ESPN HD Picture Quality disappointing?

gebbel

Just got ESPN HD. Was looking at highlights of Russia v Argentina and was annoyed at the vertical side bars on the display with "ESPN" written inside and an annoying colour. Now there is Aussie rules highlights and the picture quality is way inferior to Sky Sports HD. Beginning to wonder will we be disappointed by all this?

enfant terrible

Was it actually hd though they migt be showing a sd source on the hd channel

gebbel

enfant terrible wrote: »

Was it actually hd though they migt be showing a sd source on the hd channel

I hadn't considered that. Either way it wasn't in full screen which is also annoying.

Mossy Monk

gebbel wrote: »

I hadn't considered that. Either way it wasn't in full screen which is also annoying.

There may not have been a 16:9 source. The real test for their HD will be Saturday at 5.30pm

Headshot

I wouldnt think that Russia v Argentina match was in hd

even SD wasnt the best picture

judge ESPN HD on the Everton v Arsenal match

watty

gebbel wrote: »

I hadn't considered that. Either way it wasn't in full screen which is also annoying.

No, you mean not the shape of your screen.

Get used to black bars. Films use wider than 16:9 and classic Film or TV material is 4:3.


WS TVs are 1.78:1 (16:9)
Film is 1.33 (approx 4:3 aka Academy Format), 1.66, 1.85, 2.35, 2.40 and 2.7:1 . There is no standard WS format for Cinema.

Most TVs overscan so you don't see small black bars on 1.85:1 films. Some films that are 1.85:1 in Cinema are cropped to 1.78:1 for DVD.


/end Pendant mode.

Headshot

so how was espn hd today

Batesy

Was quite impressed with it actually. HD was on a par with SkyHD.

The overall package is far more impressive than Setanta ever was and almost half the price!

Batesy

On another note. A lot of the content on ESPN HD and even SKY SPORTS HD for that matter are not broadcast in HD.

The quickest way to check whether the programme you're watchin is HD is to press the i on the remote. In the top right corner of the epg it'll clearly say HD or not.

byte

Batesy wrote: »

On another note. A lot of the content on ESPN HD and even SKY SPORTS HD for that matter are not broadcast in HD.

The quickest way to check whether the programme you're watchin is HD is to press the i on the remote. In the top right corner of the epg it'll clearly say HD or not.

There's a setting in the new HD EPG menu, where you can enable highlighting of HD programmes. So, when browsing EPG, any HD programmes are yellow text, the rest are usual white. Very handy.

gebbel

Headshot wrote: »

so how was espn hd today

Yeah it was great. Watching some of that classy football by the Gunners made it look even better tbh! :cool:

bk

Batesy wrote: »

On another note. A lot of the content on ESPN HD and even SKY SPORTS HD for that matter are not broadcast in HD.

However SD on a HD channel may look a lot better then SD on a SD channel.

The reason being on a SD channel, your Sky HD box or TV are doing the upconverting to HD resolution. However for SD on a HD channel, the channel is doing the upconverting for you.

The advantage being the upconverter circuitry in the Sky HD box/TV probably cost less then €1, while the equipment that the studios use probably cost thousands if not tens of thousands of euro and therefore should give a superior picture quality.

MisterAnarchy

Watched West Ham-Tottenham on SD today and the quality was poor.
Looked washed out,very blurry and not sharp at all.
Far inferior to Sky Sports picture quality.

Headshot

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Watched West Ham-Tottenham on SD today and the quality was poor.
Looked washed out,very blurry and not sharp at all.
Far inferior to Sky Sports picture quality.

yap I agree with that alright

switching between sky sports 1 and ESPN is like switching between day and night

pistolpetes11

Headshot wrote: »

yap I agree with that alright

switching between sky sports 1 and ESPN is like switching between day and night

Looked great on the HD

Rizzo the Rat

Have many of you subscribed to ESPN? I was planning to head to my local tonight to watch the Pool v Villa but I found out yesterday they don't have ESPN and most pubs around don't either. I think a lot of people are in for a surprise tonight when they head out to watch the game.
It seems pubs are not subscribing to ESPN yet due to costs involved, bad experience with Setanta and downturn in business.
It looks like 5Live, Newstalk or Sky Sports News for me tonight!!

pistolpetes11

Rizzo the Rat wrote: »

Have many of you subscribed to ESPN? I was planning to head to my local tonight to watch the Pool v Villa but I found out yesterday they don't have ESPN and most pubs around don't either. I think a lot of people are in for a surprise tonight when they head out to watch the game.
It seems pubs are not subscribing to ESPN yet due to costs involved, bad experience with Setanta and downturn in business.
It looks like 5Live, Newstalk or Sky Sports News for me tonight!!

I have it and from what I have watched , the quality on both SD and HD is on Par to SKY's offering and a lot better value than Setanta

VERYinterested

I was flicking back and forward between the Spurs/West Ham game and the Cardiff game on Sky and I thought the Sky picture was a lot better. I gave it the benefit of the doubt that maybe it was the sun shining at the Cardiff game that was giving the better picture, then the sun came out in London and that blew that argument out of the water. ESPN HD is definitely not as good as Sky's picture in my opinion. Did anyone else perform this little experiment yesterday?

thorbarry

Rizzo the Rat wrote: »

Have many of you subscribed to ESPN? I was planning to head to my local tonight to watch the Pool v Villa but I found out yesterday they don't have ESPN and most pubs around don't either. I think a lot of people are in for a surprise tonight when they head out to watch the game.
It seems pubs are not subscribing to ESPN yet due to costs involved, bad experience with Setanta and downturn in business.
It looks like 5Live, Newstalk or Sky Sports News for me tonight!!

