Fox Football and 5.1 Dolby Digital

[brownie landscape]

Fox was bragging today that 6 of their football games are in HD and all are in 5.1 DD sound. Granted I don't have HD but why couldn't I hear the games in 5.1 like I do on HBO?

[Shappyss]

the 5.1 sound only comes with the digital channel and is not included with the standard def channel. Unless you have a HD box capable of decoding the digital signal you will not be able to have 5.1

[SimpleSimon]

Welcome aboard brownie!

Well, assuming we're talking about satellite SD, AFAIK NONE of them are in DD5.1. I've only seen my receiver kick into DD mode on SOME of the premium movie stations, and of course, HD channels.

If we're talkig OTA, well, that's a question for the station engineers.

[mrdectown]

For those who watched it in HD, Didnt it look damn good? i loved it. i watched it OTA and its looked better then espn hd.

[shmaque]

Wish I had seen it in HD. The ESPN-HD recaps were the closest that we got - FOX WSYT-DT in Syracuse was still broadcasting in SD. It was like my tv was laughing at me every time that bit came on bragging about broadcasting in 720p/DD5.1 High Definition - the best something or other format available!! Wait, maybe that was just my buddies laughing at me... :lol:

[JeffK]

It looked so awesome, I had to watch 2 games. Bears/Lions, Vikings/Cowboys. I did have Time Warner cable, but they couldn't come to an agreement with the local station to rebroadcast. So, since I needed an HD Tuner to get OTA Fox, that's when I decided to switch to Dish with an 811.

It still amazes me how a picture that clear and 5.1 surround can come through air-waves.

Of course I'll be watching my team Green Bay tonight on ABC HD.

[Cyclone]

Fox was bragging today that 6 of their football games are in HD and all are in 5.1 DD sound. Granted I don't have HD but why couldn't I hear the games in 5.1 like I do on HBO?Well, your local affiliates's Analog transmission can not carry DD5.1. Dish Network uplinks your local Analog signal. So DD5.1 is not part of the signal for them to send to you. That is why you don't have DD5.1 on your Dish supplied fox.

HBO and a few others do have DD5.1 included with their SD channels, because they don't have to transmit them Analog OTA. Even their SD stuff is likely digital all the way.

[invaliduser88]

I thought the wide shots of the field were a little soft on the Vikings/Cowboys game.

[SWFootballFan]

It worked with the 811 OTA Tuner in 5.1 and you could even hear the PA in the back speakers.

[koji68]

Fox was bragging today that 6 of their football games are in HD and all are in 5.1 DD sound. Granted I don't have HD but why couldn't I hear the games in 5.1 like I do on HBO?

It worked for me. I have a 811.

When is CBS going to do HD? I was watching the Cleveland game and it just sucked! I mean the PQ not Cleveland :)

[invaliduser88]

Here's the CBS NFL broadcast schedule, HD available is noted on it.

http://www.sportsline.com/cbssports/schedules/page/nfl

[TomCat]

...If we're talkig OTA, well, that's a question for the station engineers.

Then I guess that qualifies me to answer, and the answer is that it would be difficult if not impossible to impress 5.1 on a SD transmission. At a minimum, very expensive and very impractical. SD OTA can barely do analog stereo. As for 5.1 on DBS locals, it depends upon what the station is feeding to the DBS vendor. Quite often 5.1 is "in" the SDI SD signal, but never gets through the STL or the transmitter, which in most cases were not designed to carry such signals.

What I hear through the grapevine is that quite often the FOX 720p signal greatly outshines HD signals from other stations in some markets. There is some benefit to waiting until the technology gets good, and those on the cutting edge might already be saddled with some legacy obsolescence.

In particular, FOX has put MPEG splicers at their O&O locations, which without going into a tediously boring explanation, eliminates for the most part any digital conversion issues. A few others are using this technology (PBS is one) but it is pretty new.

FOX built 6 HD trucks since last year (they were leasing two then) so expect to see most games in HD from here on out.

[mikeinaustin]

i watched (6000 receiver) the football games on fox-hd OTA, MNF in abc-hd OTA, and espn-hd. I thought that espn-hd had the best picture, then fox, the abc.

[Cholly]

i watched (6000 receiver) the football games on fox-hd OTA, MNF in abc-hd OTA, and espn-hd. I thought that espn-hd had the best picture, then fox, the abc.
Unable to watch Fox in HD since my local hasn't offered an HD subchannel as yet (or upgraded to HD on their primary digital channel). They're currently broadcasting two with two digital feeds -- Fox and UPN. As to ESPN and ABC, I felt that the ABC OTA PQ was somewhat better, but signal quality wavers (operating on VHF channel 4, 1.5 KW, with temporary authorization) , and results in momentary picture and sound lockups. Based on that, the overall experience was better on ESPN.

[chewey]

Here's the CBS NFL broadcast schedule, HD available is noted on it.

http://www.sportsline.com/cbssports/schedules/page/nfl


Does CBS wait to see what games are worth showing in HD?

Plus, I have the Chicago distant networks. What AFC team does the Chicago CBS regularly show?

[JohnH]

What AFC team does the Chicago CBS regularly show?

IIRQ: They lean towards the Chiefs. They did hold website poles for the game coverage. Don't see that feature now.

[C*Tedesco]

Does CBS wait to see what games are worth showing in HD?

Plus, I have the Chicago distant networks. What AFC team does the Chicago CBS regularly show?


That has to be the case, that's my guess anyway. After the 3rd week there were no HD channels available. Man, that's gotta be miffed.