Today's Poll -- Television Picture Quality Edition

Are you using an antenna for local HD channels or are they on the standard cable feed? My understanding is that a lot of the HD that cable uses has been highly compressed to save some bandwidth and that you can get a much cleaner picture by using an antenna for local stations that have an HD broadcast.

My eyes are already starting to take a plunge so HD is a must. Plus, I like to hear what the national guys have to say about the Blazers even if it’s not so nice.

The local channels HD sux compared to the national feeds. It must be something to do with the money they have to invest in the bandwidth for the channels or something. not sure exactly, but it is annoying!!

on 16.2, the Bohemia channel. His show is called Brain Follies. – Elgin

KGW would be fine if they were actually broadcasting in True HD like their news broadcasts are. For some reason, they output an HD signal for blazers games at 1080i, but crop the sides so you arent getting a full widescreen image. TNT HD is amazing quality in comparison and I don’t understand why KGW doesn’t broadcast the same signal as TNT is since they are all going through the same Camera’s/equipment likely.

Either way, both of them are better than regular games being broadcasted CSN SD through FIOS TV. We get an SD feed on channel 77 for CSN, but comcast has not given FIOS customers their HD channel. The SD channel isnt the best and freezes for a half-second every 2 minutes or so as if they aren’t getting a good feed..

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I appreciate this right about now. I won’t promise to complain later when I don’t use it and therefore see it as taking up space. :) Just kidding.

-Tim (leaving Orlando for home tomorrow)

HDTV last night? If so was this his first HD experience on his new set? If so, any adjectives to describe it?

no “in person” option?

are of the “sketchy justin.tv” variety.

Earlier this preseason, we were playing against Sacramento, in Sacramento. It was about mid-preseason, and no one had a feed to the game. About at the start of the second quarter, a stream started on justin.tv. It was a webcam twisted around to view some guy’s league pass broadband.

Immediately, these black lines start flickering up and down the screen. The gameplay looked as follows: “Blake brings the ball up court… [black line]… shot in the air…. [black line] Travis is at the foul line.”

I spent the whole night trying to watch the Blazers preseason on this stupid feed, and then tune into the MSP in the morning. Gavin was complaining about watching the same horrible black-line infested stream.

The amazing thing about Blazermania is that over a thousand people were viewing the debacle.

I’m in the same boat as Ben… Comcast HD package where the games on the HD 708 KGW don’t look like the games on the HD 754 TNT.

You mean to tell me I’d be better off unplugging my more expensive HD cable and plugging in a freakin’ antenna… JUST TO GET THE HD I’M ALREADY PAYING FOR?!?

I generally always watch the national broadcasts when given the opportunity, but I tend to think that the commentators aren’t any good.

I know Mike and Mike are total homers… but they at least have their facts straight.

I have Verizon Fios TV, with an HDTV. I have also watched virtually every game as well as many other sports events on each of channels mentioned, and also ESPN. I’ll start with the positives:

ESPN HD – This has been great. I’ve experienced no problems, and the picture is always excellent
TNT HD – Typically on par with ESPN, although last night in the 4th quarter things started getting weird. The picture looked like it was going at 3/4 speed. It quickly became unwatchable. Did anyone else have that problem? All my other HD channels worked fine.

KGW HD – Not always HD, but I’ve read up above that they don’t broadcast road games in HD…cheapskates
KGW SD – What you’d expect from standard definition
CSN SD – Crappy. Very blurry accompanied with a lag and catch up feature that prevents you from seeing key plays occasionally. This can happen up to 50 times per game. I’ve seen it happen on multiple TVs. Awesome work Comcast, and you wonder why no one wants to pay a premium for your channel.

If I had known that the two Mikes were on, I would have tuned into KGW. I would much rather watch the two mikes do a broadcast. Those TNT announcers were kind of lame.

I used to have a lot of respect for Marv Albert but last night he seemed clueless. He didn’t see some pretty obvious things on the court. And his announcing is sensationalistic rather than informative.

blogsports.com is feeding HD Quality, and without annoying chat.

I know from all of you there in States have direct Tv, but for those who havent then try that.

Not widescreen
Not crystal
Not worth watching

TNT was solid, wide, and crystal. Shouldn’t even be called HG on 708.

One night, I streamed a CSN SD feed from FIOS TV to Justin.tv and I had about 90-100 people come watch, and everyone in the chat said this was the best quality feeds they had ever seen for a live stream. Its funny because all of us who have the luxury of getting HD and SD are so whiny about the quality (myself included). For those who live in other country’s and cant watch any games, maybe we should be a little more grateful we can watch them at all. :)

I like to flip between both channels when the game is brodcast on two stations so i can hear the difference in commentary.

Uh, unrelated, but how many of you have seen this:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/GTAS-comics-Ghosts-of-Blazers-past;_ylt=AgLhDzhcZY9m6rHtxDKS2TQ5nYcB?urn=nba,128509

freakin hilarious!

because as a Dish Network subscriber, I only get some (meow!)…..

But the national telecasts in HD are great, as are the HD KGW games. And the KGW road games in standard def look like any other standard def games. There are some things to dislike about Dish, but HD quality, when you have true HD origination, isn’t one of them.