I finally had the opportunity to watch MotoGP on an HDTV yesterday,
and all I can say is what a waste. Despite the fact that SPEED was
broadcasting in 720p, the original signal appeared to have been an
upconverted 520i PAL or 480i NTSC. The picture quality was abysmal
and looked far better on an older non-HD television. Before you ask,
the HD television I was watching the race on yesterday was most
definitely not the issue, because the previously broadcast Brazilian
F1 GP was crystal clear.

"Dirt" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:de11343b-2177-42b5-865a-(E-Mail Removed)...
> I finally had the opportunity to watch MotoGP on an HDTV yesterday,
> and all I can say is what a waste. Despite the fact that SPEED was
> broadcasting in 720p, the original signal appeared to have been an
> upconverted 520i PAL or 480i NTSC. The picture quality was abysmal
> and looked far better on an older non-HD television. Before you ask,
> the HD television I was watching the race on yesterday was most
> definitely not the issue, because the previously broadcast Brazilian
> F1 GP was crystal clear.

That's why I use the x264 captures of the Euro channels.

On Oct 19, 10:44*am, Dirt <christopher.l.ca...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I finally had the opportunity to watch MotoGP on an HDTV yesterday,
> and all I can say is what a waste. *Despite the fact that SPEED was
> broadcasting in 720p, the original signal appeared to have been an
> upconverted 520i PAL or 480i NTSC. *The picture quality was abysmal
> and looked far better on an older non-HD television. *Before you ask,
> the HD television I was watching the race on yesterday was most
> definitely not the issue, because the previously broadcast Brazilian
> F1 GP was crystal clear.

i agree, the speed quality is awful. my TV setup is pretty sweet, i
can utterly detect bad audio and video, and speedtv delivers both...

On Oct 19, 12:44*pm, Dirt <christopher.l.ca...@gmail.com> wrote:

> ...the original signal appeared to have been an upconverted 520i PAL or 480i NTSC. *

I've been thinking a little. Since I've always thought the broadcasts
were lower than average quality even on an SD broadcast, I bet there's
a good chance that the races are filmed in 520i PAL and downconverted
to 480i NTSC for the American market and that's the only signal that
SPEED gets. If SPEED then has to upconvert the previously
downconverted signal to 720p for their HD broadcasts, that would
explain why it looks poor in SD and even poorer in HD. If that's the
case, I'd say Dorna needs to get their head out of their asses and
start filming in the same format that F1 uses, since it appears to
translate fairly well either up or down. Either that or they already
are and SPEED isn't paying for the higher quality signal, which is
probably more likely and wouldn't surprise me one bit.

-Dirt-

On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:13:48 GMT, Dirt wrote:

> If that's the
> case, I'd say Dorna needs to get their head out of their asses and
> start filming in the same format that F1 uses, since it appears to
> translate fairly well either up or down. Either that or they already
> are and SPEED isn't paying for the higher quality signal, which is
> probably more likely and wouldn't surprise me one bit.

The picture that we get on the BBC and British Eurosport in SD is a pretty
good one, and this year is in widescreen (last year Eurosport only showed
full frame, whilst the BBC went with widescreen).

As both the BBC and Eurosport now offer HD in the UK, one of the others
(Champ/Julian?) might be able to comment on its quality.

On Oct 22, 7:41*am, Switters <m...@privacy.net> wrote:

> The picture that we get on the BBC and British Eurosport in SD is a pretty
> good one, and this year is in widescreen (last year Eurosport only showed
> full frame, whilst the BBC went with widescreen).

I lived in England for 2008 and watched MotoGP and WSBK in the SD
format on Eurosport. It was better quality than we ever got in SD
here in the states.

-Dirt-

On Oct 19, 12:00*pm, "Andrew" <yogig.nospamm.no.s...@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>
> That's why I use the x264 captures of the Euro channels.

Are these available to anyone for the taking? If so, where?

Andy

Switters <(E-Mail Removed)> Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:41:56
>As both the BBC and Eurosport now offer HD in the UK, one of the others
>(Champ/Julian?) might be able to comment on its quality.

Virgin Cable doesn't yet have Eurosport HD. And I don't think or haven't
noticed MotoGP on BBC HD. I can't stand Cox and Parrish commentating so
I tend to watch BBC so I get live coverage but with the Web audio
commentary.

Just checked. Sepang is on BBC1 live. BBC HD is showing "HD Preview".
Eurosport 2 is showing MotoGP one hour later.

To be honest with my slightly old LCD TV, I can't tell the difference
between BBC and BBC HD even with an HDMI cable. The TV claims to be able
to do 1080 but I'm not entirely sure that's what I'm getting through
cable.

BTW. Why are HDMI cables *so* expensive?

--
Julian Bond E&MSN: julian_bond at voidstar.com M: +44 (0)77 5907 2173
Webmaster: http://www.ecademy.com/ T: +44 (0)192 0412 433
Personal WebLog: http://www.voidstar.com/ skype:julian.bond?chat
Please Pull Basket Through Checkstand

On Oct 22, 10:30*am, Julian Bond <julian_b...@voidstar.com> wrote:

> BTW. Why are HDMI cables *so* expensive?

They don't have to be. See if either of these two places ships
internationally.

http://www.monoprice.com/home/index.asp

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/

-Dirt-

"AnotherSquid" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4f44e3c8-2bf2-49bc-bdb6-(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Oct 19, 12:00 pm, "Andrew" <yogig.nospamm.no.s...@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> That's why I use the x264 captures of the Euro channels.
>
> Are these available to anyone for the taking? If so, where?
>
> Andy

Try some of the torrent sites around.
The captures are popular.