HD CoDec Gets Maxed-out at Daytona 400 on NBC

[J. Stephen McDonald]

At the end of the long evening of HD coverage of this NASCAR race on NBC, the amount of headroom in the 1080i CoDec was demonstrated. The pit crew of winner Tony Stewart threw up a cloud of multi-colored confetti. This rapidly-moving subject matter turned the screen into a mass of pixilated squares. I suggest that one should avoid shooting confetti-filled scenes in HDV, if the broadcast HD system is so overwhelmed by it.

I thought the overall HD picture quality of this race coverage was passable, but no better than that. I see a lot of variation on HD programs in the way cameras record darker interior scenes and artificially-lit sports arenas. Is it that the lighting advisors don't know all the tricks yet for HD or that the cameras aren't light-sensitive enough or that producing perfectly-exposed images is just too expensive for TV shows?

[Mike Teutsch]

I just looked at the footage again and don't think I agree with you.

If you re-examine the footage you will see that the crew did not throw the confetti but it is what the track and NASCAR does it in vicory lane. There seems to be no wind at all and the confetti was extremely consentrated. What you think is pixilated squares is just massive amounts of confetti. Look at the top of his car and at the ground when it is done falling. They are literly covered with the stuff!

Just MHO.

Mike

[J. Stephen McDonald]

Originally Posted by Mike Teutsch

I just looked at the footage again and don't think I agree with you.

If you re-examine the footage you will see that the crew did not throw the confetti but it is what the track and NASCAR does it in vicory lane. There seems to be no wind at all and the confetti was extremely consentrated. What you think is pixilated squares is just massive amounts of confetti. Look at the top of his car and at the ground when it is done falling. They are literly covered with the stuff!

Just MHO.

Mike

Well, regardless of who tossed the confetti, much of the screen became filled with a uniform grid of multi-colored, pixilized squares, until it settled to the ground. After the confetti was no longer fluttering around, the picture returned to normal, even though it was covering everything. This is the way it looked on my HD set, from Comcast Cable. However, after visiting another forum, where numerous people from around the U.S. commented on the pixilization, it seems unclear if we all saw the same problems. Much of the pixilization and motion artifacts that were reported, may have been caused or worsened by various local OTA or cable processing and different levels of re-encoding. Several people said they saw the Fox 720p program from Daytona last Winter and described it as superior to NBC's 1080i. They said this previous race on Fox showed no artifacts or pixilization.