Speed HD was great for about ten minutes.....then....

[markabilly]

I watched Speed HD this morning for qualifying, and I am not sure how, but the first ten to 15 minutes was in ultra-clear HD....it was great to watch the cars and all the stuff, RB cleaning up the skids on the front wing and stuff in brilliant detail.......
:up: :up: :up:


Made me wonder how they got the HD feed, and it was clearly in HD, even the onboard shots were very good.

then the real qualifying started, and it was back to the SD stuff. :down:

I also wonder if the computer images of the times and places in qfing (as well as the races) has something to do with this?

The timing and placment are in a perfect position, as is the very obnoxious speed logo, for a standard def TV and not widescreen.

I wonder if this is one of bernie's issues in not wanting to upgrade, is how to do the computer timing--but if NOT so and the real reason is the limited bandwidth of the satellite channel or whatever they are using, , how were we getting the great HD pictures for 15 minutes before the Qfing began at 15 minutes past the hour?

Was Speed doing this from a different source or feed? They even had a set of HD interviews with Martin Mac and Horner Bull that was in HD

At the Seca motogp last weekend, on Saturday, they showed Qfing in complete HD....It was great, you could see the tires slipping, throwing marbles and all sorts of detail, the colors were stunning.....

then when the race started on Sunday,they went to the world feed and it was like watching an old VHS tape. YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Other thing that irritated me greatly, is that there are a number of AMA support events at Seca, with great riders and racers, and many of those AMA races were shown until about a year ago, when they stopped showing those races as well...shown in stunning HD (except for the motogp race)....but they have pretty much stopped doing that.....

The whole reason I loved Speed originally was to see all forms of motor racing, esp the bikes, but now?????too much tow trucker family life, pinks and many repeats of Barrett's auctions.... :(

[jerryb]

Speed commentators have said many times that they are required to show the feed from Bernie's production.

That said, I think the early portion of the show was not from Bernie's feed, but a special segment that someone else may have filmed. Then when the "official" qualifying program began, Speed had to pick up that feed.

[Copse]

I also wonder if the computer images of the times and places in qfing (as well as the races) has something to do with this?

The timing and placment are in a perfect position, as is the very obnoxious speed logo, for a standard def TV and not widescreen.


Remember that in many parts of Europe, unlike the US, widescreen and HD are not that tightly coupled. Widescreen SD feed has been the "normal" TV format for most of the past 10 years in many countries here, and as far as I can remember, F1 broadcasts have been available in widescreen SD for quite some time.

I wonder if they actually have two sets of one-screen graphics available, because the left-hand-side column display that I see on the SD widescreen broadcasts would not fit with the old aspect ratio. Perhaps Speed just don't get those two separate timing overlays, and since they need the non-widescreen one for their SD channel, their HD viewers are stuck with it too.

[Dave B]

The quality you attribute to Speed's SD broadcast should never be that bad (unless you're watching touring cars on ITV4 but that's another story). Certainly not like "watching an old VHS tape" - half the lines of even SD broadcast television.

I'd wager that what you thought was HD was actually just good SD with a decent bandwidth and little compression. If you find yourself in the UK have a look at the F1 broadcasts on BBC1 or some of the Sky Sports channels and they're surprisingly good, as good as some of the crappier channels' supposed HD output. If done properly, which sadly it rarely is, SD can still provide very good quality.

Bernie seems to believe that broadcasters will pay a premium for HD, whereas most other sports recognise that the public expect it as standard these days.

[woody2goody]

The quality you attribute to Speed's SD broadcast should never be that bad (unless you're watching touring cars on ITV4 but that's another story). Certainly not like "watching an old VHS tape" - half the lines of even SD broadcast television.

I'd wager that what you thought was HD was actually just good SD with a decent bandwidth and little compression. If you find yourself in the UK have a look at the F1 broadcasts on BBC1 or some of the Sky Sports channels and they're surprisingly good, as good as some of the crappier channels' supposed HD output. If done properly, which sadly it rarely is, SD can still provide very good quality.

Bernie seems to believe that broadcasters will pay a premium for HD, whereas most other sports recognise that the public expect it as standard these days.

It should be standard by now. When they can show (no disrespect) Conference-level football in HD, the world's most popular motorsport should be a no-brainer.

It doesn't spoil my enjoyment of the GPs, it just makes me really annoyed that we can't watch all this with the stunning picture quality of most other sports.

Surely, when that survey was done last year, and such a large percentage of fans said they wanted HD for 2010 - why they didn't make sure it was up and running for this season is beyond me.

[Mark]

It's because as Dave says. Bernie is holding out expecting to get more money for it. While the likes of the BBC will take an HD feed they are not prepared to pay for it, and rightly so!

