So, what did you think of the Olympic opening ceremony in HD?

[Minsk1]

What did you think of NBCs coverage of the opening ceremony in HD? I watched it on my 942 off local NBC OTA HD. I thought parts were very bandwidth starved. There was major blocking at times, especially some of the close up shots and fast action. Some views were quite good however. How was your experience?

It was great here, Milwaukee OTA.
Also maybe I did not watch SD for a long time, but I think that Dish upped the PQ of USA SD. Was watching biathlon race and it was quite good for SD.

 

[Carl B]

PQ on my OTA from KUSA was OK, but not as good as Dish's special Olympic channel for the last summer Olympic games. Our local NBC affiliate has a weather sub-channel that really seems to affect high content HD like the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. A few DD sound dropouts and some pixilated views a few times.

As to the Opening Ceremonies themselves, overall nice with some slow spots. Winter games Openings are never as good as Summer Games openings and the last Winter Games in SLC really set a high standard for Winter Games Openings. Torino didn't approach the SLC games opening and I watched that one in SD.

 

[KeithInDallas]

Dish said they'd have Olympic HD Programming, which will be from Universal HD. They never said what the content would be or ever promised you NBC-HD

No, they said that they would offer Olympic coverage in HD, as well as make Universal HD channel available to all HD receivers. That would mean two HD channels, not one. At least that is my read of the Charley Chat in January. If I'm not mistaken Scott confirmed several times that this was his expectation as well, both from the chats and "contacts."

BTW, I enjoyed the Opening Ceremonies. I fast-forwarded through a bunch of it, so 3 hours squeezed into one wasn't bad. Was I the only one surprised that the athletes were entering the stadium to 70's & 80's hits from the USA? I realize that some music is universal, but I guess I was expecting something a little more "Italy" centered. I thought the fireworks were impressive!!

 

[fr8flyr]

The Disco music got me also. I enjoyed some of the show but some of it was really strange, the cows on wheels I thought were ridicules. The images made by the performers was very well done and the fireworks and torch ceremony was great.

Earl

 

[waltinvt]

No, they said that they would offer Olympic coverage in HD, as well as make Universal HD channel available to all HD receivers. That would mean two HD channels, not one. At least that is my read of the Charley Chat in January. If I'm not mistaken Scott confirmed several times that this was his expectation as well, both from the chats and "contacts."<snip>....

Yes Scott did confirm this and although I have great respect for him and all he does for us here, I am disappointed he hasn't jumped in and reinterated on behalf of the few of us rightfully voicing our complaints and taking a lot of hits for doing so.

 

[LosingPatience]

It was very… European. I thought the flame guys rocked, but I have to agree with Earl on the "roller disco" cows: just plain bizarre.

As for High Def, the Pope must have let Notre Dame crank it up at WNDU here in Northern Indiana because the signal was strong and the picture and sound were perfect all night, and all weekend. I've always gotten a signal strength in the low 70's, with lots of dropouts, but since Friday it's been a rock-solid 96. Until now, Fox was the only OTA HD station I could get a great picture from. Here's hoping WNDU stays hot… and NBC starts showing something worth watching (for more than two weeks, as with "Book of Daniel").

 

[shanewalker]

I was glad to see it in HD, but disappointed at the relatively high mix of upconverted SD widescreen footage and a fair amount of compression artifacting. NBC OTA in Chicago has two other sub-channels, but typical prime-time HD didn't suffer from such so I don't think the probs were local. I've noticed the pixellation and mix of softer up-rezzed imagery on subsequent event coverage as well. You'd think with the time delay they could VBR master it somehow and avoid the artifacting. Hmmm.

 

[Stew]

I thought portions were excellent with good PQ here in the Dallas area using an OTA antenna. I was slightly turned off with all the disco music they incorporated into the first half.

 

[Foxbat]

As for High Def, the Pope must have let Notre Dame crank it up at WNDU here in Northern Indiana because the signal was strong and the picture and sound were perfect all night, and all weekend.

WNDU did this for the last Winter Olympics in Salt Lake, too. I've asked their engineer that frequents the boards why they waste bandwidth simulcasting NBC in 480p on 16.2 and he says it's for all those 4:3 HDTV owners... All seven of them.

 

[dlsnyder]

I enjoyed the opening ceremonies watching on OTA KNBC 4.1 in Los Angeles with my 811. The non-stop disco soundtrack was kind of funny - Disco didn't die in 1979, it just moved to Italy!

Last night I was watching some of the commentary with Bob Costas and noticed that the audio was slightly out of sync. Did anyone else notice that or was it just me?

 

[mattb]

I came across this blog from some guy that works for NBC at the olympics, I thought what he had to share was interesting!

http://hdolympics.blogspot.com/

 

[way2rude4u]

Again they have too many cameras and are trying to get all of the angles at the same time! I wish they would have picked a camera angle, preferrably a wide shot to see more of the performances.

Just my $.02~!

 

[tawhite]

Thanks Mattb, that is pretty cool, really likes the pics he has on the site.

 

[dlsnyder]

I clicked on the link and got a 404 error. They may have taken it down.

 

[mdonnelly]

I clicked on the link and got a 404 error. They may have taken it down.

He killed it. From AVSForums:


ErikU
HD Broadcast Engr

Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 19

I got a little uncomfortable with all the attention on the blog, so I pulled it down, sorry. I was shocked when I saw the web stats today... who would have thought TV geeks would be so interesting.

Still willing to chat about things though!

-Erik

 

[kb7oeb]

WNDU did this for the last Winter Olympics in Salt Lake, too. I've asked their engineer that frequents the boards why they waste bandwidth simulcasting NBC in 480p on 16.2 and he says it's for all those 4:3 HDTV owners... All seven of them.

Probably for his

 

[BrettTRay]

I love the olympics. I thought that they've been really good so far.

 

[gdarwin]

Getting lots of tiling tonight OTA.

 

[sonnyboy11]

I have watched more Olympics this time out than ever before thanks to the HD coverage on NBC and UHD. It has been really good with plenty of drama. I'm not into every sport, but the men's hockey and even the stunning upset of the USA women's hockey team have been really good.

Only big complaint is NBC is tape delaying stuff on the west coast (like the USA men's hockey game against Slovakia today). That sucked.

I have noticed some tiling here and there. Sync issues with sound (although that is mostly corrected) and the occasional drop in sound and picture. That's all been OTA, no problems with UHD.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I'm getting all of the Olympic coverage, including the NBC HD feed via OTA. I have to admit that 95% of my viewing has been NBC HD. I've only watched a couple of hours from all of the Dish channels. I should have watched more hockey, but haven't.

So I must admit that if I didn't have NBC HD, I would not have watched much. I can understand the disappointment felt by those who thought they were going to get the NBC HD feed but didn't.