posted
Is anybody else watching ESPNU's broadcast of the Miami-Florida State Game?! This is a freaking train wreck. I hope (against hope) that they decide during half-time to quit this experimental crap and have a normal broadcast in the second half.
Instead of play by play and color commentary, they are having "ESPNU Full Circle In the Herd." Basically, Colin Cowherd, who hosts a weekday radio show on ESPN, is broadcasting the game. But he's not doing play by play or anything like that. Instead, he's doing what amounts to an AM sports radio show while we watch the game. He's interviewing people, having discussions on UM and FSU in general, but not really commenting much o the game, except in an op-ed sort of way. What I'm finding is that because his talking does not follow the plays or pause for them or anything, I am getting distracted from the action on the field, and finding that I will miss a play or two by not paying attention to what I see, but to what I hear.
So I turned the sound off and found WQAM's feed (Miami). It's about ten seconds behind the video, though, so that's hardly a good solution.
But ESPN's problems go beyond the audio. They are using those skyzone cameras that I think are awesome for instant replays, but absolutely suck for a main view. Let me ask you a question . . . if you could have any seat in the stadium, would you prefer one on the sideline, or one in the endzone? For myself, I would prefer to see the game from the side. This is why endzone tickets are normally cheaper. So why the heck am I seeing this game on TV from behind?!
When any play goes far downfield, like a pass, complete or otherwise, or like a punt, the cameramen lose complete view of the play. There was a fair catch early in the first quarter, and the camera missed it entirely, it was just sweeping from left to right, desperately seeking the ball. A few minutes ago, Kyle Wright threw a 28-yard pass down to the ten yard line, but I didn't see it, and neither did anybody else in TV-Land, because the cameraman chose to follow Kyle Wright getting knocked down after the pass left his hand instead.
And FINALLY, fully one third of the screen is obscured at all times! The bottom 30% of so of the screen had a crawl which includes, at all times the phrase "ESPNU FULL CIRCLE IN THE HERD" and video of Cowherd doing his show! Why on earth does anyone need to see the guy talking during a football game?!
GAH!!
I hope I never see a broadcast like this again, and I just regret they picked a game I wanted to see to get experimental on.
posted
Okay, I just discovered that tvguide.com lied to me when their crappy search engine indicated that the game was oly being shown on ESPNU, when in fact it is being broadcast on ESPN in a normal, play by play, side view fashion. GAH. I watched three quarters of the stinking game on skycam, listening to it on the radio with a ten second delay, and I could have been watching it on ESPN all along!!
So now this is a thread about how much TVGuide.com's search engine sucks!
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
I watched it on ESPN and everyonce in a while they'd show the "other" ways they were showing it and every time I said "Man, that would give me such a freakin headache." Freakin awesome game though! I hope you're not a Miami fan. And by the by, I'm relatively new to the college football scene ... do all refs act as goofy as this one did?
Oh, and for the record, the streets of Tallahassee are cccrraazzzyyy right now. I'm never gonna be able to get to sleep.
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I watched the ESPNU broadcast through much of the first half, because I like Cowherd and loathe the actual commentators. My complaints, and those of my viewing partner, are much the same as Icarus.
Namely: (1) The camera work was off the wall horrendous. It was a train wreck. The skycam is cool, but if it's gonna be your primary you darn well better get an operator who knows how to drive it. Many plays the guy would lose the ball and follow the fake. Or stay with the QB after the pass. That's great when you have other cameras, but when you're the only one you have to follow the freaking action!
(2) The giant bar took up an estimated 25% of the screen. And it offered nothing that was worth looking at. It was a live feed of Cowherd doing a freaking radio show!. Radio. It goes in your ears, i.e. there's nothing to watch. Get it off the screen. A miserable call to put that travesty up there.
(3) Cowherd. I love the guy -- perceptive, funny, and irreverent. But if he's gonna be the only source of audio during the game he has to stay with the action more. I didn't expect play-by-play, but at least give a nod to what's going on onfield.
The good: (1) No crappy pandering commentators. I watched the second half HD broadcast, and though the camera work was a breath of fresh air I yelled at the announcers waaaay more. Stop telling me what I can clearly see with my own two eyes and what anyone with a full set of chromosomes already knows.
(2) Extra features. Live interviews with old coaches, old players, live sideline stuff, and tons of stats an analysis that isn't spoonfed. Cowherd talks like you already know what's going on, which I like.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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