Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
There were only two drivers battling for pole today; of the 6 different splits (3 for each), only 1 was shown on the screen. That's the dictionary definition of incompetency. FXXXng idiots...
Education is that which allows a nation free, independent, reputable life, and function as a high society; or it condemns it to captivity and poverty.
-Atatürk
I live in the USA and I pay a premium to watch F1 on NBCSN. I continue to debate whether or not I want to pay this fee to watch Mr.E's flying circus. However, I must say that I am satisfied with the broadcast. The team of David Hobbs, Steve Matchett and Will Buxton has been excellent over the years with Speed Channel and NBCSN. While I disagree with the use of DRS and am not a fan of KERS or TERS boost, I believe the use of the on screen technical indicators is essential to understand the race. If I could change one thing, I would let David Hobbs do the job of Leigh Diffey, and bring in a driver who has raced at top levels more recently who will be able to discuss what exactly what the drivers are doing and specifically what the problems may be. For example, it would have been interesting to hear the perspective of a recent driver discuss Mark Weber's launch woes.
Really wish they would stop cutting to shots of someone leaving the pits when previously watching someone on a hot lap. WE DON'T CARE IF THEY ARE LEAVING THE PITS. Morons.
Nothing that has been really annoying, but that may be due to the way SPEED Channel and now NBCSN has managed the broadcast. We might see Will Buxton perform an interview before the race, and mouths always move with the words. Once the race, quali or practice begins, it is all race. Track interviews are always audio only. The post quali and post race interviews always have the words properly timed with the mouth movements. The only synch issues evident during the race, quali or practice seems to be the result of the FIA director not communicating to the NBCSN broadcast team. In these cases one might hear Steve Matchett say "I suspect that..." and then moments later the FIA feed will broadcast a radio transmission affirming Matchett's suspicion. I have occasionally wondered if Matchett hears the feed moments before we at home do, but only because of his uncanny ability to be right. Also, occasionally Steve Matchett will be attempting to show something on the telestrator and the FIA will change the image before he is finished. Because I do like his insight so much, I do find this a bit annoying, but nothing to cry about.
Jeeeeez I've said from the moment they took over NBC sucks.
They've crammed in more commercials..they start late and end early every qualifying.
We now have to put up with the idiot that is Will Buxton.
All you cats that think the side by side is a good thing...think it through,,they keep adding more and more and you think that's great...How ya gonna feel when the whole race is one long side by side advert?
To achieve anything, you must be prepared to dabble on the boundary of disaster.”
Sir Stirling Moss
I'm in the U.S. and must pay for the broadcast, so I get to gripe! As a whole, the U.S. commentary team stinks.
Diffy has a grating accent. Hobbs is just too old and has no recent relevant driving experience. When did he drive in F1? The 1960s? When did he last drive a race car of any type in anger? Matchett used to be bad with his constant harping on sector times. He's gotten better, but is still a little too geeky.
I can't get the BBC broadcast, so I can't comment on that announcing team.
The U.S. team isn't even in the league of the Sky team. Sky has more than one announcer with relatively current experience in the modern, high downforce cars, including a World Champion. And, importantly, they are at the track. Do you hear any of the U.S. guys say, like Martin Brundle does during winter testing or practice :" I'm standing in turn 9, and let me tell you, the XXX and the YYY are really planted. ZZZ and AA are having real difficulties turning in." Sky has lots of graphic aids helping to analyze the action, almost always presented by a very high level driver. The U.S. telestrated stuff my Matchett isn't even close.
I like Sky so much, that I listen to them and watch the U.S. video feed with the sound off. I watch the Sky feed when the U.S. commercials come on that don't have a race/ad split screen. There are sometimes sync issues, but it's much better than the watching the U.S. guys.
edit: And I agree, Buxton is just a Gen Z airhead.
Let's face it. Pretty much everybody on the F1Technical forum has been watching F1 and every other type of motorsport long enough that we do not need David Hobbs or Martin Brundle to tell us that the XXX is oversteering on the exit of a turn, we can see it for ourselves. Even if we don't have the on screen technical indicators, we can pretty much guess where various drivers are using KERS, and DRS. We see the tire colors, and watch the times. We are the uber-nerds. The broadcast team isn't for us anyway. The broadcast team is for the newbie viewers, to help them understand things, and to this end I think the NBCSN team is fine. Now, if they had a broadcast geared towards the uber-nerds...hell yes I'd watch it. However, having grown up watching 6am broadcasts on ESPN with Sir Jackie Stewart as the sole voice-over, I must say that F1 broadcast has come a long way, and I don't have a problem with it.
In Australia we have our local commentators (who are terrible) but during the races we get the sky commentary. Last night's qualifying had the sound probably 5 seconds behind the video. Unbelievable a multi million dollar broadcast cannot get it right, yet a random dude streaming the sky broadcast online has it working perfectly.
@flyboy So I've never used sky. I have only just begun to investigate. It appears to be a pay service (no surprise) in England. Are you paying for this service, or is there something I am missing?
Oridori wrote:Really have to agree here with toto. I'm working as a sound engineer myself and knowing how a F1 car sounds for real always makes me wonder how they manage to make them sound that crap on TV.
Also, from the visual POV, it's far from inovative - seeme like someone's done this job for ages and refuses to get away from how he's done that ever since. Really amazing (in a not so positive way [-X )
I'm just a HT enthusiast with $10k of speakers and a $3k AVR and the sound has been terrible for years! However this year is just a new low!
IMO the TV broadcast sounds like they have Dynamic Range Compression on max - as an experiment I played a decent sounding test YouTube clip thru my ATV2 with DRC On and Off as a back to back test .... And guess what, with DRC on it sounded just like the tv broadcast!
I suspect they may do this due to all the flat screen tv's out there with 5c audio systems in them.
Cold Fussion wrote:In Australia we have our local commentators (who are terrible) but during the races we get the sky commentary. Last night's qualifying had the sound probably 5 seconds behind the video. Unbelievable a multi million dollar broadcast cannot get it right, yet a random dude streaming the sky broadcast online has it working perfectly.
Weird, I watched it on my TiVo this morning (recorded from ONE Melbourne) and the audio was in sync.
@Cold Fussion, I subsequently found out our coverage comes from the BBC (David Coulthard and Ben Edwards). The confusing part to me is that some had picture and sound perfectly in sync... so strange.
Let's hope that in today's race we will not hear a car accelerating though at least two gears while it is still visibly braking with smoke coming from a locked front inside wheel
I don't get it. USA citizens are watching F1 on a pay channel in the USA and still get commercial breaks? This is weird, Free Practices excluded maybe but commercial breaks during Qualifying and the Race is something for free-to-air channels...
