FSC/FSE Megathread

Discussion in 'TV, Satellite & Radio' started by Girlbinti, Dec 28, 2006.

  1. Girlbinti

    Girlbinti Member

    Sep 25, 2004
    Atlanta, GA
    I have observed over the last several months that many "live" English Premier League games shown on FSC have a 3 to 5-minute delay. Sometimes, I find out a goal has been scored from a web site (or one of the BigSoccer forums) before FSC shows it. Sometimes, while watching Setanta, I see the flash update when a goal is scored in a game being shown "live" on FSC. Then, when I switch to FSC, I can catch the goal after a few minutes.
    It can also be observed in pubs when different live games are on FSC, Sentanta and Setanta Xtra -- the FSC games always seem to lag the Setanta/Xtra games by a few minutes.
    Has anybody else noticed this?
    Any reason why FSC has a delay in thier coverage of "live" games?
     
  2. The Wisdom Cube

    The Wisdom Cube New Member

    Oct 7, 2005
    Clemson, SC
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    Others in this forum have noticed as well. It lets them show a few commercials at the top of their broadcasts and also to start the broadcasts at a nice sounding time (3:00 instead of 2:55 or 2:45 for example). Kickoffs in real time usually happen pretty close to on the hour or half hour etc (for EPL games at least).
     
  3. dustcowpoke

    dustcowpoke Member

    Jan 7, 2006
    Houston, TX
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    It's just as live as the NBA All-star Game and the Superbowl halftime show. A few minutes delay to make sure nobody runs out on the field/court naked.
     
  4. Kryptonite

    Kryptonite Fancy Title Here

    Apr 10, 1999
    Columbus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    Ding. I think as live as you'll get to seeing on FSC it as it happens on the field is the Saturday 12:15 PM ET game, and even that can be about a minute or so off from Premiership Live's broadcast of that game.

    If it was due to editing stuff out that shouldn't be seen on TV, wouldn't the master feed be delayed a minute or so all around the world and not just the FSC feed?

    I wonder how much the Setanta feed of a game is delayed. Yes, it is possible to report scores as they happen, since that is just text on a screen, but is it possible that Setanta's is delayed a bit as well?

    Keep in mind that the signal from a Premiership game has to be sent from England, to wherever, to the FSC studios, to wherever else, finally to your TV. And it wouldn't surprise me if there were a few places in between. That'll delay any video a few seconds. It's the same effect as when someone on the news in the USA interviews someone in the Middle East, and there's a slight pause before the reporter answers the question posed by the ancor.
     
  5. vilafria

    vilafria Member+

    Jun 2, 2005
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    I wasn't aware of it . If that's the case then the broadcaster should post that info. It's false advertisement in its purest form.:mad:
     
  6. Girlbinti

    Girlbinti Member

    Sep 25, 2004
    Atlanta, GA
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    I thought the delay to screen/edit out profanity and/or nudity was only a matter of seconds (which I would think Setanta does as well). But we are talking 5 minutes here.
    The issue is this: why is FSC's delay so long that even the internet via dialup is sometimes ahead?
     
  7. Girlbinti

    Girlbinti Member

    Sep 25, 2004
    Atlanta, GA
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    I'm inclined to agree with your assessment - the delays are by FSC. And they do it to allow for an "intro" and commercials. Generally, GOLTV and Setanta start their intro about 4 or 5 minutes before the hour, quarter hour, or half hour. That way they are are ready to join the game in time for live kick-off.
     
  8. texgator

    texgator New Member

    Oct 28, 2003
    Plano
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    Last weekend they had audio troubles on one of the games they were broadcasting, the audio was realtime live and the video was delayed. The audio was a good 5 minutes ahead of the video. I never realized how much they delayed the games until then.
     
  9. geordienation

    geordienation Moderator

    Apr 21, 2001
    Chicago
    Club:
    Newcastle United FC
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?


    Then almost every "live" event you view should carry that tag.

    It's live to you minus production time. It's not like an NBC Olympic broadcast.
     
  10. vilafria

    vilafria Member+

    Jun 2, 2005
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    We're talking about 5 minutes not a few seconds delay, big diference.:)
     
  11. geordienation

    geordienation Moderator

    Apr 21, 2001
    Chicago
    Club:
    Newcastle United FC
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?



    We're talking about 5 minutes, not 5 hours. It would be one thing if this were news, but this is a sporting event. If you someone feels cheated, they should go see it in person. It's the price I'm willing to pay for watching games that are an ocean away.
     
  12. MasterShake29

    MasterShake29 Member+

    Oct 28, 2001
    Jersey City, NJ
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    GolTV also seems to start their games on the hour exactly (I guess that's the custom in Europe, not just England).

    So it's obviously a choice by FSC.
     
  13. vilafria

    vilafria Member+

    Jun 2, 2005
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    There's a simple solution that is also the truthful description : 5 minutes delay notice, just like they do it with any other delayed game ( usually 2 hrs or so).
     
  14. Kryptonite

    Kryptonite Fancy Title Here

    Apr 10, 1999
    Columbus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    Exactly. Everything that is billed as a "live" event including MLS Cup, a college basketball game, the World Cup Final, etc. is slightly delayed. I was at a college basketball game and my friend was watching on local cable TV. I told my friend what the time on the scoreboard was and what was going on, and he told me when that happened on TV.

