Andre Yoskowitz
6 Apr 2008 14:51
Recently, the large ISP Comcast began sacrificing quality for quantity in their broadcasts by degrading the quality of their HD video to make room for more channels.
Beginning on April 9th, Rogers Cable, of Canada will follow suit and will begin compressing 15 of its HD channels. The channels affected by the new announcement, according to Digital Home Canada, are as follows:
* HD PBS Buffalo
* HD WGN
* HD The Score
* HD Showcase
* HD National Geographic
* HD Mpix
* HD Discovery
* HD MORE
* HD TMN
* HD NBC Seattle
* HD SUN
* HD RAP
* HDA&E
* HDCNN
* HDNET
The selection of channels are so-called "premium networks" that subscribers normally purchase separately from basic digital and HD channels. Using a comparison picture provided by the source article, the Compression artifacts are very noticeable. Fortunately, major American networks such as ABC and FOX, and Canadian networks CBC, CTV, Global, and sports network TSN were omitted from the list.
We hope this is a trend that will not continue.