US Open Tennis on Universal HD Channel

richiephx

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Feb 1, 2006
728
1
Phoenix, AZ
I am an avid tennis player and have been watching the US Open Tennis on Universal HD. I notice that they say that the program is being brought to us by Direct TV in HD. I noticed that the HD quality is really bad. The lines on the tennis court look like they are moving, the net is jumping around, images look blurry. Is this because Direct TV is controlling the picture quality, or, is it E* bitstarving the picture?
 
I remember being at CEDIA in 2004 and watching live tennis, I believe it was the U.S. Open, at a couple of the booths. The quality was incredible. The picture was so clear and there was almost no blurring on the motion. No macro-blocking or contouring on the green court surface. I was left drooling after it.

It is a real shame that two years later, the PQ has severely degraded.
 
I've been watching too, but haven't noticed the lines moving or the net jumping around. The picture definitely isn't as crisp or clear as it should be, though.:)
 
I watched on Universal HD the past few nights and the PQ seemed decent. Wasn't as good as CBS-HD but thats probably mostly because the bitrate on dish is usually around 10-12MBit/s.

Universal HD is a 1920x1080i channel. What type of TV do you have? The jumping lines and such could be from your tv or the receiver converting 1080i -> 720p.
 
richiephx said:
I have a 4 year old Mitsubishi 65" 1080i monitor and use component video out of my 211 receiver

Well, then your 211 should be set to output 1080i and there shouldnt be any conversion issues. Have you noticed anything similar on other channels?

I'll look again closer the next time tennis is on though. I'm viewing on a 720p RP and a 720p FP.
 
Watching a match now. Don't see much problem on motion artifacts or any lines moving. Unfortunately the image sure is soft. Once again something that looks like it is halfway between SD and HD.
 
On the 14" monitor I'm using, it looks pretty clear.

But on my 47" TV, it wasn't nearly this sharp. And I was watching the same event at the time you took the image.

Hmmm ... when I zoom on your image and look at Agassi across the court, he is pretty fuzzy.
 
Definitely a so-so picture. Notice the court lines, and how there is sort of a "glow" around them.

Some of the fuzziness of things that were moving is because I took a screen grab from interlaced video (with no post processing, ie de-interlacing). I'm trying to find a better program that will give an actual frame grab from a mpeg2 transport stream.
 
***

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)