# Does "Sports Mode" on Samsung 4K TV's work on DirecTV in USA?



## BusterAvis (Jul 13, 2012)

Hi all,

I'm interested in purchasing a Samsung 4K ultra high definition television.
Being a sports fan, I'm interested in the "Sports Mode" that Samsung is offering on their 4K TV's.
However, when researching online, according to the online manual it is stating that this feature (sports mode, and soccer mode) is not available in the United States and Canada.
I'm a US citizen, born and raised, so if this feature is not available, what a bummer.

It looks like a cool feature, because it optimizes your picture and sound quality for the sporting event your watching.
And the most intriguing thing of all, it lets you zoom in on any of the 9 squares on your TV screen, and then the option to zoom in on that square to magnify and see if the ref or umpire made a good call or not, etc.
So do these Sports Mode features and "zoom" features work in the Sports Mode menu on DirecTV in the United States? Or is it only available in countries outside the US and Canada?
Samsung chat specialists online seem to state that it works in the US, if your cable or satellite (i.e. DirecTV) provider is capable of using Sports Mode on their Samsung TV's. So I guess that's what I'm asking.

Thanks.


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## ragweed10 (Jul 10, 2013)

BusterAvis said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I'm interested in purchasing a Samsung 4K ultra high definition television.
> Being a sports fan, I'm interested in the "Sports Mode" that Samsung is offering on their 4K TV's.
> ...


Good Question


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## slice1900 (Feb 14, 2013)

I googled and found some references what Samsung calls "football mode" which is specifically designed for soccer. It alters the color of the grass to make it more green, and changes the sound to make it sound more like you are really there, or so they claim. So basically like the modes a lot of TVs have for Cinema, Gaming, etc. that's tailored for soccer (but would probably work similarly for other sports with a lot of green and crowd noise like US football, baseball and golf...unless you are a Boise State fan! !rolling Nothing you can't get by tweaking settings for color, contrast, audio etc. yourself, just a preset they think will make it look better.

It also gives you some special options, so it is more than just a preset, and one them is kind of interesting - it allows you to "focus on your favorite player". Such a feature would seem require support from the broadcaster, since obviously the TV can't follow a particular player on its own. Maybe Sky Sports encodes some special information in the broadcast to enable this feature in Europe and South America?

As for 'zoom', unless you believe TV shows where investigators are always able to zoom in on blurry CCTV images for crystal clear closeups, you can't get any additional detail this way. Sounds like a silly gimmick to me.

The fact they aren't marketing this feature in the US leads again to the idea it must be due to the need for support from the broadcaster. Anyway, I'm not sure how "follow your favorite player" could work for US football or baseball - do you really want to follow a wide receiver as a runs a decoy route downfield for a screen pass and the action is taking place on the other side of the field? Or follow a guy standing in the outfield scratching himself while the pitcher and batter duel it out? Makes a lot more sense to do this in soccer, since they typically show much wider shots of the action than football/baseball broadcasts, and the best players are generally in the vicinity of the ball or setting themselves up to be in the vicinity of the ball most of the time.


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## PCampbell (Nov 18, 2006)

I just got a Samsung 4K and the sports mode works, the manual talks about a hockey mode but I have nit tried it yet. The sports mode makes the colors way to intense for me so I have not used it much yet. After I get the set setup with my setup BD I will try it again.


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## fleckrj (Sep 4, 2009)

I, too, have a Samsung 4K, and while the sports mode works, I do not like or use it. As PCampbell said, the colors are way to intense and the picture is way too bright. I guess it is like being there, if you like to be in the stadium looking into the sun and do not have sunglasses. I really do not understand why it is needed or why they put it where they did in the menu instead of putting it with all of the other presets that I never use.


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## Rob (Apr 23, 2002)

I got a Samsung 4K a few months ago. Sports mode works. I don't have the 4K receiver, it works on HD channels. Haven't tried a SD channel.


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## slice1900 (Feb 14, 2013)

So I guess all sports mode does in the US is crank the brightness to ridiculous levels and crank the colors up to unrealistic levels? Seems like a gimmick then, as you can achieve the same by creating your own custom picture config if you want to burn out your retinas.


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## BusterAvis (Jul 13, 2012)

Thanks guys.
I just have one more question.
The current HDTV I have is an older Vizio that lets me zoom in on the picture on the TV screen, by 2x and 4x (i.e. by 2 times the zoom, and 4 times the zoom).
Once you zoom in, you can scroll up, down, left, right, by scrolling around the screen, since you are magnifying the picture and it cuts off the rest of the screen when doing so.
This is still nice, since you can watch zoomed close-ups of fouls, bad calls by the ref, etc.

According to the manual (online version of the manual) for the "Sports Mode" feature for all of Samsung 4k TV's right now, it says ....

"You can zoom in the screen while you are using the sports mode. Move the focus to the part of screen to magnify"

And in the same manual, it also says under Sports Mode:

"Zoom - Pauses the current screen and zooms in any part of the screen by using 4 directional buttons"

This is exactly what I'm looking for.

Can someone who has a Samsung 4k TV with Sports Mode check to see if their TV (while using Sports Mode, or any other mode) lets them zoom in on the screen like that with that sort of flexibility?

Thanks.

*Here's a link to the Online Manual where it says all of this (you can do a Control-F search function for "Zoom" or "Sports Mode"):*
http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/201512/20151210090904492/ENG_US-HMUATSCJ-1.318-1203.pdf


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## BusterAvis (Jul 13, 2012)

*Also, here are snippets of where it says it in the Samsung manual *.................


