[kvandmx]

Hi all.
I've been watching shark week episodes ie: 2 hr Myth busters. and some others. I have been noticing alot of macroblocking going on especially with the shots of water and fast moving content. Has anyone else been experiencing this or am I the only one?



HR21-200 connected HDMI
Sony Bravia 46" LCD.

 

[Jeremy W]

Discovery is known to send out their channels at less than stellar bitrates to begin with, so it's not surprising.

 

[kvandmx]

Is the bit rate "Shared" amoung all the channels and some receive more than others? The quality seems to vary from hour to hour day to day. I watched Twister on StarzHD Last night and the picture was incredible fast motion scenes were not affected. I watched parts of the same movie on the same channel not too long ago and the quality was terrible. Major macroblocking during fast action scenes. What gives? Sat signal strengths are always in the high 80's low 90's

 

[Jeremy W]

Is the bit rate "Shared" amoung all the channels and some receive more than others?

Yes.

 

[Jason Whiddon]

Isnt Disc still mpeg2 also?

 

[syphix]

(Discovery) HD Theater IS still MPEG2.

Discovery HD is MPEG4.

 

[Jason Whiddon]

Ewww, then Disc should be ashamed.

 

[SSpectre]

Ewww, then Disc should be ashamed.

Yeah, the macroblocking on Mythbusters was terrible. I'm sure the Shark Week theme didn't help (all the water and such), but at times the entire screen was a blocky mess.

 

[d max82]

I watched Mythbusters Sunday night on Comcast Hd with no macroblocking.

 

[kvandmx]

I watched Mythbusters Sunday night on Comcast Hd with no macroblocking.

Normally DiscoveryHD Looks really good thats why I was suprised about Mythbusters on Sunday. Very dissapointing.

 

[D*HR-20]

I watched Mythbusters this Sunday on DirecTV and there was no problems for me with an HR20-700 on a Sony Bravia 46" XBR2.

 

[kvandmx]

I watched Mythbusters this Sunday on DirecTV and there was no problems for me with an HR20-700 on a Sony Bravia 46" XBR2.

I had Problems on Discovery All day Monday with Macroblocking. I have the same TV.

 

[LameLefty]

I watched Mythbusters this Sunday on DirecTV and there was no problems for me with an HR20-700 on a Sony Bravia 46" XBR2.

Me too. No issues at all Sunday afternoon/evening on my HR21-700 through my 56" Samsung DLP.

 

[kvandmx]

Yeah, the macroblocking on Mythbusters was terrible. I'm sure the Shark Week theme didn't help (all the water and such), but at times the entire screen was a blocky mess.

I guess we are the only 2 SSpectre!

 

[BattleScott]

I didn't notice the blocking, but I did notice, i think it was on the 'Air Jaws' show that they are doing some weird stretching or zooming. Many times if there were graphics of text they were cropped off.

 

[donkeylips]

I get crazy amounts of pixelation/motion artifacting from all the Discovery Net HD channels (except HD Theater), and the Scripps channels and Smithsonian when Im watching my 46" Sony XBR4. Most other channels are fine other than the MPEG-2's.

On my 50" Sony SXRD XBR1 I see next to nothing on the above metioned channels as far as artifacting goes. This leads me to believe that alot of peoples problems with motion artifacting are related to their HDTV's, maybe calibration/settings issues, I dont know, Im def no expert on these things.

That is the only logical explanation I can come up with as to why I see mass artifacting on one set and not the other. Neither set is calibrated though, btw.

 

[gregjones]

I didn't notice the blocking, but I did notice, i think it was on the 'Air Jaws' show that they are doing some weird stretching or zooming. Many times if there were graphics of text they were cropped off.

Discovery crops the entire channel. They clip the top and bottom off for a 16:9 image. This is fairly usual, though unpopular, on their channels.

 

[Jeremy W]

Discovery crops the entire channel. They clip the top and bottom off for a 16:9 image.

Actually, they crop it to a 14:9 image. That's why there are still skinny black bars on the sides. It's better than stretch-o-vision, but that's not saying much.

 

[kvandmx]

I get crazy amounts of pixelation/motion artifacting from all the Discovery Net HD channels (except HD Theater), and the Scripps channels and Smithsonian when Im watching my 46" Sony XBR4. Most other channels are fine other than the MPEG-2's.

On my 50" Sony SXRD XBR1 I see next to nothing on the above metioned channels as far as artifacting goes. This leads me to believe that alot of peoples problems with motion artifacting are related to their HDTV's, maybe calibration/settings issues, I dont know, Im def no expert on these things.

That is the only logical explanation I can come up with as to why I see mass artifacting on one set and not the other. Neither set is calibrated though, btw.

I could see that being an issue, However....Other channels look fine and I do not experience the macroblocking on DiscoveryHD on a regular basis. It is just not possible to calibrate the tv on a per channel basis! Like I said in a previous post. I watched Twister on two different occasions on the same channel. StarzHD. And the first time the program was loaded with motion artifacts and the second time it was just beautiful.

 

[Googer]

Glad I'm not the only one that thought the Mythbusters shark special on Sunday night looked pretty awful with blocking and overfiltering everywhere (there were times when the chain mail Adam was wearing was close to just a flat gray with no definition or any discernible chain links or texture in it at all even though it was a low motion scene). It was especially noticeable on my 106" projection (Sony VW-50 SXRD) setup, but then just about any flaw in the source is.