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F1 News & Discussions => General F1 Discussion => Topic started by: Canada Darrell™ on March 17, 2010, 05:26:45 PM

Title: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Canada Darrell™ on March 17, 2010, 05:26:45 PM
Lightheartedly saying "F1 sucks"...don't hate on me!  ;)

New to the board so I hope I'm not rehashing old gripes!

Lets see, over here in Canada for HD sports I can watch:

Hockey
Baseball
Football (college, pro, university)
Soccer
Fishing  :fool:
DOG SHOWS!  :fool:
Horses (racing, jumping and whatever else they do)
Nascar (both the "real" Nascar and the Jr. League and truck series)
Indycar (IRL)
Drag Racing
Boxing
Golf

Hmmm, whats missing from this picture?  :'(

I honestly, literally, DO NOT watch any TV that isn't in HD anymore...except F1. Therefore F1 does NOT suck, but the brains behind the marketing do!

At least we get in in 16x9 now.

Jeez, I hope its not becasue we're in North America and all you lucky people "over there" get it in HD?
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: kl1462832 on March 17, 2010, 06:13:23 PM
Hi!
If "over there" means Europe, no, we also have 16x9 but no HD.

Bernie, come on! Give us HD F1, please!

;-)

HIH

Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: cosworth151 on March 17, 2010, 07:09:48 PM
Add to your list:

American LeMans Series
Wrestling

POKER!
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Scott on March 17, 2010, 07:12:51 PM
Remember some years back, he was trying to start up his own HD F1 network, but nobody wanted to pay what he was asking (to re-broadcast, or to pay-per-view), which is no big surprise considering what he thinks his services are worth to the world.  Well, the whole thing folded, and Bernie lost what to many other people would be a large fortune.  

So my theory is that he is a spoiled little brat who would rather break his own toys than share them - i.e. if people don't want his HD broadcast, then NOBODY is getting it.  A petty, petty little man.
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Jericoke on March 17, 2010, 07:15:27 PM

At least we get in in 16x9 now.


We do?

I don't.  I get it on TSN, and it's 4x3.  I wrote TSN last month, and said I'm not paying for their HD service until F1 is in HD.  (No response as of yet.)

(I do like HD hockey, but only watch Saturday night games any more, and CBCHD is just fine.)
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Jericoke on March 17, 2010, 07:19:21 PM
Remember some years back, he was trying to start up his own HD F1 network, but nobody wanted to pay what he was asking (to re-broadcast, or to pay-per-view), which is no big surprise considering what he thinks his services are worth to the world.  Well, the whole thing folded, and Bernie lost what to many other people would be a large fortune.  

So my theory is that he is a spoiled little brat who would rather break his own toys than share them - i.e. if people don't want his HD broadcast, then NOBODY is getting it.  A petty, petty little man.

HD coverage is available.  After getting my HD box I watched a repeat of the Bahrain GP from last year on SpeedTV from the USA.  The image was in HD, and breathtaking.

I do remember Bernie's PPV plan.  It was certainly ambitious, and NASCAR does it in Canada/USA, though I believe Bernie's plan predated the NASCAR effort.  Bernie could probably dust it off, take advantage of the larger install base/cheaper architecture and charge half what he was before and make his money back by the Belgian GP.
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Ian on March 17, 2010, 08:31:36 PM
I can watch F1 on the BBC HD channel, but it's not filmed in HD so all you get is a sharper picture.
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Canada Darrell™ on March 17, 2010, 08:43:01 PM

At least we get in in 16x9 now.


We do?

I don't.  I get it on TSN, and it's 4x3.  I wrote TSN last month, and said I'm not paying for their HD service until F1 is in HD.  (No response as of yet.)

(I do like HD hockey, but only watch Saturday night games any more, and CBCHD is just fine.)

TSN HD is 16x9 but in "enhanced" SD. The non-HD TSN is still in 4x3.
They will not respond to your request, other than the blanket "Thank you for your enquiry...blah blah" as they have no control over the originating broadcast.
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Canada Darrell™ on March 17, 2010, 08:44:11 PM
I can watch F1 on the BBC HD channel, but it's not filmed in HD so all you get is a sharper picture.

Yup, same thing we get here on our Sports HD channel. TSNHD
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Canada Darrell™ on March 17, 2010, 09:01:49 PM

HD coverage is available.  After getting my HD box I watched a repeat of the Bahrain GP from last year on SpeedTV from the USA.  The image was in HD, and breathtaking.

