# Here is why the Indy 500 is not in HD?



## Fluffybear (Nov 10, 2000)

I was just waiting for someone to bring this up but have not seen it yet. I explain this every year so here we go again.

Do not be angry with ABC or your local affliate. Address all your hate mail to the Indy Racing Legaue themselves especially the cheif cheapskate himself, Tony George..

The Indy 500 is not in HD and may not be for a long time as Tony George & The Indy Racing League own the Television Rights.

Tony George set up a production company, Indy Racing Productions and owns Television (& Radio) rights to the Indy 500. IRP hires a local production company to provide camera footage (A pool feed) to a broadcast center where broadcast partners who have paid for the right to air that footage manipulate it and broadcast it to their respective areas.

Pool feeds are very common and used in many live televised events including some sporting events, news conferences, court trials, senate hearings, etc.. Chances are if the event is being televised to more then one area or by multiple outlets it is going to be a Pool feed.

Tony George said in an article about 3 years ago that he will not spend any money converting to HD equipment until it is deemed absolutely necessary.

The bottom line for Tony George is money and broadcast rights for his major players such as ABC do not expire for many years to come so there is no incentive to upgrade. He is going to get the same money from ABC (and other broadcast partners) if he spends millions upgrading to HD or not. When you are a greedy SOB like Tony George who could care less about you and I (we are thieves in his eyes as we watch it on TV for free rather then buying a ticket to his track and putting more money in his pocket).


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## Gregor (Feb 18, 2002)

Damn shame.


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## murgatroyd (Jan 6, 2002)

Some of us would rather be at home where we don't get hit by flying debris.

If he thinks I'm a thief, so be it. As far as I'm concerned, FedEx and the other advertisers paid for my ticket. <shrug>

Jan


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## Hollywood49 (May 28, 2006)

Wow, what a finish. Too bad I just ordered my first TiVo on Thursday, and opted for the free shipping. I would love to have recorded this and have it for posterity...


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## michael1248 (Feb 14, 2002)

That is why NASCAR is on the way up....and the IRL and/or CART or whatever they're calling it now are self-destructing before our eyes. :down:

The (*NASCAR!!!*) Coca Cola 600...in HD...is currently rocking on FOX! :up: :up: :up:


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## jsmeeker (Apr 2, 2001)

And I remember when everyone used to dump on Fox when they were doing only 480p for some things while everyone else was doing actual HD. I really need an HDTV. I've never seen a NASCAR race in HD.


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## super dave (Oct 1, 2002)

I tuned into the race and saw it wasn't in HD, tuned to the Phillies game and watched that instead, because it was in HD. There isn't much on in the daytime in HD, so I don't watch much daytime TV, but I will tune in an HD program every now and then. My local PBS runs an HD channel all day at 1080i, nice picture.


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## thebishman (Aug 20, 2005)

The IRL is a joke of a series imho anyway. Having the race not be in HD and hearing Tony George's reasons why, only cement my loathing for the man who single-handedly destroyed open-wheel racing in the US. Champ Car deserves much better than being associated with him again in the future if both series decide to 'merge'.
Bish


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## murgatroyd (Jan 6, 2002)

One of the guys doing commentary slipped up and referred to the race as the Daytona 500. 

Jan


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## HomieG (Feb 17, 2003)

murgatroyd said:


> One of the guys doing commentary slipped up and referred to the race as the Daytona 500.
> 
> Jan


Yea, but that was in HD


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## Fluffybear (Nov 10, 2000)

murgatroyd said:


> One of the guys doing commentary slipped up and referred to the race as the Daytona 500.
> 
> Jan


About the only thing I can think of that would have been worse is refering to Brent Musberger as Darrell Waltrip and thanking everyone for watching NASCAR on Fox..

We can thank Tony George for screwing up the Indy 500 to where it is today. The best thing they can do is merge back with the Champ series and bring the race into the 21st century and mend some fences. That would probably mean getting rid of Tony George and since he worships the almight dollar and they are making a bundle, I am not sure if that is going to happen anytime soon.


