NBC's first NFL HD game
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Aug 7th 2006 12:45PM
posted Aug 7th 2006 12:45PM
NBC had their first attempt at producing an NFL game in HD last night and we have to say we were impressed, but not because the picture quality was stellar, but because it surpassed their past performances. We haven't come to expect much in regards to picture quality from the peacock network after suffering through their College football and Olympic coverage. But last night was a improvement, but that's what the pre-season is for right?
Local issues aside the most noticeable issue was the blurriness that cropped up from time to time, it almost appeared that the encoder was confused at times or the camera went out of focus.
Did any of you see this? How did your local affiliate do, did they turn down the bits to the weather map?
Frankly, I felt that some of their college football broadcasts were much better. For instance, the USC vs. ND game had much better picture quality and far less motion blocking.
I live in Charlotte and watched over Digital Cable, and I saw exactly what you described. It seemed like right before the snap, the entire screen went out of focus. But since the score ticket at the bottom also went out of focus, I definitely agree with your assumption about the video encoder having problems. I wonder if it happened because the screen was actually still for a second or two before the snap and for some reason the variable bit rate decreased due to lack of motion.
Yeah I saw the out of focus thing several times. It would take a few seconds before clearing up and getting sharp again. I still think though that the quality of the HD ABC football games are better than last night's NBC one. Thoughts?
Argh!!!! I thought the game looked great, but that ticker! Is NBC trying to burn every plasma in the country?!!! We need a transparent logo stat!
I thought the graphics were very nicely done. I saw a good amount of detail in the team logos on the score ticker. I caught some serious artifacts and blocks during fast motions...this should not happed when watching football. There were some shots specifically of the closeup shot of the coaches where the skin tones looked washed out and there was a bit of blurriness to the picture. I am watching on a ISF calibrated Samsung HL-R5078 with HDMI and a Comcast HD/DVR STB. As for sound...The sound was very well done, much like Fox football coverage. Very good surround imaging. I am listening on a 5.1 system. I think NBC coverage will be impressive.
I thought a lot of the supplemental cameras were not HD cameras.
I loved ABC's MNF better than NBC's SNF picture quality-wise alot more.
I watched the game, and compared to ABC or Fox HD, NBC's picture was noticably grainy or fuzzy at times. I have to admit, it was still better than standard television, but it just appeared there was something lost, perhaps in the compression.
OTA NBC in Minneapolis had the same blurry problem. I only watched about 5 minutes of the game and I saw this problem a couple of times. Needless to say I wasn't impressed.
Yeah, I noticed the bluriness here in Houston as well. Figured it was a cable thing (Time-Warner HD). It will be hard for NBC to out perform ABC's MNF - they set the bar pretty high.
Hey BDraw,
AVS forums last night were all over this. OTA, cable and Sat systems were all seeing this
I've noticed the blurring during the world cup and the NBA Finals. pretty annoying. It appears suddenly, but disappears gradually. very strange.
I was happy with the quality. But, then again, I'm still an HD amateur :) . I'll have to pay closer attention next time.
I watched the game here in College Station (city ~100mi outside houston) via our local cable provider and can echo the complaints about it being blurry. However the thing that impressed me the most was the sound.
Great balance of crowdnoise, sidelines, and game action. Most of the time I could here what plays the QB was calling at the line. Awesome!
So glad to read of the grainyness and blurring was not just me! I just bought an LG 32LC2D this weekend and was not happy with what I'd seen of HD so far and was looking for a good live NFL game to see that this thing could really produce. After an hour of that football I was planning on when I'd find time to take it back.
According to my ears, NBC personnel have a problem with keeping crowd noises from over-whelming the network's broadcasters. Whether it's the Olympics or NFL football (e.g., Sunday night, Aug. 13), I have a difficult time understanding the audio portion of the non-HDTV presentation. (Hey! Maybe that's not such a bad deal.)
Poor audio balance
NBC.com claims they transmit their HD programs in 1080i, so what could have caused the poor quality of the NFL game on Thursday night? I'm new to HD, but clearly saw the graininess at times that people here have mentioned.
NBC has the worst HD sports shows of all the networks. Fast motion from there side line cameras show some much noise and blurriness. It's like they are using a much smaller frame rate then all the other guys. ESPN, ABC, Fox all have great games in HD. NBC really needs to get off their butts and improve there HD picture feed.