# Terrible judder with Modern Family - why?



## Indiana627 (Nov 18, 2005)

I have a terrible judder problem with Modern Family. I've tried changing the CineMotion settings on my Sony TV, but nothing helps - the show just looks like it is skipping or is choppy or just not smooth. Until V comes back and with Lost and FlashForward gone, I don't watch anything else on ABC except for No Ordinary Family (and that I only watched the premiere and have the rest on my hard drive), so I don't have much to compare it to. 

I have sat down and watched a few minutes of other ABC shows (The Whole Truth, Grey's Anatomy) to see if they exhibit the same judder as I get with Modern Family, and the result is they do not. It appears the problem is only with Modern Family, so I'm guessing it has something to do with the way it's filmed - perhaps its frame rate or something? I think part of the problem is ABC's 720p, but yet I don't have any problems with FOX's 720p shows.

I'm no expert about how things are filmed, could someone with more knowledge fill me in and explain why I'm having this problem? And what settings should I tinker with on my Sony 52W4100 to eliminate the problem?


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## say-what (Dec 14, 2006)

We had a similar problem with the local ABC affilliate in New Orleans last year. Had to contact the station engineer - not sure what the problem was, but it was apparently an issue with the DirecTV decoders/encoders at the local uplink.


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## tonyd79 (Jul 24, 2006)

The same thing happened about two years ago with every ABC show here in Baltimore. Not the commercials or the local stuff. Just the ABC programs themselves. Somehow it got fixed.


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## makaiguy (Sep 24, 2007)

Do you mean the effect where it looks like you are seeing maybe 15 frames/sec instead of the 30 it's supposed to be? 

My wife is a big fan of ABC's The View, and it used to look like that all the time. She never noticed it, but I found it nearly unwatchable (the content has that effect on me too, but that's a different issue ...). Had the same effect whether viewed via DIRECTV satellite or over-the-air (but still using the HR20-700 ota tuner), and when viewed via cable. Can't honestly say whether the effect is still there as I haven't even glanced at that program in months.


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## Indiana627 (Nov 18, 2005)

I'm seeing it only on Modern Family - not on any other ABC HD show I've tested, including The Whole Truth which airs the same night as Modern Family. Also, I can get a different ABC via OTA (channel 34) and when I record it on my HR21 via my AM21 I _don't_ have the judder problem, so the problem seems to be just with Modern Family from the ABC station (channel 9) coming from D*. That's why I was wondering how Modern Family was filmed. I guess I should test some of the other ABC Wednesday night comedies to see they have judder too. Unfortunately I can't get the OTA feed of channel 9 to compare it to the D* version of channel 9.

I guess the next step is to email the channel 9 engineer, but what do I say to him? Ask him to reset the D* encoder? Or to change a setting on the D* encoder? If so, which setting?


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## dwing (Nov 12, 2010)

I joined this forum because I happened upon this thread while looking for info regarding a judder problem on ABC broadcast. 

I recently bought a new plasma & happened to turn on ABC's CASTLE via OTA & it was UNWATCHABLE... Constant hesitation like it was freezing & skipping frames. I notice the broadcast was 720p, and I was afraid it was my TV. I did not see it happening on any other OTA feeds. I didnt even know if this could happen with an OTA Hidef feed and thats why I was looking for info.


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

Pretty sure this a local station issue. It pops up randomly here and there. It happened in our area a while back, but they fixed it after they were made aware. Now if they cold only turn off Live Well and give us some decent PQ back!?!


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