Coverage of the London Olympics on Sky

Forums › Sky, Neon, Lightbox › Coverage of the London Olympics on Sky

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

20180 posts

Uber Geek

#663481 29-Jul-2012 01:44

GeoffisPure: While it's nice that Sky have Olympic coverage from Prime TV on iSKY, the video quality is really really bad. :(

The video quality on prime tv itself is pretty bad too. Very pixelated when the picture is complex, and obviously not in HD. Funny that 4 years ago, the FTA coverage was far better. It was on two channels TV 1, and TVNZ Sport, one being in HD, and no annoying sky tv upselling advertising. Although the NZ commentary wasn't much better, they don't know too much. I don't know why they bother to send people over there and don't use the expert commentators, although I guess it is a perk of the job.

old3eyes

9120 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#663494 29-Jul-2012 08:57

grant_k:
old3eyes: By the time the opening ceremony got finished on Prime it was Prime +1 it was that far behind the live action..

I recorded the entire opening ceremony so we could skip all the ad breaks and most of the national team arrivals.

The file size was the biggest I've ever seen on my recorder: 24GB!!!
But then I suppose the broadcast was over 6 hours long, so I guess not unreasonable for full HD video.

Picture quality for most of the ceremony -- especially the aerial shots -- was absolutely eye-popping. Best I've seen for a live event by far. It would be so nice if Prime was always in HD...

Obviously you weren't watching Prime on FV as it was only in SD..

Regards,

Old3eyes

grant_k

3539 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#663497 29-Jul-2012 09:08

old3eyes:
grant_k:
old3eyes: By the time the opening ceremony got finished on Prime it was Prime +1 it was that far behind the live action..

I recorded the entire opening ceremony so we could skip all the ad breaks and most of the national team arrivals.

The file size was the biggest I've ever seen on my recorder: 24GB!!!
But then I suppose the broadcast was over 6 hours long, so I guess not unreasonable for full HD video.

Picture quality for most of the ceremony -- especially the aerial shots -- was absolutely eye-popping. Best I've seen for a live event by far. It would be so nice if Prime was always in HD...

Obviously you weren't watching Prime on FV as it was only in SD..

Indeed. Prime HD all the way. I think my $46 per month Sky sub represents excellent value while the Olympics are on. Not so sure about the rest of the year though.

As a backup in case of glitches, I recorded the same programme from the SD channel and the file size was just under 9GB. Obviously not a great bitrate there...

old3eyes

9120 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#663507 29-Jul-2012 10:03

After Fellets somewhat arrogant comments here bout FTA coverage we would have been better for the plebs to have it on TVNZ again..

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/olympic-games/news/article.cfm?c_id=502&objectid=10822942

"?By the end of the ceremony, he agreed, Prime could no longer claim to be live, but he said that was to be expected with free-to-air television.

Fellet defended the "live" advertising, saying he did not believe it breached advertising standards.?

Regards,

Old3eyes

grant_k

3539 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#663534 29-Jul-2012 11:19

old3eyes: After Fellets somewhat arrogant comments here bout FTA coverage we would have been better for the plebs to have it on TVNZ again..

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/olympic-games/news/article.cfm?c_id=502&objectid=10822942

"?By the end of the ceremony, he agreed, Prime could no longer claim to be live, but he said that was to be expected with free-to-air television.

Fellet defended the "live" advertising, saying he did not believe it breached advertising standards.?

The days of TVNZ being able to compete with Sky for rights to events like this are gone unless:

a) The Guvmint hikes our taxes to pay for it
b) The ComCom regulates Sky

I have no sympathy for people who don't bother to record stuff and then complain about advertising.
Advertising is what pays for FTA, so like it or lump it...

old3eyes

9120 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#663588 29-Jul-2012 13:28

grant_k:
old3eyes: After Fellets somewhat arrogant comments here bout FTA coverage we would have been better for the plebs to have it on TVNZ again..

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/olympic-games/news/article.cfm?c_id=502&objectid=10822942

"?By the end of the ceremony, he agreed, Prime could no longer claim to be live, but he said that was to be expected with free-to-air television.

