Dish like DirecTV or DishNetwork

[Canoe164]

Has any one else seen a degradation in satilite quality? I am running DirecTV going through to a true Hi Def Samsung TV. I don't have the set top box to get the true Hi Def signals from stations that offer it but until recently, the quality was much better than my old analog RCA TV.

I have noticed, especially on syndicated shows, that they almost look like streaming video off the NET. It's hard to describe. It isn't pixilated it just looks like the quality you sometimes see with streaming video. For example, when I started noticing that something wasn't just right, I started looking at the background of a shows set. I used to be able to make out the detail of the wall paper if the camera wasn't panning. Now the wall paper looks like what I saw on my old RCA.

Has anyone else been experiencing this and have any ideas what is going on? I was wondering if 'providers' are compressing video to maybe eek out a few more commercials.

[jeex]

i frequently watch directv on my friends 64 inch widescreen HDTV. he doesnt have very many HD channels, so we're usually watching the "standard feed", and they do look alot worse than they do on regular non-HDTV's..

its kind of like how when you watch VCD's, they look alot better on your TV (non-HD) than they do on your PC.

[Canoe164]

jeex,

Did you bud notice the problem, in that it was recent? I mean as I am writing this, I look over my shoulder and see that the picture is good.

[jeex]

i've noticed it for the year he has had it. the picture on his non-HDTV's look good.

but i'm guessing the combination of him having an HDTV & it being a bigass HDTV makes the pictures look not so good.

when we do watch HDTV, the picture is awesome.

[Marco33]

When I bought my HDTV the guy said that the regular feed picture WOULD look better on a regular TV as opposed to my HDTV.

Also, older DirecTV boxes convert the picture (non HDTV signal) better than the new ones. My HDTV 43" has a better picture with the old box than my 32" regular TV with the new box. A lot of noticable pixalation.

[Canoe164]

Marco33,

I have a new Sat receiver. It is less than 1 year old. What is fustrating is that I think it is a compression issue. I am guessing on that because, man, I don't want to debug all the components. All things were good until the last few days. Maybe it was a couple of weeks ago that I noticed something wasn't right, but until a couple of days ago it is when I started really looking at it with a critical eye. Had to see if I could see a pattern.

This is issue is outside of this site, but I wanted to see if anyone else has been experiencing the same thing.

Ya know, the problem is coming from the local channel feed to DirecTV and they are always adding more to the Sat they have to feed the nation. Or, the feed I am getting from the local station Sat is off alignment...

Crap. I am debugging.

[lordsmurf]

I've posted about this a few times, and had discussions with many people. They are overloading the transponders and the compression is overboard.

I can do better with TMPGENC on fastest low quality mode.

It's a real shame.

[Marco33]

Canoe164

Compression, you are right. How else can they get 900+ channels though a little cable.

I just looked into upgrading. DirecTV offers an upgrade for current customers. You get a new HDTV box and a dish for a mear $400. Oh and you don't get local HD.

I'm this close to going back to cable just to get the HDTV. Only reason I have the dish is for the NFL & NHL tickets. I've already dropped the NHL ticket this year and will probably drop the other next year.

[Canoe164]

Interesting version date. Is tmpgenc then used at will, in that the local feed, that is fed to me by the 'provider', compressing? Or, is the 'provider' doing it on the fly?

I ask because I have been out doing things and haven't looked into it like I should. My curiousity is high on this because then we have, again, taken tech as something that makes upgrading to new hardware as a necessity. I am torqued about this if it comes down to the 'provider' streaming crap.

At least I didn't eat bucks on a Sat. modem. 8)

Time to bail the hay and milk the cows

[Canoe164]

Oops. Mis-understood Lordsmurfs post.

So what are the 'providers' using for compression?

Has anyone tried a different transponder for local channels and gotten better results? If not, I can give it a shot.

[lordsmurf]

You can't just "change" transponders, it doesn't work that way.

[mojo]

I agree, the compression has always been VERY visible on DirecTV since day one. Poeple keep raving about how great the 'digital picture is' but to people like us with a halfway decent eye it's artifact city. You see breakup and blocks everywhere!

And yes it's because they're squeezing too many channels into the pipeline. Someone told me the biggest hit came a few years ago when they added the local channels - suddenly hundreds of channels were added and there was a noticable hit in quality for every station.

The thing that sucks is we basically have no choice. Digital cable is pretty much the same, and soon it will ALL be digital. We're going to have crappy, highly compressed TV channels no matter where we go.

The biggest problem is capturing this stuff! I'm using a DV capture device and then encoding it as a DVD, so that's TWO more levels of compression. It looks pretty bad.

Is there ANY way to cap DirecTV and get good results?