[wednesday83]

Is it just me or is tonights Sevilla vs Real madrid game the worst picture quality for spanish footy ever? Its dire. I dont think its really the feed but the fact sky are using the pathetic unwatchable studio. The colours on the studios shots are dire and its a disgrace.

Early on in the season they seemed to be using the better studio every now and then and sometimes some pics were almnost HD like. Now they seem to use the crappy studio week in week out. Why???? Is it a 4:3 studio???

Why have they stopped using the better studio??? Maybe they should show a little more respect to the subscribers.

[Turbo Dragon]

The studios at Sky are normally changed depending on whatever is booked for that day. Unfortunately some studios are a little older than others (I.e. have been around since Sky first went on air 20years ago) and others are only a couple of years old. There are a lot of studios at Sky and all have been built with the best technology at the time of commision. As we all know, technology moves at a very fast rate and the number of hours Sky churns out gives all the kit a hard life.

Spanish footy can be in the HD studios if they are free, in which case the cameras and vision circuits are better and may make a difference. However that depends on if there are any HD broadcasts being done that day or the day before.

You commented on the incoming feeds, whilst these were ok according to you, generic world feeds are in general a lesser quailty and there is nothing Sky can do in these circumstances.

I know its not much help but Sky are aware that the older studios are in need of updating and they are building a brand new complex on a new site with around 8 new HD studios, allowing the decomission of the older SD ones.

FWIW, I have heard of people on here complaining consistantly and getting refunds etc.

Not defending what you saw as i agree a lot of what is broadcast isnt a consistent quality but its always worth adding a second perspective to any argument.

[wednesday83]

The point is though early on in the season they were using the better studios quite often, now it doesnt matter if theres anything else used in them its always in the rubbish studio and the quality of the picture of the actual game has gone down with it.

[Turbo Dragon]

All I can suggest is that you register your complaint with Sky, if enough people do they might do something about it on the ground and actually upgrade the equipment or utilise the resources in a better fasion. When there is a lot of shows on they have to use whats available i guess

Not trying to defend Sky and im not in a position to be able to help you directly unfortunately buddy. Wish I could.

[derek500]

Originally Posted by Turbo Dragon

All I can suggest is that you register your complaint with Sky, if enough people do they might do something about it on the ground and actually upgrade the equipment or utilise the resources in a better fasion.

Sky are sorting it!! They're building a new studio centre which should be operational in 2011.

BBC Sport's new studios will also be ready inl 2011. That's the reason that no BBC sport with studio presentation, like MOTD can go HD.

[Martin J.]

Originally Posted by wednesday83

Early on in the season they seemed to be using the better studio every now and then and sometimes some pics were almnost HD like. Now they seem to use the crappy studio week in week out.

If it makes you feel any better, it's not just the football. We often get lovely 16:9 cricket from Australia, until a critical match on a weekend when suddenly it's mushy-vision in 4:3. Sometimes we even get a special treat - bright blue borders around the whole frame because the numbskull on the caption generator keeps forgetting to take it out of the TX loop after the advert breaks.

[uno]

Motorsports is seriously affected by Sky not having enough HD studios with Grand Prix speedway,Nascar and A1 GP all filmed in and broadcast elsewhere in HD its just Sky's stupid policy of not showing upscaled studio presentation and HD main coverage.

This is further confirmed by this weekends British A1gp and British speedway GP in June as both are presented from trackside they can be shown in HD

[Turbo Dragon]

Originally Posted by derek500

Sky are sorting it!! They're building a new studio centre which should be operational in 2011.

BBC Sport's new studios will also be ready inl 2011. That's the reason that no BBC sport with studio presentation, like MOTD can go HD.

I know they are sorting it, my first post made the same point. It can't come soon enough as the opinion of customers voiced on this and other forums indicates a growing un-happiness with the inconsistent quality of Skys broadcasts.

[Coffin]

Big shame this weekends El Clásico, supposedly one of the biggest games in football between Real Madrid & Barcelona isn't in HD

[wednesday83]

For the last El classico they used a decent studio and it was a near HD picture. Im assuming they will keep up the recent trend of trying to make viewers turn off and show it one of the duff ones.

Why not just use the HD feed and show the studio segments in HD??? Or even better get on Ryan Airs website and get some cheap flights to Madrid and shoot on location.

I talk to everyone at work about how great La Liga is yet all I get is "how can you watch that??".

