Press release: DirecTV Interactive will be all HD with the Australian Open

[Steve615]

Press release from DirecTV:
DirecTV,in conjunction with ESPN2 and the Tennis Channel will feature 400 hours of coverage of the tournament.
The channels covering this event are 701-707.
For the first time,the interactive channel,mix channel and all five court channels will be in HD.
The Australian Open begins this Sunday,January 18.

http://dtv.client.shareholder.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=359327

In addition,DirecTV will offer interactive services for ESPN and the Tennis Channel's coverage of the French Open,Wimbledon and the U.S. Open tournaments later this year,completing the Grand Slam,compliments of DirecTV. :)

[Steve615]

Channels 701-707 are populated in the guide.
DirecTV has set up dual feeds for each channel.
They are available in HD and SD.
Programming is scheduled to begin at 7 PM ET this evening.

[QuickDrop]

Should we make anything of the fact that the guide have the bonus coverage going off at 2 AM and not coming back for the 3:30 - 8:00 AM coverage (which ESPN2 is also showing)?

I've seen D* go into "extra innings" with this kind of coverage before, so I hope it's just inaccurate guide info.

Also, I will be interested to see how many courts are in true HD. Up until now, only the two show courts have been filmed in HD, the rest, for majors outside the U.S, in widescreen SD. Plus, during Wimbledon, ESPN only showed coverage in upconverted widescreen, while both NBC and the Tennis Channel showed their matches in true HD.

[Riot Nrrrd™]

I have been watching almost all day and I'm in tennis HD heaven :D

[QuickDrop]

To update my last post, all the bonus coverage is currently off the air. On one channel, I actually saw two players enter the court for their match when D* cut to their standard check listings for more coverage blue screen.

Edit: And now the Australian Mix channel is simply the standard mix Sports Mix. I wonder whether this is an ESPN prohibition or a D* decision.

[wilbur_the_goose]

You know - the TV add I've seen is NOTHING like what I'm getting on my HR20-700. The D* TV ad shows beautifully rendered text and my box is showing old-fashioned blocky fuzzy text.

Am I doing something wrong? (I'm being facetious = I know everybody is getting the same stuff)

[Davenlr]

My Australian Open Mix channel is 4:3 with blue Directv boarders and title. A 16:9 stretch of thr SD channel. The text on the individual channel windows is a lot sharper than the SD channel, but the Directv text isnt all that sharp. Of course, its a 720p channel. Hope they do this with other mix channels.

[Araxen]

The Australian open channels have horrible PQ. I was watching Fed's second round match today and the PQ on ESPN2 and then the Chan 702 was like night and day. It said it was 702 in HD and it looked like it was SD stretched.

[QuickDrop]

The Australian open channels have horrible PQ. I was watching Fed's second round match today and the PQ on ESPN2 and then the Chan 702 was like night and day. It said it was 702 in HD and it looked like it was SD stretched.

The programming isn't stretched, but most, if not all, the matches I seen have clearly been upconverted SD widescreen. I kinda expected that as ESPN hasn't made it a priority to pass through the true HD signal for tennis (though many of the courts are very likely only being filmed in SD widescreen also.)

More disappointing is that we are only getting multi-court coverage for half the day's matches. That's what makes absolutely no sense to me.

[ExitWound]

I don't think the cameras in the other courts are HD cameras. TennisHD was showing an HD match from center court but as soon as they cut to a different court, it was upscaled. No reason why TennisHD wouldn't have the HD feed if they were doing HD broadcasting from each court. I sincerely believe that the cameras just aren't up to snuff, so they're upscaling.

[QuickDrop]

I don't think the cameras in the other courts are HD cameras. TennisHD was showing an HD match from center court but as soon as they cut to a different court, it was upscaled. No reason why TennisHD wouldn't have the HD feed if they were doing HD broadcasting from each court. I sincerely believe that the cameras just aren't up to snuff, so they're upscaling.

Yeah, that been the case for the all but the two "show courts" for all the majors. It just hasn't seemed as though the show courts are in HD either. (Over at AVS Forum, it seems as though Australia isn't even getting them in HD.)

[wilbur_the_goose]

For what it's worth, the interactive content is NOT HD. It looks like 1990-era VGA monitor text.

[QuickDrop]

For what it's worth, the interactive content is NOT HD. It looks like 1990-era VGA monitor text.

So I suppose you're not diggin' its retro feel?

[ExitWound]

I'll take a Nadal match over Serena ANY day though, even in SD.

[QuickDrop]

I'll take a Nadal match over Serena ANY day though, even in SD.

I would take a live Jo-Wilfried Tsonga match over a replay of a Serena match, but apparently ESPN doesn't believe we should have a choice as they've already shut off of coverage most of their multi-court channels.

[Dolly]

Yes I have been very disappointed that the coverage stops at 2:00 am. ET And why are all those Doubles Matches being shown? Also I have noticed the difference in the picture quality among the Channels. And it seems like the Channels with the worse picture always have the Matches I really want to see :rolleyes:

[QuickDrop]

Yes I have been very disappointed that the coverage stops at 2:00 am. ET And why are all those Doubles Matches being shown? Also I have noticed the difference in the picture quality among the Channels. And it seems like the Channels with the worse picture always have the Matches I really want to see :rolleyes:

I assume all the double matches are there because those are the matches being played on the televised courts.

As for the lack of multi-court coverage as day/night goes on, I've come up with a theory. ESPN's multi-court coverage is merely a direct rebranding of a service offered in Australia and that coverage ends before their "prime time" so as not to dilute television ratings. During the US Open, we don't get prime time multi-court coverage probably for the same reason. It's not an entire satisfying theory, but it's the only thing that makes a modicum of sense.