Fellet defended the "live" advertising, saying he did not believe it breached advertising standards.?

The days of TVNZ being able to compete with Sky for rights to events like this are gone unless:

a) The Guvmint hikes our taxes to pay for it
b) The ComCom regulates Sky

I have no sympathy for people who don't bother to record stuff and then complain about advertising.
Advertising is what pays for FTA, so like it or lump it...

So advertizing doesn't support Sky?? You could have fooled me..

Regards,

Old3eyes

grant_k

3539 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#663609 29-Jul-2012 14:32

old3eyes:
grant_k:
old3eyes: After Fellets somewhat arrogant comments here bout FTA coverage we would have been better for the plebs to have it on TVNZ again..

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/olympic-games/news/article.cfm?c_id=502&objectid=10822942

"?By the end of the ceremony, he agreed, Prime could no longer claim to be live, but he said that was to be expected with free-to-air television.

Fellet defended the "live" advertising, saying he did not believe it breached advertising standards.?

The days of TVNZ being able to compete with Sky for rights to events like this are gone unless:

a) The Guvmint hikes our taxes to pay for it
b) The ComCom regulates Sky

I have no sympathy for people who don't bother to record stuff and then complain about advertising.
Advertising is what pays for FTA, so like it or lump it...

So advertizing doesn't support Sky?? You could have fooled me..

I didn't say that. Prime is a FTA channel, therefore carries advertising. Whether it cross-subsidises other Sky channels is speculation, given their considerable income from subs. It could in fact be the other way around.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#663610 29-Jul-2012 14:37

IMHO Sky really butchered things.

While ads may be annoying the view that they represent income to pay for rights has to be accepted. Playing ads however and then editing out close to 30 mins of content so people missed seeing chunks of the opening ceremony is totally unaceptable.

The Sky sport SD channel carrying the live feed had a messed up 5.1 -> 2ch downmix, so that channel wasn't watchable on Sky SD or TelstraClear SD as it contained mainly the centre channel commentary, and has no stadium noise.

mattwnz

20180 posts

Uber Geek

#663613 29-Jul-2012 14:39

grant_k:
old3eyes: After Fellets somewhat arrogant comments here bout FTA coverage we would have been better for the plebs to have it on TVNZ again..

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/olympic-games/news/article.cfm?c_id=502&objectid=10822942

"?By the end of the ceremony, he agreed, Prime could no longer claim to be live, but he said that was to be expected with free-to-air television.

Fellet defended the "live" advertising, saying he did not believe it breached advertising standards.?

The days of TVNZ being able to compete with Sky for rights to events like this are gone unless:

a)? The Guvmint hikes our taxes to pay for it
b)? The ComCom regulates Sky

I have no sympathy for people who don't bother to record stuff and then complain about advertising.
Advertising is what pays for FTA, so like it or lump it...

We also pay for FTA out of our taxes, which gets distributed by NZOA. The problem is that the wrong types of things are funded, because the funding must meet certain criteria. So you get stupid talent shows and reality shows funded, which are very quickly old news. What happened to the old documentaries we used to get. Even TVNZs sunday will be cut in half for 3 months while nzs got talent is running I heard.

I think perhaps we should bring back a broadcasting fee, like they have got in the UK. Some of the things they are doing over there are amazing with the iplayer etc. The quality of their olympics coverage is a decade ahead of NZs coverage.

Sky is probably worth getting while the olympics are on, but I don't think you can just get it for 1 month, they probably have 12 month minimum contracts, and if you want a PVR to record it on, you have to pay a big upfront fee.

PaddyPatPat

33 posts

Geek

#663624 29-Jul-2012 15:06

So advertizing doesn't support Sky?? You could have fooled me..

Here's some figures from Sky's 2012 Interim report, publicly available here:
http://www.skytv.co.nz/Portals/0/Assets/AboutUs/Reports/SKY%20TV%202012%20Interim%20Report.pdf

Consolidated Interim Income Statement for the six months Ended 31 December 2011 (Unaudited). This is gross income before expenses and includes the income from Prime (although I think you have to find this out via more comprehensive documents than the one linked above.)

