Great games in the Sweet 16, here's hoping for more of the same in the Elite 8!

Please place only related comments for Sunday's Elite 8 HD games in this topic.

It's very important to be specific with your info, including:
- Over-The-Air location, local station call letters
- Cableco
- DirecTV (channel number / Mega March Madness, MPEG4 locals, NYC/LA)
- Dish Network (channel number / MPEG4 locals or NYC/LA).

Thanks in advance for your participation at AVS.

Midwest Regional Final
From the Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, MO
2:40pm
Florida vs. Oregon

East Regional Final
From the Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, NJ
5:05pm
North Carolina vs. Georgetown

I guess I will be the 1st to report.

I have D* Mpeg 4 in Boston looks like crap, Mpeg2 out of NY looks like crap, OTA no sub channels looks like crap.

What is up with CBS this is very disappointing.

Louiville, KY through Insight Cable. The picture quality is not that bad. There is the typical CBS fuzzing every once in awhile but it is not happening that often. The placement of the cameras are a lot better today and yesterday when compared to Thursday and Friday. I no longer feel like I am watching the game in the nosebleed section.

Louiville, KY through Insight Cable. The picture quality is not that bad. There is the typical CBS fuzzing every once in awhile but it is not happening that often. The placement of the cameras are a lot better today and yesterday when compared to Thursday and Friday. I no longer feel like I am watching the game in the nosebleed section.

Glad you are somewhat happy with the PQ but I remember 5 years ago when CBS did the final 4 in HD and it was just plain beautiful. I think there is something wrong at CBS that is not allowing that type of PQ these days. All I can base this on is my eyes and to me CBS is laying a goose egg with the tornament so far and it is very disappointing. I would say it was a D* thing however OTA is no where close to what CBS use to provide in my opinion.

WWJ-DT CBS Detroit looks great, OTA & Comcast.

D* on CH. 81 in Orange County, CA via MPEG-2 looks rough. Lots of pixilation.

Glad you are somewhat happy with the PQ but I remember 5 years ago when CBS did the final 4 in HD and it was just plain beautiful. I think there is something wrong at CBS that is not allowing that type of PQ these days. All I can base this on is my eyes and to me CBS is laying a goose egg with the tornament so far and it is very disappointing. I would say it was a D* thing however OTA is no where close to what CBS use to provide in my opinion.OTA in areas where CBS is not affected by multicasting looks as good as ever.

Ken,

I am very jealous not sure why I am having such a problem I have OTA through the HR20 and direct into the TV and to me it is just not what I am use to from CBS. Mabe my local station is at fault?

Ken,

I am very jealous not sure why I am having such a problem I have OTA through the HR20 and direct into the TV and to me it is just not what I am use to from CBS. Mabe my local station is at fault?Are they multicasting?

OTA in Portland is very soft - almost fuzzy. No multicasting. Stark difference when switching back and forth to NBC golf. Gotta be bad if NBC is better!

Note to J.B. -

Argon is a gas, ORYGUN is a state (at least in pronounciation)

Are they multicasting?

No it is the only station in Boston not doing it. I just checked Discovery HD and it looks great I was begining to wonder if it was my display.

Comcast Boston here. Anyone else hearing the audio levels going up and down? It seems like every time there is a "loud" event, i.e. someone yelling or a shot hitting the rim, the sound level drops to nearly inaudible, then it gradually comes back to normal. Don't think it's my display (Sharp 46D62U LCD) or HD cable box (Mot 3416 using HDMI).

Comcast Boston here. Anyone else hearing the audio levels going up and down? It seems like every time there is a "loud" event, i.e. someone yelling or a shot hitting the rim, the sound level drops to nearly inaudible, then it gradually comes back to normal. Don't think it's my display (Sharp 46D62U LCD) or HD cable box (Mot 3416 using HDMI).


That is one thing that has not been a problem for me the audio sounds great through D* and OTA. How is the PQ?

Comcast Boston here. Anyone else hearing the audio levels going up and down? It seems like every time there is a "loud" event, i.e. someone yelling or a shot hitting the rim, the sound level drops to nearly inaudible, then it gradually comes back to normal. Don't think it's my display (Sharp 46D62U LCD) or HD cable box (Mot 3416 using HDMI).


I've definitely been hearing this when listening to my TV speakers. What I would hear was the announcer's level dropping and getting drowned out whenever the crowd noise went up. When I switched on the surround receiver, the sound has been fine with the announcers coming through strong in the center channel. I heard this on Friday night during the UNC game as well. Seems like it may be related to the 5.1 sound being down-mixed to stereo. I'm watching WSPA ota via Dish 622 receiver.

