[mythtv-users] The HDTV Olympics Thread {RE: things missing fromOTA HDTV, firewire, comcast, etc etc}

[Misty P]

Blammo wrote:
> So I've been plugging along happily for quite a few years with OTA
> HDTV on my Myth cluster.. Last week my S.O. informs me that since the
> olympics are coming on multiple HDTV channels we can't get over the
> air (smart girl there) we're going to have to get
> Comcast/DirectTV/fill-in so she can watch the HDTV feeds.

(snip)

> So, what's the current recommendation for HDTV recorded access to
> those two channels? Anyone doing firewire-HD? Am I going to have to
> put up with the craptastic HD-PVR for a couple months? I have several
> QAM64/256 tuners, but I suspect even with a full-blown-subscription,
> those two channels will still be fully encrypted.

Doooonnnn't doooooooo ittttttt!

Seriously, NBC's HD coverage of the winter olympics could only realistically 
be described as CRAPtacular.  LOTS of events were simply 16x9 SD feeds 
scaled up to HD; jaggie city!  What's worse is (IIRC) they included such 
garbage feeds in their totals of "HD" content.   Further, due to how they 
framed a lot of events, they often blew over their MPEG bandwidth, so 
macroblocking on some events was super common.  (Go read the old threads on 
AVS forums for more.)

More to the point, after having access to the whole thing the last time I'd 
*never* go to any lengths whatsoever to get those feeds.  Not only are you 
"treated" to every single National Enquirer-style expose on every athlete 
you didn't care about, but you also get every match you didn't care about...

Ecuador Vs. Columbia in basketball...  Ecuador wins!
Ecuador Vs. UAE in basketball...  UAE wins!
and now...  archery qualifications for six hours straight.  first up, XYZ 
from the bahamas!  (fail)

The truth of the matter is that the interesting stuff is shown on NBC 
proper.  Unless you have a burning desire to see ALL of the basketball first 
round games, or have a relative in a sport you think is under-covered, 
simply not worth bothering.

(And the nice thing is that since you'll be using a DVR, you can skip the 
exposes and go straight to the 8.5 minutes of actual event coverage / hour!)