DirecTV HD Olympic coverage
 

First, it's a day behind. But OK, I get it, NBC wants to protect
their crown jewels of ads. I can understand that. But the looped
aerial footage of Greece? How many times do we have to see that? And
the one commercial for Dish (sorry, SBC)? Surely there are more than
two pieces of footage to run in between the segments.

Or -- better yet, dummies -- don't run any commercials at all. No,
that's too simple. Just run the stock footage forever. People will
forget they've seen it before.

The opening event was totally unwatchable, live or not. The fact that
there were commercials (or, in the HD version a day later
"commercials") is a travesty of highest order. The commentary was
about as inane, low IQ, and thoughtless as any Rose Parade drivel.
(One interesting note -- the live commentary was almost exactly
verbatim the HD coverage, except with different commentators. That
means it was scripted or, horrors, re-enacted! Althought, truthfully,
the HD commentary was not quite as bad and dropped a lot more of the
really stupid stuff.)

I have heard a lot of grumbling about the Olympics in the past and for
this year's events as well. I never understood it and chalked it up
to American shortsightedness and low IQ. But now I begin to
understand it's not your fault, it's your broadcasters' faults.

I can live with a day late. The HD picture is fantastic. The ads are
repetitive, but there aren't nearly as many of them as on the regular
coverage. Also, the coverage seems to be 24/7. NBC's regular coverage is
somewhat less.

Bill

"T. Pascal" wrote in message
om...
First, it's a day behind. But OK, I get it, NBC wants to protect
their crown jewels of ads. I can understand that. But the looped
aerial footage of Greece? How many times do we have to see that? And
the one commercial for Dish (sorry, SBC)? Surely there are more than
two pieces of footage to run in between the segments.

Or -- better yet, dummies -- don't run any commercials at all. No,
that's too simple. Just run the stock footage forever. People will
forget they've seen it before.

The opening event was totally unwatchable, live or not. The fact that
there were commercials (or, in the HD version a day later
"commercials") is a travesty of highest order. The commentary was
about as inane, low IQ, and thoughtless as any Rose Parade drivel.
(One interesting note -- the live commentary was almost exactly
verbatim the HD coverage, except with different commentators. That
means it was scripted or, horrors, re-enacted! Althought, truthfully,
the HD commentary was not quite as bad and dropped a lot more of the
really stupid stuff.)

I have heard a lot of grumbling about the Olympics in the past and for
this year's events as well. I never understood it and chalked it up
to American shortsightedness and low IQ. But now I begin to
understa ndit'snotyourfault,it'syourbroadcasters'faults.

I can live with a day late. The HD picture is fantastic. The ads are
repetitive, but there aren't nearly as many of them as on the regular
coverage. Also, the coverage seems to be 24/7. NBC's regular coverage is
somewhat less.

Bill

"T. Pascal" wrote in message
om...
First, it's a day behind. But OK, I get it, NBC wants to protect
their crown jewels of ads. I can understand that. But the looped
aerial footage of Greece? How many times do we have to see that? And
the one commercial for Dish (sorry, SBC)? Surely there are more than
two pieces of footage to run in between the segments.

Or -- better yet, dummies -- don't run any commercials at all. No,
that's too simple. Just run the stock footage forever. People will
forget they've seen it before.

The opening event was totally unwatchable, live or not. The fact that
there were commercials (or, in the HD version a day later
"commercials") is a travesty of highest order. The commentary was
about as inane, low IQ, and thoughtless as any Rose Parade drivel.
(One interesting note -- the live commentary was almost exactly
verbatim the HD coverage, except with different commentators. That
means it was scripted or, horrors, re-enacted! Althought, truthfully,
the HD commentary was not quite as bad and dropped a lot more of the
really stupid stuff.)

I have heard a lot of grumbling about the Olympics in the past and for
this year's events as well. I never understood it and chalked it up
to American shortsightedness and low IQ. But now I begin to
understa ndit'snotyourfault,it'syourbroadcasters'faults.

why is it a day late NBC is NBC whether their on directv or not. They really
need to fix things up
End higher ticket prices! Go to local college games!

why is it a day late NBC is NBC whether their on directv or not. They really
need to fix things up
End higher ticket prices! Go to local college games!

