# NBC Football in HD



## Matt Beachy (Jun 15, 2006)

Has anyone else noticed that NBC's football broadcasts in HD seem to be a notch below ABC, FOX, and CBS? It seems like the picture pixelizes a fair amount either when they're zoomed in close to something or when there is some quick action. I noticed it again during the ND game on Saturday as well as the Manning Bowl Sunday night. It was the same way last season. Are they using a technology that's inferior to the other networks?


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

Here in our DMA, the sports games are the worst on our NBC affiliate HDTV channel and CBS affiliate channel. ABC and FOX are quite good. We have a local thread that we post our observations on. Here we believe the excessive macro-blocking results because the HD channels are 1080i and they average between 12.7 Mbs and 13.6 Mbs. Macro-blocking was not a problem with either affiliate station until after they added a sub-channel which have reduced the HD channels by about 2.5 Mbs.


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## BlackHitachi (Jan 1, 2004)

boylehome said:


> Here in our DMA, the sports games are the worst on our NBC affiliate HDTV channel and CBS affiliate channel. ABC and FOX are quite good. We have a local thread that we post our observations on. Here we believe the excessive macro-blocking results because the HD channels are 1080i and they average between 12.7 Mbs and 13.6 Mbs. Macro-blocking was not a problem with either affiliate station until after they added a sub-channel which have reduced the HD channels by about 2.5 Mbs.


Wow in Medford our CBS is the best! Even with a sub channel that will be the CW . Anyway our Fox and ABC are both really good also not as sharp ar CBS but still very good! Our NBC looks good but the macroblocking is so bad! Also there is no sub channel for our NBC as of yet.


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## chdwil (Sep 6, 2006)

Matt Beachy said:


> Has anyone else noticed that NBC's football broadcasts in HD seem to be a notch below ABC, FOX, and CBS? It seems like the picture pixelizes a fair amount either when they're zoomed in close to something or when there is some quick action. I noticed it again during the ND game on Saturday as well as the Manning Bowl Sunday night. It was the same way last season. Are they using a technology that's inferior to the other networks?


Ya, I thought the same thing myself. Very grainy, not crisp at all. ESPN and Fox seem to be way ahead in picture quality. CBS looks pretty good as well.


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## dvwannab (Dec 16, 2005)

I'm in the etro Wash, DC area and get all the networks via OTA and they are all sweet. Tough to choose one from the other as I am only about 12 miles from each stations broadcast antennas. NBC looks really really good since they upgraded their antenna this past summer.

If you put a gun to my head tho', I would have to say that I am somewhat giving the edge to 1080i broadcasts. To me, they seem a bit sharper. Altho' FOX is better tha ABC, IMHO. Bt really I am pulling hairs on that.

So in order of preference:

CBS
PBS (1080i)
NBC & FOX tie
ABC


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## dpd146 (Oct 1, 2005)

NBC struggling where I am. Right before almost every snap the picture goes out of focus then refocuses. Very distracting.


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## dvwannab (Dec 16, 2005)

Just re-watched my recording of the Sunday NIght NFL game on NBC. I have to shake up my ratings. This time while watching, I l;ooked specifically for certain things geeky folks like me look for. Clarity, definition, focus, color level, etc. Must say I was terribly disappointed. So I have to shake up my ratings:

1. CBS
2. PBS
3. FOX
4. NBC slightly over.......
5. ABC

Not rated:
WB & UPN. Cant pick them up with my antennas (CM 4228 & DB4).


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

I rate DMA 130

1. ABC
2. FOX
3. NBC
4. CBS
5. PBS (not really fair but I rarely watch it.)

I agree, I think the 1080i is sharper but the way they rob bandwidth, there is way too much macro blocking on CBS then NBC.


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## Matt Beachy (Jun 15, 2006)

I watched part of the Sunday night game last night on NBC. I was very unimpressed. It was like a macro-blocking fest. Also, the regular shots of the field seemed a little off. I don't understand what they're doing that makes their broadcasts so much worse than some of the other networks.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

I guess I'm lucky. Our local NBC affiliate has always had very good HD.

Last nights game was very crisp and clear.


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## dvwannab (Dec 16, 2005)

Matt Beachy said:


> I watched part of the Sunday night game last night on NBC. I was very unimpressed. It was like a macro-blocking fest. Also, the regular shots of the field seemed a little off. I don't understand what they're doing that makes their broadcasts so much worse than some of the other networks.


I agree Matt, this was NBC's worse showing so far this year. I will watch their Notre Dame production this weekend and see if it continues or gets worse.

Sunday's Broncos-Pats game was horible. I used 3 sources. My OTA (MyHD MDP-130), E* local NBC-HD broadcast and SD with E*. OTA the colors were WAY WAY off. In the studio, white guys had a pinkish-purple skin and black guys had some purple-ish hue. Then at the game, everything was too red. Also there was macroblocks and noise all over the place and picture was extremely soft. E* local NBC-HD there is too much compression, filtering and sharpening, but it at least got color corrected. E* NBC was much like my OTA, with macroblock and strange coloration.

Again this is the worse they have done since they started showing preseason NFL games.


