Here is the current soccer being broadcast in HD, that I am aware of. Please add any others. Major League Soccer: ESPN2-HD on Thursdays HD-Net on Saturdays (ABC-HD and/or ESPN-HD to show All-Star, Friendly and Finals Games) La Liga: World Sport HD on Sundays UEFA Champions League: ESPN2-HD on some Tuesdays and Wednesdays (and supposedly World Sport HD sometimes shows UEFA Cup matches.) Did I leave out anything?
Is ESPN2-HD REALLY being broadcast in HD or are they upconverting a 4:3 480i picture to 720p and putting sidebars on the screen. I haven't seen a true HD broadcast of a champions league game yet on ESPN2-HD, but I admit that I watch mostly Setanta on UEFA match days.
Yeah, you can drop Champions' League and UEFA Cup from the list as neither is shot in HD to my knowledge. As far as I know, DC United is the only MLS team with local coverage in HD. Comcast Sports Net Mid-Atlantic will be doing all of their home matches in HD - I think they have around 8 or so matches this year, the rest are on national networks.
Sky Sports HD (in the UK) lists: So, you are saying that both ESPN in the USA, and SKY in the UK, broadcast the Champions League matches on their HD channels, but none of the matches actually have HD cameras ? That would seem unlikely. BTW, note "selected". It's possible that some of the stadia are not setup for HD, so with dozens of clubs that are possible Champions League participants, some of the matches may end up not originating in HD, but I would be willing to bet that these semi-final matches and the final are in HD. PS Well, from another thread in this Forum:
ESPN2HD did have last year's Champions League final in HD, that is the only UEFA HD game I have seen in a year and a half, the rest have the sidebars on. And of course they had a lot of technical problems with it, went to SD for about 10 minutes in the first half.
Well, if they are in HD then how come ESPN only shows them in SD on their HD channel? It seems even less likely that they would intentionally not show the HD feed if it exists. It's good to hear that last year's final was in HD if that is the case. It's ridiculous that Champions' League is not in HD. (Maybe you don't know this, but MLS was on ESPN2HD last year and it wasn't shot in HD, so just because a broadcaster has a HD channel does not mean that all of the content on that channel is shot in HD.) I have not been watching the UEFA Cup matches on Worldsport. If they have matches on WorldSport then it would definitely be in HD since they don't run SD programming on the Voom package of HD channels. I just haven't seen anything on WorldSport but La Liga, but I will look for it.
Too much misinformation in this thread. Champions League on Sky Sports HD has got nothing to do with ESPN2-HD. Champions League is indeed shot and shown in true HD on Sky Sports HD in UK (and some other channels elsewhere in Europe). [But is this thread supposed to be USA specific coverage or HD in other countries too? If latter, it should talk about TSN-HD in Canada if it has any HD coverage. Also, an IPTV channel called Premiere shows upto 3 Bundesliga matches per week in HD in Germany. It is part of Deutsche Telekom's IPTV platform called T-Com. Sky Italia tried to start limited HD coverage of Serie A in Italy, but the last I heard it didn't go too far.) The only Champions League match ever shown in true HD in USA so far was last year's final (Arsenal - Barca), and that too with technical glitches in between. The main reason for that telecast was not because ESPN all of a sudden decided to give prime-time treatment to that event. It was because they were pilot testing their HD equipment and HD transmission from Europe to USA for the World Cup about to start soon after. This year's Champions League semi-finals and final will not be shown in HD in USA. UEFA Cup coverage in HD on World Sport HD expired last season. In the 2006-07 season World Sport HD has not shown a single UEFA Cup match.
