28
Apr
2008
PC World: Do your HDTV programs look as good as they should? If not, you may be seeing the results of overcompression. A growing number of viewers and experts are claiming that increased use of compression–technology that downsizes huge high-definition video streams for eventual reconstitution on your screen–is responsible for a drop in quality.
Such charges–aimed mostly at the two biggest cable providers, Comcast and Time Warner–have been echoing around the blogosphere in the wake of reports about new compression algorithms. Contributing to the debate: An AVS Forum member’s tests showed that at least ten HD networks were more compressed on Comcast than on Verizon’s fiber-optic-cable-based FiOS service.