I do remember Bernie's PPV plan.  It was certainly ambitious, and NASCAR does it in Canada/USA, though I believe Bernie's plan predated the NASCAR effort.  Bernie could probably dust it off, take advantage of the larger install base/cheaper architecture and charge half what he was before and make his money back by the Belgian GP.

That particular HD broadcast was just a "one off" kind of deal, if it was actually in HD and not the "enhanced definition" 16x9 that we get in Canada on TSNHD and on BBC across the pond. It does look wayyyy better that SD (standard def to those non techie types!) but its a long way from HD. There are no HD broadcasts originating from all the F1 races.
On a side not, and I'm not saying you Jericoke, a common misconception for people that have HD service available is that not everything you watch will necessarily be in HD just because you're watching an HD channel.
Just to clarify, Nascar is not PPV (I kind of got the impression from the way you worded your response that is was) but in fact, available on the regular HD channels. Every race in glorious HD..has been for almost 5 years now.
If Bernie, or anyone else thinks that there is money to be made from PPV F1 then they're ill-advised.
Here's how spoiled we are in Canada when it comes to HD. Last year one of our broadcasters, CBC I believe, was going to broadcast a Vancouver Canucks hockey game in SD because it was deemed "too expensive" to send the HD truck down to Colorado. There was a huge negative backlash, and a very savvy local entrepreneur kicked in the $100,000 cost to sponsor the truck himself! He got lots of "free" advertising during the game...and CBC never tried that old excuse again!  :P
 
I'm spoiled!
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Alianora La Canta on March 17, 2010, 09:13:50 PM
Jeez, I hope its not becasue we're in North America and all you lucky people "over there" get it in HD? {Canada Darrell - original post}

In Britain, not only is F1 not in true HD yet, but it's also still broadcast in a dual-format 16:9/4:3 format, which predates the 16:9 format. The rationale is that in Britain, it's still possible to buy 4:3 TVs, but those people who have 16:9s find it quite strange.
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: david1275 on March 17, 2010, 10:42:49 PM
I haven't even got a heavy duty TV!!  :D
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Canada Darrell™ on March 17, 2010, 11:21:45 PM
Ya know, I just had this thought driving home, and anyone over about 40 and is from Canada (Scott!) can relate.

We have a hockey team in Toronto called The Toronto Maple Leafs which up until 1990 was owned by a tyrant named Harold Ballard who treated his players, the fans and the media like sh*t. He was quite possibly (other than a lawyer/player representative name Alan Eagleson) the worse thing to happen to hockey...ever. But the Maple Leafs were a very popular team, and people and broadcasters would pay just about any amount of money for the product. Harold could basically dress up turds in hockey gear and people would still have payed to see the product. He wouldn't spend any money other than was required to keep the team running. He even let the Maple Leaf Gardens fall into disrepair because he was so cheap and greedy. He wouldn't pay players their market value and nobody wanted to play for him.

When Harold Ballard passed away in 1990 and ownership changed hands, it was like the dark ages had lifted and the Maple Leafs are now hugely sucessfull....but they still suck as a team! Take that leafs fans!  :tease:

I guess what I'm saying is... GO AWAY BERNIE!!!!!! You've lost it! Either that or bring me in as a consultant..I come cheap...really...I'm thinking $250k/year...  :good:

First order of business; completely revamp the TV broadcasting. Get rid of host country directors..then I don't have to watch some hometown backmarker as we miss out on the excitement up front.
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Jericoke on March 17, 2010, 11:53:07 PM
Well... the major difference between Ballard and Bernie was that Ballard never had empty stands, no matter how awful the Leafs got.

As for NASCAR, yes you can watch it live in HD, but there's a NASCAR package that is PPV that allows you to choose your camera angle, even among a dozen or so in car cams.  I'm pretty sure that's what Bernie was trying to do for F1.
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: PG_Gabriel on March 18, 2010, 03:36:12 AM
Here in america speed was broadcasting Bahrain in hd, at least it was on speed HD and it sure looked good! but maybe it wasnt hd and just a sharper image
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Scott on March 18, 2010, 06:30:04 AM
Ya know, I just had this thought driving home, and anyone over about 40 and is from Canada (Scott!) can relate.


Aw Jeez, cat's out of the bag...I've been telling everyone here that I'm just 30!!   ;)

Harold Ballard sure springs to mind when thinking about how a despised old fart can suck the heart and soul (and value) out of a team, but thankfully he never ran the entire NHL. 

