DirecTV sued for degrading HDTV quality
In November 2004, subscriber Peter Cohen filed a lawsuit against DirecTV for misrepresenting its high-definition service. DirecTV claimed to offer high-definition, when in fact it was offering something less. DirecTV sought to keep the case out of the public’s eye by attempting to compel arbitration in the case. This week, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge ruled against DirecTV, declaring that DirecTV would have to answer questions about its practice of degrading HDTV signals in court.
As most followers of the AVS Forum, DBS Talk, and other forums have long known, several years ago DirecTV decided on a policy of quantity over quality when it came to high-definition television signals. Their system takes the 18+Mbps 1920×1080 video feed from the program provider, downconverts it to 1280×1080, runs the signal through a high-frequency filter to remove picture details, and the result is a less detailed, lower resolution picture that can be delivered in half the bandwidth of the original image. This allowed DirecTV to nearly double its number of HDTV channels, at the expense of quality. In discussion forums around the Internet, these channels have come to be known as “HDTV Lite” channels, since they don’t meet the minimum standards for high-definition outlined by the Advanced Television System Committee (ATSC).
In contrast, Verizon FiOS delivers their high-definition channels at the original 18+Mbps bit rate and original 1920×1080 resolution.
For more information, see this article at TV Predictions or this thread with pictures on the AVS Forum.