Olympic Opening Ceremonies

[RickNeff]

My wife and I really enjoyed the opening ceremonies in HD -- Even the 2002 Winter Olympics clips.  Even despite the late start an hour behind the SD version.

The only gripe I had was the same ol' Sony commercial.  At least it was just the one repeated endlessly.

[Tom Snyder]

I remeber the chinese water torture of the same few commercials over and over again durign the 2002 Winter Games. You think you're tired of it now? Wait til August 30th. :eek:

[GBK]

How come all other programming isn't in HD until a day later.??

the non digital station is broadcasting the games and we're stuck watching the same damn thing over and over and over on Digital???  once again proof that NBC is complete morons when it comes to HD.  why would I want to watch something I already know results to?

[StarvingForHDTV]

I thought overall it was very nice quality.  Some occasional audio pops, but no big deal.  Also around 10PM or so they repeated a segment.  That was odd.

Hard to believe Sony did their HD commercial in SD widescreen.  Duh!!!  Well, it is Sony so I'm not that surprised.

I'm looking forward to seeing the sports in HD.

Starving

[4runnergusto]

I also really enjoyed the opening ceremonies, even better that I could fast forward through all the commercials and even skip some of the athlete parade. I was into the fact that they had a live DJ (DJ Tiesto) mixing great music in the background.

As far as the delay of HD programming, I believe (someone chime in to correct me, as I am usually wrong) that it is not actually NBC doing the HD feed, rather it is part of the Olympic committee or something like that. So, NBC takes the footage, and does their "NBC thing" with it. Like I say, that is how I understand it. Now, I guess I can see where it would probably be a pretty big deal to do HD live in another country, in so many venues. I mean, look at the other post about the PGA. CBS cant even get one of the majors covered in HD. They did make a comment last night about the fact that by the next decade, this is how everything will be (meaning high definition). I guess I still wont hold my breath :rolleyes: .

Cheers,
Mark

[StarvingForHDTV]

I got a chance to watch the beginning part of the opening ceremony.  I thought it was very impressive.  Overall I think the Greeks did a magnificent job with the ceremony.  It should be tough for future host countries to compete with their quality.

Other observations:  

-The women in the wooden shoe type things which were in front of each country as they marched out, get two thumbs up.  Very nice looking women IMO.

-I think the male commentator is a super dork.  Some of his comments during the beginning were just SO bad.

-The woman commentator doesn't seem very feminine.  I don't know what she looks like, but her voice sounds pretty husky.  Kind of annoying.

-I can't stand the Sony commercial.  I hope I will never see it again, but I fear that I will.  It's this type of situation that could cause a man to break down and join TWC or do whatever it takes to get a HD DVR.....

-Was half expecting the crowd to boo the USA for being a world bully, but was pleasantly surprised with the lack of boos.

-Amazing how many countries there are in the world that I don't pay any attention to.  Some of them seem pretty interesting.

[tazman]

Unless NBC got a waiver from the FCC, I sure the heck hope they don't blow a big percentage of their time allotment on the openning cerimonies.

[Joseph S]

NBC reports 500 Trillion viewers watched the Opening Ceremonies on NBC.

(They just don't mention that it's all they showed over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Only 8 times right?)

This is absurd. An alum of my former HS won another Silver medal today and all I get is the blasted Opening ceremonies 24 hours a day for over 1.5 days.

[Bebop]

As far as the delay of HD programming, I believe (someone chime in to correct me, as I am usually wrong) that it is not actually NBC doing the HD feed, rather it is part of the Olympic committee or something like that. So, NBC takes the footage, and does their "NBC thing" with it. Like I say, that is how I understand it. Now, I guess I can see where it would probably be a pretty big deal to do HD live in another country, in so many venues. I mean, look at the other post about the PGA. CBS cant even get one of the majors covered in HD. They did make a comment last night about the fact that by the next decade, this is how everything will be (meaning high definition). I guess I still wont hold my breath  .

NBC Choose not to broadcast the events live.  There live feeds that any network that paid for the rights can use. HD is no different than regular broadcast. I'm sure the viewers in Japan are watch the games live in HD.

[GS kid]

This 1-day delay of the HD signal was the same for the Winter 2002 games. My understanding was that they don't really have a way yet of getting ratings for their digital viewers. If viewers watch on digital, they won't show up on analog's ratings. Less analog ratings, less ad revenue. They count on that you will want to watch it the same day..... so you will watch it on analog and bring the ratings money in. Then watch the great moments all over again in HD.

[StarvingForHDTV]

I no longer have analog capabilities.  I guess they don't need my rating anyway....