CBS will air the Super Bowl in 4K (but there's a catch)

[PanthersATL]

CBS will be airing the Super Bowl in 4K, but only via dedicated 4K cable channels.

It will not be available in 4K anywhere else -- including the CBS app, the Nickelodeon broadcast, or any local channel (either via antenna or otherwise).

The Paramount+ streaming service will also not be carrying the game in 4K, but will be in 1080p there.

 

[LinvilleGorge]

It's always interesting watching institutions fail. Cable TV is very on obviously going the way of the dodo but that doesn't mean it's not gonna go away without a fight to squeeze every last dime they can out of the institution's dying gasps.

[PanthersATL]

26 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

It's always interesting watching institutions fail. Cable TV is very on obviously going the way of the dodo but that doesn't mean it's not gonna go away without a fight to squeeze every last dime they can out of the institution's dying gasps.

It could be that CBS doesn't have the streaming infrastructure setup to handle a super bowl-sized audience on the 4K transcoding/distribution backend. 

It's likely a CBS decision rather than a cable company demand

[d-dave]

57 minutes ago, PanthersATL said:

It could be that CBS doesn't have the streaming infrastructure setup to handle a super bowl-sized audience on the 4K transcoding/distribution backend. 

It's likely a CBS decision rather than a cable company demand

That's what I think too.  I don't disagree that Cable Companies are good ole capitalistic institutions that strive for profit over all (and need to be reigned in), but there are some SIGNIFIGANT challenges to streaming the volume of data to the world.

[Brooklyn 3.0]

Cable isn't going anywhere. Streaming is actually more capitalistic. I do both. They got my money.

That said, I just can't get into 4k. It looks so odd.

[pantherj]

It's always been in 720p because many broadcasting companies don't want to pay to upgrade to 1080p. I've actually never seen a sporting event in 4k, but I've heard of Japan broadcasting in 8k. I've never seen anything in 8k but there are 8k tvs on the market. 

I have a 65" 4k OLED CX10 and I watch 4k HDR movies on a regular basis as I have a 4k blu-ray collection, so I'll be interested to see what football looks like in 4k. Hell I'll be interested to see it in full HD as it's always been 720p, or 1080i which is lame.

 

[pantherj]

4K on a small tv is pointless. On a large tv, say 65", you need to be about 6ft or closer to really take in the increase in resolution. The bigger the tv the better when it comes to 4k. Also, 4k that is broadcasted, say over a streaming service, will not look as good as a physical media source due to compression. Streaming 4k is second rate which is why I have a physical media collection.

[PanthersATL]

4 minutes ago, pantherj said:

It's always been in 720p because many broadcasting companies don't want to pay to upgrade to 1080p. I've actually never seen a sporting event in 4k, but I've heard of Japan broadcasting in 8k. I've never seen anything in 8k but there are 8k tvs on the market. 

I have a 65" 4k OLED CX10 and I watch 4k HDR movies on a regular basis as I have a 4k blu-ray collection, so I'll be interested to see what football looks like in 4k. Hell I'll be interested to see it in full HD as it's always been 720p, or 1080i which is lame.

 

All 4K football broadcasts are upscaled from 1080p. Lots of systems -- like the slo-mo stuff -- are limited to 1080p on the backend

Nobody is filming NFL in native 4k

[pantherj]

Right now I have Paramount+, Hulu, Netfrix, Peacock, and I just cancelled Disney+ because their Marvel and Star Wars shows are terrible. I had Max for a couple of years and I'll subscribe to that once Game of Thrones returns.

[pantherj]

2 minutes ago, PanthersATL said:

All 4K football broadcasts are upscaled from 1080p. Lots of systems -- like the slo-mo stuff -- are limited to 1080p on the backend

Nobody is filming NFL in native 4k

For the longest time it was only 720p so they must have moved up to 1080p in the last couple of years.

[PanthersATL]

8 minutes ago, pantherj said:

It's always been in 720p because many broadcasting companies don't want to pay to upgrade to 1080p. I've actually never seen a sporting event in 4k, but I've heard of Japan broadcasting in 8k. I've never seen anything in 8k but there are 8k tvs on the market. 

I have a 65" 4k OLED CX10 and I watch 4k HDR movies on a regular basis as I have a 4k blu-ray collection, so I'll be interested to see what football looks like in 4k. Hell I'll be interested to see it in full HD as it's always been 720p, or 1080i which is lame.

 

8k looks freakin' amazing when you see it live.

but we're a ways off from getting anything close to that on this side of the world. We're having trouble getting to 4k in general.

I can see 8k video boards in stadiums for locally-produced stuff, but the replay feeds won't be at that quality for a while

[pantherj]

1 minute ago, PanthersATL said:

8k looks freakin' amazing when you see it live.

but we're a ways off from getting anything close to that on this side of the world. We're having trouble getting to 4k in general.

I can see 8k video boards in stadiums for locally-produced stuff, but the replay feeds won't be at that quality for a while

Yeah I've never seen anything over native 4k, but in the coming years 8k blu-ray discs will be available. Older movies will have 6.5k resolution, and some newer movies will have 8k resolution. I doubt I'll eve see 8k streaming sports unless I watch a Japanese broadcast as they can manage it.

[Jackie Lee]

I believe the Super Bowl should be watched live on regular cable or rabbit ears. Who wants a multiple second delay just so they can view in 4k which makes things look unnatural anyways. Save it for the replay

[pantherj]

4 minutes ago, Jackie Lee said:

I believe the Super Bowl should be watched live on regular cable or rabbit ears. Who wants a multiple second delay just so they can view in 4k which makes things look unnatural anyways. Save it for the replay

I wouldn't know if I wanted it or not as I've never seen football in 4k.