Olympics on TV
Let's clear this up: HDTV limited, and broadcast not updated

By Jayda Evans
Seattle Times staff reporter

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If you're a last-minute shopper, don't worry about not having your high-definition television set in time for the 28th Summer Olympics.

NBC's HDTV feed is actually a day behind. And, in some cases, it's two years behind.

Viewers wanting to show off their spiffy sets for the opening ceremony on Friday were greeted with snow-capped mountains and figure skaters Sarah Hughes and Michelle Kwan performing medal-winning programs in footage from the 2002 Winter Olympics. It took about an hour for the network to flip to the Athens Games.

But even then the coverage was suspect.

The broadcast started with an approximate 30-minute delay from NBC's network telecast, then slowly lagged to a 24-hour delay. While American swimmer Natalie Coughlin was collecting gold in the 100-meter backstroke on the Canadian affiliate CBUT-TV yesterday, NBC HDTV was showing her first heat — from Sunday.

It was known the coverage running in 8-hour loops was going to be taped delayed, but subscribers weren't told it would be a day behind. Even a spokeswoman from Comcast, the only cable station carrying HDTV locally, thought the delays were scheduled to be an hour. NBC Universal didn't respond to questions.

Regardless, these won't be remembered as the HDTV Games. Due to setup restrictions, NBC Universal can only provide swimming, diving, gymnastics, track and field, and the medal rounds of soccer and basketball in HDTV. It'll total 339 hours of round-the-clock coverage, but the production is actually worse than NBC — if you can believe that.

I'm not talking about the picture quality. That's so crystal clear, it's as if you opened a window in your home to the action. I felt like the swimmers splashed me as they dove into the pool and tiny droplets of water pebbled on the screen. The pool-level camera capturing the motion of them cutting through the water even made me queasy, but I couldn't pull my eyes away from the spectacular picture displayed on the 50-inch set.

And the montage of scenic Greeks sites like the Parthenon, an aqua-blue domed church perched on a cliff and parasailers enjoying a picturesque view of the Aegean Sea were breathtaking.

Still, I didn't tune in to see a travel guide for Greece.
 
I wanted to see some competition but was given interviews with basketball analyst Steve Jones, still shots of water as a voiceover of analyst Dara Torres critiqued a swim, and enough sweeping landscape clips to make me feel like I was watching someone's vacation slideshow.

The broadcast is just a trial run for NBC Universal anyway. The technology has been available for six years, but only 9 percent of American homes have high-def sets. By the 2008 Beijing Games, the kinks should be worked out.

A spokesman for Comcast said any major sporting event boosts HDTV sales, such as the Super Bowl and, more locally, the Mariners. After the conclusion of the company's second quarter, which ended June 30, about 600,000 Americans had the programming nationwide.

If you did rush to sign up for Comcast's HDTV, don't fret; you still get Canadian television. DirecTV doesn't offer that or HDTV.

Bummer.

Jayda Evans: 206-464-2067 or jevans@seattletimes.com