That’s What I Said!
What took so long?
I had some friends who got digital cable about five or six years ago. They were all excited. They invited me over to check out the wondrous new technology. So I showed up, sat down on the couch, and watched in horror as: (1) compression artifacts destroyed the integrity of the images and (2) my friends not only seemed utterly oblivious or incapable of recognizing compression artifacts, they claimed that I was just imagining things because I was jealous.
For years it’s been the same every time I see this “amazing” new digital television. It sucks. Big time.
Suddenly today, years after this stuff hit the market, I see this article at Wired complaining that “high definition” digital cable television is bandwidth-starved and therefore hobbled with compression artifacts, like it’s some new thing. Maybe the big deal is that this is alleged “high definition” digital cable, so now it’s really bad that things are still the same. (Is anybody really surprised? When is the last time any telecommunications company wasn’t lousy?)
So was I the only person to notice years ago that digital cable sucks? To this day it still annoys me the way my friends (who, incidentally, are no longer my friends) were so down on my perceptive observations about the pictures on their TV, but it’s nice to finally get some vindication on this point.
Story of my life, though. Be perceptive, point things out in the face of others’ denial, get called “stubborn” for refusing to lie about the perception, then finally be vindicated weeks, months, or years later—when the deniers and epithet-spewing jerks have long since forgotten the incident so nothing counts for anything.
Anyway, I watch TV online, when I watch at all. I see no point in blowing huge portions of my income and credit on fancy schmancy home theater systems that are just going to be obsolete in a couple years. What’s the point? Besides, I have to go study. Couple, uh, quizzes coming up. Like the California bar exam.
When standard definition analog signals are digitized, they are compressed and the artifacts suck. This is most evident on LCD TVs, even without digital cable. Digital cable on CRTs shows similar defects. Not having access to HD cable, I am a bit surprised to learn that it also suffers from artifacts. I’m not shocked, mind you. Knowing that the signal is still compressed explains the problem completely. High-def DVD displayed on a high-def screen, however, shows why HD beats SD. The compression level is significantly lower there. I’m sure if cable companies can figure out how to take care of the bandwidth problem HD cable will live up to the hype. Bit-for-bit, though, compressed HD is still better than compressed SD. It’s simply a matter of higher resolution.
I’ve been working in the CCTV industry for more than a decade now, and have watched as CCTV slid from high quality Analog (which required a LOT of dedicated video coax) to HD video that is both of higher, and lower quality. (But requires less in the way of dedicated wiring.)
Once you get the ‘knack’ of seeing artifacts, it never leaves you. Walking through the video section of Best Buy or Costco can be torture for me.
Still, I have firm plans to upgrade to HDTV. I’ll use a computer monitor and Linux box converted to act as a TIVO clone. I’ve got all the plans finalized. Best of all, I can use the system as a second PC. (actually my primary goal)
I figure I’ll actually implement it sometime in 2010. Until then I’ll continue as I have - with the TV mostly off.
So when everything goes digital next year, will we be stuck with compression artifacts for everything?