Digital Cable Macroblocking

[BrainStorm69]

I have Comcast digital cable. Every so often on the movie channels, I get what appears to be macroblocking just watching my TV. Would this be from the encoding at Comcast's end, the decoding at my end in my cablebox, or something else in between?

I'm wondering if trying to get Comcast to give me a newer cablebox (perhaps with a better decoder chip) would help, or if there is anything else I can do.

[Soopafresh]

I get the same just from over the air HDTV signals sometimes. Whenever the musical guest is performing on Leno, the macroblocking goes crazy. With all the movement and stage lights going on and off, I'm guessing their encoding bit rate isn't high enough to handle it. My guess is your problem is on THEIR side.

[Richard_G]

Digital cable companies limit the bandwidth per channel so they can fit the maximum number of channels per multiplex. This means that the received picture quality is adequate for the average viewer. Anyone who comes to this site isn't going to be the average viewer and is going to notice the artifacts, when the rest of the public won't. Digital satellite is even worse as the broadcaster has to pay for the bandwidth so won't spend more than they have to. MTV in Europe from the Sky network is a prime example, The bitrate is so low that the only time you don't see artifacts is when there is a still image, the rest of the time it looks disgusting.

A newer box may help but I doubt it, it is down to the low bitrate they are sending the signal out at.

[BJ_M]

some of it is really bad -- i notice a lot of the wipes now on cable company ads and such are even done as blocks to try to hide the macrobocks between scenes ...

the quality is awful - in relationship to what we pay ...