Dish Network quality sucks

[Cyrax9]

OK, thanks for blowing my plans of a decent singal to hell and back guys.

I was hoping to look into DISH later this year, as I've heard DirecTV has more holes in the video than swis-cheese, my Digital Cable makes me want to throw the Box at thehead ofmy nearest Cablevision Executive and if he's reading this PLEASE, come and debate withme, I'd LOVE to tell you about your poor quality cr*p-signal, and I almost want my anlog cable back, almost but it's gotten just as bad in the past few months.

So, what are my chocies?

1. DISH Network, this is the only board I've heard complaintsd about DISH on, and it's in my area, same package as my Cable for about $10 less better PQ AFAIK, but the catch is loosing the YES! Network(TM) and my father isn't giving that up until he dies.

2. DirecTV: Nice channel selection but lousy Recivers and more drops than a leaky faucet! Catch: Een if I go with DirecTV I wind up with sub-par singal, and it costs a little MORE than what I'm paying for the junk I get now.

3. VOOM: Loooks good but not available in my area, so much for something useful.

4. C-BAND Sattelite: Available, but I have no clue how to set this up and even IF my College Major will be communciations, I don't intend on attemtping to justify this without the words "SETI" and "PC" in the same speach/phillibuster.

5. Digital Cable: I have it, I get a discount on my Cable Modems, DSL isn't offered so I'd losoe high speed if I drpepd Cable INternet and the price would go up if I dropped Cable TV so it's a catch 22, and the quality is TERRIBLE! My anlog singal from last year looks better than this! I almost want to rip out the box but I need G4-TECH TV and Toon Disney and I'm not giving those up, ever, period and Sci-Fi is another one that you can pry out of my cold, dead, hands so I'm essntially stuck.

OK here's what I watch:

- Star Trek (Any Incarnation but I've started to buy DVD' and may be avoiding SPIKE TV if they don't stop having a dancing logo that rivals the JETIX Logo on ABC Family and Toon Disney!) -- this UPN, SPIKE TV, and as ofnow the local Affiliat WFMZ which airs Voyager are all a MUST for those long nights when all I want to do is watch some Trek.

- Power Rangers (Mighty Morphin'- Dino Thunder and next year's S. P.D) airs on the "Jetix" block of ABC Family, Toon DIsney and ABC Kids, Disney is soulles when it comes ot DVD's, doesn't even offer PRE-9/121 footage of 2001's series "Time FOrce" on VHS and has no bx sets and probably will keep their head up their rectum perptually unti it's ofrcibly removed from there! Thus an ABC Affiliate and TOON DISNEY are a MUST, as is ABC FAMILY which shows the promos which are, occasionlly worth recording. This is #2 to Star Trek, and as it's not on DVD it MUST Come in clearly!

- Mobile Suit Gundam (UC and CE Shows) yes, CN Edits it and butchers the dubbing and songs, and I'm buying DVD's anyway but I'd be almsot 20 episodes behind without the TV Edits and once my DVD arrives I'll ahve 10-5 and the collector's box of SEED, so while it's not as imperative as "Power Rangers" -- Gundam IS a must on CN.

- Teenage Mutant NInja Turtles -- while I don't watch this one (as) religously as the others, I do want signal that one can put up with wihtout feling like thier watching colored blobs from low-quality signal, thus FOX is a must, and occasionally I watch a new episodes of the Simpsons (Die already Homor! You had over 10 years, be like Jerry Sienfield, go out on top!) so I need FOX.

- G4-Tech TV -- I'm a co9mputer geek, a gearhead and any of the other "gheneric" terms used, need I say more?

Needed to keep the rest of the family happy:

YES Network: Without this, "The Wallet"(My Father) won't allow TV systems to be changed even if I paid him in gold bricks or Jersey's autogrpahced by Yankees team-members, this is my catch for Dish.

Weather Channel: Self-explanitory.

Home & Garden orsome similar channel: My mother watches about three things, I need to keep her content, muy brother watches mostly what I watch so these are the channels to change the system form Digital cable t something that works.

Interestingly enough, I asked a friend to record "Power Rangers Dino Thunder" off of his Dish Network set-up so I could see the differance between my Digital Cable Recordings and his DISH recordings to see if they're any better, and believe me if they even look so much as a STEP above 5th Generation VHS Tapes than I'll want DIsh even more, I know about the legalites but I'm recording it anyway, I'm buying what few offical Volumes "the mouse" has relased n DVD so they cna't complain thier getting my money hand over fist and don't give me enough product.

