[CSB]

My wife is not too happy with the SD DirecTV picture I'm getting on my 567. When watching the football game last night, for example, the regular pre-snap view showed a lot of pixelation and blurring along the line of scrimmage. Some of the player photos shown when profiling a player appeared grainy. I understand this is not the fault of the TV but rather the compression that DirecTV performs but I'm hoping to find some solution. I notice that premium channels such as HBO look much better than most so I'm guessing DirecTV provides more bandwidth for these signals. Does anyone know if DirecTV is working on this problem with their signal??? If there was hope of this improving over the next year or so I could probably convince her to keep it.


I really like the DVD PQ via DVI, I like the no burn-in issue as we still watch a lot of 4x3 tv, I like the brightness because it's in a well lit family room, and I like the look of the TV itself but I'm not sure my wife can live with the SD PQ.


I guess my alternative will be to purchase a cheaper CRT and deal with its issues for a few years and then look again at DLP but this is not a solution I'm too excited about.


Chris

 

[brucefanru]

I to see a bad and soft picture when viewing digital cable so get the antenna for HDTV and you will love the PQ.


Bruce

 

[sdwow]

Yes , video compression can make a good tv look bad. That's why I'm glad I finally went with a C-band satellite system. Definitely a WOW factor from the SD channels. You should see the HBO's when you get them directly from their satellite transponders. Makes you forget how many HD channels are currently available .

 

[chris5977]

CSB,


Complaining about how this TV handles garbage signals is like complaining about how a Porsche handles on a dirt road.


Have patience, Grasshopper, HDTV is coming.

 

[CSB]

Chris5977,


I agree to some extent with your statement that "Complaining about how this TV handles garbage signals is like complaining about how a Porsche handles on a dirt road." However, keep in mind I'm doing this complaining on a forum in which a lot of people are considering buying a Porsche and have to drive on the occasional dirt road.

 

[CSB]

sdwow,


Unfortunately the c-band is not an option for me. I live in a community in which the home owners association would have me stoned for that size of dish.


Will any of the SM tweaks at are so often discussed here help with these sorts of issues? Is there any hope of a near-term (12-18 months) improvement of SD signals from DirecTV? Those are the sorts of solutions I'd need to convince the wife to wait it out. I was considering waiting for the HD DirecTV TiVo, maybe I'll need to get some other HD feed in the mean time.


Thanks,

Chris

 

[BTDT]

CSB,


There are a few things to try. I have a Tosh LCoS and at first my D* picture was awful. It turned out that most of this problem was due to a poor S Video cable. Now the picture looks very good on most stations. I will notice the occassional overcompression, but usually on content that isn't very important.


I will have to point out that the SD picture on a Tosh LCoS *is* a bit better than what I have seen on the Sammy DLPs (or even the Panny or Optoma). The manner in which the DLP sets render their image, I believe, can tend to introduce additional "garbage" into the "garbage". I have never seen the kind of distortion you are talking about on a local-over-D* channel before.


I have also seen owners who have improved their PQ by getting a better receiver that passes native 720p to their sets, through component or DVI connections.


The ultimate solution is to watch everything in HD of course . Last night MNF was a thing to behold, especially given the outcome, IMHO .

 

[ConceptVBS]

Isnt there a Direct TV set top box with DVI output coming soon? Maybe you should look into that. Others, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[davidmin]

I don't understand... Are you talking about MNF? In that case, you should be watching the over the air signal, not DirecTV's. If you can't get over the air HDTV (Virginia should be covered), ask your cable company if they have HDTV.


David

 

[CSB]

Davidmin,


You are absolutely correct, I *should* be watching the game in HD. The problem is that I don't get any HD signal at the moment because I don't have an HD box or antenna. My family has become big fans of TiVo and I was holding out for the DirecTV HD TiVo but my old TV was on it's way out and I figured I'd go ahead now with the DLP and just wait on HD until whenever the new TiVo is ready. I didn't want to pay for an HD receiver & antenna that I'd have no use for once the TiVo is out. I know it sounds strange to have the HLN567 and no HD but I hope it's a short-term situation. At least my DVDs look good. Make a little sense?


Chris

 

[rogo]

I think the complaint is legitimate, the Porsche analogy flawed / meaningless, the prospects for massive improvements in DirecTV quality over the next 12 months limited at best, the need for an HD box now high (just because it's so good in general), the endless excuses for all digital TVs tiresome, the particularly troublesome performance of this TV with bad DirecTV real, the reality that a CRT might be better true but not a cure all (a friend has a digital-ready Sony and the DRC butchers DirecTV pretty badly)....


Chris, you need an antenna to make use of the Tivo anyway -- if you want the local channels. So the only thing you are "wasting" money on is an HD tuner, which you can always resell. You could be getting 6 months of free HD over the air for the difference in buy / sell price. Or you could also get DirecTV's HD during that time.


