NFL Sunday Ticket Missing HD Games

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HDMark

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Maybe I was looking int the wrong place but:

New Orleans vs. Houston was in HD on Fox - saw it in their pre-game show as they went from stadium to stadium, yet BEV did not carry the game in HD, just in the SD section of ST. Yet, they steal bandwith by doubling up on the Fox East and West feeds by showing them in the 800's where they normally are and the 460's and 470's to make it more convenient??

Also, Philly vs. Miami was also not showing on the HD channels.

I know it doesn't sound like much, but I don't recall them doing this last year with the HD games. The point of having ST, imho is to be able to watch whichever game you want in HD!!!

Also, last week, they only carried the Green Bay vs. Minnesota game on the Fox network feed. Once the game got out of hand, the Boston fox affliliate switched to the Philly game - therefore, no Green Bay broadcast to enjoy, even if it was a blow out!!!

They should be showing each game in HD - and I don't have a problem if it's just on the network feed - however if that station decides to dump out of the game to go to a closer game, BEV should be providing the HD broadcast on another channel.

Mark
 
I'm the first to complain about BEV's NFL HD coverage but last week (Week 11) there was 12 games broadcasted in HD on Sunday ticket and 11 HD games were shown on BEV (13 if you count SNF and MNF and 14 if you count the 16:9 480P St. Louis at San Francisco game).

At 1pm BEV was showing 8 out of the 9 available HD broadcasted NFL games.
The game they decided not to broadcast in HD last week was a stink bowl: the Miami Dolphins at Philadelphia Eagles game.

New Orleans vs. Houston was NOT in HD on FOX. One thing you may not be aware is that FOX broadcasts a max of 6 HD games per week. When there is more then 6 FOX games (there was 8 last week) FOX decides the lowest potential ratings games and broadcasts them in Widescreen 16:9 480P instead of 720P (last week, that honor was reserved for the St. Louis at San Francisco and the New Orleans at Houston games). Unfortunately, the ONLY way to see those 16:9 480P games is on an HD channel (the SD channels show it as 4:3).

DirecTV did not show either of these games on an HD channel
See here: http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPageIF.jsp?assetId=1800006

Since BEV gets their feed from them, there is no reasonable assumption that they would be capable of showing those games on an HD channel... unless of course, either the Boston or Seattle HD networks on BEV just so happen to broadcast either of the games (which they did not).

Only the areas highlited in yellow on the below map got to see the New Orleans at Houston game in 16:9 480P on their local FOX HD affiliate:
http://www.the506.com/nflmaps/2007-11-FOX1.html

Only the areas highlited in green on the below map got the see the St. Louis at San Francisco game in 16:9 480P on their local FOX HD affiliate
http://www.the506.com/nflmaps/2007-11-FOX2.html

What's actually amazing is that BEV actually broadcasted the 16:9 480P St. Louis at San Francisco game on one of their NFL ST HD Channels at 4PM (DirecTV did not).

Those channels that "repeat" the games don't actually use any bandwidth. They are simply repeats of the same transponder feed. Another reason why BEV was able to show 12 HD games last week is because they simsubbed the 2 CTV games on the 2 american network feeds, freeing up more bandwidth.
I would rather have 8 games including 2 simsubs then 6 games with 2 of them having 2 different feeds for the same game (original US network + CTV).

Now as far as substituting a "boring" game by a game with a tighter score, i've allready ranted about this but the rant was directed were it should: the American Network. BEV has nothing to do with this and can't possibly know that this is going to happen + even if they did (which they can't) there would be nothing they can do about it: If a local affilitate decides to do switch, then what makes you think there is any availability of the discarded footage of the original game anywhere (besides for the Network internaly)?
If you trully absolutely must see the additional footage, then you can always try switching to the SD feed... there is a chance that the local affiliate decided to continue the original broadcast on it...

The only other way (and there is no bandwidth to do this) would be to have every HD game on it's own channel and with the local broadcast of that city (Dallas game on Dallas FOX, Indianapolis game on Indianapolis CBS etc...) that way, even if it is a blowout, that local affiliate more then likely since it is covering it's own city's game, will not switch to another one. Unfortunately, this would require 14 dedicated HD channels and even DirecTV does'nt do that (they have 8 dedicated HD channels and BEV has 6). Perhaps one day when DirecTV migrates the NFL Sunday Ticket to MPEG4 and once BEV has also migrated to MPEG4... perhaps then...

P.S. The 2 posts in this thread should be merged with the Original BEV 2007 NFL Sunday Ticket thread:
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=67819
 
OK fine.... I get the point about the new orleans game, although I will still claim that I saw it in HD in the pre game show. With a 106" screen it's pretty obvious which is HD and which is 16:9 SD. Also, I'm completely aware of how many games are broadcast in HD for both fox and cbs.

But my point is still valid with the switching out of the blow out games.

I know it's bandwidth,blah, blah blah.... but I'm the consumer and I've paid for what I thought was every game that is in HD available to me whether its 21-20 or 50-2. I'm almost positive their ST HD coverage didn't start out this way.

Just my rant.....

Mark
 
Actually, I made a mistake in my previous post:

The Miami Dolphins at Philadelphia Eagles game was actually NOT broadcasted in HD on DirecTV (they listed both the Raiders vs. Vikings and Dolphins vs. Eagles on channel 725 but obviously only 1 of the 2 games aired on that channel). Looks like DirecTVs' capabilities max out at 8 HD games simultaneously (there were 9 HD games at 1pm last Sunday).

Only the areas highlited in orange on the below map got to see the Miami Dolphins at Philadelphia Eagles game in 1080i HD on their local CBS HD affiliate: http://www.the506.com/nflmaps/2007-11-CBS.html

Taking all this into condiretation, BEV broadcasted 1 more "HD" game (if you include the 16:9 480P St. Louis at San Francisco game) then DirecTV did. That's pretty amazing.

BEV will not be able to change a thing until DirecTV ups their coverage which they are going to have no choice about doing for the 2008 season as ALL NFL games in 2008 will be in HD (mandated by the NFL) and DirecTV is the sole and only provider (100% exclusive) for the NFL Sunday Ticket package in the U.S. They just launched a new Sattelite earlier this year and are launching another one in Q1 2008 so i'm sure this will happen.

Weeks 13 & 14 have 13 games on Sunday afternoons and Week 17 has 14 games on Sunday afternoon (11 simultaneous games at the 1:00pm slot). Those are going to be a problem and very likely there will be HD broadcasted games that will not air on either DirecTV or BEV during those weeks.

I agree that switching out of blow out games is not very NFL Sunday Ticket friendly --> if we want to see the other game we can simply change the channel ourselves. Unfortunately, until DirecTV's infrastructure can be improved, nothing much can be done.
 
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