I watched the Arsenal game on ESPN last week, i was in Drogheda. I had to go to 5 pubs until i actually found one that was showing the game, pain in the bollix

Rizzo the Rat

can you subscribe to ESPN per match? like pay per view or old Sky Prem Plus option

Mossy Monk

I thought ESPN and Setanta was included on any commercial subscription that has Sky Sports. If this is the case then those pubs have the wrong subscription.

kippy

Any idea how much the ESPN subscription is?
Think I might get it instead of the sky sports one if its significantly cheaper.

John mac

kippy wrote: »

Any idea how much the ESPN subscription is?
Think I might get it instead of the sky sports one if its significantly cheaper.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055650819

pistolpetes11

VERYinterested wrote: »

I was flicking back and forward between the Spurs/West Ham game and the Cardiff game on Sky and I thought the Sky picture was a lot better. I gave it the benefit of the doubt that maybe it was the sun shining at the Cardiff game that was giving the better picture, then the sun came out in London and that blew that argument out of the water. ESPN HD is definitely not as good as Sky's picture in my opinion. Did anyone else perform this little experiment yesterday?

I watched The Everton V Arsenal match last week on ESPN HD and SD and the quality was as good as the match I watched during the day Chelsea V Hull again on HD and SD,

Both were watch on a full HD panasonic set.

I may be wrong , but is it not the SKY crew who are covering the matches for ESPN ?

ongarite

pistolpetes11 wrote: »

I watched The Everton V Arsenal match last week on ESPN HD and SD and the quality was as good as the match I watched during the day Chelsea V Hull again on HD and SD,

Both were watch on a full HD panasonic set.

I may be wrong , but is it not the SKY crew who are covering the matches for ESPN ?

I think your right. Could have sworn I remember reading when the Sky/ESPN deal was announced that ESPN were going to use Sky camera equipment & setup for their games just with EPSN DOG instead.

Leprechaun77

I think Sky HD is on a par with ESPN HD, however ESPN's standard definition channel is disgraceful when compared to Sky Sports Standard Definition. I am switching between Sky and ESPN at the moment (Chelsea game and West Ham game) and the Sky picture quality is far superior to ESPN in SD.

For a premium subscription channel, the image quality on ESPN is absolutely shocking :eek:. It is of similar quality for the Italian league games yesterday and the others I've watched. Apart from the HD content, I am very disappointed with picture quality (albeit the HD box upscales the picture a bit to make it a bit more bareable)

MisterAnarchy

VERYinterested wrote: »

Did anyone else perform this little experiment yesterday?

Yes,I did it too,Sky picture was far superior.

I may be wrong , but is it not the SKY crew who are covering the matches for ESPN ?

IMG Sports Media provides the resources to the FAPL to produce all 380 EPL matches for International video distribution (outside the UK and Ireland).
In the UK itself, BSkyB has an in-house production team that produces content for the Sky Sports channels. ESPN UK also hires BSkyB to produce live events

From what I could see yesterday the stream ESPN was using was the same as went out on the IMG network (Sky Italia,Sky Germany,Digitalb,Canal+ etc)
Perhaps ESPN are just using lower bitrates to transmit.

Leprechaun77

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Perhaps ESPN are just using lower bitrates to transmit.

I suspect this is the case, but it's not acceptable for a premium channel IMO.

MisterAnarchy

Leprechaun77 wrote: »

I suspect this is the case, but it's not acceptable for a premium channel IMO.

Completely unacceptable.
The picture on Setanta Sports 1 on Saturday for the Wigan-Man Utd match was far superior.

azzeretti

How did you guys order this?
I ordered it on the Sky interactive service and thought it would take an hour or so to open up the channel. A good fews hours later and its still locked?

Leprechaun77

I called them on the phone. Just tell them you ordered it already and make sure they credit you with €7. The channel was live for me before the phonecall ended

pistolpetes11

Actually looking at the matches tonight , Norwich V Sunderland, Liverpool V Villa

ESPN SD is dreadful
SKY SD is perfect
ESPN HD , is just a little better than SKY SD
SKY HD is excellent

Leprechaun77

pistolpetes11 wrote: »

Actually looking at the matches tonight , Norwich V Sunderland, Liverpool V Villa

ESPN SD is dreadful
SKY SD is perfect
ESPN HD , is just a little better than SKY SD
SKY HD is excellent

That sums it up perfectly!

Mossy Monk

ESPN SD is diabolical it has to be said.

Headshot

Mossy Monk wrote: »

ESPN SD is diabolical it has to be said.

love to email them and complain but i cant find any email address

VERYinterested

Agreed on last night's quality, ESPN redeemed themselves with their HD but the SD was unbelievably poor, didn't realise there was a game on Sky. Great game from Anfield. I didn't feel like such a mug subscribing to Sky HD and ESPN. More games like this please and less of Hearts against Falkirk!