Fox Scoreboard

[slapshot]

For the 90 or so percent of TV viewers who do not have HDTV, the new graphics on Fox and NBC are not easy on the eyes.

What was wrong with the box used by ESPN and ABC? At least you could read them. All the networks seem to be into shrinking the fonts but increasing the color bars, making the information a secondary thought.

Normal Fox graphics use Eurostile Extended and Condensed...the score uses Frutiger, and I can't figure out the other on-screen graphics yet. Is consistency too much to ask?

[thegame4219]

For the 90 or so percent of TV viewers who do not have HDTV, the new graphics on Fox and NBC are not easy on the eyes.

What was wrong with the box used by ESPN and ABC? At least you could read them. All the networks seem to be into shrinking the fonts but increasing the color bars, making the information a secondary thought.

Normal Fox graphics use Eurostile Extended and Condensed...the score uses Frutiger, and I can't figure out the other on-screen graphics yet. Is consistency too much to ask?

i have a 27in, 26in and an TV on my cpu and i had no problem w. the bar

[BRice16]

I like the new one a lot.

[mightynine]

I've been trying to find the story online, but I can't remember where I saw it. Anyway, the Fox Sports head says that people were getting a little tired of sound effects and flashing graphics, so they decided to pull it back on football...and I'm guessing this will extend to the rest of sports soon.

That said, it's almost like they went WAY back on the graphics - I like the new in-game stuff, but the font on that bar has got to become a little bigger - but it might not because that very empty right side of the bar gets filled up when they show a touchdown.

Somewhat jarring because of what we've expected from Fox in the past.

[Old School Fool]

I don't like it so much. It's almost cut off on my TV.

This reminds me of when they had JUST LOGOS on the scoreboard, and they ended up changing it midway into the season.

[Tazz013]

I've been trying to find the story online, but I can't remember where I saw it.  Anyway,  the Fox Sports head says that people were getting a little tired of sound effects and flashing graphics, so they decided to pull it back on football...and I'm guessing this will extend to the rest of sports soon.

Let's hope that it extends to the FSN affiliates, too. Our FSN affiliate here in Wisconsin never seems to get the graphics and sounds to sync up, making it twice as bad. Sometimes you'll get the beeping and clicking followed by the flashing; sometimes the flashing happens before the noise; and sometimes it makes noise without even being on the screen.

[SHoUP]

They need to go back to the little silver box they used when Fox first started doing NFL games. A very basic scorebox, nothing compared to these dots and tiny font.

[BigEd76]

Had trouble reading everything on a smaller TV. Not a fan of it....

[cmm]

They need to go back to the little silver box they used when Fox first started doing NFL games. A very basic scorebox, nothing compared to these dots and tiny font.

I agree. The original one was small but readable and out of the way. This one seems to be better than the previous one, though.

But Fox has to get rid of those giant down and distance arrows they put on the field. I think most people are smart enough to look at the score-bar to get the down and distance and they can tell which direction the offense is going.

[budpaul]

But Fox has to get rid of those giant down and distance arrows they put on the field. I think most people are smart enough to look at the score-bar to get the down and distance and they can tell which direction the offense is going.

I agree. That arrow was just obnoxiously big.

And I think the new score box is just too darn small. Would it kill them to bump up the size a notch or two?

[VandyDelphia Mike]

I've read all the reaction on the new Fox graphics for football. Does it look better in Hi-Def? I watched on a 50+ inch TV, not hi-def, with my prescription glasses on, and even I came away with thinking it was a little small. The right 1/3 of the screen was underutilized, and it would not hurt to replace the 4 dots with a number (1, 2, 3, 4 or OT). Fox has to be smarter than to not take into account a game that goes into overtime, right?

Anyway, the trend does seem to be towards reducing the size of the on-screen score, which I guess might be a product of people watching on bigger and bigger TV's. I remember when TNT revamped their NBA on-screen graphics, and I think they had to do some tweaks after some initial flack over the presentation being too small.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

People actually want the box bigger? I remember when sports scores were only shown at the end of innings and at commercial breaks. I preferred that.

I'm glad it's small. I normally watch football with the Internet on to check scores anyway, so that score bar isn't very important. To me, it certainly doesn't need to be on every second of the game.

[meetthemets]

I can't believe someone at FOX actually signed off on those dots, thinking they were a good idea. They're awful. You stand any more than 10 ft. from the screen and you can't tell what it is. The whole point is to communicate what quarter it is and you can't even read it which defeats the purpose. It will be interesting to see if this continues throughout the season or has the lifespan of the "super puck."

[DEAD!]

Well they probably thought that people were buying bigger TVs and as such can justify the smaller scoreboard. But, they may not factor how far these people may be sitting from the screen. If people are buying larger screen TVs, but are sitting farther away from the screen in the process, then it defeats the purpose of FOX making a smaller scoreboard. The problem with using the dots for quarters is that the colours don't contrast enough. Maybe put in red instead of yellow would have done the trick. The scoreboard on the corner does work best, but one question I have is, where does it show up on a high-def TV?

[cubfan1985]

Ugh, that new bar is really awful. I tried looking at it numerous times last night, and I found it very difficult to read, especially from further away.

[cranium]

I was sitting in a loud bar watching the game at a distance and it took me several minutes to figure out that the dots meant the quarter. Everytime I looked up, I kept wandering what quarter they were in and had to mentally translate those dots. Simply ridiculous. Half the people probably won't figure that the dots mean the quarter for the entire season. Fox be dumb.

[rainmaker17]

But Fox has to get rid of those giant down and distance arrows they put on the field.  I think most people are smart enough to look at the score-bar to get the down and distance and they can tell which direction the offense is going.

I agree. That arrow was just obnoxiously big.

And I think the new score box is just too darn small. Would it kill them to bump up the size a notch or two?

I don't mind the arrow itself. What bugs me is that they leave it on the field for seemingly the entire play. A second or two would suffice.

[nybatt]

I really liked when fox used the team logos in the box a couple years ago.. it lasted from august to december.. then changed to abbreviations for the playoffs..

I'm aware the logo drops in every now and then... I still preferred when they were visible all the time...

nybatt

"ny football giants uniforms..... simplistic excellence"

[MadmanLA]

I saw the new Fox score bar, and it looks OK....but the Fox Box on FSN looks way better. In fact, I think that the FSN graphics should be on the Fox network anyways.

[SteveR]

I was sitting in a loud bar watching the game at a distance and it took me several minutes to figure out that the dots meant the quarter. Everytime I looked up, I kept wandering what quarter they were in and had to mentally translate those dots. Simply ridiculous.

I used to volunteer for sports programs at a local public TV station and the standard rule on score graphics was exactly that:

"Can it be seen in a bar from 50 feet?"

If not, it's too small. Especially since most bars will have the TV sound down to a point where it's drowned out by the music or the din of 8 gazillion conversations that are going on.

Unless, of course, you're at a sports bar, where your game is the main/local game and they have it on the ginormous screen with the sound up.