The "ABC's Superbowl broadcast problems" thread (1 Viewer)

[Reginald Trent]

Anybody else notice this?

 

[elMalloc]

Is HDNET 1080i? Just wondering. I'm not seeing the ABC one right now but I know it's 720p.

-ELmO

 

[Paul W]

Since I can't get HDNet (damn those exclusive arrangements), I couldn't say.

 

[Chris*Liberti]

To me it looks better. One thing I have noticed with HDnet is lately the resolution doesn't seem the same as when it 1st aired and also I have always noticed pixelation on HDNet which I have yet to see on ABC.

 

[Paul W]

Ooops! Wrong thread. :b

 

[Reginald Trent]

ABC should let HDNET handle the technical end of next year's HD broadcast of the Superbowl.

 

[TonyD]

i agreee that the quality wasnt as high as hdnet.
could it be that abc is 720p and that when my mits reciever converts it to 1080i that it loses something along the way?

 

[Don S]

Quality was terrific IMO. I was very impressed overall.

 

[Reginald Trent]

I guess my watching High Definition done right on HDNET sorta spoils it for you when viewing subpar offerings like ABC's Superbowl presentation.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

ABC should let HDNET handle the technical end of next year's HD broadcast of the Superbowl.

It won't be on ABC next year. The Superbowl rotates between ABC, CBS, and Fox each year. I think CBS got next. Maybe it will be in HD, but CBS is on the record saying they'll stop doing HD in Fall 2003 if the FCC doesn't mandate the "broadcast flag" copy protection scheme.

 

[elMalloc]

Broadcast flag? Does that mean DVI?

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I cannot compare to HDNet (do not have satellite), but I thought the game looked as good as CBS's efforts the past few weekends. In any case, it was a huge improvement over the "Fox Widescreen" crap we got during the last Super Bowl. If MNF looks this good next fall, I will be very happy.

My only complaint was that the clock/scoreboard was positioned so that we could not see the time remaining during the entire game.

 

[David.N]

I was able to view the game OTA HD in the Kansas City metro. The picture was great! (I have not seen HD Net....yet) Did anyone else think the sound was not syncronized with the picture? There appeared to be a fraction of a delay between the picture and sound. ie:John Madden's commentary was slightly delayed from the movement of his mouth. Do you think this was related to the broadcast? or the television sound processing?

 

[TerryS]

It was the same way for me on the standard def broadcast. I noticed it during the pre-game and apparently nobody bothered to fix it by the end of the game. It seemed to me that they introduced the 3 second sound delay but forgot to delay the picture as well.

 

[Aaron Whitaker]

I was doing split screen since the regular broadcast was showing some closeup replays while HD wasn't. The HD feed was delayed a second or two from the regular feed. When they cut to regular feed on the HD channel, Madden was off but I think they fixed it by having a HD camera showing Madden after the game got going. There was a delay on HD though.

 

[John Tillman]

I observed two subpar technical issues:

1 - Lip sync issues on my HD-OTA reception (ABC-HD on cable was much better for the lip sync problem).

2 - Video dropouts

ABC has one entire MNF season under their belt. HDNET lacks football experience, no? Since this broadcast was probably done with all new gear we should be understanding. When Oct/Nov 03' rolls around, if MNF is not up to par then....

But with ESPN's HD rollout in March, ABC should have ample gear and HD experience come the fall.

 

[dick_harris]

I get the digital OTA (Not HDTV) broadcast from the local ABC affiliate. I also get the analog OTA and Cox cable. While watching the Super Bowl yesterday, I tried to compare the three different signals. While the digital picture is the best of the three in most cases, in close up shots and fast moving action shots the digital picture appears
"jerky", not smooth. The analog OTA and Cox cable pictures seemed much more smooth, not jerky at all. What is the problem? Is it my set or digital tuner or is this just a common problem with a digital broadcast? Does this also happen with the HDTV broadcast? I get a "good" digital signal according the the meter on my Sony HD200 tuner. Thanks.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Dick, "digital cable" has nothing to do with HDTV. It sounds like your cable company's "digital cable" service is over-compressing the signal being sent across their system, which will lead to motion artifacts. I also noticed this on my parents DirecTV feed when watching hockey games after the satellite provider added all the local channels.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Whenever ABC went to a SD camera, it looked pretty choppy on the HDTV broadcast.

 

[dick_harris]

"It sounds like your cable company's "digital cable" service is over-compressing the signal being sent across their system, "

It was not digital cable, it was digital OTA ("over the air") that I was having problems with. The Cox Cable is an analog signal. I understand that digital is not the same as HDTV, but I assumed it would be as good as or better than analog, whether cable analog or OTA analog. However, that does not appear to be the case, at least as to the Super Bowl broadcast.

Also, "One thing I have noticed with HDnet is lately the resolution doesn't seem the same as when it 1st aired." I heard elsewhere that DirecTV recently decreased the bandwidth on HDNET and that is why some people think it is not as good as before.