DirecTv needs to turn up the quality control

[Phil]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

I have a [new] DirecTV tivo box & a high end Sony direct view tube tv.
It seems the weak link in picture quality these days is that DirecTv is
spreading its bandwidth (for lack of a better term) too thin.

I know that they take a look at each show & based on the amount of
action in the show turn the meter up or down so to speak. A talk show
for instance with little movement on screen requires less than a football
game where there is much detail a fast action movement.

This problem is VERY APPARENT on show with dim lighting (night scenes)
or where the show is presented in letter boxed format with black bars at
the top and bottom of the tv picture, which is becoming more common
these days. You see pixilation and squirmy distortions.
The only shows with a decent picture are the Pay Per Views.

--Phil--

--
-------------------- http/NewsReader.Com/ --------------------
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[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

PHIL wrote:
> I have a [new] DirecTV tivo box & a high end Sony direct view tube tv.
> It seems the weak link in picture quality these days is that DirecTv is
> spreading its bandwidth (for lack of a better term) too thin.
>
> I know that they take a look at each show & based on the amount of
> action in the show turn the meter up or down so to speak. A talk show
> for instance with little movement on screen requires less than a football
> game where there is much detail a fast action movement.
>
> This problem is VERY APPARENT on show with dim lighting (night scenes)
> or where the show is presented in letter boxed format with black bars at
> the top and bottom of the tv picture, which is becoming more common
> these days. You see pixilation and squirmy distortions.
> The only shows with a decent picture are the Pay Per Views.
>
> --Phil--
>

You're not the first to say so. The only sad think is that the cable
companies do the same thing or worse, even though they have a lot more
available bandwidth. I guess they want to make sure they get you that
sixth home shopping channel.

Randy S.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

> You're not the first to say so. The only sad think is that the cable
> companies do the same thing or worse, even though they have a lot more
> available bandwidth. I guess they want to make sure they get you that
> sixth home shopping channel.
>
> Randy S.

You are right. When i had digital cable from comcast, the compression was
much worse than directv but when i had digital cable from time warner cable
in milwaukee, it was very nice and clear. Each area and provider is just is
different.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

Had both Directv and Dish for a year in 2003. I perfer Dish . Dish has
a more uniform picture and it seems to hide any flaws in the back
grounds better. With Directv the picture was sharper for closeups on
the faces but the backgrounds pixelated, and had more macroblocking
etc. Drove me crazy. Dish has been accused of being a softer picture
but I like it. It depends on what you are used to and what you perfer.


--
MikeD-C05, Posted this message at http/www.SatelliteGuys.US

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

On 16 Mar 2005 03:50:27 GMT, Invalid_Email@dot.com(PHIL) wrote:

>A talk show
>for instance with little movement on screen requires less than a football
>game where there is much detail a fast action movement.

The data compression on Sunday Ticket is terrible too by the way.
During football season they have to run the regular channels and all
the football games at the same time and they compress even more! Only
the HDTV games are watchable. The SDTV versions are really, really
bad.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

"Ohiyesa" <ohiyesa@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message news:1111163332.5ebb7444bda2d631e54f0a8b3a11312e@teranews...
> On 16 Mar 2005 03:50:27 GMT, Invalid_Email@dot.com(PHIL) wrote:
>
> >A talk show
> >for instance with little movement on screen requires less than a football
> >game where there is much detail a fast action movement.
>
> The data compression on Sunday Ticket is terrible too by the way.
> During football season they have to run the regular channels and all
> the football games at the same time and they compress even more! Only
> the HDTV games are watchable. The SDTV versions are really, really
> bad.

None of the local channels on the spot beam transponders is affected
by NFL ST broadcasts. Only the channels sharing transponders with
NFL ST channels on Sundays can be affected by football programming.

BTW, most of the dynamic shopping channels are not available on Sundays.
The "dynamic" channels are those that don't broadcast 24 hours each day.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 12:02:13 -0500, Sean wrote:

> On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 11:53:50 GMT, Jack Zwick <jzwick3@mindspring.com>
> wrote:
>
>>Exactly why I gave up cable and went to DirecTv.
>
> Hopefully it's not raining. Otherwise you're wondering if any channels
> at all will be on.

Wow... maybe we've been giving Sean too much credit. For a while now, I've
assumed he knew better, but was just a troll trying to provoke anger or
somesuch.

But, now we can see that he has been brainwashed by his cable company to
the point that he actually _believes_ in the "rain fade" myth.

Poor guy.

--
Lenroc

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

Lenroc <lenroc@nospamforyou.hotmail.com> wrote:
> But, now we can see that he has been brainwashed by his cable company to
> the point that he actually _believes_ in the "rain fade" myth.

