HDTV quality getting worse?

[TheUnk]

Man watching football on Fox right now and what appears to be compression artifacts is really bad on every shot that isn't close to the players. Has it really always been like this? Sitting closer than I usually do, picture looks like shit

 

[zerocool84]

It's obviously your TV provider/signal. Looks perfect to me.

 

[Soccerman06]

I dont see many artifacts here, must be your provider.

 

[TheUnk]

Watching it with an OTA antenna. Looks just as bad on bedroom TV.

 

[destrekor]

It could be any number of things. Your local Fox broadcaster may be having trouble receiving the data stream, they may be having trouble sending the data stream, they may be compressing the signal, or your actual provider is compressing the signal more so than usual.

It's sort of a mixed bag with cable providers lately. Some are improving their picture quality as they get rid of the analog baggage, but others are still either providing an analog signal or, in either case, they have begun to provide, well, too many channels. This shouldn't be an issue with all-digital providers, but if they still have an analog signal sharing the line, they have to compress every channel to fit as many digital channels as they wish to provide.

If it's something that is brand new, it could be a feed issue somewhere. If other users here aren't seeing it on Fox, then it may be a local station having a feed issue.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Fox is shit. Always been 720p for sports.

 

[dr150]

Directv here....looks pretty damn good to me.

 

[destrekor]

Watching it with an OTA antenna. Looks just as bad on bedroom TV.

And you've routinely watched it by OTA, I assume?

I'd say either for some random reason interference is more of an issue at this very moment in time than usual (can happen - there are variables with VHF/UHF signals), or the terrestrial broadcasting system is receiving a bad feed.

 

[boomerang]

or the terrestrial broadcasting system is receiving a bad feed.

This would be my guess. I'm with Dish and it takes a pretty big storm for me to lose signal but I have lost it when really bad weather is rolling across their uplink centers which I believe are in Colorado and Arizona.

 

[Crono]

Fox is shit. Always been 720p for sports.

I prefer 720p/60 fps over 1080p/30 fps.

My tv is 60 inches though. If you have a larger display or a projector, 1080p is definitely preferable.

 

[zerocool84]

I prefer 720p/60 fps over 1080p/30 fps.

My tv is 60 inches though. If you have a larger display or a projector, 1080p is definitely preferable.

720p is better for sports since it's faster refreshing and 1080i is fine for the TV shows most people watch.

 

[postmortemIA]

My cable TV looks bad, 720P especially, so much compression. The worst is when scene quickly changes, there is so much pixelation.

 

[smitbret]

The PQ is affected at several levels.

A bad broadcast from the truck will look bad no matter what.

The network can take a good broadcast and make it look bad, too.

Then the Local Broadcaster can recompress and make it worse.

Then, your provider (if you're using anything but an OTA antenna) recompresses it again.

The broadcast can be ruined at any of these points. I will admit, though, that the Fox broadcasts do look pretty bad sometimes. You can't really say that 720p is too blame, though, since most ESPN and ABC broadcasts look pretty sharp and clean event though they are 720p as well. I notice it on the NFL broadcasts a lot more than I do for normal Prime Time TV. My CBS affiliate is in love with macro-blocking in "busy" scenes.

 

[disappoint]

Watching it with an OTA antenna. Looks just as bad on bedroom TV.

I prefer 720p/60 fps over 1080p/30 fps.

My tv is 60 inches though. If you have a larger display or a projector, 1080p is definitely preferable.

His signal is OTA antenna. There is no 720p/60fps nor 1080p/30fps OTA with an antenna.

It's 720p/30 and 1080i/30. the p stands for progressive scan and the i stands for interlaced scan. Progressive scan is better for motion heavy content for example sports. Interlaced with higher resolution is better for still images or slowly changing video.

 

[Mixolydian]

inb4 compression

 

[zanejohnson]

im watching a pirated stream, that is like.... 800x600 and completely compressed to shit (on a 65" Mitsu DLP @ 1080 from an HTPC)

so i cant comment

 

[MustISO]

I have this issue quite a bit with Comcast but the last two games (Ravens/Pats / Cowboys/Packers) were crystal clear. During the regular season I would see it only on some channels and it would typically be when say a player was running against the background of the stands and there's a lot going on.

One thing that always seems to trip up the broadcasts is lots of confetti. I noticed it on every station during new years.

I'm glad it's been solid so far for the playoffs but I wish they would allocate more bandwidth (if that's the issue) to resolve it.

 

[SKORPI0]

Fox is shit. Always been 720p for sports.

Not just sports, FOX has been 720p since Sept 2004.

 

[Ichinisan]

Man watching football on Fox right now and what appears to be compression artifacts is really bad on every shot that isn't close to the players. Has it really always been like this? Sitting closer than I usually do, picture looks like shit

Live sports don't get the benefit of multi-pass encoding. Also, some distributors (especially satellite) re-compress on-the-fly and fast motion *really* emphasizes the compression artifacts.

 

[TheUnk]

The game on CBS looks a lot better

 

[boomhower]

I got my OTA antenna finally to a height that it's working. Missed the Fox game but I swear the CBS game looks better than it did on DirecTV.

 

[NoTine42]

Back in the early days of HDTV broadcasting, CBS would send out a 40mbps HD signal to its affiliates, and the stations would have to reduce that feed down to the ~19mbps NTSC OTA signal. The 40mbps satellite backfeed meant an entire satellite channel was needed for every HD game (and there are about 6 games running at the same time...)very expensive at the time. It was also expensive for each affiliate

When FOX finally went HD (years and years after CBS, it was crazy Japan could watch the World Series in HD, but not 'Merica). FOX converted their HD feed down to the <19mbps feed at the broadcast source, meaning stations could just pass through the network feed (without conversion) and FOX could put 2-3 games on a satellite channel. Instantly, Fox went from behind to a leader in NFL games because CBS only did 2 HD games a week, and Fox did them all.

It's possible a good local affiliate could do better with the better high Mbps CBS feed, but I havent followed broadcast technology as closely lately.

If your local affiliate has sub channels, then those sub channels take bandwidth from the main network feed. The OTA NTSC signal is only 19mbps.

 

[NoTine42]

I got my OTA antenna finally to a height that it's working. Missed the Fox game but I swear the CBS game looks better than it did on DirecTV.

DirecTv down converts the MPEG2 OTA feed to MPEG4 to fit in more stations. DirecTv does a very good job on their down conversion (most people won't notice,) but some will.

 

[boomhower]

DirecTv down converts the MPEG2 OTA feed to MPEG4 to fit in more stations. DirecTv does a very good job on their down conversion (most people won't notice,) but some will.

Certainly wasn't complaint about DirecTV's picture, it was very good. Just think this is a touch better. I certainly didn't leave them because of the picture.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Obama