# ABC HD screen tearing



## omarh (Jul 3, 2006)

I recently upgraded from a 32" 720p LCD to a 52" 1080p LCD. Bluray movies look awesome, but DISH HD looks fairly bad to me...its ok, but definitely not the same as bluray.

Now a few minutes ago I noticed that on channel 7 (ABC) they're showing Shrek 2. and there is something wrong with it. Whenever there is fast motion, a horizontal line right in the middle of the screen is visible for a second and then goes away. Its like a very thin distortion line in the middle. I switched to other channels, and don't notice it happening. 

Can anyone verify if there's some issue with ABC tonight? I hope its the feed and not my new tv...but if it is the tv, then I can still return it for the next few weeks since I got it from Costco!


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## RollTide1017 (Oct 12, 2008)

Blu-ray is always going to look better then SAT or Cable HD channels because the HDTV channels are compressed a whole lot more then those Blu-Ray disc. Not to mention the numerous transmission systems those channels must pass through before reaching your TV each degrade the image slightly. Blu-Ray is about as pure a signal you can get in the home for now. DISH's 1080p VOD channels doesn't even look as good as a BD IMO. Nothing on a broadcast system (cable, sat or fiber) will look better then a BD IMO.

Don't know about your Shrek problem, maybe someone else can comment on it. I do know that because of the compression on these HDTV channels that fast moving images can cause macro blocking for a second. I tend to notice this alot during sporting events. It is something we have to live with until they can provide more bandwidth so they don't need to compress things as much or find a better compression codec. Maybe MPEG4 solves some of this but, I wouldn't know because I'm not getting the MPEG4 version of HD channels (I don't think).


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## brshaffer (Jan 1, 2009)

I have noticed the same problem, I don't think its your TV. I have had DISH HD for about 6 months now, and only noticed this on ABC for the first time about 3 or 4 days ago. This may have started earlier, but I don't watch ABC too often so I'm not totally sure, but it appears just below the middle of the screen, as you said during fast motion, as a distortion that stretches across the screen. It looks almost as if one row of pixels is off momentarily and then corrects. I do not see it on any other channels.

Maybe a DISH problem, or maybe something with ABC's broadcast? I'm not sure. If anyone has any info on this it would be much appreciated.


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## xxmjumpman23xx (Jan 1, 2009)

I'm currently watching the Rose Bowl on ABC and I have the same horizontal line problem. It just appeared recently and only occurs on ABC. Hopefully its just an ABC broadcast problem that will be solved soon.


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## GrumpyBear (Feb 1, 2006)

I am watching The Rosebowl too, and the Capital One Bowl earlier, and I don't seen any problems. I wonder if it has to do with your local ABC Station. Dish just rebroadcasts what they recieve and all of you seem to be in the LA area, with the same KABC. 
Here in San Diego the local NBC channel has been up and down with thier Digital signal all week, doing testing and crap.


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## mikeap (Jun 17, 2007)

It's a local LA ABC issue b/c I watch it on OTA antenna and get the same horizontal line during today's games.


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## brshaffer (Jan 1, 2009)

Good point Grumpy, I'll bet that's it.

I called DISH support and reported the problem. The support rep was nice but had not heard of the issue before so she passed it on to their tier 2 people. It may not be a bad thing if they got several calls about this, and of course DISH can contact ABC if needs be.

My parents are also in LA and have DirecTV. I called them and they did not notice the problem, although it can be tricky to see at first. But my gut says that this is a DISH/ABC issue, probably localized to LA.

Happy New Year..


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## HobbyTalk (Jul 14, 2007)

If mikeap is seeing OTA then it would be your local ABC station and not Dish.


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## nmetro (Jul 11, 2006)

At least in Denver, many of the HD stations are still broadcasting in low power and will do so until 17 February, 2009. I have seen this issue on a couple of the Denver HD stations (ABC and NBC) and I suspect the low power signal has something to do with it. In addition, OTA HD station broadcast signals may come from a different transmission source than their analog counterpart (again, this will change next moth after the conversion). As for satellite, the signals from television stations are sent over telephone lines to the uplink center in Cheyenne, Wyoming (it is an awesome place to visit by the way). At this site they are sent to the satellite and then to the subscriber.

