Just switched from D* to Dish and am pretty happy for the most part. The only thing that bothers me is I notice an awful lot of compression artifacts on the 622. I don't think I ever saw this with D* and my HR10-250. What makes it worse, I even see it on my OTA HD (which comes into the 622, of course). These signals used to be darn near pristine before the switch.

When I say "compression artifacts", I'm talking about large areas of darker colors displaying shifting blocks of mottled looking color "blocks." I really ruins the whole HD effect. My wife even notices it-- and she pays little attention to ANY of this stuff!

My TV is still set to a customized display setting, based on the DVE DVD. No torch mode or anything like that. Also, I have tried the settings of the 622 on 720p and 1080i--no joy. Still looks like HBO used to look years ago when I had cable-- yech! To be clear, the CLARITY of the HD seems pretty good; maybe a bit softer than before, but still good. It's only in darker, solid areas I see the artifacts. (50" plasma @ about 9-10 feet away.)

Does anyone have any insight into this? Since I am not running into a bunch of posts regarding this, I wonder if it's just MY 622?

It has nothing to do with the 622. It is Dish Network's overcompression of their high-definition feeds. I'm surprised you didn't see it on DirecTV as well, since plenty of people here complain about those issues on both providers. Both DirecTV and Dish Network downconvert their HD signals to lower resolution, to reduce bandwidth requirements. I would suggest you mount an off-air antenna, so at least you can avoid the extra compression for your local channels.

Unfortunately, there's no way to avoid those compression artifacts on the other channels unless you move back to cable. And even then, some cable providers like Charter are nearly as bad. Many on this forum have switched back from satellite to Comcast or Verizon FiOS for their superior high-definition. I saw macroblocking all the time when I had satellite, and it's gotten much worse since I left; in comparison, on Verizon FiOS, I get a more detailed high-def picture that almost never artifacts such as pixelization and macroblocking.

That's what I thought as well. Just seems odd that my OTA displays these problems now as well--they never did before, so I figured it was because I was running my antenna into the 622 (for recording).

Seriously considering cable :-(

I just don't understand why I don't see more posts on the web about this. Lots of HD-Lite stuff, but no one talking about the artifacts/blocking. Particularly in a case like this,where the 622 "seems" to even cause it on the OTA that is coming into it!

Just switched from D* to Dish and am pretty happy for the most part. The only thing that bothers me is I notice an awful lot of compression artifacts on the 622. I don't think I ever saw this with D* and my HR10-250. What makes it worse, I even see it on my OTA HD (which comes into the 622, of course). These signals used to be darn near pristine before the switch.

When I say "compression artifacts", I'm talking about large areas of darker colors displaying shifting blocks of mottled looking color "blocks." I really ruins the whole HD effect. My wife even notices it-- and she pays little attention to ANY of this stuff!

My TV is still set to a customized display setting, based on the DVE DVD. No torch mode or anything like that. Also, I have tried the settings of the 622 on 720p and 1080i--no joy. Still looks like HBO used to look years ago when I had cable-- yech! To be clear, the CLARITY of the HD seems pretty good; maybe a bit softer than before, but still good. It's only in darker, solid areas I see the artifacts. (50" plasma @ about 9-10 feet away.)

Does anyone have any insight into this? Since I am not running into a bunch of posts regarding this, I wonder if it's just MY 622?
If you see artifacts with OTA HD, it must be either some sort of set-up issue or a bad 622. I've had my 622 since it was launched and the OTA HD looks razor sharp and completely artifact free. I'm using HDMI. What are you using?

Also, keep in mind that the DVE DVD will only help you optimize for your DVD input; for the 622 I suggest you try the HDNet Test patterns.

I'm using HDMI. I even swapped out the cable to be sure.

I did set my sharpness using the HDNEt patterns. I then used my DVE color and contrast settings for the DVD input as a starting point and tweaked (eye-balling, of course) from there. Same way I did it with my HR10-250.

I dunno, but it just seems to me that more would be "wrong" if it was a malfunction of the DVR.

In bright or even "normally" lit shots, it's all good, if a tad softer than what I had on D*. It's just in solid areas of black and other darker colors. Could something effect just that particular kind of shot and leave others looking fine?

I'm using HDMI. I even swapped out the cable to be sure.

I did set my sharpness using the HDNEt patterns. I then used my DVE settings for the DVD input as a starting point and tweaked (eye-balling, of course) from there.

It seems to me that more would be "wrong" if it was a malfunction of the DVR.

In bright or even "normally" lit shots, it's all goo,if a tad softer than what I had on D*. It's just in solid areas of black and other darker colors. Could something effect just that particular kind of shot and leave others looking fine?
I don't know the answer to your question. But what I can tell you that I'm not seeing the problems that you describe. And based on the few complains I've seen posted, I don't think that artifacts is the "norm" for the 622.

Thanks, Walt.

I'll try component and see if that works, On my D* set-up, I couldn't tell a difference between cables.

I just moved from Comcast to Dish this last weekend. I am really disappointed with the quality of the HDTV compared to Comcast ! The picture is really soft - obviously there is a ton of compression going on ! I moved only because I am in a 550Mhz system and have few HD channels.

Yes, I find it soft as well, though that doesn't bother me nears as much as all the artifacts I'm seeing. Hopefully I can at least get THAT under control.

Comcast (in my area) has so little HD and their DVR isn't even close to the 622, so I didn't even consider it. If I can't get a better pic, I'm heading that way.

I see the artifacts as well - last night's American Idol (I have two girls !) was just horrible ! This is not HDTV any more. Most anamorphic DVDs look better than this. Are we the only once with this problem ? Is this a problem with my 622 ? Thanks.

Man! Someone else! At least I know I'm not crazy.. well, regarding this, anyway. There are also a few folks at ***************.com who have the issue. It's really odd it's on the OTA as well... oh well, maybe we will learn something definitive soon.

Like I said at the HTS. I am having the same issues as well. Its very dissapointing. I moved from cable to Dish about 4 months ago , and this is dissapointing.

Has one of you guys spoken to Dish about this ? I just moved to Dish this week and would like to move back to Comcast if this is all I can expect.

I'm reluctant to even call. I've dealt with idiot (sorry-- "uninformed") CSRs from Direct to Comcast to Linksys, Circuit City and th elist goes on....

Unless something is completely, totally and unmistakenly flat-out broken, it just isn't worth the aggrevation.

Has one of you guys spoken to Dish about this ? I just moved to Dish this week and would like to move back to Comcast if this is all I can expect.Unfortunately, it's only gotten worse with every passing month, as Dish tries to cram more and more channels in the same bandwidth.