NFL Week 2: Grading the HDTV Broadcasts
Although yesterday was week 2 of the NFL season and hence week 2 of DIRECTV's NFL Sunday Ticket (NFLST) coverage. (I was not able to watch the NFLST coverage last week as I was too busy watching the Eagles-Packers and Bears-Chargers games.) However, with the Eagles on Monday Night Football this week and our local CBS and Fox affiliates choosing to air games of little interest to me, I was able to check out all the games on NFLST this week, all the HD games that is, and I have taken the liberty to grade them all in terms of picture quality.Overall, I must say that I was somewhat disappointed with the overall quality of the games. I will not lay this at the feet of DIRECTV as the games on DIRECTV as the games on DIRECTV looked about the same as they did OTA (antenna) here or via (Verizon's) FiOS. The games that were carried locally did look a tad better on FiOS than on DIRECTV, though, but not all that much better. I would not label any of the games as outstanding, hence none were deserving of an A grade. Sorry, I guess I am a tough marker.
However, none were close to the best HD football I have seen in the past, especially from CBS. The following games I graded as borderline B+:
Colts-Titans (CBS)
Packers-Giants (Fox)
Chiefs-Bears (CBS)
Raiders-Broncos (CBS)
All of these games had bright color and good detail but were just not as sharp as the best HD I have seen. Overall, I thought that their PQ (picture quality) was a tad too soft. Of these games, I thought that the Packers-Giants game on Fox looked the best, by a hair, over the rest which were CBS productions.
Entitled to B grades were:
Steelers-Bills (CBS)
Jets-Ravens (CBS)
49ers-Rams (Fox)
These games were a notch below the others noted above.
The next group I rated as worthy of a C+:
Saints-Bucs (Fox)
Cowboys-Dolphins (Fox)
Lions-Vikings (Fox), which were fuzzier than the rest with somewhat washed out colors, especially the Lions-Vikes.
At the bottom fully deserving of a D+ was the Falcons-Jags (Fox). The PQ there was so bad that it didn't look like HD at all, looking instead like a bad 480i upconvert.
Hopefully, the games next week will look better. Frankly, I expect better from CBS. I have to wonder whether the fact that they have increased the number of HD games they are producing this year has somehow had a negative impact on their PQ. I certainly hope not. However, this is an issue that needs to be monitored.
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posted by webmaster @ 12:15 PM
8 Comments
8 Comments:
Oh well, at least I learned that sometimes poor pq includes washed out color, not just a soft picture.
I believe that the resolution of the broadcast makes a big difference. FOX and ESPN are the only networks broadcasting live NFL in 720p. CBS, NBC and the NFL network broadcast in 1080i. Live sports are probably the hardest for HD broadcasting. The equipment used by the networks could also affect the picture quality. I think that some of the best games I have seen live in HD are at the Dallas Cowboys stadium. Maybe the natural sunlight has something to do with it since Texas stadium is shaded due to the design of the roof.
I have Comcast HD and I think their signal looks very good for live NFL games, especially the FOX and ESPN games. I have learned that the live NFL games on CBS and NBC will not look as good during the fast motion of the game. Still shots look fine but the difference is in displaying motion and the interlace of 1080i is not the best for live sports as compared to the progressive scan of 720p.
That is my 2 cents worth.
I check this site out when I want to know what resolution the games will be displayed at http://www.hdsportsguide.com/
Zelda
i agree, even on my OTA antenna CBS had terrible PQ this weekend. I was watching the Pittsburgh game and it seemed as though the colors were nice, but it just wasn't very sharp. Also, it looked "compressed" as compared to NBC's OTA HD airing of the Patriots vs Chargers game, which had no "compression" look to it. Are OTA channels adding compression now? I don't know what else it would be when i'm seeing large pixels and such.
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The NFL network might show their games in 1080i but when they cut to their studio it's in standard definition. What a joke that network is.
**Are OTA channels adding compression now? I don't know what else it would be when i'm seeing large pixels and such.**
Of course the video is compressed, it is MPEG-2. Except for Fox, the network satellite feed to the affiliates are sent in the 30-40 Mbps range. Because the OTA bandwidth is extremely limited, the maximum that HD can be is about 17 Mbps. If the local station is dumb enough to also send out a SD stream as well as the HD stream, the HD bitrate can get down to 13 Mbps, or worse. For 1080i that is just not good enough. So, you'll end up seeing lots of macroblocking during motion because the video is bit-starved.
Welcome to the world of crappy U.S. digital television.
Most likely the deningration in PQ has to do with the HD camera equipment & other HD equipment the networks have onsite at the games rather than the feed itself.
When critical of the quality of an HD picture, I consider three things -- source, transmission, display. Source is how the content is initially captured & stored in digital format; transmission is how it is moved from where it is stored to the consumer's STB & to the HD tuner; display is the quality of the display, pixel density & the like.
I agree with forementioned comments that OTA PQ, particularly on CBS, whose OTA feeds are the best due to no simulcasting in my local DMA (LA), has not always been as good as I've seen in past years. This leads me to conclude that the difference is mostly likely with the HD equipment CBS is using on the field.
My hunch is now that HD programming has taken off, particularly sports programming, the networks have had to cut large checks for HD equipment. The equipment more recently purchased in bulk is probably not as good as the initial "high-end" equipment purchased when they were experiment with HD equipment. JMO.
CBS HD NFL broadcasts over-the-air have serious issues. Choppy video in many camera angles. What's the deal?
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