DirecTV problems!!
10-28-01, 03:10 PM
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DirecTV problems!!
Hey all,
OK I just got DirecTV installed about a week ago. This weekend i finally had time to sit down and watch it and I was less than impressed.
Besides having to wait 3 (!!!!) Hours to get it installed by some clueless individual, I have really shitty picture quality. I think it's called Digital Artifacting if i'm using my lingo correctly. None of the picture has any real depth or sharpness to it. Especially when things get farther away, they become blotches on the screen. Anyone know what this is called? It ends up looking like a bad mpeg file on the computer. OK i'm exagerrating but do you know what I mean? Today i was watching Road Rules and there was one person in the foreground and another slightly in the background and the BG person was talking yet the picture wasn't clear enough to show her lips moving! Is this the way the picture is SUPPOSED to be? I was expecting EXCELLENT picture and sound...but haven't received it. What can I do?
OK I just got DirecTV installed about a week ago. This weekend i finally had time to sit down and watch it and I was less than impressed.
Besides having to wait 3 (!!!!) Hours to get it installed by some clueless individual, I have really shitty picture quality. I think it's called Digital Artifacting if i'm using my lingo correctly. None of the picture has any real depth or sharpness to it. Especially when things get farther away, they become blotches on the screen. Anyone know what this is called? It ends up looking like a bad mpeg file on the computer. OK i'm exagerrating but do you know what I mean? Today i was watching Road Rules and there was one person in the foreground and another slightly in the background and the BG person was talking yet the picture wasn't clear enough to show her lips moving! Is this the way the picture is SUPPOSED to be? I was expecting EXCELLENT picture and sound...but haven't received it. What can I do?
10-28-01, 04:33 PM
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I have had Directv for about 4 years now and I used to get artifacting really badly when there was lots of fast motion. I switched from using the RCA input to the S-Video input and that helped quite abit. I am really happy with my system for the most part. I think that kind of TV this is on also makes a difference. I have a 36" Sony Tube TV and my neighbor has a 61" Mitsubishi Projection TV and I have yet to see artifacting on his TV. It must have some filtering that my Sony does not have.
Good luck.
Good luck.
10-28-01, 08:51 PM
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Check your signal. I don't have the best view of the SW sky, so in the summer when the leaves are out and it is raining a little, my picture will degrade to the point where it looks like the sound is out of sync, because it is skipping frames. If it rains much hjarder then I start to get that annoying "skipping" of the picture. This might not have anything to do with your problem, just an idea.
10-28-01, 11:16 PM
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Originally posted by Bcolon
Check your signal. I don't have the best view of the SW sky, so in the summer when the leaves are out and it is raining a little, my picture will degrade to the point where it looks like the sound is out of sync, because it is skipping frames. If it rains much hjarder then I start to get that annoying "skipping" of the picture. This might not have anything to do with your problem, just an idea.
Check your signal. I don't have the best view of the SW sky, so in the summer when the leaves are out and it is raining a little, my picture will degrade to the point where it looks like the sound is out of sync, because it is skipping frames. If it rains much hjarder then I start to get that annoying "skipping" of the picture. This might not have anything to do with your problem, just an idea.
10-29-01, 06:24 AM
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It is a little different for every reciever, but it should go something like this:
Click menu
Then setup menu
Then click on antenna
Your signal should be between 85 and 90 to have the best possible picture and not experience rain fade except during a massive storm. If your signal is around 50, this is probably your problem. You could also have a bad receiver.
Click menu
Then setup menu
Then click on antenna
Your signal should be between 85 and 90 to have the best possible picture and not experience rain fade except during a massive storm. If your signal is around 50, this is probably your problem. You could also have a bad receiver.
10-29-01, 09:24 AM
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Originally posted by Bcolon
Your signal should be between 85 and 90 to have the best possible picture and not experience rain fade except during a massive storm. If your signal is around 50, this is probably your problem. You could also have a bad receiver. [/B]
Your signal should be between 85 and 90 to have the best possible picture and not experience rain fade except during a massive storm. If your signal is around 50, this is probably your problem. You could also have a bad receiver. [/B]
I checked this last night. My signal is 92/93. It keeps changing. But the problem is really annoying. Definitly NOT impressed. And shouldn't I be???
10-30-01, 11:38 AM
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Well, DirecTV is not as sharp as a DVD, if that's what you're expecting, but it's better than digital cable, and tons better than regular cable.
The video does come off the sat in an MPEG stream, so if you are getting artifacting, it could be a problem with the reciever. I have noticed that some recievers decode a bit better than others, especially the newer they are. Also, some channels are compressed more, others much less. The local channels and the porn seems to get the heaviest compression, PPV gets the least. I don't watch MTV much, but it wouldn't surprise me if it had a fairly high compression on it.
The artifacting does get worse when there's lots of motion or a mostly solid color on the screen or when your signal degrades. I notice it, because I do a lot of mpeg work on my pc -- but my wife can only spot it when it becomes blatent, like when the screen is supposed to be say, solid red, but it's just a bunch of large blocks of red that are almost the same color. Note, this is only really evident on my big screen HDTV, and not on the smaller TVs in the house.
The video does come off the sat in an MPEG stream, so if you are getting artifacting, it could be a problem with the reciever. I have noticed that some recievers decode a bit better than others, especially the newer they are. Also, some channels are compressed more, others much less. The local channels and the porn seems to get the heaviest compression, PPV gets the least. I don't watch MTV much, but it wouldn't surprise me if it had a fairly high compression on it.
The artifacting does get worse when there's lots of motion or a mostly solid color on the screen or when your signal degrades. I notice it, because I do a lot of mpeg work on my pc -- but my wife can only spot it when it becomes blatent, like when the screen is supposed to be say, solid red, but it's just a bunch of large blocks of red that are almost the same color. Note, this is only really evident on my big screen HDTV, and not on the smaller TVs in the house.
10-31-01, 09:14 AM
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Originally posted by einTier
The video does come off the sat in an MPEG stream, so if you are getting artifacting, it could be a problem with the reciever. I have noticed that some recievers decode a bit better than others, especially the newer they are. Also, some channels are compressed more, others much less. The local channels and the porn seems to get the heaviest compression, PPV gets the least. I don't watch MTV much, but it wouldn't surprise me if it had a fairly high compression on it.
The artifacting does get worse when there's lots of motion or a mostly solid color on the screen or when your signal degrades. I notice it, because I do a lot of mpeg work on my pc -- but my wife can only spot it when it becomes blatent, like when the screen is supposed to be say, solid red, but it's just a bunch of large blocks of red that are almost the same color. Note, this is only really evident on my big screen HDTV, and not on the smaller TVs in the house. [/B]
The video does come off the sat in an MPEG stream, so if you are getting artifacting, it could be a problem with the reciever. I have noticed that some recievers decode a bit better than others, especially the newer they are. Also, some channels are compressed more, others much less. The local channels and the porn seems to get the heaviest compression, PPV gets the least. I don't watch MTV much, but it wouldn't surprise me if it had a fairly high compression on it.
The artifacting does get worse when there's lots of motion or a mostly solid color on the screen or when your signal degrades. I notice it, because I do a lot of mpeg work on my pc -- but my wife can only spot it when it becomes blatent, like when the screen is supposed to be say, solid red, but it's just a bunch of large blocks of red that are almost the same color. Note, this is only really evident on my big screen HDTV, and not on the smaller TVs in the house. [/B]
THEN we can get into the fact that the guy who installed it did not use the RCA cable attachments so NONE of the programming i was receiving was in stereo and I had to change everything.
Is this NORMAL???
