DirecTV picture quality seems to change

[russellj]

I have noticed that the quality of the picture that I get from DirecTV seems to change durring the day. It can start out looking ok (I'm sorry that I can't say good, but it seems like DirecTv uses too much compression which degrades their picture quality), and a few hours later it can change to a much more noisy and grainy picture. This problem seems to come and go all day long. It is not noticable on my sets that are 27" and smaller, but I have a Hitachi 50" (standard) tv and a Toshiba 51" HD tv that is very noticable on. Especally the 51" HD tv. Has anyone else ever noticed this or could there be a problem with my system?

[mhz40]

Yeah.  The problem with your system is either:
A- Too much video compression on the mpeg video stream.
and/or
B- Too low of a video resolution is set on the mpeg encoder.
Neither are in your control.  Although it may be a little noisier than an mpeg feed, a decent analog picture will most likely look better than any SD mpeg stream on a 50" TV.
The satellite folks don't encode pictures designed for a 50" TV.  Actually, no SD mpeg feed will look all that great on that large of a display.  Wait for your contract to run out and then try cable for a month before you renew.  If you don't like it, cancel within 30 days and go back to satellite folks.

[Mark Strube]

I have a friend with DirecTV, and on many channels he seems to have higher bitrate than with TWC. If you're looking for high bitrate on SD digital channels, I think DirecTV is the way to go.

[Bigdog]

Originally posted by mhz40
The satellite folks don't encode pictures designed for a 50" TV.  Actually, no SD mpeg feed will look all that great on that large of a display.  Wait for your contract to run out and then try cable for a month before you renew.  If you don't like it, cancel within 30 days and go back to satellite folks. [/B]

Kinda sounds like what TWC told me when I complained about the PQ on my TV. The tech said the signal was designed for a 13" B/W TV...

[Mark Strube]

Originally posted by Bigdog
Kinda sounds like what TWC told me when I complained about the PQ on my TV. The tech said the signal was designed for a 13" B/W TV...

How does that make any sense? Especially considering it's a color signal LOL. :rolleyes:

[mhz40]

Originally posted by UnrealityS
How does that make any sense? Especially considering it's a color signal LOL. :rolleyes:

:rofl:

[mhz40]

Originally posted by UnrealityS
I have a friend with DirecTV, and on many channels he seems to have higher bitrate than with TWC. If you're looking for high bitrate on SD digital channels, I think DirecTV is the way to go.

You don't watch bit rates, you watch TV.  A higher bit rate does not equate to a better picture... much has to do with the mpeg encoders processing.  Some encoders can look bad at 5 mb/s, while others perform as well at 4.

TW passes original mpeg streams from the satellite providers directly to the home without re-encoding.  You basically have an all-digital feed from the uplinks to your set top, and to the TV using DVI.  DirectTV drops them down to analog and re-encodes a second time to save bandwidth.  Does that mean I am saying all TW digital pictures are necessarily better than DirectTV?  No.

But like I said, any digital feed will show aritfacts on large screen sets if you are determined to look for them.

[Mark Strube]

When I talk about bitrate, I'm talking about digital channel picture quality. I clearly remember, at my friend's house Noggin (so shoot me, I watch Degrassi lol) has a great picture, while at home here with TWC, it looks almost like a VCD with all the digital artifacting (even on a 24'' SD tv). Now I'm sure that's not the channel's original picture when it looks so much better on DirecTV. TWC has gotta be doing some downsampling there... same situation with MTV2.

[Bigdog]

Originally posted by UnrealityS
How does that make any sense? Especially considering it's a color signal LOL. :rolleyes:

Got me just repeating what they told me.  I said well how come when I bypass the box it looks better and he had no explanation for it...

[kjnorman]

Originally posted by mhz40
TW passes original mpeg streams from the satellite providers directly to the home without re-encoding.  You basically have an all-digital feed from the uplinks to your set top, and to the TV using DVI.

Of course you are forgetting about channels 2-99 which, when I has TWC, were crappy old analog.  Yes analog can look better than digital, but it was not my experience.

Now with Directv it depends on what channel you are looking at.  When I had SpeedTV on TWC digital it was almost unwatchable due to over compression, where as on Directv is looks glorious (well for a SD picture at least).  Ofcourse the conspiracy theorist could argue that as SpeedTV is owned by News Corp (that also owns Directv) you would expect it to look good, while they "handicap" digital cable by passing an overcompressed feed to them....