"Dan the fan" wrote in message
...
why is it a day late NBC is NBC whether their on directv or not. They
really
need to fix things up

It's a day late because it's a special HD feed. I'm getting it on the
NBC HD channel in Los Angeles, not DirecTV. The regular NBC feed is also
delayed, but not by nearly as much. The HD feed only has one sponsor,
apparently. I've lost track of how many sponsors are on the main network
feed.

It appears that the HD feed will run 24/7 for the full run of the
Olympics -- plus one day, I suppose.

Bill

PS There are no college games here in early August!

"Dan the fan" wrote in message
...
why is it a day late NBC is NBC whether their on directv or not. They
really
need to fix things up

It's a day late because it's a special HD feed. I'm getting it on the
NBC HD channel in Los Angeles, not DirecTV. The regular NBC feed is also
delayed, but not by nearly as much. The HD feed only has one sponsor,
apparently. I've lost track of how many sponsors are on the main network
feed.

It appears that the HD feed will run 24/7 for the full run of the
Olympics -- plus one day, I suppose.

Bill

PS There are no college games here in early August!

Rest assure I got the countdown for college games and its only 10 days away the
27th when things really get swinging :) thanks
End higher ticket prices! Go to local college games!

Rest assure I got the countdown for college games and its only 10 days away the
27th when things really get swinging :) thanks
End higher ticket prices! Go to local college games!

"T. Pascal" wrote in message
om...
First, it's a day behind. But OK, I get it, NBC wants to protect
their crown jewels of ads. I can understand that. But the looped
aerial footage of Greece? How many times do we have to see that? And
the one commercial for Dish (sorry, SBC)? Surely there are more than
two pieces of footage to run in between the segments.

Or -- better yet, dummies -- don't run any commercials at all. No,
that's too simple. Just run the stock footage forever. People will
forget they've seen it before.

The opening event was totally unwatchable, live or not. The fact that
there were commercials (or, in the HD version a day later
"commercials") is a travesty of highest order. The commentary was
about as inane, low IQ, and thoughtless as any Rose Parade drivel.
(One interesting note -- the live commentary was almost exactly
verbatim the HD coverage, except with different commentators. That
means it was scripted or, horrors, re-enacted! Althought, truthfully,
the HD commentary was not quite as bad and dropped a lot more of the
really stupid stuff.)

I have heard a lot of grumbling about the Olympics in the past and for
this year's events as well. I never understood it and chalked it up
to American shortsightedness and low IQ. But now I begin to
understa ndit'snotyourfault,it'syourbroadcasters'faults.


My least favorite thing about the HD feed is the Sony Wega commercial. For
the first two days, it was the only one they had, so they showed it every
ten minutes! The "and salsa!" line delivery made me chuckle the first, oh,
hundred times or so, then got very very annoying. But think on this:

The commercial is shown only on the HD feed, not the SD. This means everyone
seeing it (unless they're in a store watching it, or at a friend's - a very
smll proportion of the viewing population) already has invested in HD. Not
a good target market, as I don't envision many people saying "you know what,
honey? Let's throw this brand new multi-thousand-dollar HD away and get the
Wega!"

The commercial looks like ****e. The crowd shots are extremely blurry, not a
face to be seen. Better than SD, certainly, but not nearly HD. I'd guess not
more than around 500 lines of resolution. Why would Sony do this? Why would
I (assuming I were still in the market, and not watching this on my very own
multi-thousand-dollar HD) purchase a piece of very high-end electronics from
a company that puts out such a lousy ad????

These are the thoughts people have when you expose them to the same
thirty-second clip over and over and over and over and over and over and
over.

Cody k

"T. Pascal" wrote in message
om...
First, it's a day behind. But OK, I get it, NBC wants to protect
their crown jewels of ads. I can understand that. But the looped
aerial footage of Greece? How many times do we have to see that? And
the one commercial for Dish (sorry, SBC)? Surely there are more than
two pieces of footage to run in between the segments.

