HD enthusiasts crying foul over cable TV's crunched signals

By CHRIS WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer, Technology / Telecom

Brent Swanson sits in front of a screen projection in his basement home theater in Minneapolis on Thursday, April 10, 2008. He and other HD viewers question whether they are getting the quality they paid for, as cable providers pack more HD channels into a limited bandwidth. (AP Photo/Janet Hostetter)

(AP) -- In Brent Swanson's basement home theater, there should be nothing drab about "Battlestar Galactica." He's got a high-end projector that beams the picture onto a wall painted like a silver screen, and speakers loom in the corners, flanking two big subwoofers.

Content from The Associated Press expires 15 days after original publication date. For more information about The Associated Press, please visit www.ap.org .

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Posted by Corvidae 04/21/08 10:01

Rank: 5/5 after 9 votes

They degrade the signal on the SciFi channel and expected not to catch flak about it?!?! There's probably room for compression amongst the channels, (Food network in HD?!?!) But to downgrade the geekiest channel in the line up is going draw attention and complaints pretty quick.

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Posted by Nikola 04/21/08 11:55

Rank: 5/5 after 5 votes

Well said Corvidae. And also, once again, sports gets preference over science at all times in the media in this country. There are hundreds of channels of 'ball' but only a few science channels. Kinda like the Romans who became more concerned with entertainment (coliseum) than with keeping their civilization from collapsing. No wonder we're in this sorry shape.

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Posted by mrlewish 04/21/08 14:38

Rank: 4/5 after 4 votes

hmm would this not be breach of contract? If I subscribe to a channel should I not get it as the orginal broadcaster intended? What if they showed only the left or right side of the screena and cut out half the sound? Could they still charge me full price?

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Posted by Glis 04/21/08 15:25

Rank: 4.5/5 after 4 votes

Digital TV was always crap. They took advantage of the compression the day it rolled out. Half the SD channels on Dish look like they are youtube streams, while the HD channels look slightly better than what uncompressed SD should! They've purposely been degrading the SD channels to make the HD look better, even though they've compressed the HD into an artifact saturated mess.

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Posted by zevkirsh 04/21/08 20:23

Rank: 1/5 after 1 vote

stock ticker bbnd....solution to all these problems and more.

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Posted by deepsand 04/22/08 17:49

Rank: 3.67/5 after 3 votes

hmm would this not be breach of contract? If I subscribe to a channel should I not get it as the orginal broadcaster intended? What if they showed only the left or right side of the screena and cut out half the sound? Could they still charge me full price?

Well, you might think so.

But, if you read the fine print in your contract, it almost assuredly contains something along the lines of your provider providing service on a "best possible" basis; i.e., no guarantee.

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Posted by NeilFarbstein 04/30/08 03:10

Rank: 1/5 after 2 votes

A small number of nutcases have lied through their teeth on the rankings for Neil farbstein, I am a frequent contributor to the phys.org bulletin board. Help me get back in the forums. Tell the editors I have been slandered!!! I ran for governor of New York and President of the United States, these nuts dont like my my poltical stance and they are also a bunch of degenrates with a chip on their shoulders against heterosaexuals. These nutcases talk nonstop about homosexual rape (bubba) (lizzy frog) and about tracking me to my house and place of work. (BDW, (lizzie frog, NOM)They are a small band of degenerates talking violently. Get angry on behalf of Neil Farbstein!!!! Dont let them ruin my reputation!!! Those nuts are openly conspiring on the web board!!!! Contact me at protn7@att.net and help me get evidence for the police and for my lawyers to sue PHYS.ORG !!!!