Mark

 

[bigcrabass]

My observation of the 617w PQ on SD and HDTV has shown that the directv sd channels vary from channel to channel, but look better on the DLP then on my 50" sd Hitachi Ultravision s-video input. I have the Zenith STD/Directv HD rcvr and I use the component output from that to the DLP. I have a second directv rcvr that I use for PIP and it goes into the svideo input of the dlp. This looks terrible compared to the component in from the Zenith. So the input and the rcvr do make a difference. RF input looks even worse. One bonus that I noticed is that the SD PQ for off air HDTV feeds showing SD source material can look as good as DVD progressive scan. Also depending on source material.

At first I was showning the SD in it's native 4x3 format, but this new Zenith has a panoramic mode which is not that objectionable to watch. It only stretches the left and right sides of the pic and leaves the center 3rd alone.

 

[CDuda]

CSB...


I got my Sammy HLN567 10 days ago (so I am a newbie with the TV as well). I have a Samsung T160 DirecTV STB connected to it via the DVI port (plus I have a Channel Master antenna for OTA HD signals), a Panasonic DVD connected viw Component 1, as well as a Philips Tivo STB connected via S-Video1


At first the DirecTV SD channel quality was very bad (I too was wondering if my purchase of the HLN567 was agood one). To improve it I performed the tweaks in Mike_Pro's spreadsheet (after I had about 100 hours on the bulb) and setup the custom picture mode to be used specifically for DirecTV SD viewing (all of this is via the DVI port - I talk about my S-Video experience below). I use the Standard Picture Mode for all HD sources.


Service Menu Adjustments (if a value isn't listed then I did not change it - plus record you original value for later reference)


DDP1010

DELAY 212

Gamma 2 (I tried "0" and it looked good but to my eyes "2" looked more natural)


DNIe

R-GAIN 125

G-GAIN 122

B-GAIN 94

R-OFFSET 134

G-OFFSET 130

B-OFFSET 130



Custom Picture Mode Adjustments (User Menu) I came up with these values by running Avia through my DVD player (except for the sharpness value which I hand tweaked to make the SD feed look better - I used FoodTV, BBCA, HLN, and my local NBC as reference channels)

CONTRAST 75

BRIGHTNESS 75

SHARPNESS 16

COLOR 56


For the S-Video 1 Port I Changed the values in the Custom Picture Menu to the following values:

CONTRAST 75

BRIGHTNESS 80

SHARPNESS 16

COLOR 53

TINT: 59-41


When watching the S-Video port I keep the picture mode set to custom. I also went out a purchased a really good S-Video cable (Monster M500 Series - at least I consider this good) - this made a noticeable difference as well. Try the settings above and see what makes the most sense for you (especially with the Gamma setting and the custom picute menu settings).


Also, I should note that the DirecTV SD channels do look better via the DVI port, but are now very watchable on the S-Video port with the above changes. In any case, I love my HLN567 - I wouldn't dream of returning it now.


If you have any questions you can PM me.


Good Luck!

 

[BTDT]

A good cable can make a world of difference here. If you have a precision display device you should get the best signal to it possible!

 

[Tom Roper]

DirecTV carries the feed from your local station. It was fine on my HLM507W last night. Sony HD200->DVI input on Sammy.


I can't receive the HDTV OTA broadcast yet, too far away.

 

[adb]

Direct TV is pretty good for me. two 34" sets and one 42". Some channels are obviously worse than others but I receive many channels that are really pretty good. Spent a great deal of time in stores before I bought checking out SD broadcasts and it really paid off. Some sets seem to show cable and satellite better than others.

 

[rogo]

DirecTV gets your local station's feed from direct links *or* an antenna. And then they compress it to ribbons.

 

[donwylie]

My PQ from directv SD also sucked when I hooked up my Mits ws55511 TV. I have now replaced the dish with 3 lnb, cable from the dish to the TV with Belden 1693 quad shield, bought a HD zenith 520 receiver and made my own interconnects from the receiver to the component in on the TV using the belden cable and canare ends. Each step has resulted in an improved PQ and the SD picture is now vastly improved over what I started with and it is now definitely watchable.

Good luck

don

 

[ftlee]

CSB,


I had to dump DirecTV because of my Samsung DLP. I now have Comcast, which is not a whole lot better but, it is watchable and better than DirecTV. The Samsung DLP and DirecTV just was not acceptable to me. No amount of tweaking fixed this issue for me (better yes, watchable no).


Frank

 

[davidmin]

Yep, I would get rid of DirecTV before I got rid of my HDTV. Even the SD over the air signal will look better than D* with a good antenna. Cable probably would too, and it might even carry HDTV now.


David