...and that's because ESPN hates soccer! Seriously though, that's a shame as it is an event worthy of seeing in HD.
where are you getting this information about this year. the year before last the final was also on in HD, it;s just that hardly anyone got ESPN2HD back then (i believe only directv)
So no one reading this thread has ESPN2-HD and can check ?? One would think that Stamford Bridge has HD infrastructure (and Old Trafford yesterday). In any event, I should have ESPN2-HD from Dish Network installed in time for the Champions League Final, so I'll report back on that. PS A few technical points: - 720p is far better for sports, especially soccer, than 1080i. It's hard to find a better technical TV authority than Joe Kane - he created many of the testing procedures used in setting up TV's, and he has verified this pont about 720p. (In fact, the founder of Pixar (digital video company that created "Toy Story" and other movies) thinks that any progressive video format is preferrable to any interlacted format.) - While SD programming that is upconverted to HD is certainly not as good as HD, it is much better than the SD channel for several reasons: * The upconverting from 480i to 720p is done by professional equipment in ESPN's studio that is much better than any scaler in any home TV. Much better results. * Most HD TV's sold in the last year or two, that us average guys can afford, are 720p native resolution (the LCD panel is 720p and the TV scales 1080i to fit). As such, the TV does not need to do any conversion of ESPN2-HD signal, again better results. * Cable and satellite providers compress the HD channels and limit the bitrate, due to lack of bandwidth. But they must give significantly more resolution and bitrate to HD channels, so again the ESPN2-HD channel on your provider will be better than ESPN2-SD, even with the same SD programming. So, if you do have ESPN2-HD, the same SD soccer match should look a lot better than it would on the SD ESPN2 channel on your provider. Of course, getting the full 16x9 720p broadcast is even better yet, but it's still good that they are simulcasting the matches on ESPN2-HD.
Are you talking about the Liverpool - Milan final? Are you really, really, really sure about that? As far as my memory serves, the first ever soccer match shown in HD on ESPN2-HD was USA vs. Trinidad and Tobago (World Cup qualifier in Hartford, Connecticut). Hardly anybody in the country got ESPN2-HD at that time (as you say), but I do remember Rob Stone and his buddies making a big deal about this telecast and telling everyone to "call your operators to get ESPN2-HD". Before that there was very little HD inventory on ESPN2-HD anyway, I think the 2005 Australian Open final, few college basketball and few MLB matches as the 2005 season began. Also, there is absolutely nothing mentioning 2005 Champions League final in these pages: http://www.hdsportsguide.com/news.php?page=2005-3-1~2005-3-31 http://www.hdsportsguide.com/news.php?page=2005-4-1~2005-4-30 http://www.hdsportsguide.com/news.php?page=2005-5-1~2005-5-31 2006 Champions League final (Barca vs. Arsenal) is mentioned for the first time here: http://www.hdsportsguide.com/news.php?page=2006-3-1~2006-3-31
Check what? You may want to re-read the entire thread, as you advise all those posters about Setanta on DISH.
Champions League has not been broadcast in HD in the US so far this year. That includes yesterday's semifinal match at Old Trafford. That includes Dishnetwork. I know b/c I'm a subscriber. IMHO, the difference between SD matches on an analog channel and upconverted on a HD channel is pretty negligible. YMMV I suppose.
nope i am positive it was in HD. the first half was SD, but the entire second half was HD. there was no fanfare beforehand about it being aired in HD. it was meant as a test. i remember posting in a thread on avsforums during the game. i am trying to find the thread. i was complaining about the HD feed dropping out. this isn't the thread but it is from late 2005 and mentions the 2005 final being in HD: http://www.satelliteguys.us/showpost.php?p=359191&postcount=4
it depends on the source material. some feeds we get of champions league games are 480i. 480i is not used in europe, where 576i (576 lines of resolution=sharper, clearer picture) is commonplace. some feeds sent to america are 480i converted before it reaches ESPN. some are 576i and converted by espn's scaler to 720p. the 576i matches and the highlight show look almost HD on espn2hd.
OK, if it was partially shown in HD, that too unannounced (and very small percent of viewers in the country could see it ), it sounds more of an experiment. No wonder I never heard about it. To better qualify my statement: 2006 Champions League final has been the only Champions League match that ESPN has officially intended to show in HD on ESPN2-HD. (They may have had glitches along the way, but that's besides the point. They actually officially announced beforehand that they would show it in HD, and that has been the one and only time.) About the 2007 final not being in HD, Ollie posted about it here a while back. Also, I checked with HDTV sports guide people. They have heard absolutely nothing from ESPN which indicates it will be in HD. If you're having problems finding that thread, it's because unlike most other forums avsforum moves all old threads to an archive area and locks them. If you go to their front page and look for archive and do a search within archives, you'll find it there.
