mkwillia said:
Sean,
I think those are great points. Like Darrell, I questioned why some movies look better from different providers. Someone mentioned earlier about watching 'My Fair Lady' on Voom and then seeing it on INHD. I also saw the movie (not all of it...not my type of movie) and I agree with that person. The INHD showing of that movie looked better.
But I really believe that there is some consumer confusion about HD Transfers of movies. I for one thought that a movie is migrated to HD and then the movie is distributed to the separate providers. From what you are saying, Sean, I gather individual providers perform individual HD transfers thus creating different PQ during viewing.
If this a the case, is there an industry standard to performing HD transfers that would ensure optimum PQ?
You bring a great point as well. The way I understand it is that for example, Miramax controls all the HD transfers. Some of these transfers are not all going to look the same since the master of each movie is subject to how it was kept. So we see different movies and see different PQ.
In order to see whether the channel is not giving enough bandwith to movie, we need to watch the same the HD Transfer on two different providers. The HD transfer needs to be the same on both (OAR or not). The TV needs to be calibrated for both. For example, on Dish the stb send more brightness to my tv and so I had to calibrate for this while on VOOM the brightness is quite down and you need to adjust for it.
Not to say that I have the perfect calibration scheme on both of my HDTVs but I have made comparisons of HD transfers on HDnet movies (Dish) and HD Cinema (Voom). One that comes to mine is the Lady in Red. An 1:85:1 HD transfer shown on both channels and both providers. I found no significant difference in both. I also compared the A Choru's Line (OAR on both) and found the same.
The mistakes are made when
1- someone takes the Lord of the Ring DVD or HD transfer and expects the same PQ from "the Good, the Bad and the Ugly" or
2- comparing two different HD Transfers on two different providers or
3- comparing OAR DVDs with cropped HD transfers or viceversa.
Another comparison that can be made is comparing the DVD to the HD transfer. This surely will not give you as much information but the HD Transfer should always win over the DVD transfer otherwise there is something wrong. Again both versions need to be OAR or both versions need to be cropped.
In summary:
In order to do a fair comparison:
1 - watch the same HD transfers on both providers for both channels. Watch the same parts on both (very important). Be careful to compare same aspect ratio transfers only.
2 - watch the DVD of the movie. The DVD should always look inferior to the HD transfer. Be careful to compare the same aspect ratio.
3- make sure you calibrate for both providers as stb may not be sending black levels at the same level.
4- most important of all do not go into the analysis with pre-existing conditions and be fair about your observations.
This is not going to give you 100% accuracy but it will give you a ball park figure (sort of speak) where the HD transfers stand.
Everyone tries to defend Voom's PQ blaming it on old transfers. Well, tonight I flipped through 3 different movies that were made in the 90's and guess what? Skeeter noise, soft, lacking depth, compression noise, etc. The only thing to blame for this is over compression. 
How about Master and Commander on HBO HD. That HD transfered looked like crap and the DVD looked a lot better. Does it mean that HBO HD is also bad PQ both on Dish and VOOM? 
