When did FiOS start compressing video?

[Didjit011]

One of the main reasons I switched from Comcast was that I was fed-up with lousy video quality.  But FiOS, I was told, didn't compress video and just passed through the full HD stream.  Any doubts I had were answered with the latest Game of Thrones episode.  Yes, the one everyone's complaining about because it was too dark. That's not my complaint, but what it made obvious is all the compression that's being done.  Huge amounts of banding/posterizing in the shadows.  Huge swaths of the image not updating and smearing. It was almost literally unwatchable, and I know I'm not alone in this.

When did FiOS start doing this?  Why would FiOS do this at all, much less on premium channels?  Wasn't this the whole point of having a pure optical network?

[rove1]

Same issue here. Had to switch to HBO Go midshow just to make it watchable. The compression was horrible. Got me thinking if I should cut the cord. 

[CRobGauth · Accepted solution]

When they started differs on different channels.

The why is to fit more channels in.

Even though they have an optical network, the final delivery is via qam.

There are limited qam channels so to fit more channels in the same space, compression is needed.

[Didjit011]

Yeah, I'm so done with this **bleep**  I'll be dropping phone and TV as soon as my contract is up.