This is exactly the problem. I watched the fox sports en español stream, and it was fine. Not perfect, but fine. Sounds like the following happened: The camera man was filming for widescreen. This is bad, because he was allowing the ball and player to move into the areas of the screen not visible in SD. Thats a huge no-no in broadcast TV, all the action must be in the 4:3 area. On top of that, it almost appears that FSC took the SD feed, stretched it out to widescreen for the HD channel, and then chopped off the sides for the SD TVs! That means, people watching FSCHD were actually getting an SD image stretched out, and those watching in SD were getting a chopped up, stretched out SD image!
I think you nailed it, it was unwatchable. Either that, or the camerman was just a guy who took a weekend off from his usual job of shooting bootleg movies at midnight showings in Jersey to get the DVDs on the market on the streets of NYC and didn't realize quality matters to broadcast television.
Nope, if you guys noticed, everything was cut off on the right side of the screen but the left side was just fine. Even the graphics on the right side were cut. It was definitely a production issue, not a cameraman problem
Yeah, i didnt have much complaints about the FSC tight angles because I'm so used to crappy camera work already. Thanks Altitude.
I don't think the problems are limited to camera work. There are also audio issues on many broadcasts in which the sound from the stadium is too muffled and not even focused on the loud supporters. We don't need to hear the thump of the ball more than we need to hear the singing and chants of the supporters. Also, the commentary is just horrid most of the time from US announcers. I always sort of felt it was subpar, but after paying so much more attention to EPL and other European League Games this year, it is clear that English Commentators are far better than US ones. It's strange because they seem so much more educated than US commentators even though the US commentators are trying to seem relevant by throwing facts, figures, statistics, etc. I would prefer they hire foreign commentators, or start sending US commentators to some sort of training to make their commentary more exciting. It seems as though commentary is supposed to enhance the match, excite the viewer. And, US commentary just doesn't really do much of that in my opinion and experience. PS: Having said all this, God Bless Fox Soccer Channel. Their commitment to the sport is worth watching a thousand subpar broadcasts. I remember back when soccer was rarely on TV and just about the only place to get soccer news online was from Soccer America about once a week.
GolTV is the worst on this front. Their audio mixes are pathetic: They lower the live match feed to near-inaudible while cranking up their in-house commentators. It amounts to throwing a blanket over the game, muffling the natural energy and robbing flavor from the broadcast. (I've never witnessed a game from Craven Cottage that felt as tepid and limp as last week's Fulham-Juve match, which I know must in reality have been off the hook.) It also emphasizes the fact that what we're hearing is a couple of dudes in a little room talking about a game that's somewhere else. But, boy, one sound they certainly don't muffle is that maddening, clanging effect that accompanies the channel promos littering their gamecasts. That thing still sends my heart into my throat when it crashes in out of nowhere. The other awesome part is how they minimize the match video to fill the screen with big graphics telling us about upcoming games. It's like, OK, good Lord, just let me watch this one. Ugh...