Best and Worst Channel PQ in different DTHs

[BLASTO]

Hi Guys,

This thread is dedicated to listing of BEST and WORST quality channels with regards to picture quality on different CAS/ DTHs.

Owner perspective on Tata Sky, Dish TV, Big TV, Airtel DTH and Sun DTH transmissions to be documented. This will help in buying decision depending on channel needs. Will also help owners get their installation verified if majority of other owners have better quality transmission.

To start with,

Area: Hyderabad
Provider : Hathway CAS (Planning to change)
TV Size : 42"

Best PQ : NDTV Lumire, WB Movies, Zee channels, Sun, Sports Channels, Cartoon N/W.

Avg PQ : Sony channels, Discovery series, Animal Planet, Nat Geo series, History.

Poor PQ: All non-Sun regional channels, Most News channels, HBO, Star Chanels.

Overall:

29" CRT : Good PQ. Far better than normal cable. No striking need to change.

42" TV : Blunt and approximated pictures. No details. People look like wax statues. Less contrast.

Average quality DVD (50/- Moser Baer) beats all of the channels in PQ. :sad:

All channels show the Samsung LED TV ad in excellent quality hyeah: hyeah: . How?

 

[deba]

None of the DTH Operators are providing true quality due to excessive mpeg compression and limited bandwidth hence their claim of DVD Quality is untrue......

 

[illusion_heart]

IMHO set top boxes offer better quality then all claims made by various DTH companies.

 

[Ehat]

Used AIRTEL for few months and now again switched to my cable connection.PQ of AIRTEL DTH lacks realism and colours look dull on my 32" panasonic lcd.To me cable connection PQ is much better thn AIRTEL DTH.

 

[Ace]

Hi Guys,

This thread is dedicated to listing of BEST and WORST quality channels with regards to picture quality on different CAS/ DTHs.

Owner perspective on Tata Sky, Dish TV, Big TV, Airtel DTH and Sun DTH transmissions to be documented. This will help in buying decision depending on channel needs. Will also help owners get their installation verified if majority of other owners have better quality transmission.

To start with,

Area: Hyderabad
Provider : Hathway CAS (Planning to change)
TV Size : 42"

Best PQ : NDTV Lumire, WB Movies, Zee channels, Sun, Sports Channels, Cartoon N/W.

Avg PQ : Sony channels, Discovery series, Animal Planet, Nat Geo series, History.

Poor PQ: All non-Sun regional channels, Most News channels, HBO, Star Chanels.

Overall:

29" CRT : Good PQ. Far better than normal cable. No striking need to change.

42" TV : Blunt and approximated pictures. No details. People look like wax statues. Less contrast.

Average quality DVD (50/- Moser Baer) beats all of the channels in PQ. :sad:

All channels show the Samsung LED TV ad in excellent quality hyeah: hyeah: . How?

Blasto, have been following your actions from initial search to final purchase of PQ60 quite keenly. Seem to be gravitating towards the same set myself..although the issue of poor SD quality still remains..what is your satisfaction level with regular television programmes?

 

[Ace]

btw, have a tata sky+ connection at home..

 

[psj]

Have Sun DTH with component out connecting to Samsung Plasma.Must say the picture quality on most of the channels are quite good.
Nat Geo/Wild is quite dull. Best clarity is with all the Sun Channels. Iam not sure if its only me i have connected the Set top box audio output to My Philips HTB and seems like surround(rear speakers) works for some channels like Star movies/HBO/WB

 

[BLASTO]

Blasto, have been following your actions from initial search to final purchase of PQ60 quite keenly. Seem to be gravitating towards the same set myself..although the issue of poor SD quality still remains..what is your satisfaction level with regular television programmes?

Hi ACE, My research initially was to find a good performer for both SD & HD.

But now looks like SD and transmission quality are two entirely different things!

PQ60 plays HD mkvs, SD divx and DVD to highest satisfaction in home environment. No complints what so ever..

When it comes to playing SD transmission content from hathway, it falls short of my expectation. The pictures look blunt and approximated though there is no noise as I saw on the panasonics..

I have been using the same connection with my 29" LG CRT also and these signals looked much better in that though smaller in size.

I know of a hifivision member (addagalla) who stays nearby who just got himself a samsung B450 plasma and he has got TATA Sky connection. I will be going to have a look tomorrow. If it looks better, I will move to tata sky. When he was at my house he said, the HD and SD looked similar to samsung but the cable looks not so good.

