Suddenlink → [Digital TV] Any news on the possibility of improving HD video q

I'm sure their HD quality is fine for people with 40 inch TV's who sit 15 feet away, but anyone with a decent sized TV who sits close enough to even benefit from an HD signal no doubt has noticed how awful Suddenlinks HD video quality is. The awful artifacting is very noticeable on things like camera pans, or any scene with a lot of motion. Ive seen it in multiple homes on multiple TV's, it's just the poor quality of their HD service. Netflix streaming offers higher HD quality than Suddenlinks own HD service, hell, 720p Youtube videos are often of higher quality. I've had it off and on for a few years, but I end up being very disappointed with it every single time. As soon as football season is over, I'm cutting it loose for good unless i see some news showing that the quality has been drastically improved.

In a time where streaming internet services can do 1080p video, it's shameful that Suddenlink can't even deliver a half-way decent 720p signal over its digital cable service.

They can deliver 720p but they don't-they cram 3 or 4 HD's and up to 10 SD onto one QAM. They are supposed to mix sports channels with low bitrate channels like fox news or CNN.

Let's not forget that for the privilege of viewing the subpar FREE hd channels, you still need the box.....

I've also noticed that even though the stream says it's coming in at 720, it's clearly in SD, hell, alot of the time it looks on par or below the same sd channel. Anymore I mainly use the HD channel so i can get the 5.1

Moldy pickle. I have direct tv and have had direct tv since in 1994. Since Suddenlink is forced by the Feds to send local channels in HD down the system since I only have suddenlink phone and Internet , it is amazing the quality difference with my OTA, Direct tv shreveport locals, and then Suddenlink. I can clearly see suddenlink's compression with shreveport locals. Do you have much pixelization with suddenlink hd?

During the summer I was having pixel issues during the heat of the day, much to phone supports dismay. Was told that couldn't possibly have anything to do with it, lol. Anyways, I right now have issues with audio cutting out, occasional picture freezing, and sometimes a very grainy picture, like what you'd see on a vhs. Not that it really matters much anymore as I have cable for 1 damn tv show anymore, thinking about just cutting it out and looking for an ota solution for my news. How is ota HD down here?

How are you able to get SL hd channels w/out the set top box? Unless I'm doing something horribly wrong, I can't get my tv up to the 700 range that all my HD is at.

Moldy pickle
Suddenlink is forced along with other cable operators to provide local HD channels without out the need for a box. I have a motorhome, so when I hook up to cable in campgrounds all over the country I will get locals in HD without a box. Only did not get in one campground. I recorded Ktal last night on OTA with my direct tv Dvr and there was cut out a couple of times watching Saturday night live, so if you were watching via suddenlink, it was not their fault.

I only have suddenlink connected to family room HDTV directly only as a back up if a i loose the sat signal. I have with direct tv two DVRs, three HD boxes, and one sd box. I have no movie channels. Pay 95 bucks/mo. I wish we had fiber like Lafayette. Go to lusfiber.org and see their system. It is fiber to your house.

Fiber is only near campus right now I believe, but it's a nice idea, lol.

What channel are you getting the free HD on? I might have to try this

Here in Tyler, I don't have much problem with the HD picture quality. It is 1080i, and looks to me about as good as Blu-ray, except for panning scenes where you do get some artifacts. Well, actually some HD channels don't look as sharp as others.

In honesty damn near none of the movies are HD truely. If you take note that the movie is actually filling your 16x9 tv, that means it's been zoomed and a TON of the picture cut off. So no, it can't possibly look as good as Blu-ray.

I'm fully aware that most of the movies on FX, TNT, AMC, etc. are pan and scan, and I know about theatrical aspect ratios. I am just talking about the overall quality of the image, in terms of resolution, contrast ratio, color accuracy. If you watch some of the movies on HDNet, which are always in the original aspect ratio, yes they look as good as my blu-ray movies. Sometimes the image quality even seems to be a bit better.

Just have basic, lol, no hdnet here. But I'd still have to disagree for everything I can get on hd at my house. Even 720 streams on Vudu look miles better on most shows. Maybe it's in part just being literally end of the run on the cable plant and things get wonky out here a lot.

Hmm...that is strange. Must be something wrong with the signal at your house, or with the local suddenlink service there. There is no way any kind of streaming should be as good as cable HD.

I am not familiar with Vudu, but we do stream some Amazon Prime HD programming here, and it looks good on bright images, but whenever there is a dark scene, there is all kinds of macroblocking and smearing.

I've quit honestly just let it go being I go DAYS without even turning on the tv other than the morning news. Starting to think that's a good reason to OTA it, lol

I get the blocking on actual black colored scene items sometimes w/ Vudu. If I pay another dollar for the 1080 stream though I haven't seen the blocking.

mrtrot, I assure you that it's Suddenlink that is the problem. I actually live in Tyler myself, so we're seeing the same signal. Motion artifacting is absolutely awful. I was watching the Patriots/49ers game sunday night, and I cringed anytime the NBC sports logo flew onto the screen before commercial breaks or replays, it turns into a blocky mess. This type of artifacting is visible in practically any scenario that has fast motion.

I have witnessed the very same problems on any person's TV that I've ever watched Suddenlink cable on. I've personally experienced it in both my old house, and the house i recently moved into, which has a brand new drop connecting to a brand new outlet.

While my comparison to streaming might have been exaggerated to some extent, I've definitely seen plenty of instances of HD streams matching Suddenlinks quality.

My main beef is that the HD quality hasn't changed, ever. This is the problem with cable monopolies, they have no competition to drive serious improvements. They make changes at their own leisure, and can institute crap like bandwidth caps, knowing that people aren't going to jump ship, simply because they have no place else to go.

You may be right, but two things:

First, back when HD programming became available in Tyler, Suddenlink stated they were passing on the local broadcast station's signals as is, with no compression or alterations. I don't know if that was ever true, or if it was true and later changed.

Secondly, I do have an outdoor antenna. Again, it was back during the days when our local stations first began broadcasting in HD, but I did compare the OTA quality to what I was seeing on Suddenlink and I could not tell any difference. I have always noticed(both on Suddenlink here in Tyler, and pretty much anywhere I watch HD programming) the pixelation and blocking on fast moving sports like football, especially when it is something like a close shot of football players moving around on a field. It seems like I see more of this pixelation on networks that broadcast in 1080 like CBS as opposed those who broadcast in 720P like ABC.

That might be interlacing that you're seeing on the 1080i signals. I actually force my box to 720p because interlacing definitely does degrade scenes with high motion, though it's a different kind of artifacting, more of a blurriness as opposed to the pixelated blockiness that I'm talking about.

Pay attention to the Sunday night game this week, the main NBC football logo is probably the worst instance of it that I can think of. At first I thought it was the DVR cutting out for a split second it was so bad. But It happened every time.

This post, makes me think about an issue I am having, and am talking about in this topic. »[Digital TV] Video freezing

After the superbowl, when the confetti was falling, the motion compression kicked in so bad that the entire picture looked like it was 320x240 resolution or something. Absolutely awful, I disconnected my digi cable yesterday, I've seen enough. Absolutely pathetic.