Hd Issue

[thizzle42]

1. While watching NBC in HD tonight (Comcast cable), the picture would "jump" a lot. It wasn't running smoothly. It was like when you are watching a video online and it is playing faster than it loads, causing it to skip. None of the other HD channels were doing it, but NBC just continually skipped around, like when it would pan from one side of the room to another, etc. Really irritated me during Earl.

2. Sometimes on NBC (and again, only on NBC) there is a small pop during shows. It is just a continuous pop/crackel that will happen every 45 seconds or so throughout entire shows. Really bugs me on the sound.

Thanks for your help

[jibucha]

Hello

You seem very observant.

In all likelihood, this is compression artifacts.

Comcast compresses it's channels horrendously, with inappropriiate bandwidth.

Additionally, it is my understanding that their HD Resolution is only 1024x768. I may be mistaken, but I do think that this is the resolution that I recently read was representative of their high definition picture quality, which is certainly very poor.

These two broadcast issues, whether occurring individually or together, result in a terrible picture quality; especially when occurring together.

Recently, I was able to compare Blu-ray and HD Comcast, on a LCD Monitor that I always thought representative of a poor quality display. On Blu-ray though; the picture quality improved substantially, to the point that it looked fine on Blu-ray and terrible on Comcast HD Digital Cable.

Writing this, now that I think of it; I would expect that if you played a DVD, not a Blu-ray Disc, that even DVD would look better on most displays than an HD Channel on Comcast. Next time I am at the LCD Display I referred to, I now intend to look at DVD on it and compare it to the Comcast HD Channel Picture Quality; should be interesting, I just never thought of it until now.

This is all rather simple actually; compare any so called HD cable broadcast, with either DVD or regular HD over the air broadcast using a roof antenna, against Comcast HD Channel performance. This simple comparison should be quite an eye opener for most; especially, if most any Blu-ray Movies are added to the comparison.

Well, this is getting a bit long, so I will end here; I do hope that this has been of some help and interest. Certainly, though, your observation is accurate and very descriptive of the poor quality picture of cable in general compared to our now remarkable free over the air roof antenna broadcast signal, and of course, the outstanding Blu-ray Quality.

Compression Artifacts & Low Resolution = Poor Quality Comcast HD Picture Quality.

Take Care

[David Mamet]

Are you saying that dish or direct tv HD is better, because I've had Comcast for quite some time, and wondered what the HD quality was on the dish's.

[jibucha]

Originally Posted by David Mamet

Are you saying that dish or direct tv HD is better, because I've had Comcast for quite some time, and wondered what the HD quality was on the dish's.

While I did not say it, perhaps implied by omission; yes, both satellite providers are significantly better than cable.

However, I recently learned, or at least think that I learned, that the resolution of Direct TV HD Broadcasts is only 1440x1080, which is about 30% less resolution that it should be given the HDTV Standards. While not the quality of Broadcast Television, certainly far better than the signal quality of cable.

Regarding Dish Network; this information is unavailable to me at this time, so I am figuring that their broadcast quality, is probably the best at this time, which would make them the best of the service providers currently. I am simply extending to Dish Network, a trust of quality, until I learn otherwise, which certainly Comcast Cable does not enjoy, nor Direct TV, which certainly many consider good enough, but what does that really mean?. Hopefully though, Blu-ray will in time raise the standards of all broadcast quality, as it will certainly become the measure of quality quite quickly as transfers become more consistently of the highest quality possible.

Of course; Over The Air, Roof Antenna, Broadcast Quality is the Gold Standard, and always will be, unless of course they too, begin to mess around with bandwidth and resolution to option for more channels and less signal quality. Hopefully, both Broadcast Television and Blu-ray will compete to be the best quality, or Blu-ray will easily become recognized as being the best against all broadcast quite quickly now.

In one of the posts here recently, someone commented, quite accurately, that the broadcast quality of over the air appeared better than Blu-ray. I meant to post to that thread, but regretfully did not get around to it. That individual caught a lot of flack as I recall, which is a shame, as that perception is quite accurate, which is why I entered into this particualar thread today. I do regret that I did not take the time on that thread then, and hope to follow up on it someday when I come across it again.

This is definitely not a criticism of Blu-ray Quality in any sense, but rather, part of an understanding of differences of the dynamics of High Definition with regards to Broadcast Television and Blu-ray HD Optical Discs including Film related issues. Perhaps another time, on that thread that I referred to, I can get into the differences and issues in a broad overview, as I do wish that I had; especially thinking about it all this evening.