ESPN HD NCAA Basketball - looks worse than football

I watched a bit of the Duke/FS game last night and I thought it looked fantastic. Can't wait to see my Badgers play in HD.

Usually, it's the lighting or I should say lack of lighting in these indoor college venues that makes the difference.

I saw your Badgers play in HD ..... losing to my Blue Devils in HD. LOL.

Be specific with topic titles; see my edit.

That's very true. The 5-10 games I've watched so far this year doesn't make me want to complain.

larry

Yeah I was on the road when they played them. Glad I didn't get to see that one in HD.

Yeah the Marquette/Louisville game looked terrible, but then I am a Marquette Alum.

There seems to be a fair degree of difference on the broadcast/location. Specifically I remember seeing an Alabama game last year on ESPNHD that looked awful, earlier this season I saw one on ESPNHD and it looked fantastic.

For some reason, games at MSG usually look outstanding. Surprising because MSG is a cave once you get above the 200's. Maybe they get good trucks because usually there are mini tournaments/invitationals played there(Coaches/Cancer, Jimmy V, pre/post NIT, Big East Tourney, etc etc).

The difference between any two HD production trucks would be very small. They all use the same or very similar equipment.

That is funny as a Louisville Alum I thought the game looked great. I have always thought it was venue by venue thing. Since I got HD I have found Freedom Hall to be one of the better looking arenas around. There are some places like in the SEC are downright ugly. I think it has more to do with the lighting.

Depends on how you define "good truck." But generally it makes little difference in terms of PQ what truck you use. As stated above ESPN requirments are the same regardless of vendor.

That being said, you might be more likely to get a newer or bigger mobile outfit in a large city like New York or LA, but again as far as what it looks like going home this would make little difference. Those are more issues of workflow, space, scalability (number of cameras, tape machines, etc) and size of production crew.

I'd say 80% of the time ESPN PQ is poor, regardless of sport. I haven't seen one CBB game with really good PQ on ESPN yet. Via E* on 57" CRT RP at 10ft viewing distance.