2012 NBA Playoffs on ABC, ESPN, NBA TV, TNT & local RSN/OTA Station - Page 2

As does ESPN for NBA playoff games.

No they don't. I'm talking about when they do those insets/side-by-side shots. It looks like ESPN uses a 4:3 frame.

It's probably not a big deal to most folks since it's not done that often in the first place, but TNT doesn't do it so it stands out to me.

Sometimes TNT does put the game in a smaller window on the right while displaying stats on the left side of the screen.
It's annoying. I believe ESPN does the something similar.
TNT also has a scroll they put at the bottom of the screen several times during a game.
Now that ESPN has turned the bottom line off it will only show up two times per hour.
Is TNT done putting twitter comments on screen?

Sorry...thought something else was being discussed! My fault.

This is the first night since the playoffs began that we don't have a game, isn't it? Of course if you like Women's softball, you can feast out.

I checked out the softball, and I'm glad I'm not up there batting. Having a woman strike me out in three pitches would be embarrassing, LOL.

John Kruk vs Randy Johnson

That you could say you don't see anything beyond some softness on TNT is interesting. What size and type of display are you watching? Either that has something to do with it or the "provider" as well is figuring in the mix. On Charter out in S. Calif I get several camera angles from TNT that have horrible blocking every time they telecast. A couple years ago, maybe even last year TNT on same Charter looked a lot better.

For me tonight the ABC telecast of game 7 from Boston looks fabulous....parquet floor is rock solid and I can run zero noise reduction if I choose. Haven't seen one situation yet with any blocking. Large, bright projected image with a dialed in projector.

Edit.... Sorry you said on 1st page you have a dialed in 64" flat panel.

I don't worry much about secondary cameras, although they usually seem better than the main, unless it's obviously a cheapie. Any observation I post is for the "centerfield" camera unless stated.

When I said "soft" I'm talking about the look of the floor only. Soft would be the first step of deterioration for me. It must be nice to have a network affiliate that doesn't molest your signal. Tonight's game on my ABC affiliate was horrible. Noise everywhere, that halo effect, every contrast line, whether uniform to floor or painted line to floor was wavy-gravy. At least one game on ESPN from Boston looked similar, so I get a double dose of nasties after my affiliate gets done with it.

If I had your ESPN signal I'd probably be upset with TNT too DirecTV has a good reputation for their HD picture, so I dunno. ESPN has so many channels, maybe some providers are more stingy than others bandwidth wise?

I don't know if this is common knowledge, but I never noticed before. I was watching the recap on the NBA channel and as they showed Pierce and Doc walking down the corridor after the game, while Garnett was being interviewed on the floor, I was walking in front of my surround (5.1) speaker. The sound from Pierce and Doc was clearly coming out of it. The main sound was from the floor interview. This sound wasn't really clear from my normal position on the couch when I saw the same thing live. I felt like I was eavesdropping, with my ear stuck up to the speaker to hear what they were saying. Something to remember for live broadcasts of anything really.

Did they say, "Bleep Kobe....he's out and we're still in it?".......

I'm a huge fan of Lakers and no fan of Celts but go Celtics! Anyone but the Heat. Actually now I'd love to see OKC and Durant and Fish get a ring. Not Perk.... the guy always looks constipated. At least on Charter here in So Cal.

I meant to offer my condolences for your Lakers losing. I grew up in the northern most town to get local access cable from L.A. or whatever they called it. The next town up the coast got the same from SF. I saw everyone from West to Magic on KTLA-5 with Chick. So I've always had a soft spot for the Lakers, although that's mostly because of Magic.

The OKC series broke my heart though, it was just painful in that one game (5?) Not that the Lakers really had a chance, but when a great team is on the downside, it's hard to watch if they're right on the cusp and won't give up. What makes them great I guess.

Rondo went to school where I live now, so it sort of worked out that I pull for Boston until they lose. When he's on his game, which he probably won't ever again be sadly, Ray Allen is just a pure pleasure for me to watch. He ate up your Lakers back in, umm '08 was it? That was a great series. With no personal investment I'd pull for OKC, a very interesting team.

Oh, Pierce was saying no one played him like Philly. They talk shorthand, but I took it to be a compliment and also a positive for the future, got past that thank goodness sort of thing.

Funny, I didn't buy into the hate Miami thing last year, I'm pretty immune to media hype and didn't pay much attention. But this year, man, if ego had a smell, you'd gag on it in their locker room. I've only ever hated one other basketball team, Detroit in ... the '80s I guess, with that big white dude that would just go around clobbering people.

If I get my wish, OKC will take Miami in 6. OKC/Spurs has the potential for greatness though, I'm really looking forward to it.

Great post.....dates us both....yep ever since Elgin and Jerry and Chick came to town. So many great teams and GREAT players over the years. Chick was just unbelievable on radio. You didn't feel like you were missing much if couldn't see the game. OKC and San Antonio should indeed be a great series and would love to see them take it from Heat in finals after Boston wears them down. I still remember Wade's take down and dirty play deliberately rolling on Rondo's outstretched arm last year. White dude clobbering people Bill Laimbeer of course. That's what motivated Jordan to get into such strong physical condition for his career.... Detroit used to beat the hell out of him when he came up.