[Easy Drifter]

Good old TSN which takes the BBC feed announces 'The following program is available in HD'. Interesting since it is not broadcast in HD but a little detail like that doesn't stop TSN. :D
Oh and TSN makes sure Speed is blacked out.

[Mark]

Personally I'd make the effort to switch to channel 108 when the Grand Prix is on to watch in HD, but otherwise I'm not particularly bothered.

In fact for some programmes it's a toss up, do I want a better picture with a big "BBC HD" logo in the corner, or a picture which is almost as good without it?!

[markabilly]

actually the VHS reference was to the seca motogp race, which had the same poor quality of last year, although most of the earlier races in Motogp were very good, better than anything I have seen from F1

Now as to what the cameras were and the feed for those other motogp races were, I am not sure, but it was very good.

Speed showed the qfing from Saturday, in true HD, and it was stunning!!!!!!!
Not only the details but the colors....it was like watching the TT from the Isle of mann (as shown in HD from the discovery channel and made by your BBC)...so the cameras and stuff were there at Seca to make it happen, but once the moto race started, Speed was back to the "world feed" as required :down:

I recorded the F1 qfing on the DVR, and watched it again....if it was an upscale, it was very well done, but I do not think it was....the quality of the first few minutes was better then the nascar and other commercials being shown.....then the actual qfing started, the quality took a big big step down......but was not as bad as the quality of the Moto Seca race.

SO it made me wonder if the feed came from a different source....or if it has to do with the timing and scoring display, which must go through some processor to be added to the screen and it degrades the overall image...

and it went downhill after we get the Q going, for example, the comparsion between the commercials and the feed, the NASCAR commercials and others had far better picture quality than the F1 Qing, which was not the case for the first 15 minutes or so....

[Mark]

As far as I'm aware there is no HD recording of F1 races, despite many broadcasters claiming to show it in HD it's always discovered it isn't really!

Now you're right that the graphics are added on later and it's quite possible these could be in HD overlayed on an upscaled SD picture.

Remember back in January they said that there will be no HD for 2010 but probably will be for 2011. F1 is always behind in these things, we were still watching F1 in 4:3 when every other TV broadcast had gone to 16:9!

[markabilly]

As far as I'm aware there is no HD recording of F1 races, despite many broadcasters claiming to show it in HD it's always discovered it isn't really!

Now you're right that the graphics are added on later and it's quite possible these could be in HD overlayed on an upscaled SD picture.

Remember back in January they said that there will be no HD for 2010 but probably will be for 2011. F1 is always behind in these things, we were still watching F1 in 4:3 when every other TV broadcast had gone to 16:9!
actually i was thinking that the processor could only process a standard def picture, so the HD signal was downgraded to SD to go through the processor....and then maybe there are some higher cost charges for the satellite bandwith?????so that is SD as well????

I know that at the last F1 race at Indy, the cameras were all high definition, and they would show some of the pre-race events in HD. I talked to a cameraman who said it was all hi-def until it got to bernie's little satellite truck, and then it was downgraded to SD somewhere, either there or somewhere further down the signal path

I think the cameras, people and equipment are all provided locally, so in some places, they might be SD, but my bet in Japan it is not in anything but HD, just like the USA and probably much of europe---they are downgrading or downscaling the signal to SD in the world feed

Speed says the races in USA are broadcast in HD, but it is simply poor quality upscaled from the world feed.....

[Marbles]

I get the BBC (world?) feed on TSN and the quality of that varies from race to race and the odd time looks close to HD. Maybe the converted PAL signal (576 lines vs NTSC 480 lines) gives me that impression? I dunno.

Apparently F1 is being filmed this year in HD but not broadcast. So you'll have to spend few bucks for a season review if you want HD. Rumors and articles posted seem to indicate that there will not be any HD broadcast until 2012!

SPEED probably has the worst HD of any broadcaster I receive. Even their domestic Grand Am, Petite Le Mans, etc coverage mixes SD 16x9 and SD stretch-o-vision with a very poor quality HD. I originally thought my Cable provider was choking the bandwidth but I've heard complaints from far and wide.

If you think their HD broadcast is bad you should check out their SD broadcast. It's absolutely horrible.

[markabilly]

I get the BBC (world?) feed on TSN and the quality of that varies from race to race and the odd time looks close to HD. Maybe the converted PAL signal (576 lines vs NTSC 480 lines) gives me that impression? I dunno.

Apparently F1 is being filmed this year in HD but not broadcast. So you'll have to spend few bucks for a season review if you want HD. Rumors and articles posted seem to indicate that there will not be any HD broadcast until 2012!