    I'd bet that even a GOL TV or Setanta "live" broadcast could be delayed by 30 seconds due to the time it takes to get the video from England to your TV.
     
  15. texgator

    texgator New Member

    Oct 28, 2003
    Plano
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    Furthermore if you receive your television programming from one of the sattelite providers you are being delayed by the transmission signal. My father and I will frequently call each other during Gator football games and he can tell me what's about to happen in the game because he gets the broadcast closer to real time (although probably still delayed to some extent) a few seconds before I do. Should DirecTV and DISH put the disclaimer on ALL their programming too?
     
  16. MasterShake29

    MasterShake29 Member+

    Oct 28, 2001
    Jersey City, NJ
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    Different cable companies have different delays too.

    But that's a few seconds, not five minutes.
     
  17. lokar

    lokar New Member

    Oct 13, 2006
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    I guess I have the problem where the original poster had the problem, that FSC is intentionally delaying the game by a few minutes to throw in commercials and calling it live versus having the broadcast delayed by several seconds due to the vagaries of transmission time due to cable companies, satellite companies, etc. I also disapprove of the 10 second delay where they try to catch bad language, etc. in awards shows. Rogers Sportsnet in Canada did even worse than FSC a couple of years ago when they would pause the game tape every now and then to insert 30 second commercials, I at least give them credit for not missing any of the game. While transmission time delays all live events by a few seconds, that is something that everyone has to live with and is close enough to live for me. On a side note, HDTV throws another wrinkle into everything since there is a huge (almost 6 second delay) that HDTV lags behind a regular broadcast of the same event. An engineer at the station I used to work at told me it is because it takes more time to encode and decode a large amount of information like an HDTV signal.
     
  18. viper

    viper New Member

    Jun 7, 2000
    Paramus, NJ
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    On another note, a few weeks back I tried putting on the EPL Sirius Satellite radio coverage on Sirius 125 as I was watching a game on FSC. It was the same game (Chelsea/?) with different commentators on the radio but the Sirius feed had a good 10 second delay on what was on FSC.
     
  19. texgator

    texgator New Member

    Oct 28, 2003
    Plano
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    How about we just consider the games "Live Enough" and get on with our lives. Seriously, sometimes I think you people spend your days finding insignificant stuff to bitch about.
     
  20. Kryptonite

    Kryptonite Fancy Title Here

    Apr 10, 1999
    Columbus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    I've done this as well. It's nice to be able to watch a game without the FSC commentators coming in at halftime. It's kind of like a poor man's Setanta.

    Strangely, sometimes the FSC feed is actually ahead of the Sirius feed and it doesn't work.
     
  21. dustcowpoke

    dustcowpoke Member

    Jan 7, 2006
    Houston, TX
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    You should get that thing Sirius has where you can pause it, so you can wait for the feed to catch up.
     
  22. Kryptonite

    Kryptonite Fancy Title Here

    Apr 10, 1999
    Columbus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    I can pause my Sirius radio to delay that, but if FSC is ahead of Sirius, there's not much I can do about that since I don't have a DVR to delay my FSC feed.
     
  23. Sykotyk

    Sykotyk Member

    Jun 9, 2003
    Ohio
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    I get that because I have a DVR, and it delays the show I'm watching by about 10 seconds, and even longer if I'm recording it as well. Somewhat frustrating when I've called my dad watching the same game and he's cheering before I see what's going on.

    Sykotyk
     
  24. OldFanatic

    OldFanatic Member

    Jan 12, 2004
    Bay Area
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    Given the processing speeds of today, what that engineer did was pulled your leg. Unless you can find a link with scientific explanation (not "my engineer friend at studio told me") which proves this, I'm going to call your conjecture "crapola".

    There definitely is a time lag with HD, but it's only of the order of a second. 6 seconds is an outrageous claim. See below link:

    http://www.hdtvuk.tv/2006/06/highdef_time_la.html

    The reason for my audacity is also because I routinely watch idential events from multiple providers (Comcast, DISH, OTA, DirecTV) in HD as well SD, and have never noticed a time lag of the order of 6 seconds.

    For example, I watched 2006 Champions League Final with ESPN2-HD from DISH, ESPN2 (SD) from Comcast and ESPN Deportes from DISH concurrently. Of course not all 3 telecasts were all in sync, but the time lag was about 1 or 2 seconds. I also watched many World Cup matches on ABC-HD from Comcast or ABC-HD OTA or Univision OTA or Univision from DISH. (And various permutations with ESPN-HD from Comcast/DISH, ESPN2-HD from DISH, ESPN2 SD from Comcast etc. depending on which Disney channel had the match.) Same thing with 1 or at-most 2 second time delay.

    These days, for short durations I've been watching FSC concurrently from Comcast and DISH, and have noticed small time lags between carriers as well. There is no HD element involved there, but thought would throw in that carrier time lag element as well.
     
  25. Rivaldinho

    Rivaldinho Member

    Jan 26, 2003
    Re: Are EPL games on FSC really "live"?

    So Sirius delays their coverage by a few minutes too?
    I think they're commercial free, so they wouldn't be doing it to insert them.
     

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