Went back home to visit the rents and to subject myself to some more Time Warner Cable HD Programming envy.

I noticed something very odd, when flipping through HD channels, there seemed to be a significant delay and flicker before the picture came up. My HD system does not do this.. anyone elses?

 

I have Dish Network. Gotta support the locals.

BTW, this morning on Discovery HD "Sunrise Earth" was on and I watched cows in a field eating grass.

 

i've seen cirque de soliel on bravoHD a dozen times.

watch INHD if you have it. they have pretty good extreme sports coverage. last week they had a mtn bike dirt jumping contest

 

I have that problem, If I am fliping through the regualr channels there is no delay, but if I am flipping through digital channels there is a half second delay before the picture appears. Sony VEGA and using the internal tuner.

 

bkw, I get this delay also when flipping thru HD channels. The sound would come on right away but the screen is blank for about 2-3 seconds. It's a little annoying but I have been told this is normal.

 

Uh, why would you do that? Nothing else to do? What made you watch cows in a field?

Warren

 

On Cablevision, I don't experience any sort of delay when flipping through HD channels..

hmmm.

 

It was sooo peaceful. Besides, cows are cool...and yummy. Did you know that a heifer is a cow under two which has never given birth?

Not only did I find inner peace, but I learned stuff too.

 

Here's my guess as to what is happening with this delay/flickering you are seeing. Mine does this to, and in my case it is because of the different HD formats. HD can either be 720p or 1080i resolution. Some HD channels choose to broadcast in 720p, while others broadcast in 1080i. SD content is broadcast in 480i or 480p. My television's native resolution is 1080i, meaning when it receives a 1080i signal (while being tuned to a 1080i station) it does nothing to the incoming signal and simply displays it. When it receives any other resolution it has to convert it to 1080i. In my area ABC, Fox, ESPN, and maybe one other are broadcast in 720p resolution. When you flip the channel from one 1080i station to another it changes instantly, meaning no delay or flicker. But when you change the channel from a 1080i one to a 720p one the television flickers for a second to change modes and start converting the signal to its native resolution. It'll do the same thing if you go from a HD channel to a SD channel and vice versa. If you're flipping through the SD channels you'll see no flicker as they are all the same resolution. In other words if the channels aren't the same resolution you'll see the flicker.

Now, you said you don't see this with your setup. Based on the info you've given us you're with cablevision and it appears you have a set top box (receiver) provided by them. Usually within these boxes there is a setting to control the resolution that it spits out to your TV. You can have it set to convert all incoming signals to 1080i. So if it receives a 480i, 480p, or 720p signal the box converts it to 1080i and sends that to the TV. So your tv then sees every channel as 1080i and doesn't flicker when you change channels. You can also set your box to simply pass along the signals untouched to the TV. This would then cause your tv to see different resolutions and then you'd experience the flickering. On my box this setting is called "pass through" as the incoming signals simply pass through untouched to the TV. So, you can set your box up however you want it. You can either have the box converting your signal for you or you can let the TV do it. My impression is that the TV is a little more expensive piece of equipment and does a better job (picture quality-wise) of converting. But this is at the expense of the flickering while changing channels. It doesn't bother me though.

Hopefully that's what you're experiencing. Sorry for the lengthy explanation. I hope it makes sense.

 

Hey no need to be sorry, that makes perfect sense to me. Most of the channels I watch alternate between 720p and 1080i. The delay does not bother me at all. My wife however, she is always saying "for a four thousand dollar tv this thing is slow"

And you are right about the quality of the TV's tuner VS the set top box.