Can anyone see the yellow ball on red clay on TV?

BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
I'm watching the matches from the Masters Monte Carlo and I can't see the ball at all because the yellow ball just blends in with the orange colored court. All I see are two guys swinging their arms and hearing the thud of the ball when it hits their racquets but I can't see where the ball is going. I have the same problem with all the European red clay tournaments, not just this one. Very frustrating.

Who else thinks they should change the color of the ball to purple or a dark blue or maybe even black so they it contrasts the color of the orange colored clay on TV much better?
 
Salsa_Lover

Salsa_Lover

Rookie
I can see the yellow ball here, I get Eurosport and maybe their quality is better.

Anyhow they make tennis balls in many colors, being yellowish green the official which i think is quite allrigth for the visibility from the players point of view

 
V

Vlad

Professional
Rome is usually better with camera angle... Monte Carlo has this problem... but if you look at Court des Princes it is better there.
 
Sentinel

Sentinel

Bionic Poster
I'm watching downloads of Estoril and altho I can make out the ball, its not so clear and that makes it less interesting. What's worse is that the camera is quite high up which makes the players look small, and all the fun's gone.

I've had similar problems watching recordings of old FO's.
 
jmverdugo

jmverdugo

Hall of Fame
In last years RG it was basically impossible for me to see the ball, I actually bought DirectTV just to see the ball, let see how it end up.
 
P

Povl Carstensen

Legend
I think the problem also lies in lcd/flatscreen televisions. They, or some of them, are to slow. The ball disappears when its moving to fast, appears again when its slower, being tossed etc.
 
daddy

daddy

Legend
Povl Carstensen said:
I think the problem also lies in lcd/flatscreen televisions. They, or some of them, are to slow. The ball disappears when its moving to fast, appears again when its slower, being tossed etc.
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Actually if TV has a slow reaction time like 8ms then the ball shoud be more visible. I choose to watch on 44" lcd with 8ms rather than on 32" with 5ms, the ball leaves a trail just enough that I can see it perfectly on the bigger slower one.
 
WillAlwaysLoveYouTennis

WillAlwaysLoveYouTennis

Hall of Fame
I usually can't see it until it actually hits the ground on the other side of the court, but flying through the air: no. I switched to the plasma TV though in the LR so that did help a lot. If the camera angle was lower, I think that would help more.
 
S

simi

Hall of Fame
Povl Carstensen said:
I think the problem also lies in lcd/flatscreen televisions. They, or some of them, are to slow. The ball disappears when its moving to fast, appears again when its slower, being tossed etc.
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I got an old fashioned cathode ray tube, and could not see the ball during the Murray/Lopez match. Sometimes, after the bounce in the court nearest the camera the ball is visible. Otherwise, they could just as well be playing phantom tennis.
 
E

eric892

Rookie
Yeah same here. I was watching Ferrero vs Llodra and I couldn't see the ball. It just blend with the court color. It is so frustrating! I think watching them play at night will be better than in the afternoon.
 
crawl4

crawl4

Rookie
murray v lopez was hard to see..it was impossible to see the ball during flight..i have a plasma as well :mad:
 
Ocean Drive

Ocean Drive

Hall of Fame
So you cant see the ball and you want them to make the ball darker? That wont help you see it any better...

I can see it absolutely clearly, do you wear glasses or need glasses?

The ball will get dirty with the clay so it will start to have bits of orange in it, which I am sure doesn't help your cause.
 
daddy

daddy

Legend
WillAlwaysLoveYouTennis said:
What colour might ones suggest as an alternative if one could? I was thinking green. White wouldn't be much better I guess.
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I am sure that given the speed of the balls and their size no colour will help make them visible on a sunny day on red clay if you set up a wrong camera angle. If it was a bit cloudy or later in the day it would be ok.
 
Ocean Drive

Ocean Drive

Hall of Fame
Well the players come first, they wont change the colour to suit some viewers with eye problems. Yellow is by far the best colour to play with. Everybody I know, can see the ball fine, on tv, it is only sometimes on the internet it is difficult to see the ball, for me, anyway.
 
fantom

fantom

Hall of Fame
I was watching Monte Carlo this morning (TTC, 50 inch plasma). I couldn't see the ball until after the bounce. Very frustrating!
 
WillAlwaysLoveYouTennis

WillAlwaysLoveYouTennis

Hall of Fame
daddy said:
I am sure that given the speed of the balls and their size no colour will help make them visible on a sunny day on red clay if you set up a wrong camera angle. If it was a bit cloudy or later in the day it would be ok.
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I realize that, and know well about speed and size of tennis balls. (?) I don't understand this comment. I've watched many matches in stadium on red clay both in Germany and France. It's what I grew up playing on.

