AVS › AVS Forum › HDTV › HDTV Programming › 2007 Mega March Madness in HDTV on DirecTV - First Round Thursday/Friday!
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

2007 Mega March Madness in HDTV on DirecTV - First Round Thursday/Friday!

post #1 of 39
3/15/07 at 7:17am
Thread Starter 
It's expected all games will be available in HD from the DirecTV MMM package, on channels 709-712. Please post only DirecTV related comments in this topic. (Post comments about CBS coverage here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=819927 ) Thanks in advance for your participation at AVS.

All times ET.

Thursday's Games:
12:20 pm Davidson #13 Maryland #4
12:25 pm Texas Tech #10 Boston College #7
12:30 pm Stanford #11 Louisville #6
2:30 pm Oral Roberts #14 Washington St. #3
2:40 pm Old Dominion #12 Butler #5
2:45 pm Belmont #15 Georgetown #2
2:50 pm Penn #14 Texas A&M #3
4:40 pm G. Washington #11 Vanderbilt #6
7:10 pm VCU #11 Duke #6
7:10 pm Central Conn. St. #16 Ohio St. #1
7:20 pm Michigan St. #9 Marquette #8
7:25 pm Weber St. #15 UCLA #2
9:30 pm Wright St. #14 Pittsburgh #3
9:30 pm Xavier #9 Brigham Young #8
9:40 pm Gonzaga #10 Indiana #7
9:40 pm Eastern Ky. #16 North Carolina #1

Friday's Games:
12:15 pm Albany #13 Virginia #4
12:25 pm Georgia Tech #10 UNLV #7
12:30 pm North Texas #15 Memphis #2
2:30 pm Winthrop #11 Notre Dame #6
2:35 pm Long Beach St. #12 Tennessee #5
2:45 pm Tex. A&M-Corp. Chris. #15 Wisconsin #2
2:50 pm Creighton #10 Nevada #7
4:40 pm Miami (Ohio) #14 Oregon #3
7:10 pm Illinois #12 Virginia Tech #5
7:10 pm Niagara #17 Kansas #1
7:20 pm Purdue #9 Arizona #8
7:25 pm New Mexico St. #13 Texas #4
9:30 pm Holy Cross #13 Southern Ill. #4
9:30 pm Villanova #9 Kentucky #8
9:40 pm Arkansas #12 Southern Cal #5
9:40 pm Jackson St. #16 Florida #1
Reply
Reply

AVS Top Picks

post #2 of 39
3/15/07 at 9:04am
Well, looks like the blackout issues will definitely screw many of us, as far as HD goes. In Atlanta the Maryland-Davidson game is being shown locally on the SD CBS channel, but a different game is being shown on the mpeg-4 HD channel. But the Maryland game is being blacked out on the HD channel on Mega March Madness. So for that game (and presumably one game in every time slot) the only option will be SD.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 39
3/15/07 at 9:14am
To make matters worse, in Atlanta they are showing ONLY SD games locally. Even on the mpeg-4 HD channel, they're showing stretched SD. So assuming that game is blacked out also, we'll be lucky to see 1/2 the games in the first round in HD.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 39
3/15/07 at 9:34am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by danc8379 View Post

To make matters worse, in Atlanta they are showing ONLY SD games locally. Even on the mpeg-4 HD channel, they're showing stretched SD. So assuming that game is blacked out also, we'll be lucky to see 1/2 the games in the first round in HD.

I'd call the station and ask for the Programming Manager. Since they are running two different feeds, the digital one should be HD.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 39
3/15/07 at 9:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken H View Post

I'd call the station and ask for the Programming Manager. Since they ate running two different feeds, the digital one should be HD.

The station he is tlaking about WGCL has on their website that thy are multicasting all games, they is the reason for no HD.

http://www.cbs46.com/Global/story.asp?S=6199406
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 39
3/15/07 at 9:46am
Oopsy.

711 (Louisville/Stanford) dropped to SD.


Back now....
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 39
3/15/07 at 10:09am
Watching on D*, MMM - maryland/davidson briefly went to SD then came back - Louisville/Stanford has been on SD on ch. 711 for several minutes now and no recovery yet.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 39
3/15/07 at 10:29am
711 is SD here also. Good to know its a D* issue, and not another local thing. The Atlanta thing totally kills me--basically any game they show on their regular SD channel won't be available to me in HD. Fortunately, it looks like D* isn't blacking out the game that they're showing on the digital channel, so at least I can see that game in HD.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 39
3/15/07 at 11:40am
Ok, the 711 SD thing is a D* mistake---when MD/Dav ended, they switched to the LOuisville/stanford game on ch. 709, and it was in HD while 711 was in SD - which proves that someone at D* flipped the switch off an hour ago and nobody has realized or fixed it since. WTF?!?!?!?
Also--- Ch 712 (WSU/OR) is stuck on the "buffalo" feed because it's doing cutarounds and gumbel analysis rather than the constant feed. plus it's in 2.0.
D* is showing incompetence with MMM so far...

EDIT:

NOw Ch 712 is in SD!!!!!! What's going on?!?!?

update -
Ok, 712 went to HD, but i'm still worried that it's another 'feed' from another game that hasn't started yet, and that they'll switch somewhere else.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 39
3/15/07 at 12:19pm
Georgetown on channel 710 in SD mode now as well.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 39
3/15/07 at 12:24pm
According to everything that's been said, the MMM HD channels will not be constant feeds, so they will cut around. Thanks for the updates.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 39
3/15/07 at 12:56pm
I am not seing cutarounds on the D* feeds but maybe that is why we are seeing SD at times. Maybe that is during a cut and they drop to SD to keep the game going on that channel?

