Quote:
Originally Posted by nicknewark
Watching the lead up to the game yesterday on BTS1HD, and the picture quality was amazing, and felt the whole feel of the show was new and fresh, and made Sky Sports look quite dated.
|
I only saw the last ten minutes or so, but the HD picture was very very good. And I thought the much complained about DOG was actually alright as well. I did quite like the picture in picture box that came up to show the reactions of players who had been involved in the last phase of play whilst the main picture showed the game ongoing. Actually "quite like" is damning it with faint praise, I thought it was an excellent idea.
I switched over the the SD channel for a comparison, and I thought it was possibly the worst quality I've ever seen. The thought that HD is £3 more per month did cross my mind!
Michael Owen suprised me as being actually quite a capable co-commentator, his studio performances for the beeb have been wooden. And I've forgotten for a minute which ex-ref was alongside him, but I'm assuming they'll be hunting around for somebody more charismatic for the rest of the season!
The studio panel was pretty decent as well but, as with SNF on Sky Sports (which was an epic fail as far as I'm concerned, really really rubbish) I just don't think there's any real need to improve on a couple of guys in a studio actually at the ground watching the game and being in the thick of it all. Every Premier League ground has this facility - even us new boys have had one craned in over the gate - but having to return to a studio miles away just makes it look like you're watching a foreign match. There was a real disconnect for me. And also there was perhaps the opportunity to really delve in to what has been a pretty disappointing pounds/points return from Stoke over the last few seasons which was lost in deference to not upsetting one of the studio guests who'd presided over that failure.