I was just asking an opinion question for those who happened to be watching on TVs at the moment and complained of the low visibility.

Ocean Drive said:
Well the players come first, they wont change the colour to suit some viewers with eye problems. Yellow is by far the best colour to play with. Everybody I know, can see the ball fine, on tv, it is only sometimes on the internet it is difficult to see the ball, for me, anyway.
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Why would one make the comment that one has an eye problem because one can't see the ball well on TV? "The universe is full of dead people who lived by assumption." As mentioned above, its the type of TV that's giving the problem, not eye problems by the viewers. Of course directors wouldn't change the colour of the balls to suit viewers...who suggested that? One merely asked a question.
 
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flyer

flyer

Hall of Fame
fantom said:
I was watching Monte Carlo this morning (TTC, 50 inch plasma). I couldn't see the ball until after the bounce. Very frustrating!
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you better get your money back then because I watching on the lowest quality on atpmastersseries.tv on like a 14 inch screen and i can see the ball before it bouces
 
J

Jhm37

New User
I lower both the brightness and the color saturation, and that helps some, but seeing the ball from Monte Carlo over the Tennis Channel has always been a problem. I've seen video from other sources where it's not so bad. It's that high camera angle that's the real issue. From cameras closer to the court I have no trouble seeing the ball.
 
A

agarasbattier

New User
I can see the ball fine. Obviously, it is not as easy to see as on the courts of the US Open or the Sony Ericsson Open, but I can still see the ball clearly on all of our TVs.
 
Nadal_Monfils

Nadal_Monfils

Semi-Pro
It seems like the problem is that the camera angle is too high up. They switched to the Santoro match with a lower angle and I could see the ball fine. They even went to the low angle for a game of the Murray-Lopez match and I could see the ball but then they went back to the high angle and it was hard to see. The only problem with the low angle is you can't see both players but seeing the ball is more important.
 
Lendl and Federer Fan

Lendl and Federer Fan

Hall of Fame
I have Tennis Channel in HD, and I can barely see the ball. The color of the court and ball should be very contrast to each other. The easier thing to do is just to change the ball.
 
stormholloway

stormholloway

Legend
Tennis Channel doesn't broadcast in HD to my knowledge. Do you mean you have an HDTV and TTC?

I have an HDTV but Tennis Channel is in standard format.
 
L

LeftyServe

Semi-Pro
TTC does have HD, but it's only for certain events and shows. MC is simply a feed from Europe, so no HD. I think they'll be doing RG in HD this year.
 
BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
jmverdugo said:
In last years RG it was basically impossible for me to see the ball, I actually bought DirectTV just to see the ball, let see how it end up.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if DirecTV will help since it's the same broadcasts from ESPN or NBC or Tennis Channel using the same cameras and feeds.
 
BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
simi said:
I got an old fashioned cathode ray tube, and could not see the ball during the Murray/Lopez match. Sometimes, after the bounce in the court nearest the camera the ball is visible. Otherwise, they could just as well be playing phantom tennis.
Click to expand...
Same here. I was also watching it on an old-fashioned 27 inch CRT TV.
 
BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
Ocean Drive said:
Well the players come first, they wont change the colour to suit some viewers with eye problems. Yellow is by far the best colour to play with. Everybody I know, can see the ball fine, on tv, it is only sometimes on the internet it is difficult to see the ball, for me, anyway.
Click to expand...
Have you read the others posts in this thread? It seems most people here also CANNOT see the ball on TV. You seem to be one of the very few people here who can. If I have eye problems then how come I can see the ball fine on every other surface except red clay?
 
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D

dbh1960

New User
For now anyway, TTC in HD is a Directv exclusive. The US Claycourt Championship was on a reddish (but not as red as European) clay, and it was incredible. The best HD tennis I've ever seen (at least technically; too bad Blake folded like a cheap suit)-and needless to say, no problem picking up the ball. The broadcast from Monte Carlo has historically been the worst of the clay court season. Older SD cameras + bad camera position + standards conversion (PAL to NTSC) could be the problem(s)...
 
jmverdugo

jmverdugo

Hall of Fame
BreakPoint said:
I'm not sure if DirecTV will help since it's the same broadcasts from ESPN or NBC or Tennis Channel using the same cameras and feeds.
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Yes I know what you mean, I just thought that i could not see the ball because bad quality in the "cable" transmision, in turned out that now I can "clearly" not see the ball :-?
 
TheTruth

TheTruth

G.O.A.T.
For me, I think it's a matter of my eyes adjusting. At the beginning of the clay court season I can almost never see the ball, but after the first few tournaments my eyes get trained and all is well!
 
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