OT: Best HD quality company?

[Engine]

Comcast provides great internet (I have Extreme 150 mbps) but their HD quality looks horrible, especially for my new 4K Samsung 9000.

What is the best alternative? DirecTV? Dish? Streaming? Uverse?

For the clearest crispest picture quality.

[Bass Chaser]

What's the refresh rate on your new TV?

[SignalToNoise]

Comcast provides great internet (I have Extreme 150 mbps) but their HD quality looks horrible, especially for my new 4K Samsung 9000.

What is the best alternative? DirecTV? Dish? Streaming? Uverse?

For the clearest crispest picture quality.

As far as I know television providers compress the signal before transmission which causes it to look like shit on your new kick ass TV. I don't know for sure but I would bet that Netflix and Hulu do it as well.

[archdog]

Netflix broadcast in 4k on most of their shows. Over the Air would be the best, because it is not compressed.
If a sporting event is on Fox, CBS, ABC, etc try a cheap over the air antenna. I do this on locally broadcast shows, the resolution is unbelievable.

[dickiedawg]

There's not a lot of 4k content out there. Directv claims to be the first provider to offer it, I assume that comes with a heck of a lot of fine print.

Next week, apparently Xbox is launching a system that will be capable of 4k output and will play UHD blu rays.

[Engine]

120Hz native refresh rate (Supreme Motion Rate 240Hz)

Not really asking about 4k quality.. Just what will provide the best HD, ESPN HD for instance... Comcast sucks. Does UVerse, Directv, etc have the best for HD quality?

[archdog]

DirecTV is pretty good, but my receiver will sneak switch to 720p sometimes. Kind of annoying but when I am watching football I check and make sure it's at 1080p.

Dish looked terrible the last time I had it. Uverse looked pretty good last time I watched a game on it.

[Barking 13]

DirecTV is pretty good, but my receiver will sneak switch to 720p sometimes. Kind of annoying but when I am watching football I check and make sure it's at 1080p.

Dish looked terrible the last time I had it. Uverse looked pretty good last time I watched a game on it.

Mine repeatedly goes to 480P on most programs.. now most movies and sports events are awesome but regular TV is usually 480p.

[yjnkdawg]

DirecTV is pretty good, but my receiver will sneak switch to 720p sometimes. Kind of annoying but when I am watching football I check and make sure it's at 1080p.

Dish looked terrible the last time I had it. Uverse looked pretty good last time I watched a game on it.

I'm pretty sure that ESPN, ABC, and FOX broadcast in 720p and NBC and CBS broadcast in 1080.

[yjnkdawg]

120Hz native refresh rate (Supreme Motion Rate 240Hz)

Not really asking about 4k quality.. Just what will provide the best HD, ESPN HD for instance... Comcast sucks. Does UVerse, Directv, etc have the best for HD quality?


I have had Directv for about 17 years. I think their HD picture quality is great. The only thing about Directv is possible loss of signal when heavy rain or severe weather is between your dish and the Satellite. Once the weather moves on out, the picture returns. This can vary depending on a bunch of factors. I was considering going to Comcast to get one of those so-called great triple play deals, but I have been hesitant, because of the Directv picture quality I may be losing.

[Indndawg]

Comcast provides great internet (I have Extreme 150 mbps) but their HD quality looks horrible, especially for my new 4K Samsung 9000.

What is the best alternative? DirecTV? Dish? Streaming? Uverse?

For the clearest crispest picture quality.

for a minimal price.

Direct is pretty impressive

[sleepy dawg]

I switched to DirecTV 7 years ago after being with cable for many years prior... Probably the best decision I ever made. I don't know if there are better options than DirecTV or not, but it is sure as hell better than Comcast. As 1 guy mentioned, it can go out in bad weather, but this actually happens less than how often it just randomly went out with cable. I bet I don't lose my signal more than a few times a year while I'm watching, and its usually just a couple of minutes.

[archdog]

I have had directv for about 8 of the past 10 years. I hate the bill amount every month, but there really isn't a better service out there. Sling box looks promising with it's list of channels for 20/month, but I have a hard time pulling the trigger. ATT will probably throttle my connection if I went to something like that.

[dparker]

Well there are two issues. One is the resolution that everyone is mentioning (1080, 4k, 480, etc). The other is the compression at those resolutions. This is typically measured in Mbps but also has to do with the efficiency of the compression algorithm used (MPEG-2, MPEG-4). EVERYONE compresses the digital signals to fit more channels in their finite bandwidth. Like one poster said, the least compressed signals are the ones coming in over an antenna. Most people will pick the provider that has the most HD channels that they watch. It's hard to get exact numbers on how much each provider compresses their channels since it's closely guarded and the numbers are can be different on a channel by channel basis Here is a decent overview.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4691553&page=1

All in all if you want the best PQ for movies you need Bluray (or the new Ultra Bluray) for the least compression, Over the air antenna for any of the broadcast networks, and everything else is a grab bag depending on your local provider/satellite options.

[franklintndawg]

Direct TV has by far the best picture quality. I have had it now for 2 years after coming from Comcast and I could tell a huge difference immediately. As mentioned above the bill does suck but its worth it