Also, many members here vouch by the quality of hathway cable and I too was a satisfied customer till the upgrade.. Iam not sure if they have a CRT or a flat panel.. Will be posting the question soon.

If the samsung+Tata sky combo looked considerable better than my connection, there can be two reasons for it..

1) Hathway transmission is not so good for flat panel in hyderabad (Yes, the quality changes with place too!). If so I will move to a DTH service. (Hopefully Big TV as Iam moving for quality boost)

2) The deinterlacing of the LG plasma might not be as good as samsung. Though this is one aspect I did not consider while buying, considering I saw the LG and Samsung LCD TVs side by side, and they looked similar and the plasma has the same deinterlacer as the LCD, Iam pretty sure this might not be the case.

Will post my observations after I visit his house.

At this very moment if you are looking to buy, there is a member who is very satisfied with B450 + TATA Sky connetion which he describes as 'awesome' and B450 is just 3k more than PQ60..

I did not get a chance to see the B450 in stores while I was looking.. Nobody had stocks..

 

[BLASTO]

Have Sun DTH with component out connecting to Samsung Plasma.Must say the picture quality on most of the channels are quite good.
Nat Geo/Wild is quite dull. Best clarity is with all the Sun Channels. Iam not sure if its only me i have connected the Set top box audio output to My Philips HTB and seems like surround(rear speakers) works for some channels like Star movies/HBO/WB

I persume you have normal sun DTH and not HD?

 

[psj]

I persume you have normal sun DTH and not HD?

I have the normal Sun DTH and the Samsung B450.

 

[BLASTO]

IMHO set top boxes offer better quality then all claims made by various DTH companies.

Do you have Hathway?
Is your TV flat panel or CRT?

I was very satisfied with Hathway for CRT but it is not good with my LG plasma.

 

[BLASTO]

Used AIRTEL for few months and now again switched to my cable connection.PQ of AIRTEL DTH lacks realism and colours look dull on my 32" panasonic lcd.To me cable connection PQ is much better thn AIRTEL DTH.

Is it the analog cable connection you are referring to or is it with STB?
Unfortunately, there is no standard picture quality for local cables.. It varies from place to place.. Even area to area within same city?

 

[Ace]

When it comes to playing SD transmission content from hathway, it falls short of my expectation. The pictures look blunt and approximated though there is no noise as I saw on the panasonics..

I have been using the same connection with my 29" LG CRT also and these signals looked much better in that though smaller in size.

I know of a hifivision member (addagalla) who stays nearby who just got himself a samsung B450 plasma and he has got TATA Sky connection. I will be going to have a look tomorrow. If it looks better, I will move to tata sky. When he was at my house he said, the HD and SD looked similar to samsung but the cable looks not so good.

Also, many members here vouch by the quality of hathway cable and I too was a satisfied customer till the upgrade.. Iam not sure if they have a CRT or a flat panel.. Will be posting the question soon.

If the samsung+Tata sky combo looked considerable better than my connection, there can be two reasons for it..

1) Hathway transmission is not so good for flat panel in hyderabad (Yes, the quality changes with place too!). If so I will move to a DTH service. (Hopefully Big TV as Iam moving for quality boost)

2) The deinterlacing of the LG plasma might not be as good as samsung. Though this is one aspect I did not consider while buying, considering I saw the LG and Samsung LCD TVs side by side, and they looked similar and the plasma has the same deinterlacer as the LCD, Iam pretty sure this might not be the case.

Will post my observations after I visit his house.

At this very moment if you are looking to buy, there is a member who is very satisfied with B450 + TATA Sky connetion which he describes as 'awesome' and B450 is just 3k more than PQ60..

I did not get a chance to see the B450 in stores while I was looking.. Nobody had stocks..

Actually think I give a lot of imp to the USB option, which is apparently not there in the sammys..saw the PQ 70 in a few stores today, had them put on dishtv and checked a few channels..the dancing zig-zag lines were there but werent really visible from abt 10 ft. Also, the salesman said that those lines were there becoz of the length of the connecting cable and the fact that 1 signal had been given to multiple TVs in the showroom..Said that with DTH at home, it should be atleast 20% better..

Dont know how true that is, but a couple of guys at other showrooms offered pretty much the same reasoning for SD clarity not being very good..It still remains a bit of a gamble then

Most places I saw had only PQ70 in stock, PQ 60 was av only at one showroom..first price offered (after some haggling) was 42.5k and 40.5k respectively, which i guess is quite high compared to your prices..

