2010 WTA Tennis Championship on The Tennis Channel HD & ESPN2 HD

They're playing round robin this year, so there are two semifinal matches today on the Tennis Channel (10:30 am ET) and the final is Sunday. PQ seems mediocre from Doha, Qatar for 1080i. No doubt contributing is the artificial lighting and conversion (presumably) from 50i to 60i. The conversion also gives a 'stuttering' appearance to tennis balls, like matches from Poland this summer, making it hard to track shots. Zero blocking artifacts here.

Can't see any net webbing structure, even inches from my 1080p plasma screen, capable of full 1920X1080 from a test Blu-ray, from the main overview camera. Viewing via NYC's TWC and a 8300HD STB. And distant court signs are fuzzy. Lots of optically zoomed shots, so the women's year-end matches haven't been too bad all week.

Wonder is others notice this too, or perhaps there's superior PQ for those watching at home from non-DBS satellite downlinks (if that's possible), FIOS, etc.? -- John

^^^Yes, TWC here put the tennis and golf HD channels, with others, on a special sports tier, requiring an extra monthly fee. -- John

Looks like the final match isn't until 1 pm ET on ESPN2-HD (taped, or late evening?), even though my cable guide indicates a 11 am ET final-match start time on Tennis Channel (plus a 8 pm ET showing, clearly a replay in 1080i.) -- John

^^^Yeah, having watched the matches all week on Tennis Channel, found it hard to believe they were 1080i HD and not upconverted 16X9 SD (576i or less). ESPN's 720p60 may have helped reduce the stuttering movement of tennis balls just a bit. (Didn't sit through all the round-robin matches, but DVRed about 1 hour ahead, then watched/skipped-forward intermittently, playing/DVRing at the same time.) -- John

Interesting. Thanks. Might have been an upconvert, even with Tennis Channel running its "HD" logo constantly on the top right of the screen. The AVS programming synopsis for the channel (about 1/2 down) does list the WTA Championship under the generalized 1080i broadcast format. -- John

EDIT: Noticed a Tennis Channel men's ATP match from Basel, Switzerland, Nov. 5, with poor 1080i resolution and lighting/1080/50i conversion very similar to Qatar's PQ, outlined in OP.