TV coverage gripes

[beelsebob]

Each nation provides their own TV coverage, and feed it to the FIA for their world-wide coverage. That's why, for example, at the event provided by the German feed, we see tons of slow-motion video of cars bouncing over curbs, and so on.

Not true. Actually, what happens is that the FIA provides one video feed for all TV companies to use. The TV companies then optionally place their own commentary over the top of the video. That's why you commonly get commentators complaining about the director being a moron, as well as yourselves.

For me, the overhaul is needed for a simple reason – living in the US now, I have almost no ability to watch the races.

[Pup]

Well it used to be a combination of FOM and the local...wait...

Is this thread FOUR YEARS OLD?!?

[beelsebob]

Apparently, yeh... Talk about back from the dead.

[Pup]

LOL

.

[astracrazy]

still needs a massive improvement in sound.....

[Manoah2u]

Well it used to be a combination of FOM and the local...wait...

Is this thread FOUR YEARS OLD?!?

[Miguel]

The sad thing is, this thread has been dead for almost four years. Four! And what have we got in exchange?

• HD coverage (In 2012! Yay!)
• More frequent updates on the people off the top 8
• Some IR cameras
• A small amount of on-helmet SD cameras that aren't wide enough (in like 3 races)
• A rotating camera that's pointing to a wall 33% of the time.
• Now the BBC only shows half the races [OK, mod(Races/2)]
• Podium interview where you can learn four letter words

I feel the list of updates is pretty sad, given what's seen in other racing series. The TV direction still misses at least half the fun, everybody knows about green and purple sectors in qualy (and the race!) but it's completely ignored, it's almost impossible to get technical explanations outside Scarb's blog or this forum (coanda? FRIC? F-duct? diffuser sealing? rake? Forget it), the radio is of abysmal quality, the audio is a mild projection of the extreme feeling it is in real life, you get the idea.

[astracrazy]

+1

really in 3 years it hasn't moved at all

[SectorOne]

As far as the sound goes it´s a very obvious reason you can´t unleash the whole sound of an F1 car.
If anyone has heard even an F1 car on idle next to you, you will realize that doing commentary over that is a no no.

If you want better sound you need to get a hold of natural sound broadcasts. It´s like night and day and you hear all the nice odd sounds from an F1 car much better.

[BanMeToo]

As far as the sound goes it´s a very obvious reason you can´t unleash the whole sound of an F1 car.
If anyone has heard even an F1 car on idle next to you, you will realize that doing commentary over that is a no no.

If you want better sound you need to get a hold of natural sound broadcasts. It´s like night and day and you hear all the nice odd sounds from an F1 car much better.

You are right, but it would be nice if commentary was made a bit more quiet compared to the cars (pick any English broadcast, the blathering is just too loud.) At the very least, give us some louder onboard shots.


Many months ago there was a rumor that the 2014 cars would finally be equipped with HD cameras... has anyone heard whether or not it is actually happening?

[Manoah2u]

i do admit tho, when i noticed the thread and started reading it [actually from page 1] i first didn't even realise it was that old...imagine how little changed.

[Paul]

What happened to overlays of different cars going through the same corner? I thought that was pretty enlightening...

[adrianjordan]

i do admit tho, when i noticed the thread and started reading it [actually from page 1] i first didn't even realise it was that old...imagine how little changed.

Ditto!! It was only when someone was complaining that we don't have HD coverage and I thought...yes we do, where are they from, then noticed the date on their post...that I realised it was an old thread!!

[Rhino]

I was wondering if anybody else notices delays in the audio... Last season, during almost all races broadcast, there was a delay of 1 second, even more at some races, where the sound lags the video feed. Some probably don't care much about it, but I find it very frustrating to watch when the audio and video does not match - seeing a car visibly accelerating but still hearing down changes kills me.

Did anybody else notice such delays as described above? We live in South Africa and if I'm not mistaking we receive an HD feed from Sky.

[Rhino]

Last week's qualifying and race was such a pleasure to watch with video and audio perfectly in sync. Today's TV coverage of qualifying in Bahrain, however, was once again a pain to watch with the sound being more than a second (actually closer to 2 seconds) ahead of the visuals.

Did anybody else notice this? I am still unsure if this is a problem which originates at the source of the TV coverage or if the delays are introduced later in the chain to bring the broadcast to various countries. I'm not at all aware how these things work. I stay in Cape Town and the footage we receive has David Coulthard as one of the commentators.

I noticed the out of sync video and audio many many times over the last number of years, and I think I can conclude that the problem does not originate with my TV provider. The reason for me saying this is that other parts of the F1 broadcasts are in sync - when we see interviews with drivers on the open bus prior to a race the audio is always spot on, but in the actual race it is often out of sync on the same day.

I would appreciate if someone could share their experiences in their countries on the subject...