Binger

I left D*, before the Mpeg 4 rollout, for cable. Today I had enough with my local cable company. I'm tired of waiting for online scheduling, bigger HDDs in their DVRs and external HDDs. Couple that with the 45 or so HD channels vs D*s offerings and it seems like a no brainer. However, when I left D* their PQ was getting quite poor and cable looked much better. My question is, how is D*'s PQ these days? Has there been a noticeable increase in their quality?

tonymontana313

I have directv but my contract is up in February and I will be leaving them for Dish Network solely for this.

http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/08...rst-slingload/

namja

I can only comment on Time Warner Cable in San Diego and Directv HD as I used to have both. I like Directv's PQ better. And Directv's HD DVR works better, although I much prefer Dish Network's DVR (see link above). Dish Network's skip forward/backward function totally rocks as they're instant rather than scrolling.

Binger

Yeah, I keep hearing that the Dish DVR is the best, but I also hear that Dish's PQ is not as good as D*. I've been reading a lot about the two and many say that D* is sharper with better colors. Whenever I see the subject of PQ come up, I always see that Dish is either "as good as" or "almost as good as" D*, but I never see comments that it is better. To me that is very telling.

aktick

What do you mean by this? Hit the 30 second skip button and instead of just skipping 30 seconds it actually fast forwards 30 seconds?

If that's what you mean, DirecTV's can be set to do it either way.

namja

True you can enable the 30SKIP feature. And I suppose it's not too difficult to enable it. But it's not on by default and Directv won't tell you about it, so most people won't be using it. Plus mine's a bit jerky (we have HR20, HR21, HR22), and others have complained about it as well. The Dish DVR's skip is much smoother. Also with the regular FF/REW, the FFx4 on Directv isn't nearly as good as 100x on the Dish.

TheKobra

It's so good I dropped them and went to OTA only. I had to buy a Tivo $300 bucks even though I had 6 HD DVRs from DTV. I just cannot stand the CS with that company. I will go back for football season (4 months only) and that is it. What I do is only keep my receives active for Sunday and Monday and deactivate them for the rest of the week. This way during football season it only costs me about $8.00 per month + the cost of the NFL ST. I looked at Dish Network HD package and don't think it is worth the price.

Spiky

I still prefer the HD Tivo and use it for all of my main shows, via antenna. But the picture quality is excellent on the newer machines on the MPEG4 HD channels. I suppose I could add that I dropped D*'s HD a few years ago because its PQ sucked. Just joined up again with the HR21 last summer.

Brian Shannon

I like my Direct TV HD channels. As far as picture quality, it depends on whether or not it is actually an HD feed, not just whether or not the guide says it is.

aktick

True enough, and I've never used a Dish DVR, so I don't have much to compare to.

I think DirecTV's HD looks good. My only comparison is Charter cable, and it's much better than that.

flashburn

D*'s service has improved much in the last few years. The HD picture quality is very good, much better than Bright House/Time Warner. The DVR is a little bit slower than the Time Warner DVR, but overall it is much more reliable and the interface is way better. The "rain fade" problem has also gotten a lot better, as I barely ever get break ups. I was getting much more breakups with Bright House (and my parents still do) than I get with D*.

The main reason I got D* a couple years ago was for the NHL package. At first only about half or less of the games were in HD and also about half of the games had home and away feeds. Now almost every single game has a home and away feed in HD, it is leaps and bounds better than it was less than two seasons ago.

smashthesymbols

I have no complaints about the picture quality. It's better than I used to get from Comcast.

The one thing I hate is the HR21 is slow as hell. Just scrolling through the guide takes some serious patience. It takes probably six or eight seconds just to skip down a page. Of course, that's when it does anything. Sometimes it just doesn't register button presses.

clckworang

I just got Direct at Christmas time. I had been with Time Warner for years. I am thrilled with it! The DVR is better than the one I had and so many more HD channels. The box is a bit slower than the one I had with Time Warner, but overall, it's much better. I can easily tolerate the slower interface when I have more options with the DVR and more detailed info on the guide. TW boxes in my area wouldn't even have the option to record first run eps only and the guide wouldn't even tell if something was a rerun or not.

Binger

Thanks for the responses. Looks like I will probably go ahead with my install. One more question though. I have been reading through various forums that D*'s newest DVR, the HR23-700, has a little better PQ and AQ based on some early testers. Other than that there doesn't appear to be much difference between that box and the HR22, both have 500 GB drives. Anyone get this newest box and is there really a noticeable difference between the HR23 and the HR22?

cpgator

Very cool! I wouldn't mind going to Dish, but I am sure it would cost way too much for the DVRs.


