So what is your complaint? The 16:9 and 4:3 picture quality on FSC SD is exactly the same. The only differance is on the 16:9 picture you get to see more of the field.
On Comcast I've been getting letterboxed stuff on the SD channel recently. More bizarrely (and annoyingly) the non-HD content is showing up in a boxed 4:3 format.
Ok, first to drop some science When a game is shot in 16:9 there are "saftey bars" that the camera operator sees that show where the edge of a 4:3 frame is, so the action should always be in that 4:3 frame. Same for graphics, thats why if you watch a game in HD the score is never totally in the top corner, but pushed in from the side. If the ball went out of that area, the camera op just messed up. As for stretching the FSC letterboxed image to fit my full HD tv, it looks like crap, not totally unwatachable but the lines on the field look like when you move a straight line in MS Paint... and other details get pixelated, that dosen't happen with the clean SD feed.
This is what I meant by protected for 4x3. But still, eventually this is a silly practice. If you aren't going to compose the shot for 16x9 what is the purpose of shooting for 16x9.
Watching FSC in SD on an HD tv through and HDMI/DVI input is not good. Run alternate s video output from cable box to watch SD content, makes a world of difference, especially if you tweak picture settings on s vidoe input as well.
For a while, ESPN had these "safety bars" on the bottom of the camera, for the ticker. (I wonder if they still do.)
Maybe 5-10 years on down the road, but i'm betting that a ton of people still have 4x3 SD TVs. (I'm looking primarily at college students and the elderly. College students may not have enough money to afford an HDTV, when they can just go to the bar for that big game. Also, it's real easy to have something stolen out of a dorm room. I'm betting that the elderly -generally speaking- don't really care about watching "Price is Right" in HD.)
Watch who you're talking about there, kiddo. I don't even watch The Price Is Right. I'd tell you what I do watch.....except I forget.
Sounds like the suspected is about to be reality. FSC HD and FS+ HD coming online right before they're most useful, VS style. If only FS+ would be moved to the sports package or something. They're getting blitzed by FSC HD, FS+ HD, and AMC HD questions. Hopefully they're all available very soon.
I don't think for sports we will see a day where things aren't shot for 4:3... at least not for the next 10+ years then maybe 4:3 tv's will be gone enought to move on. You might see things shot a bit tighter but really it's not a ton of space to expand to on the sides so to keep the key things in the 4:3 frame isn't that big of a deal. With that said what FSC is doing right now could be the future for people with 4:3 tv's.
Really?? I mean there are TV shows that are 16:9 and are fit to work on 4:3 like True Blood, entourage... etc. I disagree there.
From DirecTV Twitter today: "Update on Fox Soccer HD: Launch date not finalized but we expect it in time for the EPL season. " Also posted today: "We expect to have news on FS+ soon."
hmmm.... i wonder why they cant confirm the channel im paying $14.99 per month for (FS+) is going HD... im getting tired of the Sky Sports reruns from FSC... i would love to hear they are moving this out of a la carte and into the sports package.. seems like another crazy pre-season for league rights and channel distribution.. Cantona---
Also tweeted this a little bit ago @DIRECTV: In addition to adding FOX Soccer Channel HD, we’re working to add live matches in HD on Fox Soccer Plus.
GolTV HD launching on Directv on August 4th. FSC HD launching on August 11th. Confirmed by satelliteracer, and for those who don't know his word is bond.
NICE!!! So there IS A GOD!!! Does it say anything about it being in 1080i like Univision/Galavision? With that said, why hasnt ESPN upped their game? They are still only 720p right?
This is great news if it's true. Unfortunately I am stuck with crappy Comcast... they are still silent on whether they will ever add FSC HD. I am definitely going to switch to DirecTV if/when they start broadcasting FSC HD.
720p is better for sports. Here's an article about it further... CLICK LINK Just because the number's larger doesn't mean it's better. It actually decreases the quality just a minuscule tiny fraction.