Phillip Swann rants about poor Fox HD quality

Sure, the PQ isn't as good as it could be, BUT...


...what bothers me are the glitches that occur FAR to often. Most have been picture glitches, but lately, it's been in the audio. Every time they switch to the pitch shot (when the pitcher is winding up and actually throwing the ball) there is an audio glitch about a second after the camera change. I think the audio plays a half second twice. One time, I even heard the ball hit the catchers mit twice. Pow Pow!!! It was freaky.


Also, have the Cards/Astros games been in 5.1? I haven't been getting output to the rear channels. However, I know it's not a local issue. I was getting true 5.1 for the Yanks/Sox games.


Most importantly, I absolutely HATE the chroma keyed advertisement behind the batters box. Obviously, PVRs are becoming more appearent. Thus the need to advertise during the event. But this one is down-right distracting. It glitches and doesn't track correctly with the camera. I also don't need to see the AOL icon dude throwing a ball to fill the screen as a transition between live action and an instant replay. It's all a VERY deciteful way of advertising to us. I understand people need to make money, but advertisers are doing nothing but making EVERYTHING worse.


You can't drive down a freeway without being bombarded with littered signs/advertisments. To many XXX Adult "Bookstore" and "gentlemen" club signs. I shouldn't have to wory about my kids looking at those kinds of signs. It's filth. Same thing with TV. Beer commercials that push the limits of nudity and advertising everywhere. You can't even watch a football game without going to commercial between, what seems like, each and every play. I can't stand watching football anymore.


Can you tell I need a PVR? Honestly, I think PVRs are going to ruin television as we know it. More "in-show" advertisement. Product placement. Etc. I can already see it happening. Perhaps that's why HBO keeps getting better and better. No commercials. And, although there is product placement going on, I think it's to a minimum as compared to standard Network TV.


Anyway, sorry about the rant, back to the subject at hand...

The frame jumping and audio back-tracking was really annoying.

The buried camera is a gimmick, no doubt about it. I wouldn't expect good PQ from that one. It wasn't adding much to the show but it didn't bug me. I don't have a problem with the Chroma-Key signs behind the batters. I DO wish they were consistent though. It's weird to see it only in that one camera.

The games from Fenway had some REALLY bad cameras. I sure hope they get that fixed before Saturday.

It's been put forth that the triax cables might be the problem with those cameras but I doubt that is the case. It's possible for sure but, in my building, the networks don't hesitate to pull temporary cables to their cameras for big events. I'm sure there could be issues getting to those camera areas or whatever because Fenway isn't a spring chicken as ball parks go but there was certainly adequate time to find and fix cable problems before and during the series. The baseball season is LONG!

If it WAS the camera, they certainly could have gotten a new one in place between games. I've seen these guys sending runners off to the airport to fetch a shipment from the belly of a Delta jet on several occasions. There are certainly enough cameras in the world to get one to Boston tomorrow if you want to.


Thanks to FOX for broadcasting a (mostly) great looking series.

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Be careful the message you are sending. Network people and others in FOX Corp lurk AVSForum. With all the FOX bashing for NOT doing HD, they then do it and they get bashed for doing it, it is saying, we really don't care if you have HD or not, you can't please us either way. There is no guarantee that ANY network will continue with HD. Just remember that.


Also remember that FOX has done more HD sports programming since September 12th than CBS/NBC/ABC combined has in the last 3 years. It has been a huge jump in a short period of time with hardly any time to recover from a problem before they are head long into another one, something the other networks have not been willing to do. No network has had it problem free, even now and the networks are still spending big dollars to produce these events for less than 4% of the viewing audience to see.


Everyone needs to lighten up on all the networks just a little. To the uninformed SD viewer looking into HD here, to read many of these threads lately, HD is starting to turn into a snob society. After reading Mr Swann's article, he seems to be the ring leader. That is bad for the transition.

Great way to run a business!


If I had this attitude I would be fired or out of business!


The customers always right my friend.



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