I don't know but I am really getting frustrated. Last night on Discovery a guys lighting a match produced massive macroblocking. I didn't have energy to go find batteries for the camera. At this point I feel I'm banging my head off a brick wall anyway.

I've gotten to the point where it looks better to watch the SD channels in some cases as my Panasonic plasma does such a good job with its "just" mode for stretching 4:3 programming.
'

I hear you jfplay, but even the SD from Shaw is kinda crappy compared to what I was used to with Bev's SD. I got shaw to due to not being allowed having a dish on my balcony for bev, but i only had it for HD, the building has bev service but only nimiq 91,, well maybe id be happier with just sd service from bev and screw hd period as both providers seem to be suffering. sad reality for hd in canada...:confused:

Well I just got back from Future Shop in DT Vancouver and doing some comparisons with their Samsung plasma hooked up to the Shaw HDPVR...I know it's not an exact science for a number of reasons, but that picture looked worse than mine!

The hockey game on TSN was abysmal looked better on the CRT next door when I went for coffee) CTV was looking like youtube, as usual. Macroblocking galore on DiscoveryHD and NGHD.

This has definetely getting worse. And it's not just a few people. I have no problem believing some people don't notice it, but it's there.

This has definetely getting worse. And it's not just a few people. I have no problem believing some people don't notice it, but it's there.
EXACTLY!!! Some claim they have no macroblocking, i think they just dont have the eye to catch it like some of us can.

Hate to break it to you, but my signal is just fine (apart from the occasional audio drop). So don't be slagging folks because you don't believe them.

What part of Calgary do you live in, Nanuuk?

I have seen problems happening simultaneously in Coventry and Bridlewood, opposite ends of the city.

I can see macroblocking, but I still think its looks damned better than the SD equivelant.

I came from telus, and they're SD macroblock was substantially worse, than shaw. I did notice the macroblock on shaw HD, that the blocks are smaller in size, probably because of the higher resolution.

I also noticed it looks a fair bit better in 1080i than 720p. But i'll take hockey on CBC HD or TSN HD or channel 298 any day over SD, SD still looks awful in comparison.

I would opted for satellite too, except my apartment faces north, i'm close to ground level (so i don't want the dish stolen), and i'm not even sure i could have one if i wanted to.

I guess telus macroblocking was so bad, I can tolerate in on shaw hd :)

Lake Bonavista, a community built in 1973. A buddy lives in Parkland, also without issues.

Nanuuk, maybe you could PM me your phone number so the next time I am seeing major problems I could give you a call and see if you are having any problems with the same channels? Just a thought. Don't know if you care to do this or not but it would give us just one more 'sample' for Shaw to digest.

American Idol last night was terrible for macroblocking. I paused a sceen to answer the phone and the amound of macroblocking was stunning. Now that I have noticed it, it is all that I can see. I have sent an email to shaw to complain about this.

I've had a chance to read some of the posts recently and I can see I'm not the only one who is disappointed with the Shaw HD Experience.

I too am having audio drop out issues, if I can be of help volunteering for this Shaw focus group, would someone please contact me?

Other issues I've been experiencing:

- Audio drop outs or other glitches which happen while a program is recorded can corrupt the recorded show on PVR, e.g.: I can watch a show half way through until I hit a black void where I can't fast forward, rewind or play anymore, and sometimes the picture becomes pixelated and the program freezes.

- Audio is sometimes out of sync with Video with recorded programs.

- Set top box freezes / locks up for 10-20 seconds sometimes, ignores remote control, even though it's keeping track of all the buttons I press. When it finally decides to work again, the sequence of keys are all fired at once.

- Artifacts on HD channels, video quality does not seem up to par for HD content.

- VOD button on the menu apparently is broken, can only access VOD from the VOD button on the remote (I only use about 10% of the buttons on the shaw remote, didn't even know that button existed).

- VOD is slow in general, interface, browsing, connecting status and playback control is all very poor.

- The i-Guide/TV Guide interface is pure crap and full of bugs and usability issues, Shaw does not seem to be too concerned about this, and are quick to lay the blame on the software developers (tv guide?). I would have expected Shaw to pressure them into at least making bug fixes a priority. As an interface developer by trade, I am shocked that this interface is used so widely but is so poorly constructed.

Please contact me if I can be of any help.

PS: I've had Shaw HD for almost a year now, and am located in downtown Vancouver.

Thanks

Shaw bought me out with the PVR sat swap, so far I'm on my second receiver and this one will likely get returned some time in the future as it's flakey.

I gotta say, being a Bell HD customer for a couple of years I think their product was better, although my HD receiver wasn't a PVR. Still, the HD receiver I did own was no where as flakey as these Motorola's.

At some point in time I could definitely see contacting Bell to see if their interested in buying me out of Shaw. Seeing as the PVR was free it allows me to overlook alot, but the flakiness of it gets rather annoying.

In the last 2-3 days I've noticed the DVR is really slow to respond to commands. Sometimes it takes 5-6 seconds. Once I thought I missed the sensor and hit a couple of other buttons...ten seconds later mayhem ensued.

