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Bad quality HD channels

I have noticed that channels such as AMC and IFC in HD are very poor quality. The picture is blotchy and has digital breakup during medium to fast action. All of my premium movie channels are very good quality, as are other non premiums such as network channels.

Anyone else have this issue? Not sure if it's Verizon, or the channel itself.

Comments

UnnDunn

AMC, IFC, Fuse and Sundance channel are distributed by their broadcaster with a lower bitrate than other channels. Their owner, AMC Networks, uses an average of 9Mbps for each channel, where other broadcasters will use between 12-19Mbps per channel. There isn't much Verizon can do about that situation; it gets the channels at low bitrate.

bobbo527

@tunatoo wrote:
I have noticed that channels such as AMC and IFC in HD are very poor quality. The picture is blotchy and has digital breakup during medium to fast action. All of my premium movie channels are very good quality, as are other non premiums such as network channels.
Anyone else have this issue? Not sure if it's Verizon, or the channel itself.

UnnDunn is abioslutely correct, it is not a Verizon issue, but an issue with the channels themselves. Picture quality is NOT the only thing that has dramatically declined with those channels.

prisaz

AMC Glitches and pausing during Ronin tonight. It made the movie almost un enjoyable. Verizon or the provider, it needs to be fixed. It did not start until it was compressed to mpg4 and Verizon crammed more on the QAM.

tns

@prisaz wrote:
AMC Glitches and pausing during Ronin tonight. It made the movie almost un enjoyable. Verizon or the provider, it needs to be fixed. It did not start until it was compressed to mpg4 and Verizon crammed more on the QAM.

Are these being sent by verizon as mpeg4? Or is just that verizon is converting them to mpeg2 at a lower rate so that 3 fit on a QAM channel.

prisaz

@tns wrote:
@prisaz wrote:
AMC Glitches and pausing during Ronin tonight. It made the movie almost un enjoyable. Verizon or the provider, it needs to be fixed. It did not start until it was compressed to mpg4 and Verizon crammed more on the QAM.

Are these being sent by verizon as mpeg4? Or is just that verizon is converting them to mpeg2 at a lower rate so that 3 fit on a QAM channel.

Good question. I had heard that they were being sent compresses by AMC TWC as mpeg4, and at a lower bitrate. You are right that VZ is probably uncompressing them to mpeg2, and then squeezing them on one QAM. But mpeg two takes more space. So is that where the drop in quality is? It rather goes againts the original grain. Verizon sends the signal out as received by the provider. Not so much anymore. I see the quality degrading on some of the HD channels, pauses, glitches, and sometimes artifacts. YES I do have excellent signal to my DVR and STBs. Thinking of options, but in my market there are only four, DTV, DISH, FiOS, or Comcast. Up until this point FiOS seems to be the best option. But if HD keeps getting worse, they need to do something, or?

I am really not sure if they still have the best quality HD. I have no comparison. I could upgrade my DTV to get HD on the one main basment TV. But that would mean purchasing equipment and/or another 2 year commitment with DTV. NOT! I know this will upset some, but Verizon would just need to add some Peruvian Spanish content and I would drop DTV. SurPeru being the #1. There are two channels that would make me pick up the Spanish package from VZ, but they will not carry them. Ony more from Mexico!

CalmDog

I am really tired of the poor quality of AMC. Since I pay verizon for HD service, I expect decent quality, and macroblocking or other picture distortion is simply not acceptable. If the problem is with the channel provider, then FIOS needs to work with that provider to fix the issue.

steven113

alot of bad picture quality lately idk y??? ESPN and all the sports channels i watch fix it

loufontinato

I have bad quality signal for NBC Sports HD and bad CNN HD. Its on all 3 boxes plus the DVR box. I tried hooking up a box directly to the incoming feed from FIOS wher it enters my house;so it is not my wiring. There is missing ,slow,or corrupted data so typically there are horizontal lines that disappear in the middle of the screen when there is a lot of data like when the camera is panning.

It got worse during the cold snap and affected more HD signals. No problem with SD.

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