We noticed some problems with this LAST season (at the stations I'm with). In our case it was actually a need to make a transmitter adjustment, as when we looked at the direct NBC HD feed coming into the building it was pristine. I watched a good chunk of last night's game at home using an antenna and it was gorgeous. Sean

If you really wanted to confirm this, someone should try receiving NBC as an off air signal. This will take cable, satellite compression out of the mix. This will include weatherplus in that spectrum. You could do a better comparison of football games between the 3 networks by using an antenna and seeing what kind of artifacts you see or not.

Weather plus was a suspect. I agree. How much local weather information do I need? In the event of a weather emergency it could be an excellent resource, but they would change their programming on the main channel anyway. No offense to The Weather Channel, I watch it every morning before work. This morning the local NBC Weather plus had paid programming on it. Alas guess I'll have to deal with it. Thanks for the info. Michelle

[quote="Mike Cumbo"]Perhaps NBC had to fall back to their backup transmission path for that game? To be honest I have not watched any Sunday Night Football, have you noticed this in previous games?[/quote] NBC has had a long time, well documented problem with their HD transmission chain. By the time the signal gets home it's a fun game of count the macroblocks. I hear they send out upwards of 60Mbit/s from site so who knows what happens to the signal between there and home. Some people blame the weatherplus sub channel.

Crosspoint Latch switcher had the funny little stepped toggle type switches. I think it is an ISI switcher. We had one like it at a cable station I worked at many moons ago. Happy punching, punch monkeys! Scott

Perhaps NBC had to fall back to their backup transmission path for that game? To be honest I have not watched any Sunday Night Football, have you noticed this in previous games?

Yes Sunday night Football. I've only really noticed this compresion on the game and not their other programming so I thought it was something further up the chain. Keep an eye out for the commercial I'm really interested in what sort of switcher it was.

Is Perry my Cat referring to NBC's Sunday Night Football? It looks pretty good here. I agree about the cable or dish outlet being the culprit. For that matter, I guess it could be the affiliate as well. -Chris Bade

Cable does compress the shit out of HD, compared to DirecTV, anyway. Also, I believe ESPN is 720p while many other networks broadcast HD in 1080i, so if you have DirecTV, and a plasma that shows both flavors of HD in their full glory, you'll notice a difference there. ESPN claims progressive scan works better for sports because of fast-moving action, but I've never seen the benefit of it - 1080i just looks better to me, period.

Didn't see the commercial. As for the compression, I doubt that ESPN is doing it on their end. It may be your cable provider or satellite company.