Typical NBC HD golf coverage, some HD and some WS SD. Not too bad except for the audio and video breakups, using both HTL-HD receiver and HR10-250. Watching on DirecTV Ch 82. Interesting that the breakups don't occur during the commercials. And like many network sport presentations, too much talk and not enough substance. :(

I wonder if the breaups have more to do with DirecTV than NBC. I had breakups during the NCAA games last night and during The Tonight Show last night.

I wouldn't doubt that it could be DirecTV. So you saw a problem with Ch 83 then? I don't have an OTA NBC affiliate to compare with. What are others seeing?

I'm watching it on FIOS and it's HORRIBLE! It looks like they are broadcasting every other or every 3rd frame.

I've had audio and video breakups on every NBC golf telecast this year using an HR10-250 and DirecTV. It's amazing they can't fix it. The CBS telecasts have been flawless.

this is the third pga tourney my local WLBT- DT Jackson, MS dma has NOT shown in HD. called and emailed them but they just plain do not throw the hd switch on the weekends, ridiculous. i wish i had nbc east from directv.
thank god the masters is on cbs.

NBC has drained my love of watching golf on TV. Nasty hybrid SD/HD...terrible feeds....


Please please NBC...do it right...or give it up.

I'm watching it on FIOS and it's HORRIBLE! It looks like they are broadcasting every other or every 3rd frame.

We get a similar thing on Letterman here when they show the clip for the guests. It looks like they remove two thirds of the frames. Is that similar to the golf you are talking about here?

No breakups during golf from WNBC-DT via NYC's Time Warner Cable--or with other shows. Believe the cable head end still has a fiber link to NBC. From the complaints of local OTA viewers about breakups, plus the crispness of the 1080i golf, suspect TWC is using a 'full' bit rate (before the reduction needed for multicasting.) TWC locally carries two NBC digital 480i subchannels, the weather and a news feed. -- John

Saw most of the Saturday coverage on WNBC-DT but OTA (even though I have TWC in NYC also; used the HD DVR box to have NASCAR on ABC with a split-screen on my new Olevia 747i HDTV) and it was eye-opening to see one shot in crisp high-def switch to a SD camera made widescreen. You'd think all the shots of Tiger Woods would be with HD cameras since he's the star of the sport, but his camera shots were just as blurry as the other golfers'. The Masters on CBS (and hopefully UHD) cannot come soon enough! :)

The breakups are making this almost unwatchable. My HR10 just exacerbates the problem since it is a DVR. So I'm watching with my HTL-HD. What's weird is that the commercials don't seem to have nearly as many breakups as the actual show.

I'm beginning to wonder if DirecTV is doing this on purpose to force people to MPEG4 delivery. :D

Typical NBC HD golf coverage, some HD and some WS SD. Not too bad except for the audio and video breakups, using both HTL-HD receiver and HR10-250. Watching on DirecTV Ch 82. Interesting that the breakups don't occur during the commercials. And like many network sport presentations, too much talk and not enough substance. :(


For a while I thought some camera shots looked a bit muddy. It is only when I viewed it on my bedroom TV where the scaler leaves black borders around programs that are 16x9 widescreen and not true HD that I realized why some camera shots looked so poor. Do they save a lot of cash actually doing that and not shooting all camera angles in HD. Wierd.

I think they just don't have enough handheld HD cameras to do the proper job. So, I guess you could say it's a cash thing. :)

My wife's sister and her husband live at Bay Hill...the back of their house is on the 8th fairway. It's nice to get glimpses of their home every year at this time, and now in HD! Not a bad life when Tiger, Phil, Vijay and company play through every year.

Do they save a lot of cash actually doing that and not shooting all camera angles in HD. Wierd.

NBC is likely to rank fourth behind ABC, CBS and Fox this year, just like the two previous years. So yeah, they're penny-pinching mizers trying to save a buck or two here and there. I'm surprised NBC Sports even does half of their golf tournaments in HD considering the low ratings they get compared to PGA Golf on CBS and ABC (which have at least passable all-HD coverage the few times per year they do it).

