HD Reciever Question

[PhilMays]

I have a sony HD 200 reciever and HD service from Direct TV. I live in the country and cable is not an option. I also cannot reciever open air signals.

My question is that when watching HD TV that when a signal moves fast from one scene to the next I see alot of digital blocks on the screen, kind of like a cheap DVD player when running through busy scenes.

Is this common or a function of my HD reciever?

[nicholtl]

Same here, philmays. I have the same unit, and the same problem, sometimes. But I'm receiving my signal over the air. Maybe it's due to bad broadcast signal from the station?

[Olorin]

Phil,

It really sounds more like compression artifacts coming off the satellite than a problem with the receiver. I think you should run a cable directly from the DirecTV unit to the television and see if the problem persists.

[gcoker]

What type of display are you using? I have heard of LCD's and

Plasmas having the pixelating? But it could be the receiver.

Does it happen more with Action Movies and Sports or all types?

[Frzninvt]

I see the same sort of thing you are talking about on my DirecTV receiver. It is not a HD receiver that I know of, it is an upgraded model though that has the DD outputs. When a picture quickly shifts or changes I get a brief pixelation and then it clears.

[PhilMays]

I see it more on HD programing and not as much on regular programming. My display is a Pioneer 53" RPTV and the video signal is passed straight to the TV.

I didn't know if this is how things are supposed to be right now or if perhaps the Sony HD receivers had this problem. I know I can get a Hughes receiver and I think a Phillips that work with Direct TV. I choose the Sony over those two simply because I thought Sony had a better name.

It is frustrating when we spend so much on HD signals and get this as a result. It reallyshows we are still in the "infant" stages of HD reception.

[MrMcGoo]

Olorin nailed the cause. The bandwidth required by HD is quite high. Bandwidth on a satelite is very expensive. Hence compression saves money for Direct.

The artifacts are apparent during rapid motion. Hence it is safe to say that too much compression is being used. On the Superbowl, you will not see the motion artifacts. Direct will allocate more bandwidth due to the size of the audience.

Bill

[PhilMays]

Let's see...I have the cable going to the sat recvr and component video going directly to the TV. Is that what your talking about?

[Olorin]

I'm sorry, I misunderstood what you meant by "receiver." I thought of HT receiver, not satellite receiver. (No wonder I didn't understand how the HT receiver could be making a difference. ) Just the same, I still believe you're dealing with compression artifacts. I don't know enough about it, though, to know if a different receiver might do a better job or if this is just inherent in the technology.

[PhilMays]

Thanks Olorin for clarifying. I was really "against the ropes" trying to figure that one out.

[JJkizak]

To the best of my knowledge those artifacts vary from station to station

depending on where the broadcast is originating from. During the olympics there were several instances of that very short pixelation during every scene change and its probably due to the satellite feed but it rarely happens on Monday Night Football. All broadcasts are transmitted with the MPEG2 19.7 megs

data stream and thats why the new "HDV" format was created as it is the same quality as the networks are broadcasting. Cable, Satellite, and over the air tuners are all different as in our ego oriented system of doing things everyone wants his own system and could care less about any other system.

You will also get artifacts from a poor signal however they will occurr at any time, not just during a scene change. One of the previous posts have also said that bandwidth is at a premium. If you get those artifacts on all of your channels you have a problem.

JJK