Compression on HD TV

[Bob Hayes]

I've had Time Warner HD cable TV for about nine months. I'm watching on a Panasonic 46" Plasma screen. The quality has been great, often telecine quality. Now how ever I am starting to see more and more compression issues. A forest becomes blocked up digital camo. Blue Sky broken down into severe banding. What is happening. I am talking about big budget series like "Hawaii Five-O". I feel like the networks are transmitting HD but are starting to use some pretty strong compression to save money.

[Keith Walters]

I feel like the networks are transmitting HD but are starting to use some pretty strong compression to save money.

Yeah; what was your question? B)

[John Sprung]

I am talking about big budget series like "Hawaii Five-O".

 

That's one of our shows, I work for CBS TV Studios. Are you watching off air, or via telco, cable or satellite? If it's telco, cable or satellite, are you using the analog outputs from the box, or the HDMI? (Some boxes have issues with the analog feed.)

 

CBS uses the full 19.39 Mbits/sec capacity of their ATSC channels for a single stream of HD, and they have requirements in the retrans agreements to make the cable and satellite services pass the full 19.39. They really do care about getting it right on the air.

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[Phil Rhodes]

I wonder if there's any chance it's being recompressed somewhere? It could still then be full bitrate, but look bad.

 

But really, like our Canon camera user in another post today, we need to see it to diagnose the cause.

 

This is MPEG-2, yes?

 

 

P

[John Sprung]

Yes, ATSC uses MPEG-2. If it's getting recompressed, or impaired in any other way, we want to trace the problem and get it fixed.

 

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.