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## fleckrj (Sep 4, 2009)

I have never tried it, but if I get a chance over the weekend, I will give it a try. I do not know why it will not work as described. I also assume I can change the picture settings back to something that is more accurate and still use the zoom feature.

Now, the feature of following a selected player around would have to be coded into the broadcast somehow, and I do not expect that will work, but I do not know why manual zooming will not work. If I get a chance to play with it over the weekend (read - if my wife gives me access to the remote control) I will report back what I find.


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## BusterAvis (Jul 13, 2012)

fleckrj said:


> I have never tried it, but if I get a chance over the weekend, I will give it a try. I do not know why it will not work as described. I also assume I can change the picture settings back to something that is more accurate and still use the zoom feature.
> 
> Now, the feature of following a selected player around would have to be coded into the broadcast somehow, and I do not expect that will work, but I do not know why manual zooming will not work. If I get a chance to play with it over the weekend (read - if my wife gives me access to the remote control) I will report back what I find.


Thanks


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## fleckrj (Sep 4, 2009)

I played with the sports mode. In the US and Canada, its usefulness is limited. Sports mode, as previously noted, changes the picture and sound modes. Zoom works, but only on a still picture. When you press the enter key, the picture freezes and zooms in. From there, the arrow keys moved the image around. It does not zoom live action.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


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## BusterAvis (Jul 13, 2012)

fleckrj said:


> I played with the sports mode. In the US and Canada, its usefulness is limited. Sports mode, as previously noted, changes the picture and sound modes. Zoom works, but only on a still picture. When you press the enter key, the picture freezes and zooms in. From there, the arrow keys moved the image around. It does not zoom live action.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


Thanks for the explanation. So it sounds like it will only zoom on a paused picture and not on a motion (or live) video, or video played on replay or moving video on DVR.
Can it zoom in on the paused picture any further, or does it only zoom in at 2x (twice the magnitude of the image) ???
Thanks again.


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## fleckrj (Sep 4, 2009)

As far as I can tell, it only has one level of zoom. The enter button toggles between zoom and normal. When zoomed, the arrow keys move the picture around. I see no use for this, especially since there is a lag from the time you press enter and the still picture that shows up on the screen. If you were trying to zoom in on a play, you would have missed the image you wanted to capture.


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## BusterAvis (Jul 13, 2012)

fleckrj said:


> As far as I can tell, it only has one level of zoom. The enter button toggles between zoom and normal. When zoomed, the arrow keys move the picture around. I see no use for this, especially since there is a lag from the time you press enter and the still picture that shows up on the screen. If you were trying to zoom in on a play, you would have missed the image you wanted to capture.


Oh, so you can't even pause it on your DVR remote control first, and then press enter on the Samsung remote control to zoom in?


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## fleckrj (Sep 4, 2009)

BusterAvis said:


> Oh, so you can't even pause it on your DVR remote control first, and then press enter on the Samsung remote control to zoom in?


That would probably work, but I did not try that. All I did was press the Enter (Zoom) key during live action. It seemed that the lag from pressing the key and getting the still image was nearly a second. In a fast moving sport like soccer, hockey, or even basketball, that would be a long time.

One thing that makes going into and out of the Sports Mode easy is that there is a "Sports" button on the remote that toggles between the Sports mode and the mode the TV was in before going into sports mode. In addition to making the picture brighter and the colors more intense, the Sports Mode modifies the audio settings to reduce the volume of the center channel and bump up the surrounds so you get more of the ambient stadium noise.


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## BusterAvis (Jul 13, 2012)

Hmmm, perhaps the main reason why you can't zoom in on live action during Sports Mode, is because you can already do that in the "Zoom" or "Custom" picture size mode when not using Sports Mode?
One last question, can you check your picture size to see if "Zoom" or "Custom" lets you zoom in on live action on the screen? Here's what the manual says as shown below ........... Thanks.


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## fleckrj (Sep 4, 2009)

BusterAvis said:


> Hmmm, perhaps the main reason why you can't zoom in on live action during Sports Mode, is because you can already do that in the "Zoom" or "Custom" picture size mode when not using Sports Mode?
> One last question, can you check your picture size to see if "Zoom" or "Custom" lets you zoom in on live action on the screen? Here's what the manual says as shown below ........... Thanks.


Your jpg link does not work. Here is what the manual says for "Zoom" in sports mode:



> *Zoom*
> Pauses the current screen and zooms in any part of the screen by using 4 directional buttons.


It is clear (had I read the manual) that zoom pauses the picture, and then lets you move around in a zoomed still picture.

The Zoom and Custom that you refer to will zoom live action, but they are not something you could toggle back and forth between a normal view and a zoomed view. They are meant to be used to fix anamorphic broadcasts (where you zoom in only one direction) or to expand a window boxed picture to fill the screen (zooming in both directions). If you want to stay zoomed in all of the time, it would work for live action, but I do not believe there is a way to go quickly between a normal view and an expanded view.

Here is the link to the manual http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/201512/20151210090904492/ENG_US-HMUATSCJ-1.318-1203.pdf

Unfortunately, Samsung has one manual for all of its 4K TVs, so many of the features that are listed are only available on selected models. As you stated in the beginning (and as listed in the manual), Sports Mode is not fully operational in the US or Canada.


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