Digital Cable - Pixelization during motion, Does Satellite Fix this???

[goatwuss]

Hello,

I don't claim to be a videophile by any notion of the word... Though I'm sure I would be if I had $$$

I have a normal, non-HD CRT 27" TV and Comcast digital cable. As I was sitting down last night to watch the pinnacle of consumer entertainment AKA "American Idol" I was extremely disturbed. Not only from the content, but even more so from the phenominon my TV was producing.

A Static image looks OK, but whenever there is movement, there is pixelization. The images look "chunky." Fast movement makes the entire screen look like a hodge-podge of convoluted colors and shapes. It looks like playing back an MPEG vieo file on a 486 conputer whose CPU is not fast enough to keep up.

To me, this problem is completely unbearable. It starts as a minor distraction, then it become all I can focus on, then it gets even worse and makes me ill. It disturbs my inner balance, and frankly, seeing it makes me 'not OK' with the world.

I have noticed this at various friends houses as well who also have digital cable.

I CAN'T be the only one who's seeing this. I've never seen this phenominom in the many years that I've used analog cable.

Questions:
* What is causing this?
* Do all digital cable receives/services/whatevers have this problem? Or is there some band-aid that can fix it?
* Does satellite TV (DirecTV or DISH) have this problem at all?
* HOW DO YOU GUYS COPE?!?!?

[the_bear]

The basic problem is the majority of people will pay for more channels, but not for a better picture. All the services cable/sat/internet have this problem. The best solution is to put your address into www.antennaweb.org. If you can get FOX with an over the air antenna, but one up and give your cable company the boot.

[harsh]

A Static image looks OK, but whenever there is movement, there is pixelization. The images look "chunky." Fast movement makes the entire screen look like a hodge-podge of convoluted colors and shapes. It looks like playing back an MPEG vieo file on a 486 conputer whose CPU is not fast enough to keep up.That's pretty much what is happening except the opposite direction. The 486 is trying to compress the data in real time and can't keep up. You should change to the analog channel and see of that helps. If they don't offer an analog version, try turning the box off and use your television tuner. My fear is that they are transcoding everything to digital so that the DVR receivers don't need to have encoding hardware in them.Questions:
* What is causing this?Poor feed to the head end or re-encoding/compression (unforgiveable).* Do all digital cable receives/services/whatevers have this problem? Or is there some band-aid that can fix it?Usually not on local channels. If they are compressing local material, they need a serious beating about the head and shoulders.* Does satellite TV (DirecTV or DISH) have this problem at all?Yes, but maybe more or less noticeable.* HOW DO YOU GUYS COPE?!?!?I get all of my locals via Over The Air (OTA) antenna.

Digital exists solely to reduce the bandwidth requirements for transmitting material. It is lossy and that loss manifests itself in varying levels of artifacting. The truly pathetic part is that cable has lowered itself to the level of satellite and worse.