[badkarma]

Just a heads up, continues on HD throughout the weekend.

Ad free HD gold for 4 days. Can't wait

[kbj242]

I watched this last year....simply breathtaking in HD. I any of yer mates want to know just how good HD can be..this is it !

[vader100]

Looking forward to this...except I am away until Sunday night so will only be able to watch the last night.

[Greg]

Excellent. Golf in HD really shows what the format is capable of.

[mudstuff]

Yeah, I can't wait for this, I love watching the Masters and only got HD in Jan. Looking forward to seeing it in HD, always thought it looked pretty good on BBC2 so this should be superb!

Anyone that watched it last year also watch the HD golf on Eurosport now and then - how does the BBC HD footage compare?

[wednesday83]

Just hope the encoders at the beed can do it justice this year. I have a feeling could be a big let down.

[Shaun666]

Means no Damages in HD on Sunday night though

[badkarma]

Originally Posted by mudstuff

Yeah, I can't wait for this, I love watching the Masters and only got HD in Jan. Looking forward to seeing it in HD, always thought it looked pretty good on BBC2 so this should be superb!

Anyone that watched it last year also watch the HD golf on Eurosport now and then - how does the BBC HD footage compare?

It's good, it's not shot by the BBC they just pick up the feed from the US so to speak.

I still think SkyHD coverage of the European Tour and Ryder Cup is the best I've seen though.

[Martin J.]

Originally Posted by mudstuff

Anyone that watched it last year also watch the HD golf on Eurosport now and then - how does the BBC HD footage compare?

In terms of production quality, they're on a par (not intentional, honest) but last year the Masters on BBC HD had horrific frame rate conversion artefacts, as it usually does (including in SD) on the BBC. There were also some really nasty moire effects on any fine detail and anything with stripes. So on the whole, Sky and Eurosport HD's coverage of golf has been superior.

[mudstuff]

Thanks guys appreciate it. Here's hoping it's decent tomorrow. Not a huge sports fan so Don't subscribe to sports, just movies.

[New Bloke]

Is it my imagination or did last nights pictures look although detailed, fairly bleached of colour?

[badkarma]

Originally Posted by New Bloke

Is it my imagination or did last nights pictures look although detailed, fairly bleached of colour?

The studio stuff looked fine, very good, which you would expect, but the course footage wasn't as good as i'd have liked. Thought the colour was ok, but it just didn't have the sharpness.

[Greg]

Had it on BBC2 watching it, then remembered it was on HD, turned over to BBC HD and wasn't blown away by the difference. Nowhere near the jaw dropping quality of Sky's HD golf.

[dave_a]

Yeah I thought it was good quality picture but not great compared to other HD sports (I don't watch golf but have only flicked over to sky stuff to see the picture for a few minutes).

[bjd]

Pretty disappointing, really. The difference between the ads for HD at the break and the golf itself made you feel you were going back to an SD feed.
Still, looks like a cakewalk for Tiger, good picture or not.

Cheers

Brian

[t1m103]

have to agree,a bit dissapointing.BBC1 seems a bit ropey at the moment too.

[wednesday83]

I thought the still shots in live play were very good, but as soon as there was movement the encoders seemed to struggle.

[Martin J.]

Originally Posted by bjd

Pretty disappointing, really. The difference between the ads for HD at the break and the golf itself made you feel you were going back to an SD feed.

Funny you should say that, because I thought I was watching upscaled SD and had to check settings to make sure. There is some detail, but it looks like it's all as a result of sharpening the heck out of the image. In terms of real detail, there's very little there and it's definitely a really poor effort.

It may get better at the weekend when the US coverage changes networks.

[badkarma]

I agree, the USPGA was the same last year, the detail is lost in the processing somewhere, it looks overblown and edge enhanced almost.

Well done to the beeb for providing all the same though.

[wednesday83]

The Golf looked fantastic tonight. Thought it all looked great including the BBCs own presenters stuff.

[gary965]

Weather been poor compared to most Masters and certainly most US and European golf, certainly on the continent, maybe it will look better when the sun comes out.

[winstn60]

To be honest looked like SD upscaled to me no detail on most of the action. Very dissapointing However nice to see Rory being treated fairly after kicking the sand in the bunker. Unlike some other sports which seem to be run by the media nowadays!

[ozzzy189]

I thought it looked fantastic at times, but agree, movement was very poor as well, background looked dreadful whilst panning. It's still is not as sharp as the first time i saw it at 20mbps what seems like years back now, prob only two, but seems like yonks anyway. the bbc need to update their encoders, i have seen stuff on channel four look stunning, and isn't their bitrate lower ?

[wednesday83]

Looked shocking on panning shots last night, but again the still shots on my tv looked great. Just shows that we need an increase in bandwith until the new encoders arrive.

[Martin J.]

Originally Posted by wednesday83

Looked shocking on panning shots last night, but again the still shots on my tv looked great. Just shows that we need an increase in bandwith until the new encoders arrive.

A lot of the problems with the panning shots isn't down to the encoders, but the frame rate conversion creating horrible artefacts (blur, judder and sometimes a ball that disappears completely), which the encoders then have to deal with. Sky get their frame rate converters from Snell and Wilcox, the BBC get theirs from Maplin.

[Starburst]

Any panning smoothness or lack there of will probably be related to the conversion from the US format to the UK, nothing bitrate can do about that and it's always been an issue with NTSC on imported DVD and one reason why the native 24p support on displays is important for smooth Blu-ray playback and is the only real global format.

[wednesday83]

I still think we are trying to find excuses for the beeb here. incxrease the bit rate to 20 mbps and I bet you any money the picture on the golf would have looked far better.

[vader100]

It's a shame because Augusta is such a beautiful course. Still better than no HD at all so not all bad. Well done Cabrera, I thought he was dead and buried after that shot into the tress on the 18th.

[Martin J.]

Originally Posted by wednesday83

I still think we are trying to find excuses for the beeb here. incxrease the bit rate to 20 mbps and I bet you any money the picture on the golf would have looked far better.

Seriously doubt it. An increase in bitrate wouldn't have made the image sharper or more detailed, the detail just wasn't there, and the horrible artefacts are down to the frame rate converters. What they need is an increase in standards from top to bottom; in this case a better quality source, better converters, newer encoders and then, perhaps a slightly higher bitrate.

[Ragnarok]

Originally Posted by wednesday83

I still think we are trying to find excuses for the beeb here. incxrease the bit rate to 20 mbps and I bet you any money the picture on the golf would have looked far better.

Unlikly. The BEEB have a habit of re-encoding already heavily compressed feeds for sporting events. If your used to spotting it you'll notice straight away. The Olympics, Euro2008 all looked a Hell of alot better on Eurosport HD and other European channels that usually use significantly lower bitrates.

During Euro2008 ORF1HD's 8mbit 720p channel positively made BBCHD's coverage look SD despite the BBCHD channel having much better technical specs.

Eurosport HD Olympic coverage again looked sharper and had much less macro blocking.