Sky F1 race data

[Bill DawesParticipant @billdawes]

I guess it is not a Sky problem but season after season my wife and I (she knows more about F1 than I do) curse the font used on the race data displayed on the screen, when are they going to learn that red font on a dark background doesn’t work.

You see this sometimes in magazines where form over function rules the day, surely any graphic artist would know this.

Bill D.

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

They obviously don’t watch what they produce.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Hardly worth watching the “racing” these days as it is usually all over after the first couple of bends. Thinking of stopping my Sky sub as it’s F1 channel is about the only thing I can’t get free or on a much cheaper streaming service like Discovery+. If I want to watch the F1 then C4 a bit later will do.

[Bill DawesParticipant @billdawes]

Yes I know what you mean Jason, we have been motor sport fans for many years and we frequently wonder if we should bother with F1 anymore, it seems to be a drug that draws us in though.

Bringing back the old engines would help a bit, with the sound at least if not the racing.

In reality Moto GP or superbikes is much more skilful and exciting, especially Moto 3, mad.

We are also fans of kart racing (where they all started. we saw Lewis at Clay Pigeon Kart club in Dorset when he was about 13) so if you want to watch pure racing go along to your local MSA kart track.

Bill D.

[bernard towers]

On bernard towers Said:

They obviously don’t watch what they produce.

Now I’m a grumpy old man, I’m ever more inclined to believe the ills of the world are due to incompetence or carelessness. The idea is simple, might be true, and no evidence is required because we all ‘know’ that everyone else is an idiot!    As that’s obviously untrue, I recommend taking a more considered approach, not least because acting on an incorrect assumption always causes trouble.

Very often root causes are not what they seem, so it’s worth checking for alternatives.   Perhaps Sky, being a professional broadcaster,  watch on a colour calibrated screen on which the data looks OK.  If they think the output is satisfactory, is there a way the customer might foul up, beyond the possibility he has a too cheap TV?

There is!  With the possible exception of serious amateur photographers, most of us don’t colour calibrate our displays, or are even aware it’s possible. So what the public see is an approximation of the broadcast picture, and maybe not a good one.

Other technology limitations: contrast depth varies considerably on displays, and if a programme is watched over a streaming service, quality is reduced on slow connections.

And as individual eyesight varies considerably, images that work for me may not for you and vice versa.

I agree it would be smart for broadcasters to avoid colour combinations that might not work well, but it’s not always obvious what those combinations are.

Dave

 

 

 

[HOWARDTParticipant @howardt]

I used to watch F1 religiously when it was on BBC, then got to only watch the repeats when it moved to SKY, now only listen to it on BBC radio.  Remember back to the days in the late 50’s with Vanwall and the like, real racing.  Now it is just who can throw the most money at it and the price of Sky is just a joke.

[Mike HurleyParticipant @mikehurley60381]

Bit the same – massive fan in my youth – hitchhiked to GP’s etc loved the engineering aspects. Now it just seems like a tedious procession with little variety, but masses of irrelevant ‘hype’, stopped following it years ago. Still like the Goodwood revival though

Mike

[MichaelRParticipant @michaelr]

Motor racing in the 1950s was my interest, todays F1 has no interest for me now it’s nothing more than a procession, Oulton Park was the nearest circuit I could get to at that time.

The pictures are Oulton Park pits area, I think the race was the Gold Cup those were the days when you could afford a pit pass.

Mike

[AStroudParticipant @astroud]

I record it on C4, watch the qualifying all the way through but fast forward through the commercial breaks.

Then watch the race only having skipped over all the intro stuff and fast forward through the breaks. Only difficulty is avoiding the result beforehand.

Andrew

[Mike HurleyParticipant @mikehurley60381]

Just for a chuckle, have a read of this short article on REAL motor racing – Tazio Nuvolari.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/a29267/the-legend-of-tazio-nuvolari/

[SamsarandaParticipant @samsaranda]

I turned on the tv to watch the first F1 race of the season, have always watched it on Sky Sports channel, which with my package meant that I could view F1 channel without paying a Sky Sports subscription, but was met with a screen that demanded I pay the full Sports subscription, over £30 a month if memory serves me right, so abandoned that idea, I know it is available free on channel 4 but don’t like the presenters on there, so as the F1 has in my opinion gone downhill over the past couple of years now decided to abandon it and will not miss it.   Dave W

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

back to topic. The colours were probably planned and endlessly discussed by some ‘graphic designers’. At work I was forever pointing out to people that their web pages or documents were badly selected fonts or colour combinations, or too small for those using a plain laptop not the 36 in screen in their home office.
We saw a bit of it here with the forum change bringing in font and contrast problems, now thankfully ok.
My current gripe on this is FreeCAD which is full of bad choices. Probably a setting somewhere I must find.

[Bill DawesParticipant @billdawes]

Watched some F1 practice today, graphics still abysmal, red on black unreadable, still didn’t expect it to have changed since last week as it’s been going on for years.

It’s not as if we have a small telly, 47″, not huge by todays standards of course.

Anyone with UHD and do you have same issue.

Think we are going to have a go at Sky, not about the graphics as I assume this is down to F1, or is it? our complaint is being charged extra for HD which is a rip off nowadays when practically all output is HD.

Bill D.

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