Hoops

NBL confirms every game live on NBL TV

1. NBL website needs to update more quickly Ladder wise, for every other league the moment full time hits, the ladder changes. This morning, it still has every team at 0.

2. Bit of a scoreboard stuff up on the front page: didn't have the scores, and had old broadcast logos of Nine and Fox Sports.

3. NBL App, really not a fan - would love to see it more slick, similar to AFL app, in particular look at the way they set out live scores/match day, and their ladder

4. Sports Centre coverage was great, loved it, but that wasn't live and there wasn't any actual pre-game build up to get you into the atmosphere of the game itself.

5. Not having commentators there is killing it, particularly pre game/halfway/end of game. NBL's plan/idea ain't going to work.

What I did love is the new graphics and the scoreboard. I swear the score was updated before the ball even went into the rim - must be delay of footage to deliver that? It drove me crazy expecting the score to change and realising it already had.

NBL TV providing a game spoiler below the title in the replay is an amateurish mistake.

"The only very minor issue was I signed in during the first quarter and it said the game hadn't started yet I had to wait 2-3 minutes until it goes live. Once it went "live" the first quarter was ending and it was going to an ad break."

This appears to be an error relating to the timezone on your PC/device. It seems to assume you are in the local timezone and waits until 7:30pm on your device to activate the link to the stream. Change the timezone on your PC to check it out.

Another issue appears to be the disabled skip forward/backward 10 seconds (using right/left on PC) feature that NBL.tv had in previous seasons.

On the positive side, there seems to be improvements in stream quality for both live and replays. 1080 works well in both. There is also now a speed feature a la Youtube that allows you to replay the game at faster/slower speeds (x0.5, x0.75, x1.25, x1.5, x1.75, x2).

I'd personally prefer the skip forward feature a la NBA. I've always wanted replays to combine both features into one, such that it could play at say x2/x4 for 10 seconds of game action at the click of a button.

I watched the game live on NBL TV it worked great and good game too.

The only very minor issue was I signed in during the first quarter and it said the game hadn't started yet I had to wait 2-3 minutes until it goes live. Once it went "live" the first quarter was ending and it was going to an ad break.

I assume because it's all set up in AEDT but daylight saving doesn't start until Sunday that will only be an issue for the first round.

SBS on demand was easy and first class.

60 was a typo - meant 50.

ESPN is 720p (progressive scan) 50hz meaning that the whole screen is refreshed at once 50 times a second.
Fox Sports (and all the other HD channels in Australia) is 1080i (interlaced scan) 50hz meaning that half the screen is refreshed at anytime.

Back when HD was introduced ESPN (in America) chose to go with 720p (60 Hz over there, 50 Hz here) rather than 1080i because there's less blur with the higher refresh rate of the whole screen and for sport that would be better (they were wrong).

1080p/i both have twice as many pixels as 720p and that's why it looks less crisp.

Australia and all former PAL countries use 50 Hz as a holdover from anolouge TV and our power alternating at 50Hz. US use 60Hz as their power is 60Hz (but less amps, off topic though)

I was quoting the Aus version specs - it's the same anyway as apart from local content it's all beamed in direct from the US.

I remember back in the pre-HD stone age era when ESPN's NTSC source was converted to PAL. Now that was an utterly disgusting shitfest of picture quality.

ESPN is 720p50 in the US, do we know that's true of the Australian version as well?

And no, the alternative isn't 1080i60, it's 1080i50.

Come to think of it NBL as host broadcasters would film in 1080p/i 60hz. Problem is ESPN are 720p 50hz so downscaling creates this awful picture whereas SBS is fine from the same source.

Fantastic coverage on sbs, no streaming problems and super clear.

ESPN 720p 50hz.

I think the 50hz being too low causes this affect.

ESPN is only 720p and probably a lower frame rate. It sucks.

SBS, Fox et al are 1080.

I should add I always watch the games on FTA TV too for the reason above just watch NBL TV for the non-FTA games.

Live streaming is measured in the ratings but yes fair point Zodiac. As long as everyone watches games on at least one platform.

I suspect NBL TV is measured, but watching on SBS/ESPN is probably the best - for them to justify showing NBL they need eye balls on their advertising, so it doesn’t help nearly as much when NBL TV doesn’t share their advertising.

I think that’s why the NBL is so hesitant to promote NBL TV. They won’t take it away because they want as much reach as possible, but they don’t want to pull viewers away from SBSondemand or Viceland or ESPN

I’ve kept nbl tv as well but I’m thinking of going to sbs so my ratings get measured and hopefully more media and coverage, or am I fooling myself???

I like subscribing to NBL TV because it's only $5 a month and for everything LK has done for the league I'm showing my appreciation and even though all the games are also live on SBS on Demand I would prefer not to have to sign up to another service if it can be avoided.

No reason to sub for NBL TV really unless you want the condensed games

Yes, it does.

Does SBS app allow chromecasting to TV?

If so I will try that.