specific channel or alot of channels?
The effect is called Macroblocking - This occurs when the encoder cannot process the amount of data within the allocated bandwidth. MPEG encoders use lossy compression that removes data during higher compression. What you are seeing is an example of the broadcaster not using a wide enough bandwidth or an incorrect compression routine for the content that they are uplinking. The Macroblock appears to be blurry blocks with reduced resolution during scenes containing rapid video changes due to movement or rapid changes in the content.
Turbosat is referring to Microblocking, which is often confused with Macroblocking. Microblocking occurs when a receiver is unable to successfully decode the signal. This could be the result of a dish out of alignment, incorrect LNBF skew, defective LNBF, bad cabling, defective decoder, etc. Microblocking errors can occur in both the audio and video decoding resulting in a stuttering audio or random blank blocks in the video.
Sounds like your lnb is going bad, or you got something partially blocking it. Had a windstorm lately? Dish might not be tracking as well as it was in the past.
Sorry Brian I'm with Turbo/ Ice on this one MacroB is virtually always a transmission fault and rarely on more than one TP. This sounds more like MicroB a minor alignment fault.
- Microblocking errors will display blocks of black or primary colors in place of the missing video information.
- Macroblocking errors display blocks containing appropriate images with reduced resolution.
You are correct to point out that Macroblocking is an issue on the transmission end. We observe Macroblocking constantly with the contracted DVBS channels on multiple transponders carrying the the DTH muxes.
Most DTH broadcasters allocate about 2meg of their uplink budget to the VPID. We often note that broadcasters often also select an unnecessarily high resolution for the bandwidth with the belief that the higher resolution is better. While this choice supports a talking head application, it will cause encoding issues with rapid changes in the picture content (fast movement, camera moves, changes in colors, luminance, etc.).
How does a viewer know if the blocking is a result of a Micro or Macro effect?
- Microblocking errors will display blocks of black or primary colors in place of the missing video information.
- Macroblocking errors display blocks containing appropriate images with reduced resolution.
Brian, this is how I understand it, Microblocking is the effect of a macroblocked transmission.
Macroblock is a term used in video compression, which represents a block of 16 by 16 pixels. Each macroblock contains 4 Y (luminance) block, 1 Cb (blue color difference) block, 1 Cr (red color difference) block (4:2:0). (It also could be represented by 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 YCbCr format). Macroblocks can be subdivided further into smaller blocks, called partitions, H.264, supports block sizes as small as 4x4. Hence it is not as noticeable on HD
Macroblocking is a non-technical term used when macroblocks are either missing or show up as video errors, or when bandwidth is not enough to encode fine detail. Square areas of the picture do not show the correct portion of the image. Instead they either show a single color block, or a low-resolution block with noticeable edges. Commercial decoders hide these types of errors with a technique called error concealment. Consumer equipment often call it an MPEG Noise Reduction system and of course they raely work well.
Microblocking mosaicking or pixelating is the effect of those results on the DTV receiver when is unable to successfully decode a received signal due to missing data. The distorted image resembles off-color boxes appearing somewhat randomly on the screen sometimes with audio gaps or pauses, a result of excessive television packet loss of data resulting in decoding errors.
Are we actually saying the same thing a different way around.