A block error is a common type of error in certain types of digital television transmission, particularly those that use image compression. Its presence in a television image is a telltale sign that 1) the signal is broadcast digitally, as this type of error can not occur in analog transmission, and 2) that there is a significant amount of noise, as digital television is designed to tolerate a certain amount of interference. Block errors are usually detected, but not corrected, by the receiving device and are commonly displayed as empty black boxes in the television image.
Because of how television images are usually compressed, a block error in a single frame often results in black boxes in several subsequent frames. In the worst case, a few block errors per frame could render the video from a television broadcast unviewable.
Block errors are most common in digital satellite television, where bad weather or motion of the satellite dish can cause interference outside the broadcaster's control.
Block errors can occur at levels of interference where an analog transmission would be fuzzy but still viewable. Thus, block errors are a fine example of the consequences of trade offs in engineering. Although in ideal conditions, digital transmission far exceeds analog transmission in performance, below a certain threshold of signal to noise ratio, digital transmission becomes untenable.
Famous quotes containing the words block and/or error:
“Only he who can view his own past as an abortion sprung from compulsion and need can use it to full advantage in the present. For what one has lived is at best comparable to a beautiful statue which has had all its limbs knocked off in transit, and now yields nothing but the precious block out of which the image of one’s future must be hewn.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)
“Knowledge is ancient error reflecting on its youth.”
—Francis Picabia (1878–1953)