WTMJ HD Horrible Picture Quality for Sports?

[RonH]

I want to confirm that I am not the only one that notices horrible HD quality for NBC sports on WTMJ.  It doesn't seem to matter if I go OTA or TWC.  Normal TV shows look fine in HD, other channels like CBS, ABC, and FOX look great for sports, so it's not a 1080i vs 720p thing.  NBC sports in HD are grainy, and seem to be pixelated whenever there is movement.  I can't believe NBC would be sending out a signal like this.

I read through the forums and saw a few mentions of this but nothing explicit.

[markd]

I'm just curious...what type of TV technology are you viewing on?  I have a new 32" LCD that I've noticed some "screen-door effect" on HD channels that otherwise look great on my Panny PDP.

[Mark Strube]

There have been other threads about this... the bitrate on NBC is lowered since they're also carrying the Weather Plus channel. CBS also has lowered bitrate, due to them also carrying WLMW... they have slightly better encoders than NBC, but people have complained about the picture getting blocky during sports on that channel as well. TV shows on NBC probably look better because there is overall less motion, the image is more filtered (shot on film most of the time - hence less random detail), and it's also progressive (basically 1080p inside the 1080i signal), instead of fully interlaced like sports.

[VoidXero]

The NFL games on CBS are pixellated but nowhere near as bad as they are on NBC. I find the Sunday night games unwatchable. Please fix this WTMJ!

[Mark Strube]

Please fix this WTMJ!

Not gonna happen unless either they decide that Weather Plus isn't worth it, or they get very new, very good encoders.

[Mikey]

It's not just sports...it seems to me everything on WTMJ-HD is lacking quality.

SNL this past Saturday was unwatchable.  Constant video AND audio "stutters" made it so annoying I couldn't stand it.

Are they seeing how bad their HD quality is?  If so, don't they give a $hit?

I got into the HD game back in September and WTMJ-HD is by far the most ****-poor channel for HD quality.

Booooooooooooooooo.  :bang:

[Bebop]

4-2 is not taking up that much bandwidth. I checked on Sunday, CBS and NBC  are using about the same amount of bandwidth for football.
 I'll check again on Sunday.

[VoidXero]

As much as I love the extra resolution of 1080i I think it just isn't a pratical choice right now with the bandwidth contraints of current broadcast and cable technologies (especially when they decide to further reduce the bitrate with useless sub channels).

I know 720p ends up consuming almost as much bandwidth as 1080i but it seems to be much easier to compress in real time. While I notice the resolution drop off on ABC/FOX/ESPN (compared to the 1080i networks) I also notice how much more stable the picture is. CBS/NBC/TNT (and even INHD/HDNET at times) all have varying amounts of pixellation in their sports broadcasts that end up being distracting to point of making me change the channel.

Maybe if the switch to MPEG-4 AVC is made 1080i will be more pratical. Until then, I wish all of the networks delivering HD would just use 720p. An unhappy compromise I know...