# NBC Olympic PQ?



## chuckflarhu (Oct 27, 2005)

How has everyones HD olympic experience been?

Lately my local RSN and WGN in HD have been terrible with artifacts. Especially when there is a lot of movement.

Now it appears the olympics are the same. (the basketball game right now is making me nuts|)

Does anyone else have a problem, or do I need to start jacking with all my settings again?


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## moman19 (Oct 22, 2004)

I noticed that Fox Midwest looked awful the other day. Macroblocking all over the place during a Cardinals game. No clue why. But NBC looks pretty good from here in St. Louis as I watch the BB game.

One of the best barometers of HD compression artifacts is water. Look at the splashes during swimming and diving events. I think it looks quite nice coming all the way from the other side of the planet.


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## WebTraveler (Apr 9, 2006)

PQ has been excellent overall, except on MSNBC with its standard definition. Right now we have water polo on MSNBC and infomercials on CNBC HD, what a waste to be honest.

With all these additions of HD channels, do we get MSNBC HD sometime soon?


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## blooker68 (May 11, 2008)

Mucho el stinko PQ most of the time.

Chan 105 (USA HD)really stinks at the moment.


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## Teran (Mar 16, 2007)

PQ is pretty bad. Even OTA, using two different tuners and signal level of 98 I am getting a lot of compression artifacts. I am a little surprised that NBC is broadcasting sports in 1080i instead of 720p. Motion tears suck.


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## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

It is not perfect, but from 12,000 miles away, I think it looks grand


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## chuckflarhu (Oct 27, 2005)

I understand and appreciate the distance parameters. I was more trying to gauge if there was an issue on my end or if it was widespread.

Thanks.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

The Olympics in HD on both Dish & Comcast have been
excellent across the board, but I give the edge to Comcast.


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## JM Anthony (Nov 16, 2003)

Spectacular from my perspective. My wife who usually doesn't notice PQ that much commented how great the Olympics looked.

John


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## bnewt (Oct 2, 2003)

saw some of the Olympics on Direct today, during the USA/China basketball game, not as crisp as I expected


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## HobbyTalk (Jul 14, 2007)

Can't remember what event I was watching on NBC last night but I noticed it in the background on fast scans. If I can see it on a 42" 720p set, can't imagine what it looks like on a 55"+ 1080 set.


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## blooker68 (May 11, 2008)

It might be venue related. The trap shooting was crummy SD looking, but the swimming was razor sharp.


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## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

I'll bet NBC had to beg, borrow and steal to get enough equipment to cover this event, there is alot of different pieces thay are using. It does vary alot by venue.


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## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

I rate the PQ I am getting off NBC top notch. I think it maybe the best I have seen off NBC yet.

Too bad NBC can't repeat the PQ on a daily basis.


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## jpeckinp (Nov 6, 2006)

From what I have watched on the HD Olympic stations they have looked fine.

Now as for the Youtube RSN's that is just plain pain on the eyes.


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## bnewt (Oct 2, 2003)

locally, can't get the Olympics in HD from the NBC affiliate


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## WuInfinite (Jul 11, 2008)

picture quality has been great in my opinion, I have noticed specially on NBC that they will lose the HD signal from time to time, and then get it back, I don't know if it happened any were else but the piece they did on china before the opening ceremonies began were not in HD, I was really upset, but after the first commercial break the HD was back, but damn I was recording the event, and to have the whole opening piece not in HD was kinda lame, I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with dish but NBC itself.


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## HobbyTalk (Jul 14, 2007)

WuInfinite said:


> picture quality has been great in my opinion, I have noticed specially on NBC that they will lose the HD signal from time to time, and then get it back, I don't know if it happened any were else but the piece they did on china before the opening ceremonies began were not in HD, I was really upset, but after the first commercial break the HD was back, but damn I was recording the event, and to have the whole opening piece not in HD was kinda lame, I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with dish but NBC itself.


I would suspect it is your local affiliate as I did not see that.


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## tcatdbs (Jul 10, 2008)

Also a vote for great from me. I'd say close to 1080p quality on my 50" Plasma. Most events as good as the best HD movie channel, except Soccer which has a lot of haze, which is a weather condition not really related to "Dish PQ".


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## kal915 (May 7, 2008)

Jason Nipp said:


> I rate the PQ I am getting off NBC top notch. I think it maybe the best I have seen off NBC yet.
> 
> Too bad NBC can't repeat the PQ on a daily basis.


