[lolbombs]

Okay guys, so I have a question here.

I currently have Cox Digital Cable and was thinking about switching over to Dish Network. Has anyone else made the change from Cox to Dish or even vice versa?

I was just curious about the HD channel quality compared between the two. I don't care too much about features such as DVR, etc just the nitty gritty HD channel quality aspect of it (pixelation, compression, etc).

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[MediocreButArrogant]

The best place to ask this question is in this thread over on AVSForum.com:

Las Vegas, NV - HDTV - AVS Forum

You probably already know that over-the-air HD is easy to receive in most parts of the valley. Unless you're in the shadow of Black Mountain or have an obstruction between you and the towers, you should get a good signal with rabbit ears. OTA, being the original source, will give you highest picture quality for local stations.

I can tell you that almost all 1080i content on Dish Network is downsampled to 1440 pixels horizontal. 720p content remains 1280x720. All of their HD is also transcoded to H.264. The quality is ok to good. Nowhere near the standard set by Verizon FIOS, but better than Dish has been in the past, and from what I hear, better than Comcast, despite the horizontal subsampling. I suspect Cox is a little better than Dish; you'll have to decide whether it's enough to matter.

[las vegas drunk]

Dish is going to have a better picture because they can and do broadcast up to 1080P, while Cox only goes up to 1080I.

[airics]

i switched from cox to dish about 3 months ago because the bastards raised the rates terribly and their customer service was terrible to say the least.. before you switch, call cox and ask for the retention dept. maybe they will lower the price for you.. as for quality, hd on dish is a bit better, but remember that i am no afficienado and am blind as a bat, so what might be good for me might not be for you.. I'm paying 34.99 for 12 months, then 47.99 for the following 12.. When i started with Cox (no hd yet), i was at 17 bucks... leaving cox with hd was 78. no movie stations either..
With dish, i didnt have to get any extra boxes nor do i have the dvr.. only 2 tvs..

[MediocreButArrogant]

Originally Posted by las vegas drunk

Dish is going to have a better picture because they can and do broadcast up to 1080P, while Cox only goes up to 1080I.

It's nowhere near that simple, and that isn't even accurate. If you're going to talk about picture quality and digital TV formats you should at least be familiar with concepts like "3-2 pulldown" and "inverse telecine".

The fact is, almost all movies and scripted TV shows you watch on TV are actually shot and digitally mastered as 1080p24, and despite the fact that the two broadcast formats are 1080i60 and 720p60, the receiving end can fully recover the 24fps progressive content and even display it at 24fps as long as the display refreshes at a multiple of 24Hz.

What matters more than the signal format is the bitrate and the codec used to compress the signal. That's why FIOS picture quality is so good, they have bandwidth in spades. Dish's 1080p video-on-demand (the only content they send to your TV in 1080p) is higher quality because of its higher bitrate, not because it's 1080p. Their 1080i is actually 1080p24 inside of a 1080i60 signal when it's a movie or scripted TV show (not for sports or non-scripted shows like news).

[PugMom17]

What about Directv? In California the HD is awesome. There's Directv in Vegas isn't there?

[flyingtigers]

DirecTV is available anywhere in the US, as long as you can get a view of the southern sky for dish placement.

[las vegas drunk]

Originally Posted by PugMom17

What about Directv? In California the HD is awesome. There's Directv in Vegas isn't there?

Of course.

[airics]

imo, directv was too expensive...plus you pay for each receiver

[yellowsnow]

I have Cox now and I've had Dish and Direct TV in other places. I think either of the dish services are better than Cox.

Frequently the picture on Cox just freezes or pixilates. Audio continues on just fine. This happens on both of my HD tvs using different cable boxes.