In the past few days we have had several days of high velocity winds from Denver north to Cheyenne, which has affected electric and telephone service in the area. Some of these winds exceeded 80 miles an hour or more and knocked down telephone lines and electric lines throughout the area.

So, it is possible the low power signal, plus spotty telephone outages, degrades the signal in the transmission process from sender to the uplink center. Just a theory, but it does explain the streak you have been seeing.


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## omarh (Jul 3, 2006)

I first noticed it during Shrek 2 on ABC, and then later that night I went to a friend's house and they had ABC HD through their local digital cable service showing a new year's eve special. I couldn't see any flaws in that signal...maybe for the new year's eve special they had a better feed or something...I don't think he watched the rose bowl, but I'll ask.


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## Pepster (Oct 29, 2008)

omarh said:


> I recently upgraded from a 32" 720p LCD to a 52" 1080p LCD. Bluray movies look awesome, but DISH HD looks fairly bad to me...its ok, but definitely not the same as bluray.
> 
> Now a few minutes ago I noticed that on channel 7 (ABC) they're showing Shrek 2. and there is something wrong with it. Whenever there is fast motion, a horizontal line right in the middle of the screen is visible for a second and then goes away. Its like a very thin distortion line in the middle. I switched to other channels, and don't notice it happening.
> 
> Can anyone verify if there's some issue with ABC tonight? I hope its the feed and not my new tv...but if it is the tv, then I can still return it for the next few weeks since I got it from Costco!


Consider 2 things. First, BlueRay is 1080p & HDTV is either 720p or 1080i, so the very nature of BlueRay puts more pixels on the screen. The other is this, the bigger the screen is, the further away you need to be away from it to evaluate what you're seeing properly. The recommendations that I've seen were roughly a 1 to 1 1/2 feet per 10 inches of diagonal screen. Since you say the BlueRay movie looks great, I guessing that you are hooked up with the HDMI cable. You have to consider the size of the room where the TV is being placed and where the seating positions are in that room.


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## vicw (Sep 8, 2003)

I was seeing the ABC channel tearing on and off, during the Rose Bowl via the Dish local for WTVD in Raleigh. I switched to OTA at the start of the fourth quarter, and also recorded the Dish version for comparison. I never noticed the problem on OTA for the rest of the game, but later saw that it had occured frequently during the fourth quarter on the recorded Dish version.


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## PRIME1 (Nov 29, 2007)

I noticed the same thing as *vicw* for WTVD in Raleigh. Both the parade and game were horrible from my Dish locals but the OTA looked fine. It was still doing it later last night as well but I did not check it this morning.


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## RollTide1017 (Oct 12, 2008)

Pepster said:


> Consider 2 things. First, BlueRay is 1080p & HDTV is either 720p or 1080i, so the very nature of BlueRay puts more pixels on the screen.


This is definitely true with 720p but, 1080i and 1080p have the exact same number of pixels.


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## mpinch (Nov 5, 2008)

omarh said:


> I recently upgraded from a 32" 720p LCD to a 52" 1080p LCD. Bluray movies look awesome, but DISH HD looks fairly bad to me...its ok, but definitely not the same as bluray.
> 
> Now a few minutes ago I noticed that on channel 7 (ABC) they're showing Shrek 2. and there is something wrong with it. Whenever there is fast motion, a horizontal line right in the middle of the screen is visible for a second and then goes away. Its like a very thin distortion line in the middle. I switched to other channels, and don't notice it happening.
> 
> Can anyone verify if there's some issue with ABC tonight? I hope its the feed and not my new tv...but if it is the tv, then I can still return it for the next few weeks since I got it from Costco!


Our final episode of Boston Legal on December 8th was streaked with a horizontal line throughout all of the motion scenes, just as you described.

And it was WTVD over Dish just as vicw and PRIME1 observed.


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## GrumpyBear (Feb 1, 2006)

Must be something with how Dish is recieving your ABC Channel WVTD, if the OTA was ok. The 3 in the LA area, one of them noticed the Same problem with the OTA.


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