Or -- better yet, dummies -- don't run any commercials at all. No,
that's too simple. Just run the stock footage forever. People will
forget they've seen it before.

The opening event was totally unwatchable, live or not. The fact that
there were commercials (or, in the HD version a day later
"commercials") is a travesty of highest order. The commentary was
about as inane, low IQ, and thoughtless as any Rose Parade drivel.
(One interesting note -- the live commentary was almost exactly
verbatim the HD coverage, except with different commentators. That
means it was scripted or, horrors, re-enacted! Althought, truthfully,
the HD commentary was not quite as bad and dropped a lot more of the
really stupid stuff.)

I have heard a lot of grumbling about the Olympics in the past and for
this year's events as well. I never understood it and chalked it up
to American shortsightedness and low IQ. But now I begin to
understa ndit'snotyourfault,it'syourbroadcasters'faults.


My least favorite thing about the HD feed is the Sony Wega commercial. For
the first two days, it was the only one they had, so they showed it every
ten minutes! The "and salsa!" line delivery made me chuckle the first, oh,
hundred times or so, then got very very annoying. But think on this:

The commercial is shown only on the HD feed, not the SD. This means everyone
seeing it (unless they're in a store watching it, or at a friend's - a very
smll proportion of the viewing population) already has invested in HD. Not
a good target market, as I don't envision many people saying "you know what,
honey? Let's throw this brand new multi-thousand-dollar HD away and get the
Wega!"

The commercial looks like ****e. The crowd shots are extremely blurry, not a
face to be seen. Better than SD, certainly, but not nearly HD. I'd guess not
more than around 500 lines of resolution. Why would Sony do this? Why would
I (assuming I were still in the market, and not watching this on my very own
multi-thousand-dollar HD) purchase a piece of very high-end electronics from
a company that puts out such a lousy ad????

These are the thoughts people have when you expose them to the same
thirty-second clip over and over and over and over and over and over and
over.

Cody k

Cody k wrote:

The commercial is shown only on the HD feed, not the SD.

It's also on the SD, just not as often.

The commercial looks like ****e. The crowd shots are extremely blurry,
not a face to be seen.

Because there are only about 10 people there, stamped all over the shot
like a wallpaper pattern. Some of them don't cast shadows or appear to
be floating above the sidewalk.

- Ernie http://home.comcast.net/~erniew

Cody k wrote:

The commercial is shown only on the HD feed, not the SD.

It's also on the SD, just not as often.

The commercial looks like ****e. The crowd shots are extremely blurry,
not a face to be seen.

Because there are only about 10 people there, stamped all over the shot
like a wallpaper pattern. Some of them don't cast shadows or appear to
be floating above the sidewalk.

- Ernie http://home.comcast.net/~erniew

T. Pascal wrote:

(One interesting note -- the live commentary was almost exactly
verbatim the HD coverage, except with different commentators. That
means it was scripted or, horrors, re-enacted!

Of course it's scripted, as it was in 2002 (and as it is for most events
of this kind).

If by "live" you mean the SD coverage, that wasn't live either. Athens
is 8 hours ahead of EDT, so prime time on the East Coast starts at 4 am
there.

- Ernie http://home.comcast.net/~erniew

T. Pascal wrote:

(One interesting note -- the live commentary was almost exactly
verbatim the HD coverage, except with different commentators. That
means it was scripted or, horrors, re-enacted!

Of course it's scripted, as it was in 2002 (and as it is for most events
of this kind).

If by "live" you mean the SD coverage, that wasn't live either. Athens
is 8 hours ahead of EDT, so prime time on the East Coast starts at 4 am
there.

- Ernie http://home.comcast.net/~erniew

"Ernie Wright" wrote in message
...
Cody k wrote:

The commercial is shown only on the HD feed, not the SD.

It's also on the SD, just not as often.

The commercial looks like ****e. The crowd shots are extremely blurry,
not a face to be seen.

Because there are only about 10 people there, stamped all over the shot
like a wallpaper pattern. Some of them don't cast shadows or appear to
be floating above the sidewalk.

- Ernie http://home.comcast.net/~erniew



That's not the issue. The issue is that they're blurry. Everything in the
commercial is blurry.

