2012 MLB in HDTV - Page 2

Yes, but it's like looking through the FOX screen mentioned above, times 2.

MLB Network on Comcast.

I had to give up on today's Giants/D'Backs game on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area -- the audio compression killed me. I left the TV on, but listened to the radio (KNBR) stream via the MLB At Bat iPad app -- ran that into my receiver and sync'd them up with the DVR. Vastly superior! I never imagined it would be THIS complicated to simply watch a game.

I have to give thanks to MLB Network for no longer squishing the video on the RSN games they broadcast.
LAA @ MIN is being shown full screen as the video matches the same MLB EI FOX Sports feed.
If they would remove the schedule graphic on the bottom right and just have the score bar and remove the promo snipes it would be even better.

The MLB Network SD feed is now letterboxed so then MLB produced games should be formatted for 16:9.

I wish I had known that MLBN. Granted MLBN's snipes are still there. Oh well I watched the game on my smartphone at work and at home on the Roku player with mlb.tv
I must say it really does work like a charm, full screen action, no Fox Sports Net scorebar or MLBN overlaid scorebar to do deal with and only the snipes to do deal with on the telecast. In fact there's no "FS" logo on the top right corner of the screen. It's great!

I was playing some highlight clips with the MLB At Bat app on the iPad and noticed they had great audio compared to what I am now getting from Comcast SportsNet Bay Area (see previous posts about the painful amount of audio compression). I took a chance and dropped the dough for MLB.TV -- glad I did, because those appear to be clean feeds from the trucks. Nice! In addition to the improved audio, the games appear just as you said, free from all the tickers, snipes, and other junk. I was looking at a random game yesterday afternoon and it had NO graphics at all! It was like time-traveling to 1985.

The only downside I see is that the video isn't as good as it is on "TV." Specifically, you can see that the frame-rate is reduced -- it's got motion-judder -- but I'll take that as opposed to audio that's unlistenable.

MLBN and MLB.TV must have access to the direct game feeds because I notice on MLBN the FS logo is not on any of the FOX Sports games they broadcast.
I've noticed the same motion judder on the MLB and NHL apps on my DVD player.

Once again this year, the FOX Sports Nets can't get their DD audio right.

They don't do a full 5.1, for whatever technical reasons in Houston, but instead of passing a correct 2.1 feed which can be processed in analog matrix surround mode, they send a 5.1 feed with only 2.1 active. This results in audio processors not being able to switch to Pro Logic mode and only getting audio on the main left, main right, and low frequency effects channels with nothing in the center or rear surrounds.

My make-do is to use analog audio output from the source box. At least I get Pro Logic processing at that point.

Why oh why is this such a dilemma for them?

Just watched about 20 mins of tonight's Giants/Rockies game on CSNBA and you weren't kidding, that sounds horrible, everything is the same level. I can't believe that the folks running that station are oblivious to how bad that sounds, it may even be worse than KPIX.

It's beyond ridiculous to be sure. I hope you'll consider going to their website and sending a complaint. I know at least three people who have done so, though it hasn't done any good. All I know is, it cost me $125 to get away from this travesty ... I am watching through MLB.TV now, though I have to wait until the game is over before I can watch. That's OK, since I work until 11pm, and don't usually watch until after midnight.

Sent the email today. While I don't watch the Giants that often, when they do play the Dodgers(my team), I'm blacked out of the LA feeds on MLBEI so I have to suffer with the terrible CSNBA audio, love the announcers the Giants have(probably the second best in baseball), but that audio, yikes!

Watching MIA/PHI on MLBN, and noticed that the audio is pretty darn good on my DD 5.1 home theater system. Is MLBN presenting their games that they produce in DD 5.1?

Nope, they're still only running DD 2.0, but DD PLIIx does do a pretty decent job with it.

While I am happy MLBN formats their productions of MLB games for 16:9 the score box is a little to wide and could be much shorter.

Thanks for the support! I am hopeful that if they get enough complaints they'll do something about it. On the other hand, my track record of getting stations to lighten up on their compression is pretty much zero. I'm sure there is a "crackpot" file reserved for my messages ...

Of course, when it comes to announcers, nobody tops Vin Scully. He's the reason I subscribe to the MLB Extra Innings package. Nothing better than kicking back on a lazy Sunday afternoon, listening to Vin.

I agree with the "physical discomfort" statement. I found it very fatiguing and was unable to find a volume level at which it was not annoying.

The only acceptable volume level is MUTE! The really sad part is, as viewers, we are pretty much powerless to do anything about it. We can yell, scream, jump up and down, but in the end they just ignore us because "they know better." I think the most amazing thing of all is how few viewers notice or are bothered by this processing -- it is about UN-subtle as can be. I guess people just don't care.

I collected the exchanges above and posted the following in the Comcast Bay Area thread.

Thanks for doing that. I hope it does some good. FYI, the problem isn't related to dialnorm -- that's just a value that is transmitted to let the receiver know where to get the gain -- this is wholesale COMPRESSING of the audio. Doesn't matter what the dialnorm value is, it will still sound bad. It also doesn't matter if you listen in 5.1, stereo, or mono. All are impacted.

I just tried what Ken H does with FOX RSNs as noted above, which CSNBA used to be and basically must still be technology-wise as going to an analog, or PCM output from my TiVo instead of a DD signal helps a whole lot, it opens it up much more, I'm actually getting content out of the surrounds whereas before I was getting hardly anything. It's still compressed, and gives you that pressure on the eardrum feeling, but it is definitely better. The announcers stand out a bit more from the crowd noise as well.

Changed the reference to dialnorm in the local thread. I had assumed it was dialnorm related as KPIX runs a difference setting than KNTV does which is set correctly and results in a very dynamic sounding audio experience as opposed to KPIX. This dialnorm setting has been discussed here in the past although I don't recall the particular thread it was in.

Received a response today from Comcast SportsNet Bay Area acknowledging their audio problem. Fortunately, they are aware of it and working to fix it. Here's what they said, reposted by permission:

MLB Network took the score bar off the screen for the 100th Anniversary of Fenway Park Ceremony.

I noticed the score box on WGN is placed to far to the right and to low.

Here's how SNY and WGN, both formatting for 4:3, have there score boxes placed.

Agreed. I like what SNY/WPIX has done with their scorebox for this season, very minimalistic. All we need to do is lobby SNY is to go standard definition widescreen so they can put the scorebox outside the 4:3 safe zone. I doubt WPIX would follow through on this though, but it's much easier for cable network to pull this off than an OTA station (also I'm sure we could do a lobbying effort to CSN for their MLB telecasts as well). Heck even MASN/MASN 2 made the jump to present their standard definition telecasts in widescreen this season.

I'm really not liking the extra clutter on the MLB on FOX.

The hash tag below the FOX Sports logo is useless and should be removed and score bar is annoying and needs to go.

This stuff is really dumb. The part of the screen that we WANT to watch just keeps getting smaller.

Heck, that's nothing, wait until this comes to your favorite sport,

Will NBA Players Become Billboards?

This,



will no doubt eventually become this,

TBS FiOS TV NYC
TEX @ DET

Whenever the camera pans there are motion artifacts and grain on the grass.

I wouldn't mind advertisements on professional sports jerseys in the US. It works well in the European soccer leagues.

Now of course, every time a sponsorship changes, fans would be pressured into spending money for a new jersey.

Speaking purely as a fan, I would.