CNN Picture Quality very poor

[RRF1]

These days are spent watching quite bit of CNN.
But the picture quality is intolerable.
With every scene change the picture goes blurry and then slightly clears a second later.
It is time for Rogers to stop giving it's subscribers the bare minimum quality.
The online version of CNN, showing the same videos, is perfectly clear.
It was the digital cable subscribers who paid all the rate increases to expand the bandwidth of the cable network, only to be treated like second class citizens.

***Edited Labels***

[RogersRahul]

Greetings @RRF1!

Not being able to watch your favorite channel can definitely be disappointing. We'd be happy to assist you with this. It’ll be great if you can answer a couple of quick questions.

-    Have you tried rebooting your cable box? 
-    Are other cable boxes showing the same quality?  
-    Do you know if the issue is affecting only one channel or multiple channels?
-    Do you notice issues mostly during a specific time of day or is it random?

We look forward to hearing from you.

RogersRahul
 

[RRF1]

This is not an individual/local/equipment issue, but a compression issue. It has been like this for years on CNN.

[RogersRahul]

Hello @RRF1,

Currently, there are no reported outages or known issues on CNN video quality.

Is anyone else in the community experiencing similar issues?

RogersRahul

[CAN93]

Yes, same issue here, CNN video quality has always been worse then other channels. This is nothing new it’s been that way for the last couple years since we have been with Rogers. Tonight (March 1/22) it is even worse than usual and basically not tolerable.

[RRF1]

I am sure that is what they tell you.
But if you were on Digital Cable and tried to watch the State of the Union address tonight, you would have seen the color pulsating every second, anytime there was movement. As long as no one moves, or the scene does not change, or a locally injected commercial is on, it is fine.

[CAN93]

Yes we experienced the exact same issue tonight watching the State of the Union address. It was absolutely terrible. We have been daily CNN watchers for the last couple years so we know that the channel is always worse quality than when watching other channels and have got used to it even though it’s annoying. But tonight was just too bad to even watch it, luckily was able to find it on NBC with no quality issues.

[RogersYasmine]

Greetings @RRF1 & @CAN93,

Thank you so much for sharing your concerns with the community and providing additional context for your issue. 🙂

We'd like to investigate this further. If possible, please send us a private message to @CommunityHelps so we can assist you further. For more information on how our Private Messaging system works, please check out our blog.

Thank you kindly!

RogersYasmine

[RRF1]

Well there seemed to be a slight improvement over the last week...still one of the poorest quality channels in the lineup...however this morning CNN is back to becoming distorted with every scene change or movement, with the noise and colour flashing every second.

Ironic how video can come out of a war zone on the other side of the world clear, but after going through Rogers network have the quality of a 1960's moon landing.

[pd00054]

Yes, sometimes the quality is so bad that it is unwatchable!  I even pay extra for this channell.

[mebe]

I also have digital legacy Rogers cable tv, and when I last had CNN about 10 months ago, the picture (with inconsistent compression) was also bad for me. I called to complain, but it never improved, so I eventually cancelled it.
Plus, split-screen two shots often gave CNN picture trouble when it initially returned to the normal full screen picture (from CNN's split two or more shot). The compression of the channel via Rogers digital is (or at least when I had it) quite shameful, but I assume I'll eventually try it again to satisfy my curiosity.

[57]

I have the following comments regarding any of the news channels, like CNN.

1. As a news and not a sports or movie channel, Rogers is likely not providing the same bandwidth for this type of channel when compared to sports or premium movie channels. Rogers are not expecting much "action" on this channel.

2. You should see an excellent picture when there is a relatively static talking head in a studio environment. Under these controlled conditions, CNN is using HD cameras, good lighting, etc.  I just checked this sort of quality and it was fine.

3. When you are viewing something "from the field" those cameras are often SD or early HD, there is often not good lighting, and the cameras are not cared for being thrown around in the back of a truck, etc.

4. When people are being interviewed, especially these days with lots of use of Skype, FaceTime, Zoom, etc, the picture quality will depend on the quality of the camera at the other end, as well as lighting. This can sometimes be pretty terrible with lousy (computer) cameras and lighting, etc.  You can usually compare the quality of the "remote" picture with the "studio" picture if there is a side-by-side interview.

5. I have noticed some "macroblocking" on quick scene changes, however, it should settle down after a second or two, unless there are other major scene changes, which the signal compression cannot deal with well if bandwidth is tight.

6. Proper adjustments of the TV's picture settings can help in these situations.  Sharpness should be turned way down to minimize macroblocking, etc.

I hope this helps explain a few things.

[mebe]

Yes, even MSNBC will have brief
macro-blocking trouble when transitioning from multi-shot to full-screen clear studio picture, but CNN had far too many visual issues, far too frequently, to be covered by the typical problems that news coverage often causes.
Perhaps Ignite TV is better for CNN than legacy digital, but since the MSNBC picture was leaps and bounds better than the inconsistent CNN picture (during any hour of viewing), I still believe that CNN was or perhaps still is in need of a quality control upgrade, if it's to match the MSNBC quality (not perfect, but still enjoyable to watch).

[mebe]

CNN dead since about 6:15pm today. All the other channels are working.
Wolf Blitzer still isn't returning my calls. 👊

[mebe]

CNN is now working. Wolf cares. 👏

[grenouf]

Same here, CNN is very poor quality usually around dinner time. I wish I had more choice!!