Asked that question to their support and what I got back was;

Looks decent. Also says about coverage for Bahrain:

Live on Channel 4:

1st Apr
Practice 1: 11:55am
Practice 2: 3:55pm

2nd Apr:
12:55pm: Practice 3
3pm: Qualifying

3rd Apr:
3pm: Race
11pm: Race Highlights

That's great, thank you.

HD Onboards looked nice, bit pixelated at times. Im wondering if they are 720p upscaled due to bandwidth or perhaps just very tighlty compacted in the spectrum.

From what I can remember, there were hardly any onboards in FP1 today and the few that I saw seemed to be cutting out a lot? Maybe they reduced it to 720p for FP2? idk.

They still look SD to me

It's really hard to tell by looking at anything bar the car - because its a blur and pixelated. But the edges of the car certainly show it's atleast 720p. There is also no more terrible PAL artifacts you saw on the curbs etc.


http://i.imgur.com/oJTJ0Cx.jpg

Non-exclusive Sky races will be shown on there, apparently.

Yes that is what's been said.
It will be on NOW tv too, assume as part of the Entertainment pass.

I can't help but think that it would be a much more effective marketing strategy to screen the bigger exclusive races on Sky Sports Mix, especially for the likes of USA and Mexico.

Have they not done those on Sky 1 before?
I can't see why they will not do a few.

5 Minutes from the new data channel from mid-way through FP2:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3ynf3c

The panel on the right scrolls through a few different displays including a traditional style timing display with sector times. When its displaying the sector times I think this page is better than the timing screen we currently get.

Just watching the F1 Show now - it's not just the time limit cut - it's simply not the 'F1 Show' anymore. From a light fun magazine and a little bit off free practice reaction show it is now basically post-practice coverage extended really. A massive cut-down job with just talking in the paddock for an extra half-hour. Same VTs shown from FP1/2 and a bit of chat. Waste of time on most part.

Seems FOM want to make the graphics even more basic, Engine name not even shown in driver / team graphics

http://www.mediafire.com/view/3m7617...graphic16a.png

http://www.mediafire.com/view/631xm8...graphic16b.png

http://www.mediafire.com/view/a7yx88.../graphic16.png

Probably because Rolex will get upset by Red Bull's engine supplier.

Engine name is still part of the graphics on the OnBoard-Mix:
http://i.imgur.com/ZXcGMnN.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/eCwMnJn.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/jDeNiZi.jpg


BTW now that Sky don't have the borders on there extra red button feeds they have added a driver name graphic in the bottom/right corner on the extra OnBoard feeds:
http://i.imgur.com/NDtuTFh.jpg

Also they seem to have removed the ability to switch between SSF1 audio & raw audio on the pits channel which is a bit irritating as I used to have the commentary on unless there was radio playing. You can still switch audio tracks on the OnBoard feeds though.

But that would drastically reduce the incentive to subscribe to Sky Sports.

Everyone is getting half the races free anyway so if they then put a few more on SS Mix many more people would say that's enough F1 and not bother subscribing to Sky Sports.

Why would Rolex have a problem with Aston Martin?

Aston Martin don't supply Red Bull with engines... Red Bull run a Renault engine branded as Tag Heuer

Just seen C4's 5 minute launch. Think Jenson would have been happy to throw last years Mclaren out of a cargo plane! Verdict still out on this years. Didn't do much for me though. CGI cars are a bit 'Meh'.

BTW, is Alex Brundle doing the VO on the Sure ads on Sky F1 ?

I wasn't expecting much from five minutes, maybe a quick preview of the show format, introduction to the presenting team, or at least something constructive, but that was compete and utter garbage.

I guess intros like that are not for the likes of us, so hopefully it encourages a few new viewers over the weekend.

Quite intrigued as to what Channel 4's coverage will be like anyway.

Agree - I'd anticipated some sort of welcome from the team and a few hints of what may be in the shows at the weekend at the very least. I wasn't expecting that.

Even Murray sounded strange - speeded up perhaps?

No it's Martin Brundle.

Question about the graphics; on the 'current tyre' there is a hollowed out circle and a fully coloured in circle. What's the difference between them? New and used sets?