Revenue 31-Dec-2011(6 months) Percentage Income
residential satellite subscriptions $339,603,000 79.6%
Other subscriptions $30,201,000 7%
Installation $7,748,000 1.8%
Advertising $39,027,000 9.1%
Other income $10,283,000 2.4%
Total $426,862,000

I'm not sure the advertising it worth it. It is useful story-telling wise because it gives a safe place to go and an opportunity to think while live to air. However, I expect that if you ditched all advertising that the subscriber base would increase. Would it fully account for the ~10% loss in income. Maybe not. But still it would dramatically strengthen your product vs internet downloads and opens up other opportunities for how you use your satellite bandwidth per show in conjunction with MySky's recording ability.

(Edit: I had this all nicely formatted in a table however it seems it wont let me do that. Hopefully you can still read this. I've just spaced it all out.)

grant_k

3539 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#663625 29-Jul-2012 15:06

mattwnz: We also pay for FTA out of our taxes, which gets distributed by NZOA. The problem is that the wrong types of things are funded, because the funding must meet certain criteria. So you get stupid talent shows and reality shows funded, which are very quickly old news.

I agree 100%. The funding model was either very poorly conceived, or has been hijacked by the production companies.

mattwnz: What happened to the old documentaries we used to get. Even TVNZs sunday will be cut in half for 3 months while nzs got talent is running I heard.

Most of the good docos are on SBS or the BBC with a few on Channel 4 (UK). I have spotted a few on Choice TV as well, but mostly quite old and have seen them before.

mattwnz: I think perhaps we should bring back a broadcasting fee, like they have got in the UK.

Effectively a hike in taxes as I said before, but probably the only way to fund a channel rather than specific programmes. If a broadcasting fee was used to deliver quality docos or historical drama, I would support it, but if used to fund more reality/cooking/talent quest/Shorty St type programmes then forget it. We are inundated with those already.

mattwnz: Some of the things they are doing over there are amazing with the iplayer etc. The quality of their olympics coverage is a decade ahead of NZs coverage.

Agreed, iPlayer's download options including HD are awesome and better than you can get anywhere else AFAIK, except for movies obviously. Haven't seen the BBC's Olympic coverage as I have quite a limited broadband data cap due to being on wireless.

mattwnz: Sky is probably worth getting while the olympics are on, but I don't think you can just get it for 1 month, they probably have 12 month minimum contracts, and if you want a PVR to record it on, you have to pay a big upfront fee.

You can rent a PVR for $15 per month, but our MySky was paid for upfront, years ago when they first came out. Now it sits in a cupboard, not used anymore except for its Smart Card.

QWERTYNZ

18 posts

Geek

#664301 30-Jul-2012 22:45

Anyone else have probs with the audio? once in a while the commentary goes all weird ands sounds like it's echoing.

profrink

257 posts

Ultimate Geek

#666425 2-Aug-2012 17:59

Pretty poor coverage in regards to iSKY.

Not showing any of the Olympic channels available to subscribers on iSky is a crock.

Almost makes me forget about how terrible the video quality is.

richms

28215 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#666443 2-Aug-2012 18:46

I recon they must be intentionally squeezing the bitrate of prime on freeviewHD and the SD prime on sky to make it look that much worse than the HD version. Its the worst I have ever seen it on sky and I dont think that freeview HD is any better!

Richard rich.ms

grant_k

3539 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#666473 2-Aug-2012 19:20

richms: I recon they must be intentionally squeezing the bitrate of prime on freeviewHD and the SD prime on sky to make it look that much worse than the HD version. Its the worst I have ever seen it on sky...

Agreed -- it's a shocker!

richms: ...and I dont think that freeview HD is any better!

In the case of Prime, FreeView HD != HD which is a joke really.
I see they have renamed it to FreeView UHF because so many of the channels are only in SD.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5