Espn Hd

[Stanleee]

I was just wondering if anyone else notices a PQ diffrence when they have those ridiculus grey bars on the program or not? On my TV its better when they don't have them. Almost as good as sports on HD Net.Do those bars mean something or do they put them on to annoy people like me?

 

[BFG]

That means what you're watching isn't HD

 

[Stanleee]

So ESPN is only HD a tiny portion of the time? What a damn rip-off.Thanks for clearing that up for me.

 

[Fredinva]

Sure, it's a bit of a rip-off.
Then they have the kahunas to announce espn2HD and everyone complains cuz their sat co. or cable co doesn't carry espn2hd.

wth, espnhd apparently can't affored hd cameras and equipment for top roundball games every night.

fred

 

[2extreme]

I was wondering about that too. So when they just had the Pro Bowl on ESPN HD with those damn grey bars it really wasnt in HD? WTH is with that? We are paying for this why?

 

[PILMAN]

Sometimes I see the grey bars, sometimes I don't, and on the bars it says HD or whatever, HD my ass.

 

[j5races]

HD is widescreen. If you see the bars then the show is not HD. They might upconvert it to 480p or so and make the 4:3 shows (the ones with grey bars) look a little better then their regular epsn station, but if it isn't widescreen , it isn't HD. Same for all HD channels. If it has black or grey bars on the sides, its upconverted or just plain SD.

 

[PILMAN]

I'm using a plasma, normally if I watch regular SD content I have the black bars on the side, it's just a edtv plasma but I can definitely tell a quality improvement HUGE watching HDTV content, ESPN was the only one where the picture looked fuzzy and I was thinking "this can't be HD"

 

[j5races]

static images are murder on crt and plasma displays. Try to limit the use of static images (black bars, games with onscreen displays etc,) to about 15% of your viewing. Also it helps to reduce the contrast or white level down maybe 15%on your tv. They are almost always maxed to give off the brigest picture in stores. Unfortunately, panasonic or sony etc, dont know which tv the guys at best buy or circuit city etc. will unbox and put on display, so every tv is maxed out and this give you a washed out picture, reduces the life of the tv, and increase the chances of burn-in....

Jon

 

[PILMAN]

static images are murder on crt and plasma displays. Try to limit the use of static images (black bars, games with onscreen displays etc,) to about 15% of your viewing. Also it helps to reduce the contrast or white level down maybe 15%on your tv. They are almost always maxed to give off the brigest picture in stores. Unfortunately, panasonic or sony etc, dont know which tv the guys at best buy or circuit city etc. will unbox and put on display, so every tv is maxed out and this give you a washed out picture, reduces the life of the tv, and increase the chances of burn-in....

Jon

I appreciate you telling me this but I already know much about burnin and the contrast settings. I visit avsforums all the time. I've already gone through avia and configured my set and the picture is fine, it's not too bright and I rarely ever get ghosting even with blackbars. The only time I get ghosting is if I were to pause something and leave it there for about 10-15 minutes. Permanent burn in takes much longer. People have discussed accidently leaving the tv on overnight or there wife to fall asleep and they were worried about burnin but it turned out to be bad ghosting. Yes stores do have settings on highest and I learned this the hard way buying a Daewoo plasma 3 years ago at sams club and it was at max contrast. I always wondered why after 5 minutes I had the lines from the black bars burned in. My new set which I bought about a year ago is fine though so I am indeed very careful.