So what should I do? It sounds like the Dish I just had my heart set on is a no-go now if Dish has gotten to be another cable wannabe via Sats instead of wires. I'm not looking for quality that you need a magnifiying glass to view flaws in, I'm looking for soemthing n apr with DVD as a DVB Source for TV Viewing and that loks good on my CRT's an will look good on an LCD or other potential HDTV when my 1993 SOny TV Finally kicks the bucket the way it seems like it's about too. I don't want to go and have a Dish attached to the house though,only to find out I was better off with the Digital Cable's PQ and wind up just finding an analog jack and stewing over the loss of TDIS.

Help is appreicated, and actualy, the two peple I know who have dish upgraded from Digital Cable adn saidit was amazing, are they having anomolous Dish's or are yours not as up to par? One just upgraded from Comcast Cable to Dish and is a pixel freak meaning anything with pixelation is obviously a reasn to drop a provider for TV Content and has had no problems.

Now I'm confused, I can't take Digital Cable much longer, but can someone take some DISH Screen caps or list problems, if the shadowing is better than Cable than it's fine, but should I go with Dish or DirecTV, I've heard far more about DTV being a disaster than DN, and my Cable set-up can nly be described in a screenshot, it feels like I'm watching an old Antenna! Please, for my sanity's sake, HELP!

[leebo]

You can't have 500 channels of crap AND good PQ. And obviously more people are interested in quantity than quality, as evidenced by the plethora of "Reality" shows. If they cared about PQ, they'd complain and it would improve.

Anyone here remember when DISH and DTV used to advertise their PQ? Whens the last time you heard them mention it?

[trevlac]

I've had Dish for about a year now and couldn't be happier.

I didn't read the thread to see what people are bitching about, but to say all of the channels are bad all of the time is silly. Dish probably allocates bandwidth (and bitrate) based upon where they think people care and where it matters.

Sure if you are looking for digital artifacts, you sometimes see them. But overall, the signal is tons better than analog cable in my area (comcast).

Yesterday I was fooling around with some dish mpeg. It was 544x480 with an avg bitrate of ~2500. (An old scooby-doo from cartoon network). It was stunning how good the encode was considering the bitrate. I compared to an old analog example of the exact same episode. They may do some pre encode smoothing, but it is really hard to tell. They probably start with good source making a big difference.

On another note: I really like the feature Dish added that allows you to see all 6 NBC olymipcs channels at once (or navigate between them quickly).

[leebo]

On another note: I really like the feature Dish added that allows you to see all 6 NBC olymipcs channels at once (or navigate between them quickly).

Where is this?

[trevlac]

On another note: I really like the feature Dish added that allows you to see all 6 NBC olymipcs channels at once (or navigate between them quickly).

Where is this?

Channel 100 option 7

[leebo]

Ah, the ever elusive channel 100!

I don't get that channel because my landlord won't allow me to upgrade my Dish antenna, ever since he discovered that satellite signals cause brain tumors. Even worse, Dish antennas attract cancer causing satellite signals like a magnet, so putting an oval dish that catches signals from TWO satellites means twice the cancer!!!

I am also limited to a 40 hour schedule because the two week schedule requires the oval dish ( sniff).

My brother suggested I make a special hat for my landlord made of a metal colander covered in aluminum foil for protection.

[Supreme2k]

and if your landlord has any kids

[B2D327]

I've had DishNetwork for a few years now and I think the PQ is just as good as DirecTV and Cable of whom I've gotten rid of due to their crappy customer service. I do use a component video connection though and there's a significant difference over composite and just forget about a regular coaxal.

[vhelp]

I too gave up on satellite. I miss having all those channels, but then again,
you become soo synthasized to them all that they become the same, same,
same, same content. I don't miss it anymore, after all this time being w/out
it, since 12/2003. They can keep it. My provider then, was Directv.
.
I gave it up because of those listed below:

* macro blocks
* DCT blocls
* pizelations
* sun flare

In addition, all the above added to those channels that aired certain shows
like ALL the star trek shows, where they "tainted" the quality before giving it
off to the satalette Providers - then they taint the source quality by tactics
like bitrate-starvation and transponder minipulations etc etc etc.

