No buffering inputs before begining of the round?

I always assume that you could buffer inputs at the beginning of a round (before the timer starts) so that your moves can come at the fastest timing. After watching some videos frame by frame, I don't think there is an input window before the round begins.

Does anyone know for sure if there is a input window before the round begins, similar to the one available during the match?

 

It might just be the players in the videos I am watching then. I am watching the replays that came on the 360, and in three different matches, the moves are executing 3-7 frames later than I would have expected if it was being buffered the same way as buffering works during the game.

For example, in the Wolf vs Jeffry replay on the 360, Wolf did a shining wizard, but it did not start the animation until 4 frames after the timer started (in other words, the wizard executed 18 frames rather than 14 frames after the timer started going down).

Maybe Myke with KoD's device can figure this out ?

 

Well, it could just be the players in the videos I was watching not buffering their inputs before the round. Next weekend when I have some free time off, I will try to do some recordings of my own and see if inputs can buffered exactly the same way it works during the match.

 

Wiki Guard Buffering and Recovery Buffering

I had some time to play around with this during the weekend. It appears that the beginning of the round before the match begins you can still buffer inputs in the same way as holding for guard buffering; however, it does not work the same way as buffering during the recovery of a move.

In other words, inputs preceding the last input of a move are indeed read before the match begins. Just like buffering while holding (you have to release before you enter your last input), the very last input of the move must be done when the match actually begins. This seems to be the reason why there is a few frames delay in moves coming out at the beginning of matches.