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## Wig (Dec 21, 2001)

Thanks for the info - I thought it was the local broadcaster... (who usually screw up big HD events <g>).


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## Fluffybear (Nov 10, 2000)

I remember the days (dating myself here) when ABC use to show the race in prime time and the only way to get the race live was to hear it on radio. If my memory serves (second thing to go - forget the first), the race started a couple of hours earlier too as I remember it starting about 7am Pacific.


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## vertigo235 (Oct 27, 2000)

I would probably do the same thing he's doing. I would only come forward and offer HD if it means I could charge more (to cover my increased costs of course). I'm sure if ABC, or whoever came to Tony and offered him more money to provide an HD feed, he would pony up if it made economical sense.


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## Sherminator (Nov 24, 2004)

So Central Indiana isn't the only area which doesn't get the race live.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

It is cars driving in a circle. What benefit is there to seeing this in HD?


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## Sherminator (Nov 24, 2004)

If you were watching the race on a HDTV, how would you like to view it? Blurry with 1/6 of your display unutilized, or pin sharp with the entire screen filled?


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

I would wonder how long until the men in the white coats were going to take to arrive, since I would have escaped from a nuthouse before watching such nonsense.

And my HDTV sets are both 4:3, since 90% of what I watch is still 4:3 material. I don't understand the infatuation with having the whole screen filled. I have watched letterbox material since the 80's. Black bars don't bother me.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

Sherminator said:


> 1/6 of your display unutilized


Even worse, it's actually 1/4.


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## nsdp (Jun 4, 2002)

Bernie Ecclestone. He runs Formula One and has decreed that every one will broadcast in HD by 2009. If Tony wants to keep his TV rights for Formula One he will have to comply. Otherwise someone else will get top do the feed. Maybe Speed Vision. Bob Varsha and David Hobbs would do a better job than the group Tony has.


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## Sherminator (Nov 24, 2004)

Arcady said:


> I would wonder how long until the men in the white coats were going to take to arrive, since I would have escaped from a nuthouse before watching such nonsense.
> 
> And my HDTV sets are both 4:3, since 90% of what I watch is still 4:3 material. I don't understand the infatuation with having the whole screen filled. I have watched letterbox material since the 80's. Black bars don't bother me.


A human with both eyes functioning views the world in 16:9, so having a TV picture in the same aspect ratio would draw the viewer into the action more that a show being displayed at 4:3.


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## Phantom Gremlin (Jun 20, 2002)

nsdp said:


> Bernie Ecclestone. He runs Formula One and has decreed that every one will broadcast in HD by 2009. If Tony wants to keep his TV rights for Formula One he will have to comply. Otherwise someone else will get top do the feed. Maybe Speed Vision. Bob Varsha and David Hobbs would do a better job than the group Tony has.


Huh?

SpeedTV, Varsha, Hobbs, and Matchett did the F1 race (sad as it was) last year. SpeedTV was the host broadcaster. Will the broadcast arrangements be any different this year?


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## jbradway (Sep 30, 2001)

Arcady said:


> It is cars driving in a circle. What benefit is there to seeing this in HD?


Yes and other pro sports are just guys playing around with stick and balls. Somehow us knuckle draggers like watching them in HD anyway. Who woulda thunk it?


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## super dave (Oct 1, 2002)

I'm still considered a newbie when it comes to HD, I'd watch grass grow just to watch HD. Actually I think I do watch grass growing on my local PBS HD channel


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## rugby (Aug 13, 2005)

I actually drove to Chicago and saw family just to watch the race. I had to suffer and watch it on a 20" analog tv instead of my nice 53" panny HD set at home.


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## Indiana627 (Jan 24, 2003)

jsmeeker said:


> I really need an HDTV. I've never seen a NASCAR race in HD.


