# LOST on ABC HD..weird video



## Deke Rivers (Jan 8, 2007)

anyone else notice the video is kind of jittery? hard to describe...stuttery movement, etc...only on LOST ..every week its been like that


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## nsps (Jan 4, 2008)

I haven't noticed, but I may have been too distracted by my local affiliate's (SLC, UT) out-of-sync audio.


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## bdneuman (May 11, 2006)

Deke Rivers said:


> anyone else notice the video is kind of jittery? hard to describe...stuttery movement, etc...only on LOST ..every week its been like that


I had this issue as well when i first upgraded to HD a few months back. For me, it was a setting within my TV. You might look at your settings for any motion enhancing or "naturalizing" that you have in your set. I have a Sony KDS-55A3000 and it has a setting call Cinemotion that i had to adjust...


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## Deke Rivers (Jan 8, 2007)

bdneuman said:


> I had this issue as well when i first upgraded to HD a few months back. For me, it was a setting within my TV. You might look at your settings for any motion enhancing or "naturalizing" that you have in your set. I have a Sony KDS-55A3000 and it has a setting call Cinemotion that i had to adjust...


I did check settings previuosly..it only happens during LOST..Seems to have shown up recently too..thought maybe DISH was dicking around with HD settings possibly


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## dmspen (Dec 1, 2006)

I've seen it on a number of shows. I suspected a hard drive issue, but maybe it's not.


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## Deke Rivers (Jan 8, 2007)

dmspen said:


> I've seen it on a number of shows. I suspected a hard drive issue, but maybe it's not.


Igotta think if it was a drive issue it would show up all the time ..not just on one show 
read on another forum someone else having the the same thing watching LOST..he is in the Chicago area as well so maybe its something related with the HD locals in Chicago


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Well I don't think it is national given I don't see it on OTA and have not seen it in my Dish HD locals. I think you should contact Dish Quality and make them aware of it. Odd that it is one program.


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## retromzc (Sep 7, 2007)

It appears to be a local problem from WLS. It happens ota and via DirecTv also. It also shows up from time to time on other ABC primetime HD programming. My emails to WLS's engineering department over this have gone unanswered.


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## Deke Rivers (Jan 8, 2007)

its not a huge deal to me..just wanted to make sure it wasnt unique to my setup..now i know where the issue lies at least


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## kmkraft_1974 (Feb 13, 2006)

might want to take a look at these threads:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=121138
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=68498


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## Deke Rivers (Jan 8, 2007)

kmkraft_1974 said:


> might want to take a look at these threads:
> 
> http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=121138
> http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=68498


im not getting pixelation


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## vanbojp (Dec 4, 2006)

Deke Rivers said:


> anyone else notice the video is kind of jittery? hard to describe...stuttery movement, etc...only on LOST ..every week its been like that


Yes, I've noticed that too. The motion is not smooth, although the problem is sporadic, but I've ONLY noticed this on Lost every week. It doesn't happen on the OTA broadcast for me (Milwaukee), just the DTV broadcast. Very irritating.

EDIT: Just noticed this was posted in the Dish forum... given I have Direct, it must be an ABC broadcast issue. Very strange that the OTA broadcast doesn't have this problem.


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## Slordak (Dec 17, 2003)

On WLS received from Dish Network as an MPEG-4 local, "Carpoolers" exhibits this same extremely strange behavior. The motion is... very sporadic and not smooth. I don't watch "Lost", but I assume it's the same, and this would mean that it's not limited to a single program.


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## nsps (Jan 4, 2008)

retromzc said:


> It appears to be a local problem from WLS. It happens ota and via DirecTv also. It also shows up from time to time on other ABC primetime HD programming. My emails to WLS's engineering department over this have gone unanswered.


Heh. My emails to Salt Lake City's ABC affiliate regarding the audio sync issues have also gone unanswered. The problem may be different from station to station, but at least all the affiliates agree not to address it.


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## mthhurley (Jan 11, 2008)

I noticed this on Lost, Eli Stone...just ABC HD's.

I sent an email to [email protected] a couple weeks ago when I started seeing it and was shocked to get a response...but not only one response, but a on-going dialog!