I don't know why you call "rain fade" a myth; over the past 4 years of
DirecTV watching I've maybe had a total of 4 hours of programming
affected due to loss of signal (or extreme pixellation due to drop out)
because of rain or snow. One program didn't record at all, due to loss
os signal during a heavy snow storm.

My normal signal is over 90% on 31 of the transponders (100% on one of
them), and at 60% on the spot-transponder for a region I don't get, so
it's not a setup issue.

Rain fade is a fact. However, it's nowhere near as bad as people make
out; 4 hours spread over 4 years is pretty good going! DirecTV is one
of the most reliable systems I've seen.

--
Stephen Harris
usenet@spuddy.org
The truth is the truth, and opinion just opinion. But what is what?
My employer pays to ignore my opinions; you get to do it for free.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 12:42:11 -0500, Stephen Harris wrote:

> Lenroc <lenroc@nospamforyou.hotmail.com> wrote:
>> But, now we can see that he has been brainwashed by his cable company to
>> the point that he actually _believes_ in the "rain fade" myth.
>
> I don't know why you call "rain fade" a myth; over the past 4 years of
> DirecTV watching I've maybe had a total of 4 hours of programming
> affected due to loss of signal (or extreme pixellation due to drop out)
> because of rain or snow.

4 hours in 4 years is, from my calculations, 5 nines of uptime (99.999%).

My cable goes out more than that, and they can't even blame rain.

The myth is that Rain Fade is enough of a problem to not get DirecTV for,
not that severe rain can have an affect on the signal.

--
Lenroc

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

> I don't know why you call "rain fade" a myth; over the past 4 years of
> DirecTV watching I've maybe had a total of 4 hours of programming
> affected due to loss of signal (or extreme pixellation due to drop out)
> because of rain or snow. One program didn't record at all, due to loss
> os signal during a heavy snow storm.
>
> My normal signal is over 90% on 31 of the transponders (100% on one of
> them), and at 60% on the spot-transponder for a region I don't get, so
> it's not a setup issue.
>
> Rain fade is a fact. However, it's nowhere near as bad as people make
> out; 4 hours spread over 4 years is pretty good going! DirecTV is one
> of the most reliable systems I've seen.

Rain fade is not a "Myth" per se, but it is defintely one of those
things that is perpetually overemphasized, probably at the urging of the
cable industry. The truth is, as you've noted, that it rarely occurs,
and even then only for short periods during extreme events.

4 hours of outage over 4 years is ((1-4/(4*365*24))*100) 99.99%
reliability, a number that cable only *wishes* it could even approach.
Part of that is not their fault, any idiot with a backhoe can disrupt
cable for dozens to thousands of customers. Unless you have an
intercontinental ballistic missile, it's tough for anyone to disrupt a
satellite source ;-).

When we suffered through 4 hurricanes down here this summer, we lost
power once for 3 days, and cable for 10 (I was lucky). I can't give
Satellite an advantage over cable for the first 3 days, since, unless
you had a generator, you weren't going to be watching TV anyway, but the
remaining 7 days Satellite had it all over Cable. I saw a lot more
Dishes sprout up in my area after that time.

We also ate a lot of melting ice cream ;-).

Randy S.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

> 4 hours in 4 years is, from my calculations, 5 nines of uptime
(99.999%).

One of us is off a nine, I suspect it's me ;-).

Randy S.

 

[Sean]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 11:20:09 -0700, Lenroc
<lenroc@NOSPAMFORYOU.hotmail.com> wrote:

>On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 12:42:11 -0500, Stephen Harris wrote:
>
>> Lenroc <lenroc@nospamforyou.hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> But, now we can see that he has been brainwashed by his cable company to
>>> the point that he actually _believes_ in the "rain fade" myth.
>>
>> I don't know why you call "rain fade" a myth; over the past 4 years of
>> DirecTV watching I've maybe had a total of 4 hours of programming
>> affected due to loss of signal (or extreme pixellation due to drop out)
>> because of rain or snow.
>
>4 hours in 4 years is, from my calculations, 5 nines of uptime (99.999%).
>
>My cable goes out more than that, and they can't even blame rain.
>
>The myth is that Rain Fade is enough of a problem to not get DirecTV for,
>not that severe rain can have an affect on the signal.

The myth is that you are not an ignorant gasbag.

Lousy sat reception is a fact. No matter how you want to downplay
and make excuses for it.

Sean

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

I've had DirectTV since it became available in my area.
I was the second person in line at Circuit City the very first
day it became available. So for years and years and years,
and I doubt I've even had 4 hours of "rainfade" total in all those
years.....

Stephen Harris wrote:

>Lenroc <lenroc@nospamforyou.hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>Rain fade is a fact. However, it's nowhere near as bad as people make
>out; 4 hours spread over 4 years is pretty good going! DirecTV is one
>of the most reliable systems I've seen.
>
>
>

--
Ric Seyler

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 14:32:02 -0500, Sean wrote:

> Lousy sat reception is a fact.

