DirecTV and MPEG 4
butch -- Fri, 09/08/2006 - 11:29
I 'upgraded' my HD satellite receiver recently to the latest offering from DirecTV. I was told when I called DirecTV that I must upgrade my receivers because the 5-LNB dish to be installed at my new residence was incompatible with my Samsung HD receiver.
The HD and SD picture quality of the new receiver was so poor in comparison with my outdated equipment that I reinstalled the old stuff.
Can someone tell me if this problem is related to the new MPEG 4 compression or is it the receiver?
The old H-10 HD receiver had both digital coax and TOSLink outs for 5.1 audio. The new DTV HD receiver does not have a digital coax audio out, only TOSLink. The installer had no idea how to connect my HT receiver to get the sound working. I had to redo the installation when I got home from work.
I agree about the picture quality. What the hell were they thinking?
I was so dismayed at the picture quality that I didn't pay much attention to the sound. My Samsung receiver has both coax and toslink audio that when A/B'd I'm unable to discern any differences in sound quality. This isn't true with my universal DVD-A/SACD/CD player. There is a noticeable improvement in the upper frequencies using coax.
It was the picture quality that really got my attention. I was worried that I had somehow damaged the TV during the move. Interestingly, I made 4 calls to DirecTV on 4 consecutive nights. During the first 3 calls I was told that there was no way to use my old receiver with the new dish. On the 4th call, I was transferred to someone at the second level of tech support who really seemed to know what he was talking about. He informed me that the only thing that I would not be able to do is receive local channels in HD if I connected the old receiver to the new dish. Not a problem! Local HD channels are not available via satellite in this area (Oklahoma City).
I questioned him at length about what impact switching from MPEG 2 to MPEG 4 might have on picture quality. He expressed the opinion that MPEG 4 may not be mature enough for prime time and that if he were me, he would wait until at least mid 2007 before he felt like the chip makers could fully exploit MPEG 4.
The guide menus with the new receiver were also a BIG disappointment. But that is another story for some other time.
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