Poor PQ on CBS 58 for Badgers Game?

[RonH]

They've also been broadcasting in 720P all weekend too.  Not sure what is going on there.

[DooMer_MP3]

Just wanted to also note that during the first round, while watching the Badgers, the movement was quite pixelated (TWC subscriber). I know its 1080i, but it didn't look all that hot. Especially during motion/transitions.

[jeffski]

I also noticed  much pixilating on the WI/Davidson game ..no wait...that was actually WI being PICKed apart :bang:

[RonH]

Horrible break ups and pixelation during the ncaa tourney finals today as well.  And I don't think a rescan will fix this... OTA and TWC.

[Snoogins]

Just wanted to chime in that I'm seeing the same thing during the final game (9pm currently).  I'm watching via TWC in New Berlin, and there were tons of breakups from the time I turned it on 5 min's before tipoff.  I've noticed over the last 10 minutes that it appears to be better, but it was pretty bad before that.

I had ESPN-HD and HGTV-HD on for about 90 min's before turning on CBS, and had no breakups at all, so I don't think it's a cabling/amp issue...

[Snoogins]

Sigh - disregard my comment re: it being better recently.  It's still breaking up like crazy...:mad:

[DanDyer]

RonH,
We are monitoring the broadcast at our studio and transmitter sites with no breakups occurring.  I myself have been at the transmitter site all evening (go Kansas!).  As for TWC, we have been in touch with TWC and they say they have not seen any problems and recommend that the end user call TWC to have service reps check the cabling.  BTW, your post originally said 7:52pm, but now it says 8:52pm.  The game did not start until 8:21pm, with coverage starting at 8:00pm.
Dan Dyer
Chief Engineer

[RonH]

I don't know how my post says 7:52, that is odd, I can assure you it was 8:52 when I posted.  The odd timing of my post may be because I am watching the game time delayed for the most part, so I didn't start watching it until around that time.  My OTA comments are based on trying to debug the issue earlier in the week, and I saw the same issue.  I'm tempted to switch to OTA and see if the issue still exists there, but then I will miss the entire 3rd period!

[tekdredger]

Terrible breakups on TWC 505 in Franklin tonight.  It made the game almost unwatchable.  I also noticed the analog channels looked weak and noisy too so it probably is a Time Warner problem.  My neighbor down the block had the same complaints.  I suspect the heavy winds we had today may have caused some damage somewhere.

[hormy_83]

I don't think it was a TWC issue.  I was watching on TWC and had horrible breakups and pixilation.  I was watching live so I switched over to OTA and still had it.  Didn't seem to be any better at all.

I did notice towards the end of the game it did improve quite a bit.  It was almost so bad at the beginning that I thought of switching over to SD :mad:

[Mikey]

TWC 505 up in Grafton was AWFUL last night.  

My wife had on their 2 shows before the game and the breakups during the show and during the commercials (all commercial, no pickiness between HD and non-HD ones) was the worst I've seen it.  

Once the game started, there was no difference, constant pixelation, slight screen freezes...it was terrible, I deemed it unwatchable.

We turned it to 504, 506 and 512 just to compare, watched each for 5 mins or so and saw virtually zero pixelation.

What the hell is going on with CBS58 on TWC?

[brewtownska]

I was watching the game on TWC via a Samsung QAM tuner, and I actually LOST the channel about 5 mins into the 2nd half.  I left the room, came back, and a different channel was on the TV.  Went through all my available channels and no CBS to be found.  Did a rescan, channel didn't come back.  I had to turn on analog 5 in order to watch the rest of the game

This must be either a signal strength issue on my end, or a PSIP data issue where my box doesn't see the info it needs to tune to the channel.  I also have a problem where I can't get PBS-HD.

[bubbaridesfast]

I think there were more PQ problems the first weekend of the tourney but there were still problems in the final last night. I'm sure these are probably at the network level.

If anyone dvr'ed the championship, there was some really bad break-ups when the game got under 30 seconds to play before the overtime.
There were others but I didn't note when they occurred.
BTW, I watch OTA via a D* H20-100. I reset both of the H20-100's I run at halftime by uplugging them for 2 minutes and still had some PQ problems especially as I stated above around the 25-30 seconds remaining in regulation.

[Martyus]

I too had lots of break-ups and pixelation on CBS 58.1 during the NCAA final last night. I am watching via OTA.

I weekly watch (record) Survivor and CSI on the same channel and have never had problems with CBS 58.1. However, every NCAA game I have watched on CBS 58.1 had some type of break-up or pixelation problem. I have to wonder if the NCAA problems have something to do with the national feed.

[brewtownska]

I too had lots of break-ups and pixelation on CBS 58.1 during the NCAA final last night. I am watching via OTA.

I weekly watch (record) Survivor and CSI on the same channel and have never had problems with CBS 58.1. However, every NCAA game I have watched on CBS 58.1 had some type of break-up or pixelation problem. I have to wonder if the NCAA problems have something to do with the national feed.

Your comment made me think of something.  I've always been curious about the national feed and what gets done to it before it makes it to our homes.  Does CBS58 get a 19Mbps feed that they could pass-thru as-is (though we know they multi-cast, so they have to compress this more), or do they get a much higher bit-rate feed from national that they have to re-encode to match the resolution and bit-rate they choose to display locally?