Not sure if this is the right forum but....my picture on Sky+ is reall
not very good - especially on my new LCD TV. I looked at the "signa strength" and "signal quality" in the setup menu and both bars are onl at about 50%. Should I call Sky in?? - and would this explain why th picture is so "blocky" on my new (and v expensive) LCD tv?? I wa hoping its a question of repositioning the dish??? thanks
Ale
-- alexbartman
Was it blocky on your old set?
The signal strength is usually about 50%. It is more likely to be your new TV than the Sky+. Are you connecting using the RGB scart?
Welcome to digital TV. Unfortunately that is par for the course especially with fast moving pictures like football etc. I take it your picture is fine on "normal TV" as opposed to Sky?
First hit in Google
Steven.
Well I have full signal strength and just one segment down on "quality" on two Amstrad DRX100 receivers. This is with a DIY installed Zone 1 minidish and quattro LNB located 20 miles south of Hadrians Wall, far enough north that Zone 2 dishes (larger) start to appear.
Is a Sky+ box particulary deaf in comparison with other Sky boxes? Other Sky boxes connected to my LNB/Dish have also shown high signal and quality levels.
I suspect that the installation is not of the highest standard with regards dish/LNB aim. It is possible to use the built in signal strength meter to align a dish but it is quite slow to react and of course you need to be able to see it from up a ladder... A simple whistling meter only costs 10 to 20 quid and makes life a lot easier. If you are going to do this it only takes tiny movements of the dish, so don't go slacking of all the bolts and let the thing wave about, do one axis at a time and repeat a couple of times.
Hi
You can ignore the signal strength meter - it means nothing. The important one is the quality meter and 50% is perfectly acceptable.
Digital either works or doesn't work - unless your picture is actually breaking up (which will normally be accompanied by interruptions to the audio), it will not make any difference how big your dish is or how accurately it is aligned.
A few questions:
1) How is your Sky box connected to your TV? 2) What model TV? 3) Is your TV still set up with the insane manufacturers defaults which are designed to make the TV look bright and shiny in a showroom but worse than useless for normal viewing.Regards,
Steve
You've described the symptons as blocky and you've also mentioned a new LCD screen.
Unfortunately, new LCD screens aren't necessarily as great as they are cracked up to be.
Especially when fed with a standard definition feed like that from a Freeview box or a Sky Digitial box or a a normal analogue feed.
The blocky picture is probably more apparent on fast moving scenes. Look at an explosion scene in an action movie. The explosion will probably pixelate.
Some of this is cured by fiddling with your TV settings. For example some LCDs have digital noise reduction. Turn this off and it "may" provide a less blocky picture.
Generally the more expensive tellys the less likely you'll have blocky pictures. For example the Sony Bravia range is not too bad.
It's the big HD/LCD/Plasma con unfortunately. Although newer LCD/Plasma with 1080 and a high refresh rate, fed with a HD source look absolutely amazing. Will cost you though.
The technology is still maturing.
You've described the symptons as blocky and you've also mentioned a new LCD screen.
Unfortunately, new LCD screens aren't necessarily as great as they are cracked up to be.
Especially when fed with a standard definition feed like that from a Freeview box or a Sky Digitial box or a a normal analogue feed.
The blocky picture is probably more apparent on fast moving scenes. Look at an explosion scene in an action movie. The explosion will probably pixelate.
Some of this is cured by fiddling with your TV settings. For example some LCDs have digital noise reduction. Turn this off and it "may" provide a less blocky picture.
Generally the more expensive tellys the less likely you'll have blocky pictures. For example the Sony Bravia range is not too bad.
It's the big HD/LCD/Plasma con unfortunately. Although newer LCD/Plasma with 1080 and a high refresh rate, fed with a HD source look absolutely amazing. Will cost you though.
The technology is still maturing.
My parents have the Sony Bravia unit and when you are watching TV through the analogue side of it, it is fine with absolutely no pixelating at all. However try watching football through Sky TV or its built in freeview decoder and the picture is terrible. It really makes the 50" screen look appalling.
Steven.
That depends on how much bandwidth the broadcaster allocates. Football on Sky Sports is absolutely fine but on ITV it's rubbish.
Sky connected via RGB scart to my Samsung LCD TV
Its particularly noticeable on dark inside shots on TV and i movies......the DVD connection - is really very sharp - and its quite crappy and old(ish) DVD playe
-- alexbartman
Actually, I think you'll find that football is rubbish no matter where it is.
I think you have answered your own question. "Crappy oldish DVD has really sharp picture" Sky or to be more precise digital TV is blocky!!
I've yet to see a set up that doesn't pixelate in certain conditions on digital TV. Have you tried watching one of the terrestrial programs (BBC 1,
2 ITV etc) on Sky that is blocky and then turn over to your analogue setting? Guaranteed you will notice the difference straight away.Steven.
I think we need to make the distinction between pixelation due to the MPEG compression of the source material and pixelation due to the reciever not having a good enough signal. The former will only be apparent on fast moving images, the latter on any image but fast moving stuff will really fall apart, maybe down to a few tens of blocks for the entire image.
Well yeah, all that PAL footprint and probably analogue noise as well... B-)
You dont get pixelation from not having good enough signal! Its everything or nothing with digital as others have said. All the OPs problems are with poor source material from Sky.
The message from marvelus contains these words:
Oh yes you do! The encoding does large blocks first, splitting them up later as the data become available. Rather like progressive jpg images. If the signal's poor you get frozen bits and blockiness.
What encoding? The encoding is done before its transmited!
Poor reception gives you messed up screens, pixelation WHICH IS WHAT THE OP WAS REFERING TO is a function of the mpg algorithm.
In message , marvelus writes
Whatever, regardless of how the algorithms work, regardless of the effects of poor signal to noise ratio, can we all agree that the picture quality is crap, the programming is crap and we're being sold down the river with the promise of 'digital quality'.
marvelus, you're wrong.
Some references here...
If you've never seen pixelation of a digital source then, either you've never owned a digital receiver, or you're damned, damned lucky.
For what it's worth, I've been up in my parents attic to rotate the loft aerial to point "closer" to the transmitter. That cured their frequent pixelation problems with certain channels.
Interesting, I've never seen those effects on my Sony IDTV or my old Sky box. Do you get full speed motion with those effects or does the screen freeze untill the next key frame comes along?
Thanks for the links, not sure I'd call that problem pixilation though;) More like a totaly corrupted screen.
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