[hotamuh]

I am in need of help finding a name for the effect that I see on my friend's HD setup from Comcast with a Motorola DVR box.

When watching HD movies through Comcast there is an odd effect that I immediately notice and he doesn't see. It is as if the conversion process has been trying to keep the movie centered or slow panning instead of normal action. I am not sure what makes this happen but I would like to know. I was imagining that it might be the 24fps to 30fps process because it makes the movie look almost like a handheld camera is being used to film it. The "film look" is gone and it's almost like watching a live play on stage. It's as if there is another HD camera recording a movie on a movie screen and it's floating around slowly, especially on wide shots with lots of motion.


I have seen this before but lately it's been really bad. Tonight it was happening badly on Pirates of the Caribbean (part 3 I think) and also on Troy.


He absolutely can't see this happening but he's new to HD and I have Dish Network and have had HD since it first came out years ago even before Voom came and went. I have a large 108" projection screen as well as an LG 47" 1080p capable LCD in the bedroom. I do not see this effect on my setup and never have and hope that someone knows what I am talking about. It almost makes me sick just watching it and it ruins movies in my opinion.


Thanks.

 

[cavu]

Sounds like macroblocking caused by the compression used by cable companies. Nothing you can do about it except complain to your cableco.

 

[hotamuh]

Did you edit your post? Because the email notification said "pixelation" and now your post says "macroblocking". Either way it's not a screen artifact but the motion of the actual picture on the screen. I'm actually watching the same movie on Dish right now and the picture is normal and not doing that. It's the weirdest thing. I can only describe it as if you are watching a handheld camera film of the film. Like someone was standing in front of the screen filming it and keeping it zoomed in so there are no black bars and that makes it look weird. The picture is perfectly clear, not a signal issue at all. Almost like a robot is filming the movie so the motions of the picture isn't normal but machine like. I'm going crazy here.

 

[coyoteaz]

120Hz motion processing in the TV?

 

[hotamuh]

I have seen this effect way before 120hz tv's came out. I'm almost sure this is something that many people see but don't notice. I'm assuming anyone with Comcast HD has the same thing. I saw it once a long time ago on a DVD I think but it might've been Comcast also. I think it was an Al Pachino movie.


Who knows?