181 replies to this topic

[rhysxanthis]

darockk, on Feb 15 2010, 04:11 PM, said:

Is anyone watching the biathlon? Can someone work out why sometimes the guy shoots the black part of the target and it does not register as a hit? At first i thought you have to hit the inner black circle to get a hit but ive seen many times where they would hit the edge of the circle (you can see the white paint being stripped off), and it still registers as a hit.

I think this may be an explanation;

Targets are approx. the size of a tennis ball (standing shot) and a table tennis ball (prone shot)Immediately after a hit is scored, the target is automatically covered by a white indicator disk so competitors know the result from a distance. A penalty is given for each missed shot.

[tegregg]

darockk, on Feb 15 2010, 07:11 PM, said:

Is anyone watching the biathlon? Can someone work out why sometimes the guy shoots the black part of the target and it does not register as a hit? At first i thought you have to hit the inner black circle to get a hit but ive seen many times where they would hit the edge of the circle (you can see the white paint being stripped off), and it still registers as a hit.

When laying down they have to hit the inner circle....when standing they can hit either the inner or larger black circle.

[darockk]

tegregg, on Feb 15 2010, 10:22 PM, said:

When laying down they have to hit the inner circle....when standing they can hit either the inner or larger black circle.

Ahhh Thanks, that explains it. The commentator was saying standing was harder, but didnt mention the target was larger so it kind if evens it out compared to lying down i guess.

Btw Did anyone see the estonian figure skater?  

[Harry]

Any idea where I can find a Foxtel Olympic coverage schedule in PDF or Word format or even text ????

On that note in this day of wonderful technology is it not possible for Foxtel to produce EPG info adjusted for Western Australia (and other non EDST time zones).

Its bad enough trying to adjust for Canadian time let alone the stupid guide on the Foxtel site.

http://www.foxtel.co...ide/default.htm

I suppose some one will tell me that if I get an IQ2 that also will be in EDST time when lining up recordings etc !!!! I hope I am not correct on this one

Any info appreciated

[Harry]

Harry, on Feb 16 2010, 09:34 AM, said:

Any idea where I can find a Foxtel Olympic coverage schedule in PDF or Word format or even text ????

No one know where I can get it ????

[jackbauer]

Harry, on Feb 17 2010, 02:49 PM, said:

No one know where I can get it ????

I think the only way to get a printed copy will be to buy the Feb Foxtel magazine. However, due to the schedule changing due to weather conditions it won't be 100% accurate.

[davmel]

jackbauer, on Feb 17 2010, 04:26 PM, said:

I think the only way to get a printed copy will be to buy the Feb Foxtel magazine. However, due to the schedule changing due to weather conditions it won't be 100% accurate.

The usefullness of the printed guide is dropping away significantly with every day that the schedule is being backed up due to weather delays.
This morning's schedule was completely stuffed up and with some events shown on totally different channels to the guide. It's happening every day so the closest accurate guide you'll find is the Vancouver Olympics website.

[Chris_D]

Harry, on Feb 16 2010, 09:34 AM, said:

I suppose some one will tell me that if I get an IQ2 that also will be in EDST time when lining up recordings etc !!!! I hope I am not correct on this one

Harry, the iQ2 epg displays exactly the same as the standard box - ie it is adjusted to local time. The only difference between the planner functions is the iQ boxes have 'record' & 'view' timers were as the standard box has 'view' & 'autotune' timers.

The usefulness of the foxtel epg for the replay sessions is quite questionable at times too. Twice now I've had recordings of the prime-time replays missing the end of the event because the guide is not being updated to reflect the actual start/finish times - once was because I forgot to add 20mins in the planner, but last night the mens speed skating started 30min late. Even with the additional 20 minutes of padding (for those that don't have iQ boxes this is the largest post padding you can add to individual programs) it still missed the final two runs. Fortunately I realised this before watching 2.5 hours of build up, unfortunately it is not being replayed again until day 18 of the coverage.

Other than that and the occasional frame-rate conversion issues I'm finding foxtels coverage to be very good. I can't really comment on nines - being three hours delayed in WA I haven't bothered to tune in to it at all.

[davmel]

Oh crap, you pay good money for Foxtel only to hear f****** Eddie McGuire is providing commentary on Cypress channel for the women's aerials event. I feel ill.

[davmel]

Interesting that in the past hour all 4 HD channels have now switched over to an upscaled SD feed. Foxtel obviously wants to save a few $$$ on their international link leasing fees!

[rhysxanthis]

davmel, on Mar 1 2010, 02:50 PM, said:

Interesting that in the past hour all 4 HD channels have now switched over to an upscaled SD feed. Foxtel obviously wants to save a few $$$ on their international link leasing fees!

