Charter Spectrum → [CATV] Opinion on HD Quality

Has anyone else noticed the difference in quality when watching football on TV VS watching the game on the ESPN app on the xbox360? In my opinion I feel like it looks much better and far less compressed on the XBOX than when watching on my HD DVR through Charter. I am in the middle TN region.

I am having the same issues here in Michigan. It is on many of the so called HD channels. I stream 700MB movies to my TV and they look better then a lot of the charter HD channels.

I was going to start a thread like this on HD quality a few days ago but backed out of it before hitting the post button. But every since they came out with the new 100 HD channel line-up i have seen HD channels look very blocky at times. I have recorded some shows on the HD DRV and when i hit the pause button the picture also looks like crap.

The SD channel look bad also if you are using an HDMI connection to the TV, but the HD channel should be good but many also show that they are not real HD.

I have had Charter for about 10 years. I finally got fed up with them and switched to DirecTV last Sunday, and I can tell you that the difference in the HD picture is unbelievable. It's not even close. This switch really showed my how truly bad Charter's picture quality is.

Right, many shows shown on HD channels aren't native HD. It's like watching an upscaled DVD (but even bigger difference) compared to a Blu-ray that was done in native HD.

Its not so much that as the level of compression Charter uses to utilize bandwidth which is what degrades the quality.

might also be your tv,only true comparison is to watch same channel, with same tv on both providers. you see this when you go to local sports bar and compare picture on various sets around the room.

my set will show channel in native mode (wont fill screen) and i like this option best.

1080p (xbox) will beat 1080i (charter hd) no doubt

Yes here in western wisconsin i moved from my farm with dish tv to town and got charter tv with its internet and phone bundle and the tv service is really poor, the cable box ui is REALLY outdated clunky and picture quality is really poor on its HD channels when compaired to the dish signal. i kept the internet and phone but ditched charter and installed direct tv and the HD picture quality is MUCH better, the HD dvr runs faster smoother, better more modern UI. while i recomend charters internet, thier tv service, quality, hardware and support all generally suck bad.

The reason for this is really simple. Its the compression standard. More specifically:

MPEG2 vs MPEG4

DirecTV's old standard definition channels are MPEG2. When HD hit Satellite, they were already out of capacity and launched new birds with full MPEG4 (requiring new set-top boxes).

If cable wanted to go MPEG4 providers would have to go around and upgrade every headened to support MPEG4 and swap out customer boxes. Oh but wait remember, cable isn't nearly as bandwidth constrained as sat is and still has ANALOG channels in many places! Forget MPEG2>MPEG4, CATV is still working on ANALOG>MPEG2!

When the NFL network first launched I had a rare opportunity to view/DVR the same game on both compression schemes at the same time. I just remember during kickoff the MPEG2 went all "blocky" during the fast camera-pan following the football. MPEG4 DirecTV you could literally pause this and see people waving and the smiling faces.

Moral of the story: You want MPEG4!

I agree it would be better with MPEG4 and yes it is the compression standard that charter is using that is part of the problem. But at the right bit rate even MPEG2 looks great, like on some of the HD channels that still look great in the Charter line up.

But the issue is the amount of compression that is used/allowed on some channels. With the new setup when more people watch more channels, then some channels get worst (more compression), like on the last holiday weekend when it was as bad as it gets in my area.

If you happen to be watching one of those channels that is over compressed then you fell like there is a problem. But the next day or even 6 hours later that same channels may look fine. That makes it very hard to prove there is a problem BUT if this keeps up Charter will start losing customer to the other provider because of HD quality.

Like the OP pointed out this was the big game that was bad. I have also had many problem with the big channels like the supper bowl, Charter should not allow a big event like these to be bad quality.

I actually think that the picture quality has been better here in the Great Lakes Bay Region since the switch to SDV and the new 100 channel HD lineup. I use a Windows Media Center with a Ceton InfiniTV tuner card and my Panasonic 1080p Plasma is fed with an XBOX360 running as a Media Center Extender. I also have a DVDO Edge Video Processor on that TV but I doubt it is having that big of an effect.

Dunno about the headend stuff but the STB I have (DCX3200) is listed as supporting MPEG-4. Not that it's being used...but it is capable should things go that way. I'd guess quite a few of the STBs going out now do support MPEG-4.