It is the top PQ I've seen from NBC


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## Donp (May 2, 2006)

I have it in HD from my NBC affiliate OTA as well as Universal HD both have been similar in PQ although I think my NBC OTA may have a slight edge.


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## peak_reception (Feb 10, 2008)

NBC OTA here too and it's been fantastic. I agree with the poster who gave special mention to the swimming events. Awesome venue and crispy clean PQ (some great races too). 
The soccer matches vary by venue. Some are hazy, others not. 
For non-OTA PQ I've been pretty satisfied with most of the matches. All in all a real treat! Am looking forward to more.


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## allargon (May 3, 2007)

NBC has been mixed for me (OTA). It definitely looks better than Univision, CNBC, etc. off the satellite.

I get more break-ups during the graphics than I do via the events. Swimming and gymnastics (until the feed briefly switched to widescreen SD) were razor sharp last night.


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## cdub998 (Aug 16, 2006)

Well i have only been able to watch OTA since my DP44 blew up the other day. But our local NBC cut one of their subchannels to up the PQ for the olympics. First time I have ever seen that happen.


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## smackman (Sep 19, 2006)

My 1080i 55" Mitsubishi CRT RPTV looks great on Dish HD channels showing the Olympics.
NBC OTA in my area has been superb. 
I receive my locals thru Dish but they are still in SD. When I look at that picture I :barf:. 
When I see the HD version they :kickbutt:


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## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

Sucks here in Seattle thanks to the ever present 'weather plus' sub channel sucking valuable bandwidth away from their HD broadcasts. A never ending issue here. Looks great until there is a lot of motion, swimming close-ups are the worst.


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## dbconsultant (Sep 13, 2005)

The picture quality is good but we have noticed a lot of video dropout. Each dvr'd event we watch, the screen will go black for a couple of seconds while audio continues then the picture comes back. I've noticed it on NBCHD and USAHD. I'm not seeing this on any other dvr'd events - just the olympics!

Edit: Saw the same thing watching the Olympic Equestrian events on Oxygen last night so now I'm convinced that it is "olympics-related"!


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## CoriBright (May 30, 2002)

Inside venues that I've seen have been amazing - especially the diving and gymnastics. I'm not much interested in baseball or basketball and I'm really bored of beach volleyball and 'normal' volleyball. Roll on athletics.


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## bmcleod (May 13, 2006)

I've been impressed with most of the NBC Olympic PQ, haven't watched any of the other channels for long. Tonight is no exception with maybe the best picture so far (OTA KCRA Sacramento).


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## srickard (May 11, 2005)

The Olympics in HD has been outstanding on FIOS!


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## CoolGui (Feb 9, 2006)

chuckflarhu said:


> How has everyones HD olympic experience been?
> 
> Lately my local RSN and WGN in HD have been terrible with artifacts. Especially when there is a lot of movement.
> 
> ...


I've always seen this from NBC... mostly with their sports, NBC Sunday Night football is always blocky with lots of artifacts, it's the same with the Olympics. You'd think they would try to spy on ESPN (or even CBS for you people who wrongly blame 1080i) who does it right and try to learn how to encode their video to avoid these nasties.


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

CoolGui said:


> I've always seen this from NBC... mostly with their sports, NBC Sunday Night football is always blocky with lots of artifacts, it's the same with the Olympics. You'd think they would try to spy on ESPN (or even CBS for you people who wrongly blame 1080i) who does it right and try to learn how to encode their video to avoid these nasties.


Much of the coverage does not originate with NBC of course. It is mostly World Feed.


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## CoolGui (Feb 9, 2006)

tnsprin said:


> Much of the coverage does not originate with NBC of course. It is mostly World Feed.


Perhaps not, but I see the same blockiness and artifacts I see in other NBC broadcasts, especially live events like sports. Perhaps it's like Rob said above, just the local channel using up too much of their bandwidth on subchannels, and not NBC directly... They actually have 4 sub channels: weather, spanish language, an SD feed (why?) and something else...

*UPDATE:* I've been watching more and more coverage, and I don't notice the blocks/artifacts on USA HD, Universal HD, CNBC HD, or the two dedicated channels showing soccer and basketball. I'm really thinking it has something to do with the local affiliate. But what's really odd, is that I don't see the problems with the local news in HD or most of their programming, really just sports. And even with that I haven't noticed it as much watching the olympics the last few days. I wonder if it's possible they are "adjusting" it? I guess I'll know for sure when it comes time again for Sunday Night Football.


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