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Direct Tv Hdtv Issue?

Ok so we recently got a beautiful 52″ Sony BRAVIA HDTV with 240 Hz motionflow, four HDMI slots (capable of supporting 1080p in other words) and pretty much top of the line in terms of technology (keep in mind I am not including the OLED’s that will soon put LCD and Plasma to shame). The TV plays xbox 360 in beautiful hidef quality not to mention the HD channels beautifuly as well.
However, as I understand, Direct TV broadcasts in 1080i, and we have the HD service as well as the HD receiver box hooked up to our TV via HDMI cable (a very expensive cable might I add, not a cheapo found in RadioShack). Now if I go to one of the HD channels in the HD channel section of Direct TV, I do get the picture quality that I expect of this TV, but as for every other channel, it doesnt look nearly as good as HD should.
Now I understand this could just mean that we either A) dont have the full HD package or B) not all channels are gonna look as fantastic as they should because HD is offered by that station in general. However, I have trouble believing either of these are the case because when I hit the guide button, I get to surf through the different channels as well as have a PIP on the top right corner of what I was just watching (as I’m sure most Direct TV users are aware of). This PIP is of significantly greater quality than the full screen version when I exit the guide menu, in fact it looks like what I expect the HD channels to look like, but no matter what I do with the settings, I can’t get this same quality with a full screen version. Is there something I’m missing here? Is Direct TV just messing with me by taunting me with this beautiful PIP and then giving me crap when I full screen it? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Side note: the 240 Hz motion flow is still very apparent with the channels that don’t look HD. As in I can definately see the difference in the way the picture flows even if the resolution isn’t what I desire

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Categories: Channel Packages
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24 September 2009 at 17:59 - Comments
Corneliu
Keep in mind that just because the channel is a HD channel, not all of that channels programs are going to be in HD!
For instance, i have a HD package thru my local cable company. Four of the HD channels are local HD channels. Now, shows like American Idol or Discovery’s ‘Blue Planet’ come in beautifully…like HD should. But sometimes the shows like Seinfeld or Deal or No Deal come in less then satisfactory. This is because not ALL shows are recorded in HD! Just SD! When they have SD shows on a HD channel, the show is still SD!
Hope this helps make sense of it!
24 September 09 at 18:33
Texperso
As you stated, HD channels each provide a somewhat different quality pic to cable and sat. providers. So what you see on the screen will vary from station to station. Some broadcast in 720p not 1080i. The reason PIP always looks good is because it is a compressed picture, like a digital camera picture. Then when you blow that same pic up to your big screen, it’s like an enlargement of a digital pic. Same number of pixels expanded to a much larger surface.
And SD channels will be less clear due to being 480 not 1080i.
So that’s just the way HD tv goes. Sports, live shows, Discovery Channel, HD Net Movies and few others are outstanding. Most are very good and some, terrible.
24 September 09 at 18:43
Shawn
I think I can help, I hope. I’ll use my sat. provider as an example. If I get the HD service, I still have all the non HD channels, it basically has 122a, and 122b, channel b being HD. And not all stations offer an HD channel. So I believe thats whats happening to you, because regular channels just don’t look good on HD as you know. As for the PiP, its because of the picture you’re seeing being smaller, so you don’t notice all the imperfecions of it if it was on your full scree, its more compressed, so it looks better. Like if you don’t have a great computer, and you watch a video clip on it, a lot of times if you watch it in a smaller window, rather then full screen, it looks better.
Another thing I just thought of, make sure on your sat. or cable box has the rght setting. My sat box I can set to 1080p or i, and 480p or i, and all that. Hope this might have helped somewhat.
EDIT, they beat me to it while I was reading over what I wrote, haha.
24 September 09 at 19:32