Like I said YMMV. If you put it on a scale of 1 to 10 and 1 was NTSC and 10 is 720p, I'd say that Champions League on ESPNHD is maybe a 1.5. I just don't notice much of a difference in detail to be honest. Besides, I was commenting on the difference between the digital and analog channels, not on the difference between NTSC and PAL, but it is a good point.
today's game for example looked so much better than the SD version of ESPN2, i think part of it was that the game was in 576i from the source, and that the HD version has much fewer compression artifacts than the SD version of ESPN2 which looks terrible on my cable.
Watching footie in HD is brilliant and i long for the day that there is enough bandwidth to get the Sky or appropriate European feed across the pond and onto our TVs. Until then however, I'll watch United in the CL in SD because I hate the bars on the sides of the TV. On the point of the 2005 CL Final in HD, I didn't have ESPN2HD at that point so I can;t say but I'd try and find out if it was even broadcast in HD from the source - i would doubt it...
http://midatlantic.comcastsportsnet.com/team-united-sched.asp Comcast Sportsnet MidAtlantic is showing 8 DC United MLS home games in HD in 2007. DC-area Comcast digital cable subscribers have access to the HD feed of the channel.
My Dish HD DVR arrived today, so I'll be tuning in to ESPN2-HD on Tuesday for Liverpool-Chelsea and will compare it to ESPN2-SD (In fact, Dish just added a feature to that DVR, which allows you to put two channels side-by-side in PIP mode, instead of one obsucring part of the other.) I did see the replay on WorldSport HD of the Real Madrid match from Sunday, and there is no question that ESPN, ABC and FOX are right in that programming with motion looks better in 720p. (For more on that, see: http://alvyray.com/DigitalTV/default.htm ) I'll check out HD-Net's MLS match tomorrow and ESPN2-HD's MLS match on Thursday as well. PS Dish has uplinked the HD version of this channel, but so far they have not turned it on for viewers. They have turned on 8 HD RSNs for viewers so far. I'm pretty sure that the issue is contractual and financial, i.e. to what degree the RSNs are charging extra for the HD feed. Of course, Comcast has no such issues in providing a Comcast channel.
An average of 3 serie a games per week are shown in HD (SKY sport HD). 1080i. http://www.skylife.it/guida_tv/selectcategory.do?category=9
Great, thanks for the info. Wow, they show from all of Serie A, Bundesliga, English Premiership and Champions League in HD. Here is an inventory of matches in HD this weekend: Everton vs. ManUtd Fiorentina vs. Chievo Bayern Munich vs. Hamburg Roma vs. Lazio Inter vs. Empoli Also old repeats from previous rounds: Milan vs. Cagliari Inter vs. Palermo Sampdoria vs. Torino Parma vs. Palermo Stuttgart vs. Bayern Munich Siena vs. Inter Chelsea vs. Liverpool (Champions League semifinal) Those of you who have Sky Sports Italia HD over there seem to be rolling in HD sports heaven. It's funny that you don't get to see any of La Liga in HD over there, which is the only 1 match from Europe per weekend we get. And we don't get any coverage of those other leagues you have. I'm going to contact World Sport HD to find out what it would take them to pick up some of Bundesliga HD, English Premiership HD, Serie A HD, Champions League HD and Six Nations Rugby Union HD that is already being shown in other parts of the world. Even if they show a subset of what is shown outside USA, even if they show it on delay and not live, it would be worth it. Heck, even if they showed it as highlights program and/or didn't provide their own English commentary (e.g. keep German commentary for Bundesliga, Italian commentary for Serie A), it would still be worth it.
the HD broadcast of La Liga is produced by WorldSport HD and they don't distribute that feed, even in spain. Hell, in spain they are still on 4:3 SD for their soccer still, when nearly everyone else has gone to 16:9. I know you know about rights fees and everything. I am sure FSC and Setanta would have something to say if another outlet like Rainbow/Echostar (parent company of WorldSport HD and the rest of the voom package) started broadcasting HD versions of their products. It is most likely prohibitively expensive for such a small-time channel as WorldSport HD.