Nope, mine's a shaw remote.

springle;

What did Movie Channel say about the DD5.1 audio (or lack there of)?

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.

MPEG doesn't work that way. Numbers of bits per channel refers to RGB color space, which isn't what MPEG uses. MPEG uses a YUV color space (hue-saturation-luminance). The color information (hue and saturation) is always a lot lower resolution than luminance because the eye is much less sensitive to it. The MPEG decoder (or on a PC, often the video card) is what converts that YUV data into RGB for display.

If you crunch down the bitrate enough you will get visible banding and macroblocking (though it can happen even with no extra compression sometimes), but it has nothing to do with sending fewer bits of color.

Has anyone else been getting pixelation?? I've noticed it mostly on the east feed of Fox. Its like really bad, its happening i'd say 6~7 times a minute throught the entire episode that I'll record off that channel. It looks when you have satellite and you have a weak signal so it pixelates in random places for a second or two. I haven noticed this on any of the other US network channels. Oh btw i'm refering the FOX HD East.
Now after hearing about a price increase for shaw, I think i will call and adress my concerns and complaints and see if they will give me a discount. Why oh why did I have to go with shaw:(

I've use shaws HD service and I've been noticing that the quality drops off now and again, the sounds drops out a fair bit but the most annoying thing is trying to record programs with the pvr!
If it doesn't cut off certain things such as hockey games, it will record programs on the standard def channels!
I can handle setting the record settings to run on longer but recording in standard def is really a pain in the a$$.
Does anyone know why it does this?

I'm gettig pixelation in all the channels; its worst on the HD channels. Having a tech come on Saturday to take a look; shaw gave me a month programig free becouse of the poor reception I'm having

Your post did tweak my memory regarding reading an article on MPEG years ago. I do recall arcane discussions of 4:2:2 MPEG and subtracting signals and adding up 18 past frames to get one, etc.

Nevertheless the dignal is digital and comprises Bits - 0s and 1s.

I know that DirecTV does not follow the MPEG2 Standard, but its own modification thereof in order to get the most channels on their satellite bandwidth. I suppose that they can do this because they also supply the decoders, which can then be modified to decode their particular version of MPEG2.

Presumably Shaw can do the same as their customers require a digital box from them.

I suspect that I'm seeing a Lowest Common Denominator action. Until recently most flat screen HDTVs sold had colour display limitations and banding was not uncommon. Hence, Shaw could send out a signal with inadequate colour information and upon receipt of a complaint, blame the TV set. That is, Shaw is not marketing to high end set, but to the display characteristics of the most common sets.

Personally, I wonder how many channels would disappear if Shaw's customers were allowed to select just the ones they wanted. That is, perhaps the bandwidth restrictions would diminish if a large number of virtually unwatched channels vanished. In my case, I have never watched about 95% of the available channels on my subcription.

Ultimately, that might be the only way these video and audio artifacts will disappear.

(Has anyone been able to side-by-side comparison with the Telus TV over HDSL service? That is, I believe that this service handles channel selection at the head end, not at the subscriber presmises. Hence, they only send down a couple of channels simultaneously (not 250 channels). If the DSL stays stable, the video quality could be much better.)

Is this the same issue?

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=71324

If so, I'll merge the threads.

Technically, NO. The two are quite different and presumably from different causes.

it weird, this started happening me about a week ago now,, and i've only seen it happening on fox hd east,, couple be happening elsewhere,, but yaa its quite annoying always seeing strips of blocks appear in random areas of the picture, let alone i also have to deal with macroblocking

I noticed it the other night with a recorded show on Fox East HD. I think it was New Amsterdam. It doesn't happen on any other channel though so I am assuming that it is contained to that station or feed to Shaw or whatever. If you add the sound dropouts to it, it makes for quite the aggravating experience. I ended up getting the show off the net. I will be recording the later shows on Fox West until this problem is fixed.

My wife asked me to record American Idol on Fox HD last night. When I got home and viewed it it was SD video and audio, huh? So I saw it was being rebroadcast on CTV HD and set up to record that, it was in HD. This is the second time this has happened even though at the beginning of the program a splash screen stated HD broadcast.

What gives Shaw, how come it isn't in HD when it is an HD channel?

I noticed those 'strips of blocks' for the first time last night while the wife was watching American Idol (FOX, 203 in Calgary)...granted I haven't been watching much TV lately so it may have been happening for longer.

Try finding the program on in the guide on the HD channel and set your recording from there. Leave it on This Channel Only and it will record off the HD channel by default.

I noticed this too spitoon and believe it to be a source issue.

So shaw came over to my place today, changed the patched coax in the electrical room, made some new connections for my tv cables,, but we started talking more in depth about the macroblocking issue and sound dropouts etc,, and looks like Shaw employees have a special site they report to with these problems, kinda like what this forum did for the audio dropouts,, i hope shaw is going the right track to get this issue resolved,, i wanna give them a chance but how long will it take?? anywho,, i showed him my error count screen, was hitting in the 200's of errors, he was supprised, he noted everything down,, and is suppose to get back to me on tuesday, so just thought id let you guys know that theres work being done on their end and hopefully we can start seeing some improvements in the next few weeks.

I showed him my error count screen, was hitting in the 200's of errors, he was supprised, he noted everything down,, and is suppose to get back to me on tuesday, so just thought id let you guys know that theres work being done on their end and hopefully we can start seeing some improvements in the next few weeks.

Shaw will come to my house tomorrow morning to check on these macroblocking, sound and picture dropouts on almost every channel in my end.
How can i show the tech the error count screen?

using the shaw remote, power off the dct, then press select, youll see a diag screen, go down to number 4, inband status and youll see a 5 sec error count.

using the shaw remote, power off the dct, then press select, youll see a diag screen, go down to number 4, inband status and youll see a 5 sec error count.
Thanks!....
After the Shaw tech came in, he gave me a brand new sealed 160 Gb HD PVR in exchange for the refurbished that was acting up. Hopefully I dont see blocks and audio drop outs from now on, so that my wife can get to record and watch her soap opera; or Shaw will have a pretty nasty phone call from her. :cool:

National Geographic was atrocious last night. I was goign to take pics, btu company was over and I was embarrased that they'd say "you pay for this?" and turned it off. Well, the Canucks game was on too, in glorious upconverted 4:3!!! Yay CBC!!!