HD Forum - NBC Olympics PQ On Main Channel

[Carl B]

Watching the first event coverage this morning, women's volleyball, on my E* LiL NBC channel (KUSA-DT), I was disappointed in the PQ. Very soft, not at all sharp (actually almost blurred). I switched to OTA and the PQ improved significantly, but then I noticed a lot of pixillation. The pixillation occurred on fast action shots and when they did quick switching between cameras. The OTA pixilation problem may be because of my local's use of a sub-channel for WeatherPlus or it could be the network. Don't know.

Given that our local and E*'s transmission of our local both lost a big piece of the opening ceremony last night "due to weather", and the HD problems this morning, so far this hasn't exactly been a wonderful Olympics viewing experience.

 

[primetimeguy]

I agree with you. The macroblocking/pixilating is in my local OTA feed (KARE Minneapolis). Watching the same channel on Dish the picture is softer and less color. I watched the Opening Ceremony last night via Dish and turned it off after 10 minutes, soft pixilated mess.

 

[Redwoodman]

I watched the opening ceremonies (KNTV San Francisco) and thought the picture quality was first rate, sharp and no pixelation.

What I did find annoying was the NBC Olympics logo hanging down into the picture. The placement somewhat in from the corner made it especially distracting. I assume it was placed there so that viewers with 4:3 sets could be annoyed as well.

 

[mike123abc]

Here we have a full bandwidth NBC-HD... The pictures have been great. But, there is a price, on the 622 recordings tend to take 25% more space (i.e. 1 hour uses up 1 hour 15 minutes of 622's estimated disk space).

 

[dlsnyder]

KNBC in Los Angeles has a very good HD picture OTA. A bit softer on the Dish feed, but still watchable. I recorded the opening ceremonies OTA last night and intend to watch them tonight - had to get to bed early for work.

 

[shodobe]

Goes to show you that it depends on where your signal is coming from. KCRA out of Sacramento is showing a very good, crisp, clear and stellar picture.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Here in CT the Dish Network signal looks better then the OTA signal as our NBC affiliate waste bandwidth with NBC Weather Plus.

 

[dlsnyder]

KNBC also has Weather Plus, as well as Raw News, which was supposed to be an unedited news feed. They quit doing that for the most part and now mostly show sporting events and news repeats.

There is really no need for Weather Plus in LA. We don't really have weather here most of the time. How many ways can they say "it's going to be sunny and hot today"?

 

[Carl B]

Dish HD of the Olympics improved over the weekend and the PQ is close to the OTA PQ. However, pixillation during fast action sequences continues from both sources. I suspect it is the dozen channels per transponder with Dish and the local's use of the WeatherPlus sub-channel with OTA. Either way, there just isn't enough bit rate to handle fast action, which BTW, the Olympics often has in abundance.

 

[gchalk]

I have noticed some people complaining about pixillation/macro blocking here and the other forum, and have even mentioned it while watching OTA.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the compression artifacts can be from anywhere in the data stream, including the production studio in China, the satellite feed from china to the US, The NBC USA production room, transmission from the network to the affiliates, and from the affiliates to their broadcast equipment, the mpeg4 encoders in the broadcast equipment, and the data stream to the re-broadcasters (Dish/Direct/Cable/Etc), and the re-broadcasters themselves.

I do not think it would be fair to blame it on Dish, there is no easy way to tell where the artifacts are being created.

 

[Carl B]

I have noticed some people complaining about pixillation/macro blocking here and the other forum, and have even mentioned it while watching OTA.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the compression artifacts can be from anywhere in the data stream, including the production studio in China, the satellite feed from china to the US, The NBC USA production room, transmission from the network to the affiliates, and from the affiliates to their broadcast equipment, the mpeg4 encoders in the broadcast equipment, and the data stream to the re-broadcasters (Dish/Direct/Cable/Etc), and the re-broadcasters themselves.

I do not think it would be fair to blame it on Dish, there is no easy way to tell where the artifacts are being created.

Please note that I complained about OTA as well as Dish. They are now exhibiting the same pixillation problem on fast action, which may have a common source or may be the result of different problems with each. I think both have a problem with too little bit-stream for fast action, but that's just me.

Other than that, Dish's PQ of my local is just a tad softer than OTA for any given local HD channel, but that is the norm and I understand the additional compression issues with Dish. Slightly softer PQ from Dish isn't my issue now. Pixillation of fast action sequences from the Olympics on both Dish and OTA are my current issue.

 

[ncted]

My OTA looks as bad as the LiL channel. There is a fine line between success and sucks a**, and NBC is on the wrong side of it in my market.

Ted

 

[Miggity]

Chalk up another one for my NBC Olympics opening ceremony looked equally like ass OTA and from Dish. In Portland, OR with a NBC Weather Plus on 8.2 ... so there's your problem.

Pixellation on fast movement and also the color red, macroblocking dark sections.