The puzzle of Sean's personality is becoming much clearer...

We've known for a while that Sean is bitter because he can't get his TiVo
to work right (he complains that he had problems with it changing channels
on his cable box, a 'problem' that most don't have, and the few that do
can fix it with a few minutes of effort). So now he's against TiVo, trying
desperately to justify his non-investment (more like rental money down the
toilet) in the Cable Co's DVR.

Apparently, he's similarly against DirecTV because he couldn't get good
reception. I wonder, was he too cheap to pay someone $20-$50 to come point
the dish? Or maybe he used the dish for target practice and then
complained about reception?

He's bitter, because he knows that DirecTiVos are better, but he's already
given up on them because of his "lousy reception".

I can empathaize, Sean. I want DirecTV, too, but I have no view of the
Southern sky from my location. But I didn't get as spurned as you... I
haven't fallen to the depths that I'm willing to use a Cable Co DVR. I'm
very happy with my Standalone TiVo, and I think you could be too, if you
gave it another shot.

Or, put another way:

Sean, "Lousy sat reception" is another Cable Company myth. I know you are
a Comcast Rumpswab, but you're losing what little credibility you never
had by parroting their sales bullets.

--
Lenroc

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

"Stephen Harris" <usenet@spuddy.org> wrote

> Rain fade is a fact. However, it's nowhere near as bad as people make
> out; 4 hours spread over 4 years is pretty good going!

My cable fades when it rains.

-MT

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 17:56:00 +0000, Mike Tyner wrote:

> My cable fades when it rains.

That's likely a wiring problem, most likely on your end. At some point,
insulation on one of your cables has worn thin, and when it rains, the
bare wire is finding a puddle...

That's what I've heard, at least.

--
Lenroc

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

"Mike Tyner" <mtyner@mindspring.com> writes:

> "Stephen Harris" <usenet@spuddy.org> wrote
>
> > Rain fade is a fact. However, it's nowhere near as bad as people make
> > out; 4 hours spread over 4 years is pretty good going!
>
> My cable fades when it rains.

I used to have cable rain fade, too, since my provider (Adelphia out
of Springfield, VT) was getting most of their content from various
satellite feeds. All-in-all, that setup was the worst of all words:
rain fade, digital artificting, *and* horrible analog noise.

--
Richard W Kaszeta
rich@kaszeta.org
http/www.kaszeta.org/rich

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

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In article <LnE%d.42885$3z.1411@okepread03>,
Lenroc <lenroc@NOSPAMFORYOU.hotmail.com> wrote:
>On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 17:56:00 +0000, Mike Tyner wrote:
>> My cable fades when it rains.
>
>That's likely a wiring problem, most likely on your end. At some point,
>insulation on one of your cables has worn thin, and when it rains, the
>bare wire is finding a puddle...

When I first moved to Las Vegas, you could count on the cable going out when
it rained like you can count on the sun rising in the east. The whole
network was replaced a few years ago to enable things like bidirectional
cable-modem service. As a side effect, rain doesn't bother the new network.

_/_
/ v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( http/alfter.us/ Top-posting!
\_^_/ rm -rf /bin/laden >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

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[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

salfter@salfter.diespammersdie.dyndns.org (Scott Alfter) shaped the electrons to say:
>When I first moved to Las Vegas, you could count on the cable going out when
>it rained like you can count on the sun rising in the east. The whole
>network was replaced a few years ago to enable things like bidirectional
>cable-modem service. As a side effect, rain doesn't bother the new network.

Heh - this reminds me of an old work war story:
http/www.livejournal.com/users/zonereyrie/175851.html

-MZ, RHCE #806199299900541, ex-CISSP #3762
--
<URL:mailto:megazoneatmegazone.org> Gweep, Discordian, Author, Engineer, me.
"A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men" 508-755-4098
<URL:http/www.megazone.org/> <URL:http/www.eyrie-productions.com/> Eris

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

Lenroc (lenroc@NOSPAMFORYOU.hotmail.com) wrote in alt.video.ptv.tivo:
> 4 hours in 4 years is, from my calculations, 5 nines of uptime (99.999%).
>
> My cable goes out more than that, and they can't even blame rain.

My local Comcast has no problem blaming the rain for their outages. Their
underground wires are of such poor quality that a good soaking will short
out entire neighborhoods...over, and over, and over. I regularly asked
for (and received) money off my bill because of day-long outages. As
soon as I moved out of an apartment, I got DirecTV and never looked back.

--
Jeff Rife | "Space. It seems to go on and on forever. But
| then you get to the end and a gorilla starts
| throwing barrels at you."
| -- Philip J. Fry, "Futurama"