I'm surprised NBC Sports even does half of their golf tournaments in HD considering the low ratings they get compared to PGA Golf on CBS and ABC (which have at least passable all-HD coverage the few times per year they do it).

ABC doesn't do PGA Tour golf any more, and even when they did it was never in HD. The only men's golf event on ABC this year is the British Open. They get that feed from the BBC.

Encountered a few big signal breakups Sunday, compared to a glitch-free day mentioned earlier (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10057821&&#post10057821) above. Almost certain they were caused by switches between SD and HD cameras, though, or a similar glitch, not overall bit rate deficiencies.

The HD blimp and planned 'scenic' shots certainly make the crispness of 1080i evident in bright sunlight. But, studying certain objects such as bare tree branches or distant crowd figures, couldn't help wondering what an additional 160--200 lines of horizontal resolution or more would add. That's assuming my cable delivery was limited to ~1290 lines maximum, as earlier measurements with HDNet indicate on my 9"-CRT RPTV. Someone else locally on my cable system measured ~1335 lines (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8865051#post8865051) maximum with a new 1080p front projector.

Perhaps NBC's nationally downlinked signal does deliver ~1450 lines or more (after decoding) and some are resolving that. Maybe oversampling live 1080i with higher-resolution e-cinema cameras, then downconverting to 1080i, could add enough crispness to the finest image details to make a difference. Downconverting 1080i to 480i for The Golf Channel's weekday telecasts makes the SD dramatically better looking. -- John

Had about three breakups using Comcast here in the Detroit area. More annoying was the constant talking by the announcers especially Johnny Miller. Or is it just me?

NBC has drained my love of watching golf on TV. Nasty hybrid SD/HD...terrible feeds....


Please please NBC...do it right...or give it up.
50% HD is still better than 0% HD.
Affordable hand held HD cameras are just around the corner.
Patience, please.

50% HD is still better than 0% HD.
Affordable hand held HD cameras are just around the corner.
Patience, please.

Um, right; CBS has already turned that corner. Patience with NBC for running golf telecasts on the cheap and hoping nobody will notice is running out.

Fortunately NBC is running out of events. They have the next two weeks and then back to CBS for 5 weeks. In fact CBS has 18 more events and NBC only 7. The problem is that NBC does have some big events left. The Players, US Open, final 2 FedEx Cup Playoff events and Tour Championship. Hopefully they will see the light and make the switch to HD handhelds by the US Open in June, if not the Players in May.

Lost in all this technical discussion, nobody mentioned how nice it was to see that Tiger is human. A duck hook, a fat wedge, and a come out of it push. I though I was watching my regular foursome. :eek:

Don't believe I would blame Direct TV. I experienced the same breakups over our local HD NBC station which of course has nothing to do with Direct TV.

I was watching golf on DirecTV 82 Saturday and Sunday and the breakups, macro-blocking, pixelating or whatever you call it was terrible. The sound kept cutting on and off also. I switched to the SD channel, 382 and there was no problem. I also had much the same problem on other NBC HD programs, and was still seeing breakups on Leno last night. I don't think this was DirecTV's fault as I did not have problems on other HD channels, so I suspect this was NBC's fault.

I was watching golf on DirecTV 82 Saturday and Sunday and the breakups, macro-blocking, pixelating or whatever you call it was terrible. The sound kept cutting on and off also. I switched to the SD channel, 382 and there was no problem. I also had much the same problem on other NBC HD programs, and was still seeing breakups on Leno last night. I don't think this was DirecTV's fault as I did not have problems on other HD channels, so I suspect this was NBC's fault.
Must be very irritating to see that. Note, though, in two posts above I mentioned not getting significant HD breakups or glitches from WNBC-DT via Time Warner Cable. And rarely see any problems with other NBC shows. For golf, that means uplinks from the golf-site trucks made it (cleanly) at least to NBC in NYC. That implies the screwup is taking place further down the line, which might include WNBC-DT's multicast local OTA signal. As mentioned above, this also suggests TWC's fiber feed from NBC is separate from the OTA signal. No doubt there are other options, too. -- John