I went back to Antenna signal and belieave me, I can't find a single BLOCK
or DTC or whatever in the source. The only affensiveness that I see in my
Antenna capture is the noise (due to weak signal strength) but that's the price
you pay. I would greatly rather have slight noise in my source, then have a
source that's cleaner looking (ie, satellite) but riddled w/ the above artifacts.

To get better reception ( at least on one channel ) I have an antenna booster
that boosts signal strength on UHF channels by 40 db. Anyways.

Most people that subscribe to any form of satellite (ie, dish / directv) don't
realize what they are seeing (ie, pixelation/blocks etc) and so, are ablivious
and sware by this false hype of digital satellite
.
I've even seen some sample clips (here for instance) and seen the pixelation and
blocls in the MPEG clips, and w/out having to look for them. And, they claim
that this is great quality
I'm speachless

Cheers,
-vhelp

[trevlac]

What do you mean V? Here's the PQ I get ...








PS: I made that picture using the vdub filter DCT-Q-IDCT by Andreas Dittrich. Lets you play with an mpeg matrix / quantizer and other nifty things. It may inspire me to learn how this stuff really works.

[oldfart13]

"On top of that, most folks with DirectTv or cable spent lot more time browsing thru channels than watching them"

Then they never read their manuals. Even with Dishnetwork you can set up a favorites list and eliminate all the channel surfing...

[Sabro]

hmmmm. I had Dish up until about 6 months ago (moved) and very RARELY had any problems or picture quality issues with them.

I know all of you are prolly pretty expirenced technical wise, but sure its not a sunspot or rainfade, leaves on the trees type issue(s) with the pix problems?

Know it sounds stupid, but during the rainy and snowy season I always lightly coated the dish with cheap cooking spray (like Pam but dollar store issued) and whoa hardly any problems even in some serious storms.

Wonder also if it could be a location type issue, the Echo birds are geo sync'ed in orbit (as most of these type of birds) and here in the midwest we have have a pretty clear shot...hear the farther south ya are the better quality ya get from Disc / Direct etc cause of the location factor and the bird in orbit.

Sabro

[leebo]

hmmmm. during the rainy and snowy season I always lightly coated the dish with cheap cooking spray (like Pam but dollar store issued)...

Personally, I use a mixture of Crisco and bacon grease. Say, do you notice a funny taste in your eggs after a presidential debate?

[indolikaa]

I run DiSH Network and DirecTV on the same television. It varies from day to day as to which is better, but I'd have to give the edge to DiSH right now.

I tell you where the like to stick bandwidth allocation: international programming.

[ZAPPER]

I haven't noticed any issues but then again I haven't been looking.

It is what it is. And it is OK for watching TV. Granted all I have are a couple of 27" TVs hooked up and a 21" and a 12" and a rack full of 27" TV monitors all on the same box run all around the house on a batch of old coax from the dumpster.

I haven't tried to capture anything(hell if it is on TV it ain't worth it anyways) I figured that the run was too far to be any good, but I am curious now that I think of it. I wonder if a 60' run of good coax is better than RCA or S-VID?(I am not going to move my PC or DISH box!)

I think that I can capture as good as my old TVs will show. And that is all that really matters.

I don't really know about cable nowadays but when I had it before it was shit! When it went out, and it went alot, you didn't know why or for how long. When the DISH goes out (maybe six to ten times in the four or five years that I had it, that I know of) at least you get a screen saying that it is searching for signal or something to that effect and that lets me know that at least the stuff on my end is working. I doubt that my DISH has ever been out for more than 30 minutes at a time (it may have seemed alot longer but I doubt it was too long) This isn't a DISH commercial it may be true with all sattelite services I just want to be on the record against cable.

Call up a few companies and tell them that you want to do a direct compairism for a month and see what happens. You might get lucky. But I would be real low key about the capture thing, unless they offer a recorder box, and then ask to demo it too!

[oldfart13]

In my area broadcast TV is a monopoly, 2 stations owned by the same guy. Cable is owned by an outfit that has it's head office 2,000km away! If I phone to complain, you get another city. I've had my cable modem connection get lost for hours at a time. At one time they gave you a free month of service if that happened. Now, they just let it slide. Is it any wonder that people in my area have gone over to satellite TV in droves? Pic quality (though greatly compressed) is still better than cable which is still living off the legacy of cables laid down in the 1960s! Only if you live in a new subdivision do you get the benefit of fiberoptic cable. Otherwise, we are all in the same boat in this city...SOL!!