ESPN poor picture quality again!!!!

[dirk diggler]

Has anyone noticed the poor picture quality ESPN has provided for this seasons Champions League? It looks just as bad as WC 2002!
In previous years the Champions League feeds were perfect!
This can't be a coincidence. Why are they intentionally giving internationaly soccer matches the shaft?

[Spartak]

You must have digital cable or satalite. I watched the first half of today's game on analog cable and the picture was perfect. The second half I switched to my digital cable and the picture looked like, just as you say, the World Cup broadcasts by ESPN.

[PSUdude]

Don't forget, when you are going from the European TV format (PAL) to the US format (NTSC), you tend to lose some sharpness due to the framerate difference

[lion]

Originally posted by PSUdude
Don't forget, when you are going from the European TV format (PAL) to the US format (NTSC), you tend to lose some sharpness due to the framerate difference


You have a point there with the different TV formats. But why was the WC picture quality on Univision so much better than the corresponding ESPN one ?

Weren't they receiving the same feed? I think that ESPN has some problem somewhere for which its international soccer telecasts consistently suffer from poor picture quality.

[monster]

Maybe you need new glasses.

[Barbara]

It sounds like a conspiracy to me. Probably the people in whatever little backroom or whatever where these things are controlled hate soccer and they're doing their little passive-agressive bit to keep it in its place.

They're probably a bunch of radical feminists.

[PSUdude]

Originally posted by lion



You have a point there with the different TV formats. But why was the WC picture quality on Univision so much better than the corresponding ESPN one ?

Weren't they receiving the same feed? I think that ESPN has some problem somewhere for which its international soccer telecasts consistently suffer from poor picture quality.


ABC/DIsney is known to not update their equipment. so it wouldn't shock me if their head end equipment is like 5-10 years old...

[OBartleby]

Originally posted by PSUdude
Don't forget, when you are going from the European TV format (PAL) to the US format (NTSC), you tend to lose some sharpness due to the framerate difference
This doesn't explain why, in years past, Champions League matches on ESPN were crystal clear.

[Warren Van Orden]

1) The technology to bring pictures from far far away increases in cost as the quality improves. Last summer Univision spent a lot more than ESPN, although late in June when the bandwagon started to take off ESPN or Anschultz or somebody did spend some more, and the pictures got better.

2) On my set Champion's League picture is pretty good, much better than early World Cup on ESPN, or replays of EPL on my local Fox Sports Net outlet. Possibly not quite as sharp as last year, but it's hard to tell/remember.

[GoDC]

ESPN does not have a monopoly on this. The picture and audio on the Quakes/Crew game last night were terrible. I don't know why they always do this crap to soccer games.

:( :mad:

[AndyMead]

Not all of the "quality" issues are attributable to the source. The deliverer can also affect quality. DirecTV, DISH, and digital cable service are constantly looking for ways to cram more channels into the same bandwidth. "secondary" channels like RSNs, espn2, tend to be more compressed than premium or front line channels (ESPN, Univision, HBO, movie PPV) leading to a reduction in quality.

As far as last night's CLB/SJ game, that had the feel of crappy microwave transmission written all over it.

[HalfManHalfAmazing]

AndyMead is correct-

The reason that the earlier broadcasts of the WC on ESPN2 and ESPN looked like shite while the Univision feed looked nice and more saturated was because ESPN/2 was sending along the Univision feed at a rate of lower bandwidth to save power and of course money. When the US team started to pick up the pace the feed magically became full bandwidth even though I refused to switch from Univision. The ESPN/2 broadcasters are/were morons and I can't stand them. This is one instance when I do NOT want American broadcasters, I want people that know the sport and that is obviously what the Univision announcers conveyed even though I couldn't understand a LICK (Except that apparantly Cabesa can mean head AND header!).

PS Smythe etc. at ESPN know their stuff, their commentary was few and far between though compared to Ty Keown who is a monkey and Jack Edwards who I would rather knife my ear repeatedly than listen to ANYTHING about.