Live broadcasts on my LCD TV a little pixelated why?

Question

I have a new Samsung 37" LCD TV and when viewed through Freeview some live broadcasts (like footbal and golf) can look a bit pixelated around the edges of moving people. Is this just a thing with LCD TVs or could it be the Freeview box and connections. Viewing quality of films and other programmes on both TV and from DVD is superb quality so I can only think that its the refresh rate on Freeview that's causing it. Anyone else get this

Answer 1

You say freeview box? If it does not have built in freeview, then  that is very poor, and built-in has the potential to be better, as it does not have to convert from digital to analog.

Different encoding systems tend to make one of two mistakes on live brodcasts with people and a grass texture, either generating blocky artifacts on the grass texture, or fringing of movement.

I assume the live encoders are something of a compromise compared to offline encoding, since the live encoder must work in realtime and without too much delay.

Answer 2

Same on mine, and I know why it does. If it's an HD television, then those should be there, IF you don't have HD, in order to get them off, you need to buy the HD thing, and that costs over $100 dollars. So, I hope this helps you!

Answer 3

It tends to happen on freeview broadcasts on LCD TV's.

If I watch setanta on freeview its like that but if I watch it on Virgin its fine.

Answer 4

Something you said caught my attention.  "...some live broadcasts (like footbal and golf) can look a bit pixelated around the edges of moving people."  Digital TV systems use compression systems like MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.  The way these work is they send the whole picture periodically and then updates of what moved in the period between.

If the station doing the encoding (probably the Freeview people) are not sending the updates quick enough, then you get the effect you are describing.  Cutting back on the updates is one technique for making a bit more room for more channels.  It usually works well, except on fast moving things like sports.

I hope this helps.

Please come back and choose an answer from all of those submitted.

Answer 5

This is a common occurrence with some compressed video, especially with rapidly changing scenes. It's almost always caused by an insufficient bit rate. Mpeg compression techniques get a huge amount of their compression from predicting motion of content in successive video frames and encoding the prediction error. If there aren't enough bits to go around, the accuracy of the predictions goes down, creating mislocated pixels. Interlaced systems can cause other problems, because of shifts during the two fields.

The insufficient bit rate could be from the content producer, or the transmission system.

By the way, how could there be enough motion in a golf broadcast to be a problem :-)