Also noticing more and more channels are out of sync audio wise.

I have noticed what others have reported: that pixelation occurs in HD video during action scenes, that audio dropouts occur.

I first ordered Shaw's HD service back in 2004 when there was no tier and only 6 channels (in Vancouver). Pixelation was present then too.

Then it improved. I didn't log dates, but did notice a distinct improvement in the HD video. I assumed that Shaw had simply improved the carrying capacity of their network and was no longer trying to squeeze the bandwidth in order to offer more channels.

Then they started adding HD channels. Now there are 22 in my area and the pixelation and audio dropouts have returned. These are easy to see. Shaw probably hopes that the viewers just learn to expect and accept such glitches.

Meanwhile I assume that they are again adding capacity to their Network to imcrease the number of channels that they can carry. I have noticed that ExpressVu advertises that they have 60 HD channels.

But something else bugs me. Something I have seen no one else complain about. I have a new XBR4 which is capable of processing 10 bit colour/channel.

I am seeing colour banding on some Shaw channels during action scenes. I know it's not my TV. For example I watched ULTRAVIOLET on channel 212 (which was broadcast in DD5.1) and saw extensive colour banding in the video. So I suspect that Shaw is also cheating the viewer on the colour depth as well.

Does anyone know how to measure the transmitted colour depth? I assume that the digital standard must be 24-bit colour (or 8 bits/channel).

...But something else bugs me. Something I have seen no one else complain about. I have a new XBR4 which is capable of processing 10 bit colour/channel.

I am seeing colour banding on some Shaw channels during action scenes. I know it's not my TV. For example I watched ULTRAVIOLET on channel 212 (which was broadcast in DD5.1) and saw extensive colour banding in the video. So I suspect that Shaw is also cheating the viewer on the colour depth as well.

Does anyone know how to measure the transmitted colour depth? I assume that the digital standard must be 24-bit colour (or 8 bits/channel).

I have noticed what you are talking about. It was especially apparent on an episode of Medium a couple weeks ago. There was some shading on a wall and you could clearly see the division in colour. It was almost like looking at a picture on a computer set to 256 colours.

I think it all boils down to the simple fact that 'digital' is just that - digital. Everything is done in 'steps' and unfortunately the technology was only developed to the point where it 'looks good enough'. Now, with all the addition of channels and other services, things are being 'shaved' even more and the result is the poor quality picture. It falls into the same category as Cel phones. That technology is just the same, 'just good enough'. Nothing is ever 'perfect' any more. With the millions of dollars spent developing these systems, it has to be recouped as soon as the product is 'good enough' and deliverable.

We are all just victims of commercialism in it's finest form. We want more and better service but it is being delivered at a price; lower overall quality. And, with the impending switch to 'all digital' in the years ahead, all we can do is hope it gets better sooner rather than later. I, for one, doubt it will.

I guess what I am trying to say is this; colour banding is part of digital tv, no matter how much you spend on your equipment. There will need to be an entire generation type change take place before this ever changes.

Jetranger, I disagree that there is a fundamental problem with going digital. It's not the technology that is 'just good enough'... HDTV looks great when done right. There is no need for a "generation type change" to take place.

The problem is that the carriers (Shaw etc) choose to use higher compression rather than allocate sufficient bandwidth for the signal. The carriers are the ones deciding what compression level gives results that are 'good enough', and they are the ones we have to convince that we aren't going to accept their definition of 'good enough'.

Don't let their poor choices get you down, especially when you have spent good money on equipment that can and WILL give you a better picture, if only Shaw would deliver one to you. Don't blame "digital"... it's not at fault. Shaw is.

It's good to see you still have some optimism left, technut.:D

Let's agree to disagree and know that we both hold Shaw responsible at this point, n'est pas?

When I observed that Movie Central on Shaw was not delivering DD5.1 audio on some of the better movies, I didn't send an e-mail to Shaw, but to MC. (They actually replied!).

However, for the broadcast colour depth, I am certain that Shaw is the culprit. Years ago, when DirecTV started this crap, they initially used MPEG1 and within a year or so of coming on air, sent down software which allowed the IRDs to receive and decode MPEG2.

Then they moved from the technical standard of MPEG2 to use different compression rates for different channels. News channels, being fairly static received more compression and sports channels received less. Nowadays, I suspect that they use the broadcast delay to modify compression on the fly, something like 2-pass Variable Bit Rates. With a 2-second broadcast delay, a computer could determine that the compression needs to change and do so on the fly.

JPEG images are by definition, 24-bit colour. Have you ever seen colour banding in a JPEG image? No. Not even when I show a JPEG on my TV.

So I assume that Shaw is sending us something less than 8 bits/channel. It surprised me that they would do this on an HD movie channel. If, for example, they are sending us 6 bits/channel, then they are saving 25% of the video bandwidth required for that channel. That's a big savings. It's probably the primary source of extra bandwidth for them. Note that HDMI 1.3 defines up to 16 bits/channel. Billions and billions more colours.

Do you have a universal remote by any chance? I've noticed the box doesn't respond like it should recently and it seemed to coincide with the purchase of a Logitech Harmony 880.