Local professor answers questions over dimly lit 'Game of Thrones' episode

KENOSHA COUNTY (CBS 58) -- Millions watched Game of Thrones on Sunday.

Almost that many also asked the same question -- why was the episode so dark?

Some found it was annoying, others thought it added to the suspense, and almost everyone was turning up the brightness on their TV's.

Perry Kivolowitz, Professor of Computer Science at Carthage College and Academy Award Winner for special effects software, says you can blame your cable company for the dark and blotchy picture, at least in part.

To give consumers to many channels in just one cable wire, they have to compress the signal for each channel.

"The compression is a "lossy" compression, which means what's decompressed isn't exactly what went into the signal in the first place," said Perry Kivolowitz.

Kivolowitz says despite the complaints about the dark episode, he expects the show to win a number of awards for special effects.