Sunday's NASCAR race was my first in HD and it was pretty amazing. I didn't watch the whole thing, but did check it out. I've had my HDTV for a week now, and even found myself watching NBA game because it was in HD last night (have not watched since Jordan retired for good). Felt like I was at the game in the stands. Now if I could only record HD!


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## DLR (Sep 17, 2002)

I watched about 30-40 laps of the NASCAR race. During that time the announcers were discussing the apparent increase in debris on the track. One of them mentioned that he believes there is not an increase in debris, but that the HD feed allows them to see the smaller pieces! It was a short, but well deserved reference to the superiority of HD.

I listened to the last 50 laps of the Indy 500 on the radio. It brought back good memories, and I didn't miss a thing. IMO Tony George and the rest of the open wheel dopes helped kill a struggling series.


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## JimSpence (Sep 19, 2001)

HD is about having a sharper picture. It could have been left in 4:3, as long as the resolution was higher. However, sporting events benefit from the wide screen.


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## wallyj (Jun 2, 2004)

Yeah, that was a total bummer to turn it on and see the crappy SD picture.

Figures that mega-rich jackass Tony George would be the problem.


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## ad301 (Dec 21, 2001)

Don't bitter CARTisans have better places to spew their bile?


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## smak (Feb 11, 2000)

I'm not much of a racing fan of any genre, but the fact that I can name dozens of NASCAR racer's names, and the only name I can name in any other racing league is Danica Patrick for obvious reasons, lends me to believe that this guy's penny pinching ways about HDTV are not the only thing he's doing to screw up the sport.

-smak-


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## ad301 (Dec 21, 2001)

smak said:


> I'm not much of a racing fan of any genre....-smak-


Well, more informed fans than you have been debating this issue for 10 years. The roots of open wheel racing's decline, in the opinion of many, go back to 1979 when CART staged a coup to wrest control of the sport from USAC. The owners, most of whom had road-racing backgrounds, turned the series away from oval racing towards road racing. By the time Tony George took the desperate measure of starting the IRL for the 1997 season, the old stars of Indy were all retired or retiring in a short space of time, to be replaced by the foreign road racers whom the CART team owners hired. After Jeff Gordon won the Silver Crown title in 1991, there was not one CART owner who even gave him a test drive. He ended up in NASCAR the next year. The bottom line is that it is very simplistic to blame Tony George for NASCAR's rise at the expense of open wheel racing. The trend started long before the IRL, on CART's watch.

The original post has absolutely nothing to do with TiVo. It belongs not here, but in one of the many hate-filled forums devoted to denigrating Tony George.


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## snoots (Aug 14, 2002)

I appreciated the commentary here. I actually sent a complaint to ABC about how poor the video quality was and that FOX had the coke 600 in HD. I get HD over the air from the local ABC affiliate and could not believe how poor the quality was. Even on my old Sony 4:3 tv the vidoe sucked !


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## TyroneShoes (Sep 6, 2004)

The Indy wasn't even in stereo just a few years ago (yet stereo has been part of the broadcast standard since 1983). I finally gave up on it.


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## The_Geyser (Aug 18, 2005)

ad301 said:


> Well, more informed fans than you have been debating this issue for 10 years. The roots of open wheel racing's decline, in the opinion of many, go back to 1979 when CART staged a coup to wrest control of the sport from USAC. The owners, most of whom had road-racing backgrounds, turned the series away from oval racing towards road racing. By the time Tony George took the desperate measure of starting the IRL for the 1997 season, the old stars of Indy were all retired or retiring in a short space of time, to be replaced by the foreign road racers whom the CART team owners hired. After Jeff Gordon won the Silver Crown title in 1991, there was not one CART owner who even gave him a test drive. He ended up in NASCAR the next year. The bottom line is that it is very simplistic to blame Tony George for NASCAR's rise at the expense of open wheel racing. The trend started long before the IRL, on CART's watch.
> 
> The original post has absolutely nothing to do with TiVo. It belongs not here, but in one of the many hate-filled forums devoted to denigrating Tony George.


