From what I read in the past CBS started out by upgrading to true HD, which costs a lot more. Fox found some cheaper up-rezzing alternative and was able to implement it in more games. When I watch, I tend to watch only HD games, and I notice CBS's quality blows Fox away. The NFL has mandated ALL broadcasts to be HD by '09, hopefully CBS will be early.
Fox originally used what they called "Fox Widescreen" which was nothing more then 480p at 16x9. But for the past couple of years Fox has been using 720p (which is the same as ABC and ESPN), which according to the rules can be called HD, for their HD standard. I think there are a couple of times where Fox needs to do a game in 480p when they have too many games to cover and not enough HD trucks available.
CBS and NBC both use 1080i as their standard, but IMHO NBC's PQ on their NFL games stinks (looking at both the local ATSC OTA feed and D*'s WNBC feed).
Rad,
What is this about, hinting that 720p is not "really" HD. 720p in many instances CAN LOOK BETTER than 1080i, even though there are not as many pixels in 720p. The actual motion tracking is better resolved under 720p than it is in 1080i.
In fast moving action, you can see all kinds of artifacting because 1080 is interlaced instead of using a progressive scan.
Before you suggest that 1080p is just around the corner, 1080p is definiately NOT around the corner. The only 1080p content you will see for years to come is either Blu-Ray or DVD HD disc's. Bottomline the actual bandwidth needed for true 1080p is almost double of the current 19 Millionbits per second maximum in OTA ATSC. Let's not even mention the fact that both DBS providers do NOT provide even a full 1920x1080 1080 Interlaced signal. Many Cable companies do provide true 1920x1080 1080i channels, but even they are going to balk at throwing anymore bandwidth at channels, besides there are NO content owners that are willing to provide 1080p.
John
NO, not at all. I was trying to head off the 720p isn't HD crowd.
I've never heard anyone claim that. What are you talking about?