How do you set it to skip instead of FF?

TylerDurden_73

Was with time warner for about 17 years. Had their all in one package. Tried unsuccessfully to renegotiate with them. They wouldn't give me a lower price on my package, and they hadn't been adding new HD channels so I called direct tv last August. After doing some research between satellite companies I decided to go with D* because they were offering me four months of D* ultimate package with HD for only 64.95 a month. All I had to do was sign-up for NFL sunday ticket. So I set up install, had a very knowledgable technician set it up. I had also got NFL superfan for 24.95 extra, and all I was paying was 90.00 a month for four months with my regular bill being around 126.00 per month. So long time warner, Hello D*.

flashburn

I haven't stayed completely in the loop with regarding the new DVR, but I would check out dbstalk.com (if you haven't already). Very knowledgeable people there. If they say there is an increase in picture and audio quality, then they are right, and they probably provide proof and reasons to back that up.

Spiky

Somewhere at dbstalk there is a list of all the tricks you can do with the new DVRs. Mostly you go to the proper search screen (I forget which, probably Keyword) and enter a code. 30SKIP and 30SLIP are the codes for the two choices for the skip-ahead button. There are many more undocumented tricks.

Binger

So I finally saw D*'s mpeg 4 HD on a client's TV today. It didn't look as good as Cox HD does on my TV. I saw it on an LG plasma, not calibrated, and it was a 720p TV, but I was unimpressed. Anyway, he turned on HBO HD and it just looked weird. There were lots of jaggies, the motion was unnatural (almost looked like skipped frames) and when the actors moved the edges of their clothes kind of blurred and almost trailed behind them. It looked compressed not smooth.

Could it be the TV? I've never truly been impressed with plasma, but this really didn't look good.

CardiffGiant

I've had DirecTV for years now, but I just upgraded to HD about a year ago. I would say that there have been significant improvements in PQ in that time. I'm using an HR 20 and HR 21 (for HD DVR). There were some problems after an upgrade in October (or, maybe, November) that was causing pixelation problems on the HR21, but those problems appear to have gone away for me.

Most often, I think it depends on what channel you are watching. When I first got the HD package NBA games on TNT were borderline unwatchable...it was clear, but jagged and it was not smooth. Now, the games on ESPN, TNT, etc. are very good as is the MLB HD package. Of course, some stations are better than others when it comes to PQ, so I think you should keep that in mind.

@ Smashthesymbols: My HR 21 was slow at scrolling, too, but that also seems to have gone away. I wouldn't call it seamless, but it's better than it was (for me).

Binger

I'm leaning towards the idea that the TV was the cause of the bad picture. I've rarely been impressed by plasmas, other than the Pioneer Kuros, for some reason. I've always liked the smoothness of a rear projection, like my 70" SXRD or my DLP in the bedroom. I've compared many types of TVs and always thought that the picture was smoother on a rear projection. I guess it's all a matter of opinion. Problem is, now I'm starting to question whether to go ahead with my D* install.

smashthesymbols

Did you happen to do anything or did it just stop? It's unreal how slow mine is. It takes it forever to process any command from the remote. Scrolling the guide, punching in a number to change channels or trying to flip through the channels are the most obvious, but it does it no matter what you do. Even hitting power there's a six or eight second delay before it starts to turn on or off.

I just ordered an HD (no DVR) receiver for a different TV, I'm really hoping it doesn't have the same issues.

mugwump

I hear ya. I'm supposed to get Directv installed this Sunday after they canceled my appointment two weeks ago. I'm not thrilled about switching to satellite and would rather stick with cable but I'm tired of paying $40 more a month for way less HD content. Even so I still find myself reaching for the phone to cancel it every other day so they better get it done this weekend or I probably will kill it.

Binger

Canceled my install this morning. Spoke with an engineer at Verizon and found out that FIOS will be in my neighborhood by this spring.

CardiffGiant

It's hard to even remember if I did. It did that damn 0290 update that caused the pixelation. Before I found out that it was a known issue by DirecTV, I had tried resetting the DVR a couple of times. There were also some days in there where after not watching the TV for a day, I would come back and the channel would automatically reset to 201 (the DirecTV info guide). I couldn't help but think of the Family Guy episode where Stewie locks Quagmire and Cleveland in the basement with that thing on.

Like everything with my HR21, time and patience resulted in it essentially fixing itself. I've found that there is just about no common ground when it comes to these types of machines as many consumers talked about their shows not getting recorded and I've never had that happen (without it being operator error).