Written by Chris Albrecht
Posted Monday, March 31, 2008 at 5:00 PM PT

Comcast Re-Compressing HD Picture

The first casualty in the battle to offer the most HD channels could ironically be video quality. A sharp-eyed poster over on the AVS Forum noticed that Comcast is recompressing some of its HD programming in an effort to squeeze more channels into its pipe. The difference was immediately noticeable when Comcast’s HD was compared with Verizon’s FiOS HD offering.

The result of the compression is degraded image — which is exactly what HD customers are paying for. Here are snippets of the screen shots captured over on the AVS Forum:

Verizon FiOS HD

Comcast HD

This recompressing doesn’t impact every HD channel, but between this, plans to spy on its customers, and slowing down traffic of its heavy users, Comcast is going to great lengths to make sure it angers as many customers as it can.

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Topic: Distribution

Comments (3)

I have Comcast HD and none my HD channels look like the “Comcast HD” picture you have here. Hah, even the regular digital channels don’t look that bad.

Daniel Sale — 7:22 PM on March 31, 2008 Reply
To be fair, it’s just still image and not exactly how you’d see it while it’s in full motion.

Chris Albrecht — 7:57 PM on March 31, 2008 Reply
I wonder if Cox or Time Warner does this too?

rob friedman — 10:27 PM on March 31, 2008 Reply

Linkbacks (3)

[...] its channel offerings. Users began noticing degraded HD quality and posted screenshots in forums comparing the Comcast images with Verizon’s FiOS HD images. Comcast’s HD showed increased pixillation and distortion. A company spokesperson confirmed [...]

2008 04-01 MediaBytes: Google - Rick Astley… — 4:53 AM on April 1, 2008
[...] NewTeeVee: Comcast mucking around with HD quality. No surprise. [...]

GigaNET AM: Google Docs, Comcast HD &… — 9:09 AM on April 1, 2008
[...] its channel offerings. Users began noticing degraded HD quality and posted screenshots in forums comparing the Comcast images with Verizon’s FiOS HD images. Comcast’s HD showed increased pixillation and distortion. A company spokesperson confirmed [...]

2008 04-01 MediaBytes: Google - Virgle -… — 7:34 AM on April 2, 2008