HD Quality Question

[Rolando42]

I was watching the Dodgers/Giants game on channel 95 yesterday and had tons of artifacts/noise/pixelization, particularly in the grass on the field and on fast moving graphics like the ones they use when going from replay back to live action. I was watching the game on my recently purchased Bravia XBR2 and wondered if it was due to the "slow" update of the LCD. However, last night I was watching the Red Sox/Rangers game and the quality was incredible, nothing like what I experienced in the afternoon game. My question(s): Do you think this has to do with D* allocating more bandwidth for ESPNHD and less for MLBEI-HD? Do you think that MLBEI-HD uses MPEG4 compression and ESPNHD uses MPEG2? Do you think the HD cameras have problems with daylight (this may not make sense because the graphics were rock solid on the late game)? Just curious.

[admiral39]

I don't know, but I've noticed differences in some of the hockey games that are broadcast in HD. The games that come over from HDNet look generally phenomenal while the ones that Versus broadcasts in HD don't look as good, generally. There seems to be more motion pixelization and other artifacts in the Versus games consistently.

Not sure if is has to do with the equipment used to broadcast the game, the broadcaster, or D* themselves, but consistency is something that's definitely an issue with HD at this point.

[sarfdawg]

I was watching the Dodgers/Giants game on channel 95 yesterday and had tons of artifacts/noise/pixelization, particularly in the grass on the field and on fast moving graphics like the ones they use when going from replay back to live action. I was watching the game on my recently purchased Bravia XBR2 and wondered if it was due to the "slow" update of the LCD. However, last night I was watching the Red Sox/Rangers game and the quality was incredible, nothing like what I experienced in the afternoon game. My question(s): Do you think this has to do with D* allocating more bandwidth for ESPNHD and less for MLBEI-HD? Do you think that MLBEI-HD uses MPEG4 compression and ESPNHD uses MPEG2? Do you think the HD cameras have problems with daylight (this may not make sense because the graphics were rock solid on the late game)? Just curious.

It's interesting that you say that ESPN HD is great. I think that ESPN HD is the worst channel for sports out there. I thought CBS HD yesterday for the Masters was the best I'd ever seen, but ESPN consistently lags. I don't know whether it's because I'm 1080i full time and have no ability to go to 720p - I don't know what ESPN broadcasts in anyway. That said, the MLB EI HD games have been very good, CBS and ABC HD are terrific, Fox HD is very good, and ESPN is the worst of the pack.

[j.r.braswell]

ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD are broadcast in 720P.