I don't think A&E HD Television understands HiDef..

[widescreenforever]

Again I see that A&E HD on Cable ( Canada at least) just doesn't seem to understand what anamorphic and widescreen is all about. They ran the Godfather (1972) last night and boy did it look terrible.. Why? Because someone within the 'network' who is in charge of what version is run,, decided to run the 1:33.1 version and 'blow it up' to 1:78.1 . What a mistake. The image was terrible so terrible infact I couldn't watch anymore than a few seconds to a minute of the telecast. ... Yet,, They do run 'regular' HD programing that is broadcast in anamorphic 1:78.1 broadcast and it looks natural and entertaining to the eye. Now we all know that the Godfather (s) are available on DVD in anamorphic letter boxing so the problem is here about rights and what is available and what isn't. A few weeks back they ran James Cameron's True Lies and we know that that film has yet to be remastered to anamorphic.., but in this latest case there is no excuse.

One of the wonderful things about HD TV and its broadcasts are the available movies that are NOT in HIDEF anamorphic ( such as Lawrence of Arabia and Bonnie and Clyde .. the last here isn't available till later this month).. So we can all enjoy what HDMovies we can watch that are rare to see in High Def.. But The Godfather stretched and out of proportion was totally inconceivable and unwatchable in today's Hi tech HD market. Until A&E HD gets it together their audience share will be dead bottom last in ratings.

[krylonman]

TBS has the same problem. Their entire "HD" channel is just a port of their SD content with a fisheye effect added to fill out the 16:9 screen. This includes all of their movies, including ones that not only show in real HD on other channels but can actually be bought on HD DVD or Blu-ray. It's pretty shameful.

TNT used to do that to an equally criminal degree, but luckily they now show anything in HD that they can (stuff that's SD only still gets the ol' fisheye...I wish they'd pillarbox and upconvert it instead).

[Super-VHS]

Originally Posted by krylonman

TBS has the same problem. Their entire "HD" channel is just a port of their SD content with a fisheye effect added to fill out the 16:9 screen. This includes all of their movies, including ones that not only show in real HD on other channels but can actually be bought on HD DVD or Blu-ray. It's pretty shameful.

TNT used to do that to an equally criminal degree, but luckily they now show anything in HD that they can (stuff that's SD only still gets the ol' fisheye...I wish they'd pillarbox and upconvert it instead).

Actually, starting last week TBS has begun running some programs and movies in HD. Over the weekend quiet a few movies were presented in High Definition and last week I saw The Office in HD as well.

Sometimes they might show part of a movie or show stretched, but then someone "flips the switch" and in comes the HD. Sure, it's not perfect, and yes they still stretch non-HD stuff but at least it's something. I'm not excusing the stretching and the cropping and all of the other bad things channels like TBS, TNT, A&E and History do but, at least they are starting to broadcast some programs in HD. It's a little better than calling a channel HD and then broadcasting SD material 24/7.

The sad reality is that the general public does like stretched programing because it fills their screen. For every one of us who doesn't like the fat, squished, strange-looking picture there is someone who does because it eliminates the "evil bars of blackness".

[widescreenforever]

Is TBS still running? I thought they changed their name to Peachtree TV..

[CaptKain]

Originally Posted by widescreenforever

Again I see that A&E HD on Cable ( Canada at least) just doesn't seem to understand what anamorphic and widescreen is all about. They ran the Godfather (1972) last night and boy did it look terrible.

I saw that as well and was grossed out bout that. Man was that ever bad PQ!

[STR8UP&DOWN]

It is ridiculous to tune into these so-called HD channes and see that crap. They just don't get it ... the bars are our friends. And if the picture is distorted in any way (stretched) ... then's IT'S NOT HD!

Does anybody know the process a tv station goes through to show a movie (in HD)? I would love to know how that works.

[BodyHauler]

Something thats been bothering me for a while is on comcast we have UHD(universal) and SCIFIHD which is a division of universal so why is it that UHD's version of Battlestar Galatica looks so proper and SCIFIHD's version looks like utter shiat?

[pchfan]

A & E used to be pretty good about OAR. I think the change has to do with the fire in September which disabled HD transmitters for a few networks. The network was off the air for a few days... then it came back stretched. Do a google search of "A & E HD" and "fire"

[deth crimsonx]

most stations dont run in widescreen. discovery hd, hd theatre and i would say science channel and espn fully use high def.

as far as regular stations go aside from shows such as lost 24 etc... and tv news, the stations are still using analog not fully digital yet.

even with the dogital switch it wont mean your getting high def, you will get probably get a 480p signal?