2011 is yonks away. Maybe sky should have thought about studios before ging HD in the first place???

[derek500]

Originally Posted by wednesday83

Or even better get on Ryan Airs website and get some cheap flights to Madrid and shoot on location.

In the short term that's the only solution. It's how the BBC do all their, albeit very limited, HD sports coverage.

Sky do it that way with their golf coverage, but I suppose on economies of scale they are getting at least 20 hours of air time filled for the extra expense.

[IanMerseyside]

Originally Posted by coffin137

Big shame this weekends El Clásico, supposedly one of the biggest games in football between Real Madrid & Barcelona isn't in HD

Yes, I agree. I thought they might have pushed the boat out for this fixture and shown it in HD. I seem to remember a few years ago they sent the commentary team out to the stadium (as opposed to doing it remotely from the studio) and also showed the match in widescreen. I think this whole thing is a bigger issue than Sky realise. 2011 does seem too long to wait for La Liga to be shown in HD. I don't think I'm alone in preferring watching La Liga games to those from the Premier League.

[wednesday83]

I certainly prefer La Liga to the prem. If they cant do HD now then at least show it some respect and show it in its correct form and not mushed up looking like its from 1975 and on a VHS tape.

If the picture tonight is screwed up by sky then Im seriously gunna be hacked off. Its the biggest club match in the world with a lot riding on it.

[wednesday83]

OMG this is amazing. They have used the decent studio and picture ius stunning.... Oh hang on I was dreaming.

Absolutely pathetic from sky. crap studio and crap picture. Lucky I have a CRT display on standby. Some arnt so lucky tho.

I genuinely think You Tubes better quality.

[Martin J.]

If you're watching a lot of European football, then I'd suggest investing in a basic second system, with dish and receiver. The vast majority of primary European SD channels - Rai, Canal, Mediaset, ZDF, RTL etc - are all much better quality than what we get from our native broadcasters. They still broadcast the majority of programmes in 4:3 (usually with letterboxing, go figure) but you could always invest in a method of receiving Premiere, Canal+, ABSat or something like that.

[johnr]

the picture i totally agree is pathetic,almost makes you want
to switch it off,even bloody itv football looks better than this
a perfect platform for sky, barca v madrid to be shown in hd
yet they serve up this rubbish,also applies to a lot of the tennis
they broadcast,why is it not in hd,come on sky sort it out.

[IanMerseyside]

There is also a problem with the sound. The studio commentary is in sync but the stadium noise certainly isn't. You can hear the crowd cheer the goal about 1/2 second before it hits the net.

[Ragnarok]

I'll said it before and i'll say it again, Sky without doubt have the best broadcast facilities in Europe, but some of the **** feeds that are send out are unbelaveable especially from spain.

It still doesn't help that the rights are split between 2 major companies in spain, Audiovisual sports always provide crappy feeds to Mediapro (Mediapro who are responcible for all the international distribution feeds of La Liga) and at one point a year or 2 ago Mediapro Had to resort to piracy to get us any picture at all and the Quality was awful. Now that MediaPro( who have really inversted in great facilities ready for next season when they have all the rights) have half or more of the rights, that why we get some games which are a shining example of high quality SD and the downright abismal which I can assure you everybody else in Europe( apart from in spain ) has to put up with too.

However HD highlights and games have been sent over to the states for many years now but not made available to European broadcasters until half way into this season.

Edit:
Only one channel in Europe managed to get a HD feed, nobody got the HD feed live for this one. Everyone except the Spanish got the same lame SD feed !

Come on you guys in Spain!!!

[wednesday83]

Originally Posted by Ragnarok

I'll said it before and i'll say it again, Sky without doubt have the best broadcast facilities in Europe, but some of the **** feeds that are send out are unbelaveable especially from spain.

It still doesn't help that the rights are split between 2 major companies in spain, Audiovisual sports always provide crappy feeds to Mediapro (Mediapro who are responcible for all the international distribution feeds of La Liga) and at one point a year or 2 ago Mediapro Had to resort to piracy to get us any picture at all and the Quality was awful. Now that MediaPro( who have really inversted in great facilities ready for next season when they have all the rights) have half or more of the rights, that why we get some games which are a shining example of high quality SD and the downright abismal which I can assure you everybody else in Europe( apart from in spain ) has to put up with too.

