New ESPN scoreboard

[TheOldRoman]

On the flip-side, in HD, it looks even more crappy and amateur to have all the graphics squashed in the middle of the screen to accommodate SD viewers.

The best score bugs are ones which are small and centered on the bottom of the screen. At the bottom of the screen, the bugs are out of the action and less intrusive. The positioning of BTN's score bug isn't too bad, but the bug itself is terrible.

The absolute worst is Fox with its giant score bar going across the top of the screen, showing scores of other games, states, stock ticker and whatever else. Less is more in terms of score bugs.

[Lights Out]

I agree. I'm more talking about the positioning. For instance...

...this is a nice enough scoreboard, but it's clearly meant for the upper left corner of the screen. Unfortunately, to accommodate SD viewers, it was shunted into almost, but not quite, the center of the screen, where it intrudes on the action and distracts because of its strange positioning.

[Bravo96]

I really wish this kind of thing would catch on, it looks great.

[TheOldRoman]

I agree. I'm more talking about the positioning. For instance...

...this is a nice enough scoreboard, but it's clearly meant for the upper left corner of the screen. Unfortunately, to accommodate SD viewers, it was shunted into almost, but not quite, the center of the screen, where it intrudes on the action and distracts because of its strange positioning.

Yeah, I agree about that. I supposed showing the letterbox versions in SD might force more people to go out and buy HDTVs. Then again, I bought my parents a 24 inch HDTV for Christmas and my dad notes the big difference between it and his other TVs, yet the family room still has a 15 year old Magnavox which my uncle gave to him after getting an HDTV himself, so who knows.