ABC Superbowl OTA picture/sound breakup
Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 11:00 am
After years of waiting my ABC digital affiliate went on the air (and cable) with the Superbowl in HDTV this year!
On the whole the picture/sound was fantastic, however whenever ABC ran their flashy graphics and occasionally on commercial cutaways the picture would freeze into pixels and the sound would quit briefly - a second or less. This rarely happened during the game itself.
I am getting this OTA about 10 miles from the transmitter that I can see from my roof, but they are still at low power and my DirecTV HD 10-250 receiver signal strength is only 71-75. Two other HDTV stations I have are in the 90s and do not break up. The antenna is a UHF/VHF combo with a CM 7777 preamp, I tried tweaking the antenna direction, but it did not help.
During the past week while the station was testing their new HD transmission I watched a number of ABC network HD shows and none had this pixel breakup- it was only the Superbowl. I have been getting PBS HD for the past year and never had this pixel breakup problem at any time- they are at signal strength 92.
I suspect it was the station's encoding overloading on the rapid fire motion of the graphics and not my antenna or receiver.
However I would be interested in the possibilities.
I now get PBS, NBC, and ABC in HD, with CBS and FOX still lagging. Only had to wait 7 years after getting a HD monitor, but am happy being able finally to join the HD club!
Now to get CBS and Fox to move to HD too.
On the whole the picture/sound was fantastic, however whenever ABC ran their flashy graphics and occasionally on commercial cutaways the picture would freeze into pixels and the sound would quit briefly - a second or less. This rarely happened during the game itself.
I am getting this OTA about 10 miles from the transmitter that I can see from my roof, but they are still at low power and my DirecTV HD 10-250 receiver signal strength is only 71-75. Two other HDTV stations I have are in the 90s and do not break up. The antenna is a UHF/VHF combo with a CM 7777 preamp, I tried tweaking the antenna direction, but it did not help.
During the past week while the station was testing their new HD transmission I watched a number of ABC network HD shows and none had this pixel breakup- it was only the Superbowl. I have been getting PBS HD for the past year and never had this pixel breakup problem at any time- they are at signal strength 92.
I suspect it was the station's encoding overloading on the rapid fire motion of the graphics and not my antenna or receiver.
However I would be interested in the possibilities.
I now get PBS, NBC, and ABC in HD, with CBS and FOX still lagging. Only had to wait 7 years after getting a HD monitor, but am happy being able finally to join the HD club!
Now to get CBS and Fox to move to HD too.
