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Originally Posted by matchfacts
Do you think you'd have liked it so much if you'd had acceptable PA and screen positions? Did you listen to its audio feeds - the constantly changing choice of language mentioned in the review sounds frustrating.
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I think I would, yes. The PA tends to get drowned out anyway as cars go past, and the in-ear 'phones not only kept that audio constant but acted (as I think the review suggests) as some pretty good ear plugs. I mean, I try and savour the noise as much as any fan, but there comes a point when an hour and a half of F1 cars going down the pit straight is going to be a bit damaging, so I'm glad I had some protection!
Also, the main screens don't show timing data (though you obviously have to care about that to find it important), and the ability to pick a car to watch from (like Richard Westbrook) was a nice bonus if the main coverage is missing something you want to watch. The signal delay to the unit (two to three seconds) can actually work in your favour; I could watch a car follow another down the pit straight and make a pass into the first corner, then as they went out of view go to the screen and follow the pass in its entirety through the corner. Also, the signal was strong all the way round the circuit, even at the point furthest away (Stowe corner).
I forget exactly what the review said, but I got no changing of languages. The audio feed the entire weekend was the Silverstone commentary team. One other minor irritation I forgot about (which probably shows how minor it was) is the interruption of that feed for pit/car radio braodcasts, which was only really a problem if they were saying something particularly important and/or interesting. I think there was a way of switching them off, but generally they only occurred maybe four to six times a session (F1 only) so I never really thought about working out how.
One final thing - the unit has a page of weather information (air and track temperature etc) and the schedule of races and practice sessions, which saves rooting round in a bag for a piece of paper or programme and is all easily accessible from a press of the menu button.