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[Phys-L] Re: TV delay



With high probability, the delay is due to _compression_.

You can save a lot of money on bandwith (for any given
signal quality) by compressing the signal before
distributing it. But video compression is very compute-
intensive, which introduces some delay ... and even if
you had unlimited computing power, there might be some
delay, because some of the compression algorithms look
at more than one frame before deciding how best to compress
things.

The same is true, on a lesser scale, in cell phones. The
delay is/was especially noticeable on older models, which
had less number-crunching power, and less-clever algorithms.

-----------

Here's a way to tell for sure if a given TV signal is
being compressed: Look for drop-outs. On an analog
signal, a drop-out will cause the screen to go black
for a moment. On a digital signal, the scene will
freeze and/or will be splattered with coarse blocks
of color.
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