PacMan2006

Hey guys,

I have had DirecTV for a while--mostly due to the Sunday Ticket. The PQ on all the TV's in the house that have DirecTV (3) aren't very good (although on one of them downstairs, the PQ isn't bad).

But on the second floor, we have two HD TV's, and the PQ is not good. Now, don't get me wrong, I know to get HD quality picture, I'd need an HD receiver and then have to subscribe to the service. But should regular, standard tv look THIS poor? It's not unwatchable, but it's pretty poor.

I see digital noise...I see fuzz...words on the screen have a noise around the edges of them or they appear to be "bleeding" a bit. I see macroblocking. What is going on? Is this just the price you pay for having satellite?

Standard TV on something like comcast doesn't look like this, does it? Does anyone have any suggestions?? Is the only hope to get HD channels and HD picture quality? And even so, the regular tv PQ will still be so poor.

Anyone know how to go about addressing this issue? Thanks.

IDrinkMolson

Does your multi-switch require power? Check to see you have a green light on your multi-switch.

Other than that, you might have loose hardware on your dish and it might have shifted some?

Mr. Salty

Check the forums over at DBSTalk.com, but I think DirecTV uses too much compression on its signal.

Adam Tyner

I've read many of the same complaints about their HD service too.

Chew

Yeah, most of the HD channels directly from DirecTV look awful. Way too much compression.

wildcatlh

I thought the compression issues went away on the HD channels now that they've gone to MPEG-4... I know that once I got the 5 LNB dish and the new HDDVR installed the PQ improved noticeably.

johnglass

I'm no fan of DTV, but I think the problem you are describing is common when watching any SD signal on an HD TV, not necessarily with your satellite provider. I have DishNetwork with a 50" HD Plasma, and the SD channels are not nearly as clear as they are on my regular TV.

Timber

Yeah a SD signal on an HD TV will generally look worse then it would on an SD TV. That's not to say that there PQ has not gone downhill in the past 5 or so years. When I first got it it was much clearer then the cable I was coming from. When I left the quality was less then the cable that I went back too.

Ayre

My Time Warner Cable SD looks terrible. Lots of noise and bleeding.

What amazed me is when I look at SD picture on my old SD tv, I can see the noise. I just never noticed it before I got a HDTV.

Deftones

Only the locals are MPEG-4. The nationals are still MPEG-2. They won't be switching those for a little bit, at least.