Thank you for your follow-up emails, Mike.

We too have been seeing this issue on the programs you've mentioned, as
well as Grey's Anatomy. We have yet to see a problem with WLS-HD's local
news broadcasts, syndicated programming, and their SD feed. We are
actively investigating this problem and hope to have a resolution to
this in the very near future.

Regards,
EchoStar Operating Corporation
Quality Assurance Department
[email protected]


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## voripteth (Oct 25, 2005)

I'm in the Chicago area and ABC has been having various HD problems for at least the past year. 

Originally it was pixelation then it was sound loss and now the latest one is the weird low-bit-rate display. Perhaps they need to buy a new squirrel to run the exercise wheel connected to the transmitter.


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## slowmo (Sep 22, 2006)

We have the same jerky issue in Birmingham. Seems to occur as the camera shot moves horizontally.

I previously received the local ABC HD signal via Charter cable and sporadically noticed the same problem. Dish added our HD locals this past summer and the issue has continued with the satellite broadcast of that channel. I can't receive the channel via OTA but I suspect it would not be any better.

Some have suggested that the problem results from ABC's 720p format but I've never noticed the issue with Fox, ESPN, etc.

I don't think the problem is isolated to "Lost" but that is the only program on ABC worth watching; thus, I can't confirm that it occurs in other programming.


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## Kricket (Nov 18, 2005)

theres something going on with the chicago feed - a LOT of people in chicago are experiencing that issue

unfortunately for us, it doesnt happen during certain scenes or situations - its occurs throughout the ENTIRE episode


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## elbodude (Jul 13, 2006)

I get pixelation on ABC HD all the time. Only on ABC.


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## mthhurley (Jan 11, 2008)

elbodude said:


> I get pixelation on ABC HD all the time. Only on ABC.


I don't get it on everything on ABC HD...For example, we just taped and watched Big Brother and it never happened...It's horrid on the entire night of Lost.


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## Slordak (Dec 17, 2003)

The problem with the jerky motion is not pixelation... The signal strength is fine, and there's no break-up. What happens is that all of the motion seems very stilted and unnatural, then all of a sudden it will speed up to a faster-than-normal rate in order to catch back up to where it should be. This pattern repeats throughout the show.

It seems like some sort of encoding/transcoding problem.


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## Deke Rivers (Jan 8, 2007)

mthhurley said:


> I noticed this on Lost, Eli Stone...just ABC HD's.
> 
> I sent an email to [email protected] a couple weeks ago when I started seeing it and was shocked to get a response...but not only one response, but a on-going dialog!
> 
> ...


this makes sense..and yes the News is fine as they stated...seems its just specific HD shows


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## kblee (Sep 21, 2007)

Slordak said:


> The problem with the jerky motion is not pixelation... The signal strength is fine, and there's no break-up. What happens is that all of the motion seems very stilted and unnatural, then all of a sudden it will speed up to a faster-than-normal rate in order to catch back up to where it should be. This pattern repeats throughout the show.
> 
> It seems like some sort of encoding/transcoding problem.


Yes - I've seen this as well for the last several weeks during Lost. One thing I noticed while watching playback of affected episodes is that commercials are not impacted. The jerkiness is only during the actual episode. Fortunately, for me, I have an OTA antenna and it is not affected at all. As such, I have switched my weekly recording from my HD local channel to OTA. It would be nice, however, to find out what the cause is.


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## Slordak (Dec 17, 2003)

The fact that it only happens during the show itself suggests that it may be related to the original source frame rate, i.e. film is impacted but not video. The fact that it only happens for the local received from Dish Network implies that it's a transcoding problem. Thus, we can speculate that something in the process of going from 720p MPEG-2 to "Dish non-standard HD resolutions" in MPEG-4 is causing problems with repeated or deleted frames. Maybe a telecine / inverse telecine issue?


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## mthhurley (Jan 11, 2008)

Hey Hey!! It's working great tonight....no slow-mo on Lost! 
They must have figured something out...


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## retromzc (Sep 7, 2007)

WLS-DT engineers made some changes to their encoder to fix the problem on Tuesday. It had to do with film detect settings.


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