Opening Night 2005 - NHL in HDTV on Center Ice!  

What a wonderfully hokey (but fun!) pre-game ceremony.

The HD made us feel like we were there.

If you mean the Ch 95 feed of the Carolina game, I'm not impressed at all 720P does not look that much better than 480P, CI game of the Bruins.

Picture looked great on D*. I was pleasantly surprised when I tuned in. Free Center Ice tonight.

Anyone see this on Dish?? How can we get a schedule of these CI HD games?? or is that even possible??

-Gary

First HD game on Dish

Sun 10/9/05 8:00 PM MIN LA 542 /543 / 9467*


http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/p...le/index.shtml

1 HD game in 10 days...

OK Thanks, I will check that often Bgall

-Gary

Maybe this has been answered before and I'm beating a dead horse but will any CI games be in HD on digital cable (specifically Comcast in Philadelphia)? I'm loving the free preview, but the SD broadcasts might as well be analog. The PQ definitely is not up to par with other SD digital channels. It does seem to depend on the feed as some are better than others but none are as good as other digital content on other channels. I can live without HD, but a nice clean and sharp digital SD picture would be nice. But, any word on HD?

I caught the Tampa Bay Carolina game on channel 95 I think on D*. My question is after the one week free preview for CI on D* , will I be able to get the HD game on channel 95-97 (orwhatever) without being a subscriber to CI? Does anyone know?

Most likely not.

If is similar to MLBEI you will get the HD games that are provided by your local sports network only.

Sorry...that doesn't make sense...if you get CI and they show an HD game, you should get it UNLESS its your local team -- it will be blacked out and you will be forced to watch the local broadcast like CI normally works....

No, he is right. The local broadcast is not available on CI in that market, but if it is that market's RSN, the feed will be available locally in HD on D*.

Baseball example: In Minneapolis, I need to sub to MLB EI to get the HD games on channels 94-98 EXCEPT the Fox Sports Net North (Minnesota) Twins games in HD. I get those games in SD and HD because FSN North is my RSN and don't need the MLB EI package to get them. If the Twins are playing the Texas Rangers and the HD production on channel 95-98 is from Fox Southwest, I don't get that game regardless of whether I subscribe to MLB EI or not, it is blacked out. But the local market will get the HD game providing that it is that market's RSN that is providing the feed, regardless of whether you subscribe to MLB EI.

Make sense?

So you're saying without a CI subscription it is unlikely one will see the HD games in the channel 95 range.

Next week we'll know for sure. The free preview ends on the 11th or 12th. The $129 rate for CI extends to the end of October.

If you don't subscribe to CI, you won't get any of those games unless the game is being produced by your local RSN and you get the SD feed. In that event, you will get the HD feed as well without a CI subscription.

I was there! Very cool opening ceremony but I half expected the bolts to have a let down after all of the emotion.

I HD-tivo'd the game on D*. The picture looked good, but on my display (50" HD plasma) had a bit of haze to it. The HDNet game on D* looked much better. I wonder if it was the feed or possibly camera locations. I have seen variable NHL-HD quality on HDNet in past years and thought that it could be the angle of the camera and exposure issues. On the SUN-Sports feed it looked like the camera was over exposed. Maybe someone that has Tampa Brighthouse can chime in, as they had the local cable HD feed of the game.

I noticed last night on Comcast there were 2 channels showing the Lightning game at one point...one of them looked to be the HD version.

Tonight's Game on DirecTV:

10:30 PM Phoenix Coyotes @ Los Angeles Kings

And so we don't have to spend the whole night explaining to a certain someone ;) The game feed is coming from FSN West so those in the coyotes market (FSN AZ) will be blacked out.

What channel was this "possible" HD feed on? I looked all around and all I had was the standard 10 CI channels and none of them were HD (and I assume they never will be). Also, it would seem to me that if it was HD you would know it and not be saying that it "looked to be the HD version". :)

Also, does anybody know if we should be getting a 24/7 NHL stats channel from CI called "Center Ice Extra"? It says this is part of the package on indemand's website. I didn't see this anywhere in the channel lineup.

I don't think that is correct as FSN-West may have an agreement with FSN AZ. We will just have to see tonight.

Did you mean me? :)

I don't think this game will be blocked out for the FSN-Rocky Mountain market. Time will tell. As for last night's game, the blackout issues were due to HDNET. Apparently parts of California and the entire state of Utah were considered "local."

Michael.

I say the game will be blacked out in UT, but I hope I'm wrong.

Center Ice HD games are on the 90s channels on D*.

What if the local RSN is team-owned? In Denver, Altitude Sports owns the Avalanche and the Nuggets and provides an HD feed to Comcast on the InHD channels and an SD feed to D*. To my knowledge, D* has never carried the Altitude HD feed on the channels in the 90's. Is D* providing the HD feeds on the 90's in most regional markets where SD feeds are shown on the RSN?

For baseball, it the only MLB EI games were from the Fox O&O's RSN's and YES. Those games were available to subs in the local markets from D*. NESN and all the other regional networks that broadcast in HD were not part of the EI package on D* for HD games, and those games were not available either to viewers in the local market or MLB EI subs out-of-market.

Thanks for the response. It sounds like I should be asking Altitude if they are part of the CI package. Or, is D* bandwidth limited and not adding anything other than FOX O&O RSN's to their CI package.

My head hurts.