Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Pixelation is a side effect of data rate compression techniques peculiar to digital image (especially television) systems. Images are (oversimplified) cut up into groups of 64 pixels that can appear, disappear or move quickly, and each of the 64 pixels in the group changes far more slowly if your eyes are able to pay attention to the detail.
Were it not for compression, a single high-definition TV service could take up the entire over-the-air TV band, or half of all the bandwidth an RG-6 cable could carry.
Now, if the transmission were to be interrupted or corrupted, you would be missing the data for some of the pixel groups. The imaging hardware and software will show these blocks in the same place, even if the rest of the scene is moving or even if the scene has changed (a jump-cut), and you may see a set of skyscraper windows in the shape of a person's face (for example).
Pixelation can be expected if the signal is too weak to decode, affected by interference, or by multipath (echoing). When TV was analog, these would usually be perceived as snow, wavy lines, or ghosting, respectively.
Problem is, with digital, the difference between a signal that produces a perfect picture and a pixelated mess can be very small, and you can actually have a very poor (unreliable) signal and think it is perfect. In analog, one could see the imperfections easily and could more easily correct the problem causing the poor picture.
It's almost certainly the TV service, and I've seen it on all of them. Dish, DirectTV, various cable services. I've seen it much less on OTA, when decoded by an ATSC tuner in the TV, but it still happens. Not much you can do about it beyond making sure you're receiving the best possible signal you can.
We have everything bundled with the same service. Sometimes my computer is slower than it should be. Right now, it's very fast, though I'm sure many people are at work now.
Could be something as simple as a faulty cable or poor signal caused by splitting it incorrectly or too much. These boxes have a diagnostic panel in them that usually requires you to hit a specific sequence of buttons on the box to access it, once you get in there it should tell you the signal strength.
Could be something as simple as a faulty cable or poor signal caused by splitting it incorrectly or too much. These boxes have a diagnostic panel in them that usually requires you to hit a specific sequence of buttons on the box to access it, once you get in there it should tell you the signal strength.
Come to think of it, I don't even know where the box is. I'll take a look. I may just go to the company and ask them point blank.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