SPEED probably has the worst HD of any broadcaster I receive. Even their domestic Grand Am, Petite Le Mans, etc coverage mixes SD 16x9 and SD stretch-o-vision with a very poor quality HD. I originally thought my Cable provider was choking the bandwidth but I've heard complaints from far and wide.

If you think their HD broadcast is bad you should check out their SD broadcast. It's absolutely horrible.
Maybe It is your cable....we had a standard cable service and it was horrible, so we got the dish, which was better but not much. Then verizon came in to replace the cable company several years ago, and offerred this fiber optic service for phone, intenert and tv. Until then we had incredibly slow internet, and as they were offerring 3 months free, and pay $100 for installation, we did it.

Then suddenly many of the SD channels looked like they were now coming direct from DVD, the internent went to "instant" rather than "slow wait".....indeed faster than my at-work system for internal emails and so forth, and if we wanted, we could have ten phone lines to the house----and it all comes in on one single fiber optic line to the house (and not the numerous lines from the prior cable)

Amazing...

then we got a larger plasma TV and blu ray player, but often the verizon signal in HD for HBO and MAX and HDNET movies, are equal to or better than Blu-ray.
However the sound is usually not.

Some of the races shown by Speed are not good, but usually the IRL races, the Motogp bike qfing from Seca, almost all NASCAR events, and some of the petitie lemans are outstanding

we also live in USA, and many of the foreign broadcast channels from europe vary in quality (such as BBC world news...which is horrible PQ here, blurred, faded colors!!!!--so i think it is the signal that Verizon gets that causes the issues on those channels)

I was susprized to learn that for years, the US Motogp bike race, the F! race at indy, were all being recorded on an HD system until it got to the whatever, and it got downgraded. If Speed was permitted, all they needed to do was switch over to their own feed, and BINGO, we in the USA, would have had HD (along with stereo high quality sound).

Instead the support races at Indy F! and at Seca, were shown in HD, stunning HD, but when the premerie events started, it was back to the lousy "world feed" :mad: that was being downscaled going wherever, and then upscaled by Speed.....

duh.

[Jag_Warrior]

Sounds like Markabilly might be getting his HDTV wish sooner than later.

Races to be broadcast in HD in 2011? (http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns22640.html)

When they go to 3D HD, that's when I'll get excited.

[maximilian]

Speaking of Speed, how pathetic was it that they had to cut away right after the race to show NASCAR Nation (or whatever, who cares!) instead of staying on live for the podium and interviews? There are already 1000 hours of NASCAR TV coverage available every week, can't it wait another 10 minutes until we get the Grand Prix finished? Pathetic!!!

[Jag_Warrior]

That struck me as odd, as I thought I heard the announcer say that they'd return to F1 before going over to their normal NASCAR 24/7/365 programming. My DVR turned off at the 3 hour mark, so I don't know if they ever returned for the interviews or not. When Alonso wins I usually stop watching before the interviews anyway. But it would still be nice to have that option.

[markabilly]

That struck me as odd, as I thought I heard the announcer say that they'd return to F1 before going over to their normal NASCAR 24/7/365 programming. My DVR turned off at the 3 hour mark, so I don't know if they ever returned for the interviews or not. When Alonso wins I usually stop watching before the interviews anyway. But it would still be nice to have that option.
yes they cut away almsot before the cars stopped. In terms of time, the race was a long one....


BTW---many of the prerace show shots were in high definition but once they cut into the grid sarting up and taking the pace lap, it immediately went back to the old level of lack of picture quality......so the camera and facilities at many tracks are there to do it, just that old gizzer benrie is in the way, again.

BE is robably worried about the fact that korea race may crash out and we have one less race, so better do something to even out that blow...

[schmenke]

...
Oh and TSN makes sure Speed is blacked out.

Ah, I was wondering why I could never watch on Speed.
No difference really, other than the commentators.
I do like the way that TSN shows the race in a small screen during commercials.

[schmenke]

I ...The whole reason I loved Speed originally was to see all forms of motor racing, esp the bikes, but now?????too much tow trucker family life, pinks and many repeats of Barrett's auctions.... :(

Yep. The only reason that I have Speed TV is because it's bundled with my current cable package. I rarely watch anything on it, other than the occasional ALMS event, or the Le Mans 24 hours.

[Easy Drifter]

At least TSN gave us the interviews after the race instead of going to the 100th rerun of Sports Desk like they often do.
I do miss the Speed pre race show and I miss Steve Matchett's insight. Hard to tell I was a wrench.
TSN has exclusive Cdn. rights and this year are enforcing them.
I have Bell Express Vu Satellite and they will put their promos on on when I watch Speed Report or Wind Tunnel cutting out the US ads. The volume goes up about 50%. They do it on any US Channnel I watch except PBS. It actually backfires as I immediately mute it and/or switch channels.