Will make some enquiries tomorrow as well..also, would like to wait for your review of addagalla's plasma-tatasky combo

 

[BLASTO]

Actually think I give a lot of imp to the USB option, which is apparently not there in the sammys..saw the PQ 70 in a few stores today, had them put on dishtv and checked a few channels..the dancing zig-zag lines were there but werent really visible from abt 10 ft. Also, the salesman said that those lines were there becoz of the length of the connecting cable and the fact that 1 signal had been given to multiple TVs in the showroom..Said that with DTH at home, it should be atleast 20% better..

Dont know how true that is, but a couple of guys at other showrooms offered pretty much the same reasoning for SD clarity not being very good..It still remains a bit of a gamble then

Most places I saw had only PQ70 in stock, PQ 60 was av only at one showroom..first price offered (after some haggling) was 42.5k and 40.5k respectively, which i guess is quite high compared to your prices..

Will make some enquiries tomorrow as well..also, would like to wait for your review of addagalla's plasma-tatasky combo

What the salesman says is true (atleast in this instance)
Unless the store has a booster, the DTH is going to look poor..

BTW, I have never seen the zig zag lines in the stores (needless to say not in my home too)..

What Iam refering here is that the picture in my hathway connection does not look clear.. It looks approximated.. Like in closeup shots of face (news), you cannot see the details.. People look like wax dolls..

The USB Divx is pretty good.. But you cannot use it for the first 100 hrs as it displays picture with exact ratio (with black bars)..

When I was looking, I got to see only PQ60 and no PQ70 available in stores(actually I prefered the PQ70 as I have a BT headphone)

Prices look OK, I got PQ60 for 40k for which Iam sure you can also get if you say that you'll take it the same day.. Have heard least price of 38.7k in the forum..

 

[manish26264]

1) Hathway transmission is not so good for flat panel in hyderabad (Yes, the quality changes with place too!). If so I will move to a DTH service. (Hopefully Big TV as Iam moving for quality boost)

.

Hey BLASTO,
you mean to say that Big TV has better PQ then others?

 

[Ace]

Prices look OK, I got PQ60 for 40k for which Iam sure you can also get if you say that you'll take it the same day.. Have heard least price of 38.7k in the forum..

Got a quote for 41k, think will settle for that..planning to buy on sunday..lets see how it goes.. just hope they have one in stock..still havent been able to find a way to access the service menu to check for usage, just in case!

whats the review on the samsung??

 

[BLASTO]

Hey BLASTO,
you mean to say that Big TV has better PQ then others?

I don't say that but the general consensus of the forum is that BIG TV with component out connection gives the best pictures.

Few members have both BIG TV and another DTH in their houses and they stand by that.

 

[Ace]

bought the PQ70.. very happy with the SD as well as usb port playing my dvd rip movies..8ft seems to be just perfect for the 42 incher, I'd thought it might create a problem..PQ is great, sound couldve been better but is sufficient as of now, can always add speakers if need be
Although LG maintains that new plasmas do not require break ins, am going ahead anyway. Turned all contrast, sharpness, colour and brightness to sub-50 levels. Also trying to play some break-in images I downloaded from a site on a pen drive, but cant seem to get the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen out! The zoom feature only seems to work on the regular TV channels..Any ideas here???

 

[BLASTO]

bought the PQ70.. very happy with the SD as well as usb port playing my dvd rip movies..8ft seems to be just perfect for the 42 incher, I'd thought it might create a problem..PQ is great, sound couldve been better but is sufficient as of now, can always add speakers if need be
Although LG maintains that new plasmas do not require break ins, am going ahead anyway. Turned all contrast, sharpness, colour and brightness to sub-50 levels. Also trying to play some break-in images I downloaded from a site on a pen drive, but cant seem to get the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen out! The zoom feature only seems to work on the regular TV channels..Any ideas here???

Heartly congrats on the purchase..

I have already warned you about the black bars.. Nothing can be done about it. Use the USB only after 3 months. I have started using it partly now.

Do the colour wash for a few hours in the night, that should do..

What DTH are you using? Except for my hathway digital, everything is ok.. if you has a good PQ with your DTH, I'll upgrade right away..

Enjoy the beauty..

 

[Ace]

Do the colour wash for a few hours in the night, that should do..

What DTH are you using? Except for my hathway digital, everything is ok.. if you has a good PQ with your DTH, I'll upgrade right away..

Enjoy the beauty..

Got real busy last week
Colour wash seems to be doing the same job the images would do..anyway, ive got tatasky..it works just fine.. some channels better than the others, but ALL are watchable..movie channels look especially cool..