That is one thing that has not been a problem for me the audio sounds great through D* and OTA. How is the PQ?

PQ is OK, average for CBS. I've seen better from them, but worse as well.

PQ is OK, average for CBS. I've seen better from them, but worse as well.

Glad to know that I am not the only one seeing sub PQ. I wonder if Channel 4 is the problem where Ken reported it looked great in Detroit.

Well for me CBS is the best PQ for sports along with ESPN, so I wouldn't say "sub". It's a little softer than their best, but it's still pretty good.

I've definitely been hearing this when listening to my TV speakers. What I would hear was the announcer's level dropping and getting drowned out whenever the crowd noise went up. When I switched on the surround receiver, the sound has been fine with the announcers coming through strong in the center channel. I heard this on Friday night during the UNC game as well. Seems like it may be related to the 5.1 sound being down-mixed to stereo. I'm watching WSPA ota via Dish 622 receiver.

Ah....that makes sense, you're probably right.

Well for me CBS is the best PQ for sports along with ESPN, so I wouldn't say "sub". It's a little softer than their best, but it's still pretty good.

I think it leaves a lot to be desired I have seen much better out of CBS over the years. I would say it is a display problem but other things look great.

I even cleaned my glasses twice

D* MPEG-2 on west coast national (LA) is just awful. Not enough bandwidth to resolve the wood floor pattern...constantly pixelated. And I'm paying for this?

D* MPEG-2 on west coast national (LA) is just awful. Not enough bandwidth to resolve the wood floor pattern...constantly pixelated. And I'm paying for this?

Sorry you have the problem but glad I am not alone

Same bad video here on D* in so.cal,are ypu kidding me ? bad pixalation during FREE THROWS??? how can NFL football look so good in HD and the ncaa basketball games look so BAD that i actually switched to the SD channel to watch the game ,what a bbunch of crap i'm really dissapointed!

PQ looks a little better for the UNC/GTown game, but I have seen the focus loss problem a few times already.

PQ looks a little better for the UNC/GTown game, but I have seen the focus loss problem a few times already.

I agree it does look better but not where it should be

D* ch 81 is very poor. constantly pixilating and
motion blur. The last 2 days are the worst I have seen in 5 years.

D* ch 81 is very poor. constantly pixilating and
motion blur. The last 2 days are the worst I have seen in 5 years.

I agree - I'm seeing the same thing.

im watchin carolina/gtown OTA and the horns are EXTREMELY LOUD as is when someone screams....its just an all of a sudden rise in the volume and very annoyin

D* ch 81 is very poor. constantly pixilating and
motion blur. The last 2 days are the worst I have seen in 5 years.

i've been able to compare the D* MP4 b'cast here in Vegas to the OTA b'cast. D* does look a bit worse, but the major culprit i think is the OTA b'cast. It seems like the main camera is constantly losing focus and tons of macroblocking. Very hard on the eyes -- a good old CRT SD actually might be better than this, though less impressive.

plus it sucks that g'town is coming back.

I've switdhed over to ESPN2 on D* to compare v CBS ch 81. The womens game looks considerably better without all of the bit starved damage on CBS-W.

I've switdhed over to ESPN2 on D* to compare v CBS ch 81. The womens game looks considerably better without all of the bit starved damage on CBS-W.

i don't get channel 81, but i promise you there is not much difference between the OTA here in Vegas and the D* MP4 feed of the same channel. both look crappy.

especially the finally score. what a massive choke.

.... Anyone else hearing the audio levels going up and down? It seems like every time there is a "loud" event, i.e. someone yelling or a shot hitting the rim, the sound level drops to nearly inaudible, then it gradually comes back to normal.Audio mix has been awful. The substitution horn or “buzzer” makes the games almost impossible to enjoy. The surrounds go up or down indiscriminately.

Every once in a while a wild mike will pick up small parts of the crowd giving a false illusion of a small crowd. At times it sounds like three guys in a bar chanting Let's go tarheels.

Not to mention the ridiculous farfisa organ chords for the CBS graphics along with their shrill bumper music. It’s complete audio madness. The audio stinks.

The picture quality has been great along with the games.