You are right on. CART was the start of the end.


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## formulaben (Jan 27, 2003)

Look at the cute lemmings!


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## joegarrett (Mar 17, 2004)

Here is the link to the company that does the Indy 500 production

http://imsproductions.tv/docs/manpower.htm

I just got off the phone with Brian Gordan of IMS and his point about not doing HD on Indy was, expense, not being able to provide in car HD and the fact that only 1.5 million homes have HD and that's not the market they're trying to cater to. Oh yes, he was a bit of an arrogant ass.


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## HiDefGator (Oct 12, 2004)

While I seldom waste my time telling companies what they do wrong, I did just email Brian to let him know that I did not watch the race solely because it wasn't in HD.


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## Directvlover (Apr 12, 2004)

Arcady said:


> It is cars driving in a circle. What benefit is there to seeing this in HD?


Sure...but then again Golf is in hd...what the bloody hell sense does that make. I mean golf in SD is boring to watch...The only thing HD does for golf is show that it is in fact still boring in widescreen too.


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## JohnBrowning (Jul 15, 2004)

joegarrett said:


> Oh yes, he was a bit of an arrogant ass.


Well, he does work for Tony George, after all....


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## mx6bfast (Jan 2, 2004)

Arcady said:


> It is cars driving in a circle. What benefit is there to seeing this in HD?


More benefit than seeing what you look like in your avatar. 

Have you even seen NASCAR in HD? What about other sports programs and/or network TV shows in HD? If you don't see a benefit in anything being in HD then maybe you should go back to the SD world.


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## Todd (Oct 7, 1999)

joegarrett said:


> Here is the link to the company that does the Indy 500 production
> 
> http://imsproductions.tv/docs/manpower.htm
> 
> I just got off the phone with Brian Gordan of IMS and his point about not doing HD on Indy was, expense, not being able to provide in car HD and the fact that only 1.5 million homes have HD and that's not the market they're trying to cater to. Oh yes, he was a bit of an arrogant ass.


That guy sounds pretty ignorant. There are certainly more than 1.5 million homes with HD. Plus, you'd think they'd WANT to cater to viewers who have enough disposable income to buy those new fangled HDTVs...


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## TyroneShoes (Sep 6, 2004)

Todd said:


> That guy sounds pretty ignorant. There are certainly more than 1.5 million homes with HD...QUOTE]
> There were 16 mil in January. Probably at least 20 by now.


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## jbradway (Sep 30, 2001)

joegarrett said:


> Here is the link to the company that does the Indy 500 production
> 
> http://imsproductions.tv/docs/manpower.htm
> 
> I just got off the phone with Brian Gordan of IMS and his point about not doing HD on Indy was, expense, not being able to provide in car HD and the fact that only 1.5 million homes have HD and that's not the market they're trying to cater to. Oh yes, he was a bit of an arrogant ass.


So those folks who have enough disposable income to buy nice AV equipment are not in their market? I mean, even Walmart sells HD sets now. Are they aiming to steal the trailer park market from NASCAR?


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## Phantom Gremlin (Jun 20, 2002)

TyroneShoes said:


> Todd said:
> 
> 
> > That guy sounds pretty ignorant. There are certainly more than 1.5 million homes with HD...QUOTE]
> ...


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## romney (Jun 2, 2006)

joegarrett said:


> not being able to provide in car HD


The smallest 3-CCD HD camera from Iconix (iconixvideo com) was introduced at NAB 2006 this year. Didn't someone from the production company walk the upper south hall?


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

romney said:


> The smallest 3-CCD HD camera from Iconix (iconixvideo com) was introduced at NAB 2006 this year. Didn't someone from the production company walk the upper south hall?


It's a bogus reason anyway. NASCAR doesn't have in-car HD, either, but it doesn't stop them from doing HD broadcasts.


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