A small bird escaping from Harden's beard. LOL

ESPN HD FiOS NYC
BOS @ MIA

Another arena where the lighting seems darker on the wide and closeup action cams and the jerseys have a blue tint.
The ground cams are brighter and the white color is less blue.

The NBA should create a rule that those wrap around video walls are not allowed to display animation during game play. The reflection picked up on the main action camera is very annoying.

Overall the PQ is much better then games on TNT with just a little motion artifacts on player movement and no macblocking.
Even the animated logo transition to and from replays is very clean.
The ESPN HD feed on FiOS averages 17.5 MPBS.

This is why I'd rather have sports in 720p instead 1080i because with full bandwidth there is no macroblocking.

Congratulations.....HEAT!

On to the FINALS!!

WABC-DT (1 HD and SD Sub Channel) FiOS NYC

Even with an HD sub channel the PQ on WABC is ok and much better then TNT.
There's a little motion artifacts on player movement and no macroblocking.

Anyone else feel the audio in the surrounds is very low?
I notice the production music is in the L, C and R.
Is this simply the choice of the audio mixer or is it how ESPN wants the music mixed?
Most broadcasts keep the music in the L & R and surrounds and leave the C for the announcers.

For the first time ever, I had a problem with tonight's NBA Finals broadcast on ABC in Rochester, NY on Time Warner Cable. During fast motion - when a player would drive to the hoop for example - the player would appear to stutter. Gotta assume they are using too much compression etc. When watching the highlights on ESPN, there was no stutter. Hope they clear it up by Thursday. May have to get out the the antenna and give that a shot.

The leagues do have rules about ribbon and fascia boards (this is very recent though) but most of them deal with not giving an unfair advantage to the home team (like flashing or strobing images during free-throws or field-goals tries in football). In college its a little more open, some schools were getting really bad about this over the last few years, trying to create distractions on purpose, but the conferences have cracked down. I think MLB has the strictest rules about video screens and motion in stadiums because they want nothing in motion while the player is at bat. I think the thinking in the NBA is that since the ribbon boards are so high up off the floor, it's not an issue for the field of play (the only reason it reflects on TV is because of the angle of incidence).

Also no TV network is using 'cheapie' cameras. They are all typically the same build and model and often in excess of 100 grand a piece. Most of the issues are on the content distribution end (often the bitrate of the transmission or backhaul, or the up/downlink), rarely the production side.

According to rabbitears.info WABC-DT 7.1 has a VBR from 5 ‑ 13.5 Mbps.
ESPN HD on FiOS has a max of 17.5 Mbps.
I'm sure the lack of bandwidth is causing the PQ issues on WABC-DT, motion artifacts on the players and the floor on the main action cam.

Has abc done away with the audio delay for censoring cursing from the players?
I did not notice the audio being muted at all during game 1.

I haven't heard any muting but it doesn't seem like the court is mic'd as well as before maybe. That was ridiculously annoying though.

It's very annoying that NBA TV distorts the aspect ratio of all games it rebroadcasts.

ESPN's score bar is formatted for a graphic at the bottom of the screen so they should not vertically squish the video.

Adding to the annoying list, the reflection from the ribbon video boards in Miami is very annoying.
They should be off during game play.
Edited by icemannyr - 6/17/12 at 5:11pm

PQ looks crappy. WZVN Ft Myers OTA. Edge enhancement turned way up, halos around everything, artifacting,

FWIW bring back the AVS retro color scheme. White text on a black backround is harsh. Too much wasted space in the new layout.

I'm noticing a lot of muting tonight , this game is more intense than any of the first three and we're only in the 1st quarter.

Maybe they should not mic the baskets or lower the audio from those mics because it seems most of the cursing is done in those areas.

PQ sucks again tonight. Funny thing is I'm watching on a 42" 720p plasma which usually covers up the sins of 720p (versus my 50" 1080p plasma which exposes the clear inferiority of the 720p format). ABC should be embarrassed to call this an HD broadcast.

Do the black lines on the Miami court have white borders around them? Just curious because that's how it looks on ABC.
Edited by paule123 - 6/19/12 at 7:31pm

It really does resemble 480p.

pq very poor, but i guess we are used to this on abc/espn broadcasts. slightly better than tnt but that's no saying much.

lots of motion artifacts which are pretty hard to miss in nba playoffs.

tuesdays game had numerous audio dropouts. don't know if that was national or caused by abc s.f. local via dish

WABC-DT (1 HD and 1 SD Sub channel) FIOS NYC
Overall PQ is soft.
The main action cam is very soft.
Motion artifacts on the players and the graphics.

Miami HEAT in 5.....Let's Go Heat!!!

LeBron James....NBA Champion.