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed this...

perhaps they're having tech issues?

[laurie]

Just goes to show the difference between HD & SD you pick it up straight away no matter how good the upscaling is  

cheers laurie

[darockk]

davmel, on Mar 1 2010, 05:50 PM, said:

Interesting that in the past hour all 4 HD channels have now switched over to an upscaled SD feed. Foxtel obviously wants to save a few $$$ on their international link leasing fees!

i noticed this too!

what gives, foxtel??? i want to watch the gold medal hockey match in HD and i get this?!

all the good work over the past 2 weeks undone!

[davmel]

rhysxanthis, on Mar 1 2010, 08:05 PM, said:

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed this...
perhaps they're having tech issues?

It wasn't a spontaneous failure across all 4. It was HD right up till the end of the 50km cross country encore screening ended at ~5:43pm. After the ad break the feed was still HD for the short studio announcement and as soon as it changed to the ski jumping it was all SD upconvert (and a pretty bad one at that).
If it was an unexpected link failure it's highly unlikely it occured exactly before a segment was about to start. Looks like a deliberate decision to drop the HD overseas links to save $$$.
Real pity since it means there is no chance of seeing a higher quality repeat of the closing ceremony compared to Nine's version.

[rhysxanthis]

Yes this is very poor from Foxtel :/

Will give them 24 hours to see if content turns HD again...if not I'll be firing off an email for sure.

I'll probably get told "oh yes it was in HD anything else please email us"

:/

[davmel]

rhysxanthis, on Mar 1 2010, 11:21 PM, said:

Yes this is very poor from Foxtel :/

Foxtel would be one of only a handful of international broadcasters still televising the olympics 2+ days after they end. It's probably fortunate that Foxtel could still transmit anything from the OBC given that everyone else would be packing up unplugging everything and going home.
What they should have done is cache everything here locally in Australia in HD so the repeats good be shown without any international feeds active.
Looking at the guide it will be a huge repeat lineup of every single medal event until the early hours of Thursday morning.

[sirhc55]

It’s approximately ten minutes before midnight on Monday 1st March and I have just seen an ad for the Winter Olympics via Foxtel. $10 will get you a day pass. Call me cynical but I thought the games had finished.

Are Foxtel that strapped for cash

[Hosko]

davmel, on Mar 1 2010, 11:48 PM, said:

What they should have done is cache everything here locally in Australia in HD so the repeats good be shown without any international feeds active.
Looking at the guide it will be a huge repeat lineup of every single medal event until the early hours of Thursday morning.

Umm that is what they will be doing.

[darockk]

Hosko, on Mar 1 2010, 11:56 PM, said:

Umm that is what they will be doing.

and isnt that what they HAVE been doing? why stop now?, if they cached all the live events in HD why not replay them in HD anymore?

[davmel]

darockk, on Mar 2 2010, 12:18 AM, said:

and isnt that what they HAVE been doing? why stop now?, if they cached all the live events in HD why not replay them in HD anymore?

That's the problem. I highly doubt it is being streamed from a local Australian source but rather still being sent from the server farm at the OBC using lower capacity (backup?) links.
The intro this past evening at 7:30pm was broadcast from the studios of the OBC in upconverted SD so it's not local yet.

[davmel]

Hey, back to full HD on Whistler HD for the closing ceremony!

[rhysxanthis]

davmel, on Mar 1 2010, 09:32 PM, said:

Hey, back to full HD on Whistler HD for the closing ceremony!

yeah but i doubt it will last long..

[davmel]

rhysxanthis, on Mar 2 2010, 02:30 AM, said:

yeah but i doubt it will last long..

I agree, come 3:11 am they'll go back to the studio in HD for the last time when Steve Liebman signs off for the last time and that will be it for the HD coverage. At least the ceremony looks better than the block-o-vision of 9HD.

[davmel]

rhysxanthis, on Mar 2 2010, 02:30 AM, said:

yeah but i doubt it will last long..

Yep, during the last 2 secs of the closing Foxtel credits with the copyright logo you see the HD feed flicked back over to the SD stream.
All the repeats will be in upconverted SD from now on.
Oh well, best $50 ever spent with Foxtel!

[Hosko]

darockk, on Mar 2 2010, 12:18 AM, said:

and isnt that what they HAVE been doing? why stop now?, if they cached all the live events in HD why not replay them in HD anymore?

I said that's what they will be doing. Starting today the boys from EVS are going to be ripping out all of their servers from the IBC and leaving a much scaled back setup for the special Olympics. Foxtel and nine also have to vacate from the IBC so they can't keep rolling events from on site.