Digital Cable - Pixelization during motion


Hello Audioigoners,

I don't claim to be a videophile by any notion of the word... Though I'm sure I would be if I had $$$

I have a normal, non-HD CRT 27" TV and Comcast digital cable. As I was sitting down last night to watch the pinnacle of consumer entertainment AKA "American Idol" I was extremely disturbed. Not only from the content, but even more so from the phenominon my TV was producing.

A Static image looks OK, but whenever there is movement, there is pixelization. The images look "chunky." Fast movement makes the entire screen look like a hodge-podge of convoluted colors and shapes. It looks like playing back an MPEG vieo file on a 486 conputer whose CPU is not fast enough to keep up.

To me, this problem is completely unbearable. It starts as a minor distraction, then it become all I can focus on, then it gets even worse and makes me ill. It disturbs my inner balance, and frankly, seeing it makes me 'not OK' with the world.

I have noticed this at various friends houses as well who also have digital cable.

I CAN'T be the only one who's seeing this. I've never seen this phenominom in the many years that I've used analog cable.

Questions:
* What is causing this?
* Do all digital cable receives/services/whatevers have this problem? Or is there some band-aid that can fix it?
* Does satellite TV (DirecTV or DISH) have this problem at all?
* HOW DO YOU GUYS COPE?!?!?
goatwuss
Switching to DirecTV won't help. If anything, the problem that you describe has gotten worse in the past year or so with them. I don't know about Dish Network.
This situation is really frustrating.

If you don't like MP3s, you can listen to CDs...

If you don't like CDs, you can listen to vinyl...

If you don't like your TV picture, you can take a hike.
Er, if you don't like your TV, you can wait a year and then pony up $60 for the "Season 912 of American Idol" box set. ;)
YOu could go back to ota (over the air) which is suppossed to be remarkable for HD. The SD stations on directv were just as bad if not worse than comcast. Hoever, I will report that some cable systems provide a better than average analog signal. My conventional cable at a second house that i own is outstanding. Not HD, but way better than the conventional cable on my non-HD tvs at home. Same cable provider, but each system was purchased by comcast from a different system builder, so there likely is different technology somewhere.