Bernie is certainly past his due date, and to me, his power is a reflection of the weakness and disorganization of the team owners so far.  Seriously, how could they agree to something so ridiculous as the CA in the first place without taking at least 80-90% of the revenues for themselves, for the technical investment they need to keep on making??  Why hasn't anyone sued the FIA for selling the commercial rights to Bernie for 100 years (is a contract like that even legal??).  Why is someone with so little understanding of what goes into an exciting F1 track still being awarded contract after contract to build them? 

FOTA pushed out their collective chest out briefly when they first got together, but they've obviously had a dressing down because they are little more than a joke at the moment - with as little control or say over the sport as they've ever had.  I was ready to embrace the new face of F1, including all the bumps I knew would be in the way (I bet they would have figured out how to make passing possible).

Someone needs to come into the sport from another direction and take Bernie's toybox away.  CVC has the power, but again not the guts.  Todt has the power, but apparently not the desire.

Shut down Bernie!

Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: FW14B on March 18, 2010, 08:23:56 AM
Currently with shows listed as HD you have to be careful as a lot of them are not actually HD, ie filmed on HD cameras.  On Sky in the UK you can see which shows are HD on the HD channels and maybe less than 50% are native to that format.  A lot are just upscaled, whereby extra lines of the picture are added digitally with a kind of guesswork. 

Still, even upscaled SD pictures are better than normal ones!
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Scott on March 18, 2010, 11:56:09 AM
I get HD, but only when I stick one of those little BlueRay thingies in the black box...and in a bizarre twist, I can get HD when I download it from iTunes and then play it from my teeny weeny iPhone through a few cables on to my TV.

It's coming, 'they' tell us, but when and how is still to be answered.  Best bet will be over the telephone line when they jack up the bandwidth. 

Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Alianora La Canta on March 18, 2010, 02:16:00 PM
First order of business; completely revamp the TV broadcasting. Get rid of host country directors.. {Canada Darrell - 6 posts ago}

Apart from Monaco, there are no host country directors for F1 any more. It's all FOM-directed now, but as far as I can tell FOM's standards are basically those of the old Austrian GP local directors, meaning most local directors did a better job - there were more overtaking moves in the Bahrain GP than the average in the whole of 2009, yet the directors only caught three (I think) of those moves on film :(
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Alianora La Canta on March 18, 2010, 02:19:18 PM
Why hasn't anyone sued the FIA for selling the commercial rights to Bernie for 100 years (is a contract like that even legal??). {Scott - 4 posts ago}

Easy. The EU approved the arrangement (apparently a 10-year contract is bad from an anti-monopolistic perspective but a 100-year leasehold is good, and I don't have the foggiest idea why) and Max simply didn't make much effort to find buyers, meaning that Bernie was the only bidder. So the deal is 100% legal - just very, very stupid.
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Alianora La Canta on March 18, 2010, 02:21:30 PM
Why is someone with so little understanding of what goes into an exciting F1 track still being awarded contract after contract to build them?  {Scott - 6 posts ago}

Because Hermann has a near-three-decade-long track record of building circuits to time, to the minimum specifications for a valid track of the relevant FIA circuit approval level and has a good safety record. The FIA prefers "safe" to "exciting" because the PR hit from a boring race is smaller than that of a dangerous one, particularly in view of the effect on the non-sporting elements of the FIA's operations.
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: gato on March 18, 2010, 06:30:41 PM
I have not experiences about HD because my tele has not that. Wises says that the HD is ideal when the screen is big, not small because there resolution is anyway small. I watch F1 races from RTL in that quality that they offer and i hve been satisfield with it. Texts in boxs are too small  :tease:, i must go near beside my tele that i can see them!
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Slugger on March 25, 2010, 07:11:51 PM
I can watch F1 on the BBC HD channel, but it's not filmed in HD so all you get is a sharper picture.