However HD highlights and games have been sent over to the states for many years now but not made available to European broadcasters until half way into this season.

Edit:
Only one channel in Europe managed to get a HD feed, nobody got the HD feed live for this one. Everyone except the Spanish got the same lame SD feed !

Come on you guys in Spain!!!

The picture is so bad on Sky mainly down to studio facilities. When the crap studio is used the football looks awful. When good studio is used and picture looks good in the studio, then the football looks far better. Its just a shame that Sky cant be arsed to change studios anymore and have just plonked Spanish studio in the crap one every week now.

[Ragnarok]

Originally Posted by wednesday83

The picture is so bad on Sky mainly down to studio facilities. When the crap studio is used the football looks awful. When good studio is used and picture looks good in the studio, then the football looks far better. Its just a shame that Sky cant be arsed to change studios anymore and have just plonked Spanish studio in the crap one every week now.

It has always looked the same or worse else where except when in HD. your theory holds little water. If you watched other Providers you'd see that We are pretty Lucky, we always get the one of the better looking SD Picture Qualities, and the other Good providers suffer at the same Sky do every time.

Next season should be the start of a new era for La Liga, I believe MediaPro intend to be covering every La Liga game in HD, Which should mean Sky have no excuses for next season.

[Coffin]

Was Barcelona vs Chelsea last week in HD? And if so does that mean the UK broadcaster (ITV?) takes their own equipment?

[Martin J.]

Originally Posted by Ragnarok

It has always looked the same or worse else where except when in HD. your theory holds little water.

Wednesday's theory is actually correct in relation to Sky's studios having a detrimental impact on picture quality. As mentioned earlier in this thread, they same thing happens to the cricket, and we know that reaches them as a high quality, SD feed.

[RMCF]

All this moaning about how crap their service is is easily sorted.

Cancel your membership - if enough do it they will sort things.

Problem is, not enough will cancel.

They have you over a barrel - the great HD swindle continues.

[bekko]

You are not wrong.

[Martin J.]

Originally Posted by RMCF

...the great HD swindle continues.

Nobody in this thread is talking about the broadcasts in HD, especially as the HD matches of late have been superb. The point being made is regarding poor quality studios used for SD broadcasts. The HD matches look vastly better than even top-notch SD, but there's no excuse for hampering either simply because the studio facilities aren't up to snuff.

[Turbo Dragon]

Originally Posted by RMCF

All this moaning about how crap their service is is easily sorted.

Cancel your membership - if enough do it they will sort things.

Amen to that brother.....

[derek500]

Originally Posted by coffin137

Was Barcelona vs Chelsea last week in HD? And if so does that mean the UK broadcaster (ITV?) takes their own equipment?

The Spanish pay TV channel Canal+ HD, covered the match.

[IanMerseyside]

I don't get this argument that the poor PQ is down to using the inferior studios. Lat night's 8pm match (A Madrid v Valencia) looked awful and yet there was no other live sport being shown by Sky as far as I can recall. Therefore there was no excuse not to use a decent studio.

[Turbo Dragon]

Not defending Sky as I didnt see the show and Im only trying to balance here so please don't jump on me

Yesterday (Sunday) there was Live test Cricket, Live Tennis and Golf Night on that evening.

Also worth bearing in mind that if another studio has had something else in it takes time to swap the sets of the studio over. So you may not be able to get Spanish football into a 'good' studio in time?

Can I ask if you watched any of the following live studio based programmes over the weekend out of curiosity and what you thought of them?

Soccer AM
The Super 14 Show
Sunday Suplement
Tightlines
Golf Night

[IanMerseyside]

Originally Posted by Turbo Dragon

Not defending Sky as I didnt see the show and Im only trying to balance here so please don't jump on me

Yesterday (Sunday) there was Live test Cricket, Live Tennis and Golf Night on that evening.

Also worth bearing in mind that if another studio has had something else in it takes time to swap the sets of the studio over. So you may not be able to get Spanish football into a 'good' studio in time?

Can I ask if you watched any of the following live studio based programmes over the weekend out of curiosity and what you thought of them?

Soccer AM
The Super 14 Show
Sunday Suplement
Tightlines
Golf Night

I watched the Sunday Supplement show and thought it looked good, but then it always does. I have the Golf Night programme in the planner but haven't watched it yet. As far as I know Golf Night is always shown in 4:3 mode even though the earlier live golf will have been in widescreen.