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

[Scott DeToffol]

I thought the broadcast on the whole was pretty disappointing.

1) Overscan - the top of the screen including the game clock wasn't visible.

2) Video dropouts - missed approx. 2 minutes in the 4th quarter, and various other dropouts.

3) Video quality - I thought CBS had a better PQ last week. Isn't wasn't bad, just not as good as CBS. (My setup doesn't do 720p so I was seeing upconvert to 1080i).

4) Replays - Madden kept talking about replays that they were not showing on the HDTV broadcast.

5) Lip synch - lip synch was off from the start, but got much worse in the 4th quarter

6) DD 5.1 - we did get 5.1 here in Minneapolis, but the mix wasn't very good. Way too much crowd noise in the rears and the musical stuff wasn't good at all.

I'd give the broadcast a C- : a little less than average for live HDTV events these days.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

2) Video dropouts - missed approx. 2 minutes in the 4th quarter, and various other dropouts.

We did not have a two minute dropout in the 4th quarter, so this must have been either a local affiliate or reception problem.

 

[Patrick Sun]

If you watched the game in HD and then watched the game in SD in picture-in-picture, it was almost a different game between the 2 in terms of presentation (replays, and other nifty stats and camera angles).

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

Broadcast flag? Does that mean DVI?

Broadcast Flag means the network flips a switch and your video recorder stops recording.

The flag already exists in a revision of the digital TV standards and digital TV stations are required to implement it (they must pass the flag in the data stream to the viewers if the network sends it), but there are no digital TV receivers which recognize and obey the flag, nor are they required to do so. CBS wants the FCC to remedy this and they're holding the 2003 fall HD season hostage.

Never mind that the flag is apparently just a toggled bit which can be easily untoggled by a perl script written by a 12 year old.

 

[elMalloc]

 

[Grady Hollums]

El Mallo:

That picture is great!

Man, I really wish I could just drop down the $500 and get an over the air HD decoder!

I think I might look into it I get moved in May near a larger city!

Thanks!

 

[elMalloc]

 

[elMalloc]

 

[Scott Goldstein]

I had absolutely no problem with overscan. I saw the clock perfectly on my OTA HDTV.

Perhaps it is your TV overscanning.