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Setanta in Canada (General Discussion)

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421 - 440 of 1,420 Posts
#421 ·
Hi Polaris,
What do you mean by shocking? I don't see where you're coming from. To me, the pre-and post match programs are way ahead of any Canadian one e.g. yesterday we had 1 hour build up to the Arsenal match and about 30 minutes afterward with Macca and Ferdinand which I thought pretty interesting. So, as I say, what is it that is "shocking"?
Robin
 
#422 ·
heh, well perhaps exagerated a bit, but I am comparing to what I have seen from BBC And Skysports broadcasts when I have been in the UK. Sentanta is closer to cable access than it is them. Picture quality is overalll quite poor, quality if the studio announcers isnt all that interesting, on screen graphics are behind the times.

The commentators are quite good though; seems they just picked them up from Sky or BBC anyway, or whoever lost the rights to Sentanta in the UK.
 
#423 ·
This Guardian post compares Setanta vs. Sky to Hatton vs. Mayweather.

"At first glance Setanta Sports News looks like a market stall Chinese knock-off Sky, a weak facsimile with chip-shop lighting and Atari graphics."

Perhaps we'll get a chance to make the comparison ourselves when Setanta switches from PPV and expands their programming.
 
#424 ·
A good comparison can be seen right now. We have Champions League matches on Sentanta, TLN, and TSN at the same time.

The Sentanta PQ is HORRIBLE. There are artifacts all the time. It looks about the same as the Real Video coverage was. I get better performance from 800mb AVI files that are transcoded on my PC and then outputed to my PS3 for playback.

Good thing the football is big enough that I can make it out still! It this was a puck, we'd be out of luck!
 
#425 ·
Well, maybe I'm less discerning but I find the Setanta picture fine, and I have HDTV. I have always held the view that Setanta's PQ transmissions of Sky games is a little bit poorer than their own direct coverage - for example, the late Saturday and early Sunday EPL games have as good a PQ as any. Also, I'm pretty sure today's Setanta matches were actually from Sky who cover all games and this was certainly the case 2-3 weeks ago, the night when Liverpool played Porto. Watched only the Liverpool game today(and on my SDTV!) so can't comment but 2 weeks ago I found Setanta Champions League to be better than TSN - Champions League PQ from within Europe I often find to be poorer than from UK itself so that may also contribute to today's comment and my view a few weeks ago.
I do agree that Sky sets the standard for the others and is No.1 in UK. but our comparisons have to be Setanta v Canadian coverage and not v Sky as Sky is simply not an option. For the range of what we get I still believe $4 a week represents good value - apart from other impending offerings we have Liverpool v Man Utd Sunday, Carling Cup Blackburn v Arsenal and Chelsea v Liverpool next week and Arsenal v Spurs the first Sat game after that.
Just enjoying what I am getting.
Robin
 
#426 ·
Does Setanta actualy show Sky Sports productions, with Sky Sports graphics, of the Champions or Premier League?

Setanta uses their own feed of the matches they produce for the UK, but I thought they used the international feed of the other Premier League matches.

I think UEFA produces all the Champions League video (except for HD).

Can the poor picture quality be attributed to your provider?
 
#427 ·
I believe they do. Some games have the Seyanta logo at the bottom of the screen and the Sky one at the top, and this includes some of the rugby we see just now. A few weeks ago (the night of the Liverpool game) the program started at 1 pm and was the Sky show right up to when they asked you to press the button of your choice. There was a bit of flickering then the Liverpool game came on, as promised. The Saturday 10am game we get via Setanta Ireland but the first game is Sky and the last is Setanta as well. Next week is Carling Cup and if you watch closely I expect these to be Sky transmissions. Some may be from an international feed but Sky definitely involved as well. Way I see it is we get the best of both worlds. In UK games are specific to Sky or Setanta, with Sky having the majority whereas we get both through Setanta who musy have some international agreement with Sky.
Robin
 
#428 ·
Anyone know when the full Setanta programming is going to start? Last I heard it was 'December or January' but all deathly quiet since then. The Setanta Canada website is very late in updating this time as it is usually at least 10 days ahead. Wondering if there will one day just be a seamless change to the full program using the same channel number and delay is because this may be close to happening and don't want to put effort needlessly into a set of programs which would be quickly out of date.
 
#429 ·
The Champions League game they showed was an ITV broadcast.

I have an HDTV and HD box also, all set up properly.

I was comparing to TSN and TLN, so they are domestic comparisons. Perhaps the original source is to blame but the game on was in London (Chelsea - Valencia) so Im not sure.

The case I reported about was an obvious difference in quality. The EPL matches are better usually I agree.
 
#432 ·
Yes, found this earlier this week as well. E-mailed Setanta asking if this was the 'precursor' to the full channel and what now was the expected launch date. No response - anyone have anything at all other than 'December or January'?
 
#435 ·
Chelsea-Liverpool Carling Cup match wasnt so hot looking. Maybe this is the PAL conversion issue but they need to do a better job. It looks like a mid grade P2P internet stream.

When 800mb DIVX files look better on my TV than a TV Channel, something is wrong.
 
#436 ·
I've said before on this forum that for some reason Setanta when showing a direct Sky broadcast,as this was, seems to often have an inforior PQ to their own direct week-end or Monday broadcasts. Also, early days yet for me, but I get the impression that Score HD Sunday game is not as good PQ as NFL is.
Is there some kind of common theme here? I don't think the problem is Setanta's.
Robin
 
#437 ·
Well I don't know about the reasons, but today had to be the worst. In the Arsenal/Spurs game the players all looked like 8 feet tall and skinny as rakes. In the Villa/Man City game the signal broke up for a long period and was virtually unwatchable. And then to top it off, in the Reading/Sunderland game, we had the opposite of the first game and the players all looked fat and about 4ft 2in.

I have been more than willing to shell out the $15 per month, but surely for that money I could expect at least a half-decent product insofar as picture quality.
 
#438 ·
I can only imagine that for the Arse game they were taking the HD (anamorphic) feed from the UK, as that would explain the vertical stretching of the screen.

Very shoddy work and not very professional. Maybe a letter to Setanta to let them know of the problems will garner results.
 
#439 ·
Hi,
Again,if something is going to be a problem it occurs with b roadcats Setanta are taking from someone else. I happened to watch the Arsenal game on my 4:3 (still in bed!) and the players were tall and thin there as well. Could it be they don't have total control over what is being fed?
Once more also, the Setanta direct Man Utd game this morning was good PQ. So why always with someone else's feed, that is the question.
Robin
 
#440 ·
I can accept the fact that the problem could be in the signal they are receiving, but shouldn't they do something about it? Surely the Setanta technicians can see something isn't quite right. Are they incompetent or do they just not care? I e-mailed Setanta customer service but received a terse (no doubt automated) reply stating they were unavailable till December 27th.

Very poor service and frankly quite amateurish. If they're looking to build a subscriber base, this is not the way to go about it.
 
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