Every time I remember to look whether it's on the HD channel it's not  :confused:
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: cosworth151 on March 25, 2010, 08:00:32 PM
HD? My TV still has a picture tube. I'm just glad it's not black & white. :crazy:
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Alianora La Canta on March 26, 2010, 04:08:29 AM
My TV still has a picture tube too - in fact, between the six screens in my house that aren't on portable devices, the only one that is flatscreen is the cheap one for watching the security system.
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: gato on March 26, 2010, 05:51:24 PM
Ali, how you can watch six screens same time at home??  :o For my eyes one screen is enough and at work I watch two screens at same time so I am also happy  :D about moments when I can keep my only screen home switched and keep my eyes relax. :lazy:
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: cosworth151 on March 26, 2010, 09:40:28 PM
I come into my office for every race, so I can watch it on three screens. The left and center screens are video feeds from different sources. The right hand laptop has Timing & Scoring from formula1.com, and the Wizard Lounge (Chat Room). This was during Spa last year.
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Scott on March 26, 2010, 10:12:58 PM
Bag o' popcorn and a small drink from the local theatre eh?
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: cosworth151 on March 27, 2010, 07:37:38 AM
The cup is from a truck stop. It holds 64oz, (1/2 gallon). I refill it with Mt. Dew on the way in every morning. It usually lasts me until lunch.
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Scott on March 27, 2010, 08:09:55 AM
Of course I was kidding.  I couldn't make out where it was from, but considering it is almost as high as your monitor, I guessed it was massive. 

Nice command center Cos.  Maybe more of us should try to take pictures of how we watch the races.  I hope Darrell sends one in - he's got a TV that rivals some theatres!
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Slugger on March 27, 2010, 11:59:27 PM
I come into my office for every race, so I can watch it on three screens. The left and center screens are video feeds from different sources. The right hand laptop has Timing & Scoring from formula1.com, and the Wizard Lounge (Chat Room). This was during Spa last year.

Very nice cos :)
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: SennaMan on March 28, 2010, 12:27:34 AM

wow! cossie, your set up is very cool mate.  :good:

my only claim towards a decent system is a 5.1 sound system plugged into my 21 inch flat screen CRTubed TV. I love the way it makes the engines sound when I turn the volume up!  :yahoo:  :yahoo:  :yahoo:  :yahoo:  :crazy: :o :swoon:

......and my neighbours have not yet complained as my Logitech XD530 system is good but not insanely powerful; the speakers are the limiting factor as they distort the sound well before the system reaches maximum power.

I also turn on the LIVE TIMING system from Formula 1. com to get more insight into each race.

Works for me.  :D 
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Canada Darrell™ on March 28, 2010, 07:16:58 PM
Of course I was kidding.  I couldn't make out where it was from, but considering it is almost as high as your monitor, I guessed it was massive. 

Nice command center Cos.  Maybe more of us should try to take pictures of how we watch the races.  I hope Darrell sends one in - he's got a TV that rivals some theatres!

OK, but its not worthy of the home videophile snobs but it gets the job done! BTW, these are pics I took when I got tired of looking at the silver bezel...black is sooo much better for viewing! I like taking things apart and making them "better"; most of the time I don't end up with extra bits for the bit-bucket!  ::)  It also makes for great couch surfing, as seen in the last photo.

Computer is in the garage, directly underneath. Most people these days seem to want a fancy HTPC case under their TV..me, I hate ANY noise when I'm watching TV. I just ran all the required cables through a small hole and viola! 100% noiseless home theatre system.
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Scott on March 28, 2010, 08:26:56 PM
First shot is at home (before the race - I was setting up the VCR).  Basically that's how I watch if I can get away from the hotel or if the race is at night.  Keep in mind it's not a big TV (only 62cm), but our couch is about 1.5m away, so it's all relative.  Like the first shot, I usually use my iPod for Live Timing.

Second shot is at work standing at the end of the bar.  It's a tiny little screen up in the corner, but I've got new glasses, so it's not so bad.  Doing chat and using my iPod for live timing.  Works pretty well until someone comes in and wants something.  Just out of view is my "Late Show" coffee mug.
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Wizzo on March 28, 2010, 10:05:52 PM
This is my humble set up where I normally watch the race. Oh ignore the Beat The Wiz Team doing some calculations.  ;)
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Scott on March 28, 2010, 10:29:32 PM
Smart ass...I've seen your car, now show us your TV  :P :P
Title: Re: The real reason F1 sucks - No HD!
Post by: Alianora La Canta on March 31, 2010, 02:40:50 PM
Ali, how you can watch six screens same time at home??  Shocked {gato - 5 posts before end of page 2}

I can't. Not only do I lack the necessary multitasking, but they're usually in completely different parts of the house:

1) Screen on my computer in my bedroom
2) Screen on Dad's computer (mostly internet, plus some games) in the study
3) Screen on Mum's computer (which does accounting and a little photocopying) in the spare bedroom
4) TV in living room for watching TV
5) TV in living room for monitoring foaling box and security system
6) PDA screen (usually lives in my briefcase)

The last one is the only one that can be moved reasonably easily.
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