250' og RG-6

accsys wrote:
I believe you will also find that different TVs display SD better or worse. Also, after seeing HD, SD looks terrible!

on my TVs in the S&Bs I don't even bother going up to the 800s or where ever to get HD. can't really see that much difference. As I have said before, one advantage of HD is you can see every wrinkle on Jerry Springer's face. the disadvantage is that you can see every wrinkle on Jerry Springer's face.
bumpy

Sdcamp I am using a 18" round on a pole stuck in the ground.
accsys you may have something there.

I believe you will also find that different TVs display SD better or worse. Also, after seeing HD, SD looks terrible!

get one of those under $20 now??? in line booster jobbies and it might help out enough.
bumpy

Gordon I'm using a coax connector, the receiver is not equipped for HDMI but my tv is. And that got me to thinking , dangerous , I did not connect the three small cables, I think they are colored red, yellow, white. I will do that tomorrow to see if that helps.

OP, what dish are you using? Big manual aim on a stand, or an auto aim carry out?
Signal strength could remain the same, but signal quality degrades with length of cable by db's over distance ( Help us out here you techno geeks! )
RG 11 may be your best fix. It'll carry the quality a long way. Or a bigger 'suck the sky dry dish'

Thats into a voodoo area I don't know much about. When I had Dish "TurboHD", there were 3 cables running from the dish to some sort of combiner box (3 lnb on the dish), and then one cable from there to the receiver.

I don't know if all three cables made it HD, or if one cable carried HD and one carried SD, or whatever

I can't see your cabling being the cause of the picture issue - it's a digital signal from the bird, either you receive it or you don't. are all your sd channels doing this, or just "the game"?

as I recall DSS uses mpeg compression, so some lost packets will cause blocks to appear in the picture, big blocks for sd, small blocks for hd... but faded colors and other analog artifacts, sounds like a connection problem between the receiver and the tv, or the tv itself??? what kind of connection are you using from the receiver to the tv?

Guys thanks for the responses and the tips.

Today I laid down aprox. 265' of rg-6 cable, no splices. Made up and crimped my connectors. No amplifier.

Before I started, the system was connected to a temp. system with 25' of cable and had a signal strength of 98. After laying down the cable and hooking up I ran a signal strength test and still had a reading of 98 using the Directv receiver, SD. **** I said, I did good. But, seems with my work there's always a but.

The quality of the picture is so-so. The ball game looked like 1980's tv, not very sharp and colors kind of bled off the uniforms and so forth.

The receiver allows me to connect my over-the air antenna ( old timmey deep fringe antenna). The o-v-a system is digital hd and my satellite system is sd. The o-t-a works great. Sharp, clear picture.
The satellite not so good, is this because of the system being sd?
Or, am I experiencing installation problem, such as not using the connectors and cables recommended here? Is there more to setting up the satellite system than just getting a high signal strength?

Save your self the hassle and do one of these. I am a tech for a cable comp, and it will be alot easier and better to order what you need already done properly. what you will end up with is a much better product and signal. If the connectors arent done right, you will have problems.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1311.R4.TR11.TRC2.A0.H1.XRG-11.TRS0&_nkw=rg11+coaxial+cable&_sacat=0

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_6/179-7666784-6316515?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=rg-11+coaxial+cable&sprefix=RG-11+%2Caps%2C4728

I have used one of the small, under $15 at the time, in line boosters which jumped the signal strength noticeably.
bumpy