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## bobukcat (Dec 20, 2005)

I'm in Cincy (Who-Dey!) and CBS here always seems the worst of the bunch to me. It looks great for periods but gets kind of blurry for a few seconds when they switch shots, zoom, or pan real fast sometimes - not always. But I'm going to continue to rate them as the weakest of the HD providers until they can do better than 3 lousy NFL games a weekend in HD! Nothing ticks me off more than to have to watch an SD NFL game because CBS is too cheap to pony up and upgrade all their trucks to HD!

I think ESPN and FOX are both excellent with NBC being slightly behind them, but certainly no where near as bad as some of the experiences related here.

I know this is OT, but did anyone else's CBS affiliate show Mountain Biking instead of a 4:00 game this past Sunday??? That is about as weak as it gets!!


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## dvwannab (Dec 16, 2005)

bobukcat said:


> I know this is OT, but did anyone else's CBS affiliate show Mountain Biking instead of a 4:00 game this past Sunday??? That is about as weak as it gets!!


Since you are in Cinci, you probably got the 1 PM Steelers-Cinci game. CBS didnt have the doble-header this weekend, so you get only 1 game on CBS. Next week CBS gets the DH and Fox 1 game.


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## RUBBLE (Mar 6, 2006)

Glad I'm not the only one. Picture Quality appears to be average when compared to ESPN.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

The ESPNHD game last night was not very sharp on the field-views... so I wouldn't use last night's game as a "good" benchmark for ESPNHD football. I saw lots of compression/blocking problems on the wide views. Picture was sharper on the closeups, but not the distance cams.


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## John W (Dec 20, 2005)

bobukcat said:


> I'm in Cincy (Who-Dey!) and CBS here always seems the worst of the bunch to me. It looks great for periods but gets kind of blurry for a few seconds when they switch shots, zoom, or pan real fast sometimes - not always. But I'm going to continue to rate them as the weakest of the HD providers until they can do better than 3 lousy NFL games a weekend in HD! Nothing ticks me off more than to have to watch an SD NFL game because CBS is too cheap to pony up and upgrade all their trucks to HD!
> 
> I think ESPN and FOX are both excellent with NBC being slightly behind them, but certainly no where near as bad as some of the experiences related here.
> 
> I know this is OT, but did anyone else's CBS affiliate show Mountain Biking instead of a 4:00 game this past Sunday??? That is about as weak as it gets!!


A good resource for what games are being shown where---

http://www.gribblenation.net/nflmaps/


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## dpd146 (Oct 1, 2005)

ESPN's Mon night football blew away NBC's Sun night. NBC uses 1080i which is not as good for sports which explains some of it.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

This week ESPNHD looked horrible. Most weeks ESPNHD looks good, but this past monday was horrible.

Too many people are drinking the "1080i is not good for sports" Kool-Aid methinks.

Granted, I see problems sometimes with my NBC... but that is less because of 1080i and more because they are not transmitting properly. If NBC had chosen 720p, I suspect we would still see the same problems with NBC since they are clearly doing something not quite right with some of their transmissions.


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## bobukcat (Dec 20, 2005)

dvwannab said:


> Since you are in Cinci, you probably got the 1 PM Steelers-Cinci game. CBS didnt have the doble-header this weekend, so you get only 1 game on CBS. Next week CBS gets the DH and Fox 1 game.


I know that they didn't have it scheduled but again, how weak can they get?? To make it worse CBS was carrying a 4:00 game (in SD because they suck) and it was the Ravens / Browns, not only is Cleveland in the same STATE as Cincinnati so there are a lot of Browns fans here, but it's also a division game that a large percentage of Cincinnati fans would have been interested in. I'm sure it's part of the contract - but it's still very lame.

FWIW, I send e-mails to CBS, NFL, my local CBS station and Sony (CBS' HD sponsor) every week decrying their choice to only carry 3 games a week in HD. :listenup:


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## BlackHitachi (Jan 1, 2004)

BlackHitachi said:


> Wow in Medford our CBS is the best! Even with a sub channel that will be the CW . Anyway our Fox and ABC are both really good also not as sharp ar CBS but still very good! Our NBC looks good but the macroblocking is so bad! Also there is no sub channel for our NBC as of yet.


Well to recap C"bs" added another sub channel so there went our best HD channels. Now in Medford its

1. PBS
2. ABC/FOX/NBC
3. Cbs

My ranking is for pure picture quality. Now my football rankings would look like this.
1. ABC/FOX
2. NBC/Cbs

I have four Hdtv's two 1080's and two 720's. on all tv's the results are the same.


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## bobukcat (Dec 20, 2005)

BlackHitachi said:


> Well to recap C"bs" added another sub channel so there went our best HD channels. Now in Medford its
> 
> 1. PBS
> 2. ABC/FOX/NBC
> ...


I'm curious, do you have the output of the recievers set to match the native resolution of the monitor or do you set them all the same way?


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## dvwannab (Dec 16, 2005)

dpd146 said:


> NBC uses 1080i which is not as good for sports which explains some of it.


Not sure how you came by that. Technical justification for that statement or just feeling?

Without enough personal knowledge I cant say which is superior broadcasting resolution. What I do know is that if neither 720P or 1080I are not done properly they are going to look like &^%$. I have not read anywhere which HD resolution is best for what. I suspect it isnt particularly targeted to any one genre. Its all in the delivery of any genre.


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## BlackHitachi (Jan 1, 2004)

bobukcat said:


> I'm curious, do you have the output of the recievers set to match the native resolution of the monitor or do you set them all the same way?


Native the reason people come over to watch sports i want it to look its best!


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