Stupid CBS.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 39
3/15/07 at 1:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tonyd79 View Post

I am not seing cutarounds on the D* feeds but maybe that is why we are seeing SD at times. Maybe that is during a cut and they drop to SD to keep the game going on that channel?

Stupid CBS.

I think that's right....when they cut away D* has to go to the constant feed to keep it on the same game and that's when they lose HD. That's probably why the Louisville game went SD. It was a blowout and every market had probably switched away from it, so the only way to show it on MMM was to switch to the constant, SD feed.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 39
3/15/07 at 1:37pm
How does the upconvert look vs. SD?
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 39
3/15/07 at 1:42pm
After seeing all the weirdness today with SD feeds on the "HD" channels 709-712, it appears that if a game is switched away from in an area doing a flex feed, then the SD constant feed is all that's left, and MMM passes that on 709-712 and is thus in SD. Remarkable that D* and/or CBS couldn't plan for this and have a way to continue showing HD on the constant feed on MMM.
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 39
3/15/07 at 1:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jake14mw View Post

How does the upconvert look vs. SD?

The same as any SD sporting event looks on an HD channel versus an SD channel.

They aren't doing anything special with the upconvert. It is 4x3.
Reply
Reply
post #17 of 39
3/15/07 at 1:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gghunt View Post

After seeing all the weirdness today with SD feeds on the "HD" channels 709-712, it appears that if a game is switched away from in an area doing a flex feed, then the SD constant feed is all that's left, and MMM passes that on 709-712 and is thus in SD. Remarkable that D* and/or CBS couldn't plan for this and have a way to continue showing HD on the constant feed on MMM.

this is what I am seeing as well.

Blame CBS. D* is slave to what CBS can offer.

Remember all the ranting about CBS during the NFL season. Here we go again.

And, of course, no notice of what is happening so D* and/or locals get blamed by J6P.
Reply
Reply
post #18 of 39
3/15/07 at 1:58pm
For some reason Vandy/GW is on in SD on channel 712. It doesn't seem to follow the pattern of other games that have been SD (blowouts that switched to constant feeds because every other market ditched the game).
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 39
3/15/07 at 2:11pm
They may not have flexed into this game yet. It is the step-child game being at an odd hour and only shown in local markets.

I was just noticing this and my local is still on the Penn/A&M blowout (and GW is "local" to me...not sure it is constant...guess not).
Reply
Reply
post #20 of 39
3/15/07 at 2:19pm
Well, the Texas A&M game just ended....it will be interesting to see if the Vandy game switched to HD now.
Reply
Reply
post #21 of 39
3/15/07 at 5:44pm
Ok, here's where it's a real problem: right now there are 4 games going on. I paid $69 to D* for MMM, but I can't get ANY of these games in HD. Three are blowouts and have switched over to the Duke game, so the feed on the HD channels went SD. The Duke game is being shown locally on our SD channel, so it's blacked out on MMM. So, 4 games and no HD.

Wouldn't a simple solution be to allow the flex game to switch on the HD channels, therefore keeping the HD feed and keeping the SD channel the "constant" feed? Sure you'd have to switch over to the SD channel to keep watching your game, but at least we'd be able to see SOME game(s) in HD. They should try to maintain only HD games on the HD channels.
Reply
Reply
post #22 of 39
3/15/07 at 5:46pm
Why do we only have the Duke game in HD?
Reply
Reply
post #23 of 39
3/15/07 at 5:49pm
I'm not sure about anyone else, but I'm angry enough to call for D* and ask for my money back. Don't advertise the games in HD if they are only that for part of the time.

What a joke.
Reply
Reply
post #24 of 39
3/15/07 at 5:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shark73 View Post

Why do we only have the Duke game in HD?

Its the only close game, all the others are turning into blow outs, so CBS "flexed" their coverage to the Duke game. The other channels had to switch to their constant feeds which are SD.
Reply
Reply
post #25 of 39
3/15/07 at 5:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by GreyGhost00 View Post

I'm not sure about anyone else, but I'm angry enough to call for D* and ask for my money back. Don't advertise the games in HD if they are only that for part of the time.

What a joke.

Its CBS, not D*
Reply
Reply
post #26 of 39
3/15/07 at 7:15pm
I guess I'll watch "The Office" tonight in HD.
Reply
Reply
post #27 of 39
3/15/07 at 8:42pm
I just noticed that the UNC game is now not blacked out on the MMM HD channel, but of course it's in SD because of the flex deal. But I'm pretty sure that earlier in the day those channels remained blacked out regardless. I wonder if maybe some change was made and perhaps the blackout will be lifted for the HD channels?
Reply
Reply
post #28 of 39
3/15/07 at 9:19pm
OK, so once a game has gone to SD, it seems to stay that way even if all other games end...however, to get the HD feed of that original game, go to one of the other HD channels about 1-2 minutes after the other games end, and it will pick up the HD feed of the game. For example, tonight, 709 (wright st/Pitt) went to SD/constant feed once it became a blowout. however, once all other games ended, if you went to channels 710 or 711, they then had the HD feed of wright/Pitt while 709 was still inexplicably stuck on the SD feed.
So this is something to remember tomorrow as a way to get around the annoyance of CBS's "SD constant" calamity.
Reply
Reply
post #29 of 39
3/16/07 at 6:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jefbal99 View Post

Its CBS, not D*

True, but I didn't pay CBS based on the claim that games would be shown in HD
Reply
Reply
post #30 of 39
3/16/07 at 8:44am
Thread Starter 
All games will be available in HD from next week on.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: HDTV Programming

AVS Top Picks

AVS › AVS Forum › HDTV › HDTV Programming › 2007 Mega March Madness in HDTV on DirecTV - First Round Thursday/Friday!