Cody

"Ernie Wright" wrote in message
...
Cody k wrote:

The commercial is shown only on the HD feed, not the SD.

It's also on the SD, just not as often.

The commercial looks like ****e. The crowd shots are extremely blurry,
not a face to be seen.

Because there are only about 10 people there, stamped all over the shot
like a wallpaper pattern. Some of them don't cast shadows or appear to
be floating above the sidewalk.

- Ernie http://home.comcast.net/~erniew



That's not the issue. The issue is that they're blurry. Everything in the
commercial is blurry.

Cody

Bill Sharpe wrote:

I can live with a day late. The HD picture is fantastic. The ads are
repetitive,

I've never seen the ads. Why would anyone want to watch them?

I have an HD TiVo. I can't imagine watching TV without a TiVo. Those
ads would drive me to distraction. I haven't seen one I didn't want for
about 3 years now (only 2 months for HD TiVo, but standard TV TiVo
before that)


--
- Burt Johnson
MindStorm, Inc.
http://www.mindstorm-inc.com/software.html

Bill Sharpe wrote:

I can live with a day late. The HD picture is fantastic. The ads are
repetitive,

I've never seen the ads. Why would anyone want to watch them?

I have an HD TiVo. I can't imagine watching TV without a TiVo. Those
ads would drive me to distraction. I haven't seen one I didn't want for
about 3 years now (only 2 months for HD TiVo, but standard TV TiVo
before that)


--
- Burt Johnson
MindStorm, Inc.
http://www.mindstorm-inc.com/software.html

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 01:39:33 GMT, "Cody k"
wrote:

The commercial looks like ****e. The crowd shots are extremely blurry, not a
face to be seen. Better than SD, certainly, but not nearly HD. I'd guess not
more than around 500 lines of resolution. Why would Sony do this?

Heh. I was wondering the same thing - "that doesn't look very good".
Very odd that they wouldn't have done a better job there - people
could think "Hell, I can see blurry blobs on my old TV!"

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 01:39:33 GMT, "Cody k"
wrote:

The commercial looks like ****e. The crowd shots are extremely blurry, not a
face to be seen. Better than SD, certainly, but not nearly HD. I'd guess not
more than around 500 lines of resolution. Why would Sony do this?

Heh. I was wondering the same thing - "that doesn't look very good".
Very odd that they wouldn't have done a better job there - people
could think "Hell, I can see blurry blobs on my old TV!"

On Fri, 20 Aug 2004 10:10:07 +0000, Burt Johnson wrote:

Bill Sharpe wrote:

I can live with a day late. The HD picture is fantastic. The ads are
repetitive,

I've never seen the ads. Why would anyone want to watch them?

I have an HD TiVo. I can't imagine watching TV without a TiVo. Those
ads would drive me to distraction. I haven't seen one I didn't want for
about 3 years now (only 2 months for HD TiVo, but standard TV TiVo
before that)

It is incredibly difficult to watch OTA HD when I have a DirecTiVo. Alas,
it is only SD and I can't see laying out the $1000 right now. I would be
especially helpful now though since content is a little sparse. That is,
there isn't always something on that I want to see. I've given up on the
ABC Saturday night movie though. They have to add so much time for
commercials that the kids have to go to bed before the movie is over.

Very painful.

On Fri, 20 Aug 2004 10:10:07 +0000, Burt Johnson wrote:

Bill Sharpe wrote:

I can live with a day late. The HD picture is fantastic. The ads are
repetitive,

I've never seen the ads. Why would anyone want to watch them?

I have an HD TiVo. I can't imagine watching TV without a TiVo. Those
ads would drive me to distraction. I haven't seen one I didn't want for
about 3 years now (only 2 months for HD TiVo, but standard TV TiVo
before that)

It is incredibly difficult to watch OTA HD when I have a DirecTiVo. Alas,
it is only SD and I can't see laying out the $1000 right now. I would be
especially helpful now though since content is a little sparse. That is,
there isn't always something on that I want to see. I've given up on the
ABC Saturday night movie though. They have to add so much time for
commercials that the kids have to go to bed before the movie is over.

Very painful.