HD Football (1 Viewer)

Hey does anyone have the superfan package from Directv? Now that I have my 72” DLP TV set up with HDTV I’m thinking watching games in HD should be happening. Saw this site: www.heybuttercup.com wanted to know what “up to 9 games in HD every Sunday” means realistically.

I didn't look at the link, but what it means is that Fox does 6 games per week in HD, CBS does 3. I've heard it's a limitation in the number of HD setups each network has to send to the various games each weekend. The networks pick the games they think will be the best and show them in HD, leaving the worse teams in SD. Last week, there were 7 games on Fox, so only 6 were in HD. The Cards/49ers game was the game no in HD if I remember correctly. There were 5 games on CBS. The ravens/bucs and one other were left off of HD. Usually, it's a CBS game or two or three that get left off of HD.

It can also refer to the fact that ST blacks out games that are available on your local network. So if your local network is showing the local team in HD, then you would see it by turning to the local channel, not the ST channel which would show a blank screen. So, you wouldn't be able to see all 9 games in HD on superfan, because you'd be getting it over your local station. Same goes for the Sunday and Monday night games. They don't count against the 'up to 9 games in hd' over superfan.

If you get superfan, you will most likely see any game you want in HD. Unless you happen to be a fan of a bad team, or more likely a bad afc team. The bad afc teams are the ones left off CBS HD. Around here, the Ravens are hardly ever in HD and their fans get bitter. I'm a Giants fan and have seen every game in HD since I got it in 2004.

I pretty much watch at least 6 games in HD every week, without the Superfan package . . . ALL in HD.

I have the superfan package and am unfortunately a NY Jet fan in Virginia. Last weeks game against Tenn wasn't in HD...big surprise, but this weeks against New England was. Its a little annoying, but sometimes the blurry SD image is good when your team is playing really bad...takes your mind off the game.

...Which as another Jet fan, we both know happens all too often.

Which begs the question, how long before every game will be covered in HD?

Not always true. The Colts were in SD this week and I really don't consider them bad. Maybe it was because of their opponent.

Which is why I said 'most likely' and 'more likely.' The network puts the games on HD that they think most people will be interested in. Usually, that means the good teams. I think the only people interested in Houston v. Indianapolis were people living in Indy, Houston and the Manning family. And they were right. I think by the time the game was 30-3 after 3 quarters, even Archie was channel surfing!

Hey, can you tell me how they manage the audio for the 8 games on 1 screen thing? Is it all silent, or a mix, or what?

I actually haven't used the eight-on-one-screen channel all that much (which is weird cause I figured that would be a big feature for me), but the couple of times I did flip to it I think I remember some sort of faint music track in the background. Now I usually watch football on my HD Tivo and sometimes the interactive functions take quite a while to start up so its possible that the sound eventually gets going. I know on the sport and news mix stations which are kind of the same, once its all set loading and whatnot, you can use the arrow keys on the remote to highlight the different stations. In that case the sound from the highlighted station is what you hear. Like I said though, my interactive features don't always work that well so I may be talking out of my posterior on this one.

There are no interactive features on the HD tivo...

The new directv hd dvr (HR20) has interactive features, but it is not a Tivo. The new non dvr HD box (H20) also has interactive features.

If you want to hear the various audio from the 8 games on the mix channel and have an HD Tivo, like I do, you need to hit 'Info', then 'down' to move the cursor over the audio symbol and hit 'select.' From there, you can select audio 1, audio 2, etc and find the audio stream that corresponds to the particular game you want. If you change the channel, then come back, the audio will default back to audio 1, which is either music or the audio from the game in the upper left corner of the grid. No idea how they choose which, but it's been both.

Ahhh, well that cetainly clears things up . Boy, could they make it slightly more convoluted in order to do that stuff on the HD tivo? Also kind of funny that their current flag ship unit has no interactive features...oh well. Once I get the HR20 (waiting for local HDs in my area) maybe I'll start using that channel a little more. Thanks for the info.

Thanks for your answer. I think I'm gonna go for it. One more question: wiith the red zone channel is there always something there? What do they play when no one's in the redzone? What if two games enter the redzone at once?

I don't use the RZC much. But it's basically some guy with a remote going from game to game. He comments on the games as he switches channels. They will also go back and show a clip if they miss a score.

I prefer to run my own remote. The hd tivo came out before the interactive features and the hr20 was much delayed. That's why they've given me superfan for free for two years running, because they don't have a receiver that can use all the features of SF. Anyway, one thing you can do with the hd tivo that you can't with the HR20 is use dual live buffers. So I can watch one game, pause it at a commercial, switch tuners and watch another game, then go back to the first game where I left off, then go back to the second where I left off, etc. You can easily watch every play of both games and still have time to channel surf when both are in commercial or halftime. Sundays are a beautiful thing!

*droool* I just ordered Superfan. I tried to get my buddy to pay for some of it, but he wasn't having it. I know he'll be here every Sunday and Monday, but I suppose I shouldn't complain, at least I get to hold the remote. I have the new TiVo, so I guess the HR20, will have to figure out how that works with SF.

The HR20 is not a tivo. Tivo refers to the software and the HR20 runs NDS software. It's an important distinction because the capabilities and features of the two machines are very different, so it pays to be precise when referring to them. It makes it easier for people to help you and it prevents subsequent readers of the thread from being confused.

Ah, good thing you pointed that out. I guess I don't have the HR20. So far everything works like it's supposed to, but I haven't done the whole 30 minute game thing yet, though that should happen today with the Atlanta/N.O. game. Man, yesterday in HD knocked my socks off!