I am having some issues with my HD picture that I never noticed before. I am seeing what I guess is considered macroblocking or pixelation. I notice the blocking for a split second, particularly during sports when they go to instant replays or when there is fast motion on the screen, sports or movies. Even my wife is noticing this now, and she is not one to notice such things.

I have attached a screen shot of the problem.

I thought it was a result of the local CBS stations feed to our cable company since I noticed it during the Super Bowl and subsequent broadcasts, but now I am noticing it on our new TNTHD. A month or so ago the NBCHD channel was unwatchable. The cable company came out and said I had a bad line or connection which they replaced. That seemed to solve the major NBCHD issue, but I still don't seem to have the same crisp, clear picture that I had previously. They came out when I was at work (my wife was here) and said everything is fine on there end.

I don't know how to troubleshoot the problem. Is this typically an issue with:
1. the network broadcast
2. the local cable company service/transmission;
3. the 8300HD (either make an adjustment or replace);
4. one of my connections to the tv or a connection into the 8300HD;
5. something else?

Any help on where to turn next would be greatly appreciated.

Bryan

That's definitely overcompression.

You can determine whether it is the network broadcast or the cable company by looking at the off-air (antenna) feed of the same channel. If you see it on the off-air network broadcast, call their engineering department to complain; you might also want to email a complaint to their engineering department with those pictures. If the off-air feed is fine, then it's the cable company, and you can complain to them.

As for any issues with TNT-HD, those are definitely issues with your cable provider. With Verizon FiOS, TNT-HD is pristine.

If there are any competing cable companies in your area, you might want to consider those.

Thanks for the response.

I do participate in a local OTA forum and it sounds like the CBS channel is significantly underpowered or something, but I don't know why it has gotten worse the past month or so. Unfortunately I don't have an antenna to check it out for myself.

TNT-HD was just added about a month ago to our cable lineup so I wasn't sure if the channel as a whole was not real crisp and had issues, but the fact that you say your channel is pristine definately sounds like there is a problem on our end. The picture quality seems to be DVD quality at its best times, and then with motion it seems to get the blockiness as seen in my original post.

So am I understanding you that there really is not much of a chance of there being some sort of a connection issue or an issue with the 8300HD? I just hope that the cable company can resolve this for me.

Bryan