , based on your other post, D* has more live sports in 4k

Sent from my mobile device using Tapatalk
 
#49 ·
We just switched from DirecTV (got tired of them raising my prices every two years) and man, for my eyes, very easy to tell that HD quality of Dish's picture is NOT good. Never had a problem with DirecTV's HD quality...it was stellar. We are pretty bummed because heard about all the technology advantages Dish has and at the end of the day, to found out that the one thing you actually have TV for.....to watch it......is a very NOT HD picture. I'm told that Dish broadcasts a 1080 x 1440 signal where DirecTV is 1080 x 1080. Many people on here say they can't tell a difference and that seems reasonable to me....people are very different, no one is the same. For this human, I can clearly tell that Dish's HD signal is inferior to DirecTV....hands down.
 
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