Dish TV

[Kountryguy]

I have Dish TV and am using a Wally receiver. What determines if a channel is HD or SD? The SD stations do not fill the screen. Any thing that can be done? Thanks

[Kountryguy]

Not sure what I should have. Yes, I do move around the country, I have tried changing aspect ratios and noticed very little difference. I have the traveler antenna and a Wally receiver.

[Cptnvideo]

OP, your initial post isn't very clear. Are you receiving channels in SD that should be HD? Or is your TV displaying in a 4:3 format what should be a 16:9 format?
Are you traveling around and having DISH switch local channels for you?

I have the Trav'ler roof mounted antenna, Hopper 3 and 2 wireless Joey receivers. The only time I had SD when I should have had HD was when I was receiving local channels via a weak spot beam signal (as I previously posted).

BTW, I've worked with satellite TV signals from 1982 until I retired in 2007. Saw a lot of changes over those years.

[rk911]

Kountryguy wrote:
I have a roof mounted Traveler antenna and an using the western arc sats. My location in the country hasn't seemed to matter.

we had a Trav'ler set for the western arc and had no trouble locking on in the SE states.

[Kountryguy]

I have a roof mounted Traveler antenna and an using the western arc sats. My location in the country hasn't seemed to matter.

[Cptnvideo]

If you have a weak spot beam signal for local channels, you will get SD instead of HD.
We had that issue in SE Colorado (near Lamar) trying to receive the Denver channels. I talked DISH into assigning us the Albuquerque channels and those local channels were received as HD.

[Second_Chance]

If your local channels are SD, you are not on the correct satellite arc (Eastern vs. Western). If you have a Tailgater antenna and are in the east, that's your problem. The Pathway X2 antenna is capable of receiving both the Eastern and Western Dish Network satellite groups so you can receive HD locals no matter where you are (you have to change your service location with the app).

Rob

[Kountryguy]

It seems that the local channels are SD. Is this going to change?

[Dutch_12078]

If you're using the Dish western arc satellites, it won't be much of a concern soon. Dish is eliminating most of the SD channels as they move the HD channels off of the 129 degree satellite to either the 110 or 119 satellites in preparation for ending the lease on the 129 sat. Those subscribers that are still using an obsolete SD only receiver will need to arrange with Dish for an upgrade to an HD capable receiver. Notices have been going out for months.

[CA_Traveler]

Kountryguy wrote:
I have Dish TV and am using a Wally receiver. What determines if a channel is HD or SD? The SD stations do not fill the screen. Any thing that can be done? Thanks

Dish determines if the channel is SD or HD. In addition they may show older SD video on a HD channel, but not much anymore due to the much lower quaity. SD is fading into history.

[rk911]

your tv should have aspect ration settings. ours had an auto setting.

[StarkNaked]

HD and SD use different aspect ratios. And movies use another different aspect ratio.

This site has some info that will help: https://www.rtings.com/tv/learn/what-is-the-aspect-ratio-4-3-16-9-21-9

When the aspect ratio of the content you are trying to watch doesn't match the aspect ratio of your TV, you'll usually end up with black bars.

Depending on the type of mismatch between the picture and the display's ratio, the black bars appear in different places. Content wider than the screen it is played on will have horizontal black bars, while content that is taller will use vertical bars.