TWNY

PQ is pretty much meh here in Seattle, lots of blocking.
KIRO-DT, OTA and Comcast, with sub channel

It's not CBS' fault that my local deems it necessary to give their stationary airport feed more than 5mb/s at times, but come on...CBS needs to tighten the reins a bit on some of their affiliates who are just destroying the feed for really no reason. It should be in their interest enough to motivate some action...

Also I don't see it mentioned, what is the sound format for these games, or does it change from venue to venue?

Two great games, both looked great here in Detroit on WWJ via Comcast.

I think both CBS and my local station in Seattle have done an atrocious job, both OTA and Comcast. Terrible pixelizing is the main problem. And also mosquito noise on sharp edges. But what bothered me the most the past few days was the bad camera work by CBS. They just never zoomed in tight enough on the action. It seriously felt like I was watching the games from the nosebleed section, straining to read the players numbers and their faces, even with my 42" LCD and me only sitting about 8 feet away. They seemed to be zooming out at inappropriate times to make sure their huge screen overlay stats didn't block the picture, thus making the players tiny. As comparison, I'm watching the Sonics on FSN-HD and the camerawork is one hundred times better. The cameraman actually had a brain, and when he can sense something it going to happen, along with everyone else at the event, he zooms in tighter to catch the action. CBS, by comparison, was just as likely to zoom out when the action picked up. I'm not sure if CBS is overemphasizing 4:3 overscan issues, or what, but it looks terrible. FOX, ESPN or ABC would have nailed this event. CBS botched it bigtime. This is photography 101 - fill the frame with action.

The sound was also bad. I mostly watched with my TV stereo sound, but noticed the fading announcer voice like other people have commented.

Games on D* channel 81 in Los Angeles did not look good at all. Lots of pixelation, very similar to Saturday's games. OTA with no multicating looked great on KCBS-DT. I feel very compelled to send a letter to D* to complain about the horrid PQ, but not sure what good it would do. Not holding my breath that the new satellites will improve things either.

florida/oregon was almost unwatchable here due to the pixelation from the court pattern. very distracting.

Comcast in Portland here...I haven't been impressed with the CBS presentation. Just like the Super Bowl; every time one of their graphics swoops in, I get bad pixellation. Shows up on fast pans as well. The other really annoying thing is the volume of the hoop mics - do my ears really need to bleed every time somebody clangs a shot off the rim, or Joakim Noah screams as he goes up for a rebound? It's a little jarring...

I watched the games via Comcast and switched over to OTA a few times just to compare PQ and at least here in PDX, none of these games seemed up to par for CBS to me. Generally when our local affiliate drops the sub channel for sports the blocking cleans up really well, leaving only some pretty minor pixelation on the most challenging motion (like flying/zooming graphics). But this year even with the sub down once we got to the EE games there was still a fair amount of blocking and mosquito noise remaining :(. Not terrible, it was still watchable, but not what I would consider minor by any means either...


ron

Oh, forgot to mention one more annoying audio issue:
Every time they cut back to the studio, the 5.1 audio drops down to stereo. In fact, I can tell when they're about to throw it back to Greg Gumbel, because the switch happens about 10 seconds beforehand. On my receiver (Onkyo), this causes a dropout in the sound for a second as it switches from DD5.1 to PLXII; anyone else notice this? Would it be that hard for them to encode the studio stuff in 5.1 as well?

cbs sucks. main camera on florida/oregon game not showing hd. something less. closeup cameras are hd. what gives. doesn't cbs own enough hd cameras?

cbs sucks. main camera on florida/oregon game not showing hd. something less. closeup cameras are hd. what gives. doesn't cbs own enough hd cameras?
All cameras were HD.

Watched OTA here (Montgomery, AL). The picture looked very good at times, however, there were a lot of "jaggies" when on the edges of the court and, at times, on the markings on the court. My stations do multicast, but, from the above comments, it appears that that wasn't the main problem. Overall, enjoyable, but the sound fluctuations and the "jaggies" really distracted.

All cameras were HD.


why was pq on camera up high showing full court view noticeably worse than all other camera shots. did not look like hd. more like wide screen sd. cbs has done this before for other sporting events.

why was pq on camera up high showing full court view noticeably worse than all other camera shots. did not look like hd. more like wide screen sd. cbs has done this before for other sporting events.
Distance to subject, lighting from that angle, and cable quality are just name a few of the issues that can affect Picture quality. Plus since you are referring to the main game camera, instead of one of the other camera it could just be that wide shots do not have as much detail as closeups, which is to be expected. I can assure you that it was an HD camera, however, there are many issues all the way to your local station as to why that camera did not look as good as the others to your eyes.