SciFi channel HD??
- Thread starter Parakiller
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True, when they eventually decide to launch an HD channel. Which, I think, brings us back to the original topic.
So when are they planning to launch their HD channel?
I don't have to imagine it; I have seen the first three seasons in HD on UHD.
Just a little delayed, that's all.
I called and spoke to someone at Sci Fi Channel about a year ago, I was told then that they had NO PLANS to go HD. Of course things change but there is no indication it will happen anytime soon. Amazing that a channel that has 90% of it's programming perfect for HD will be one of the last one's to go HD. Come on, we have FOOD HD.
Maybe its a bad or incomplete analogy. But I've often wondered if the same thing applies as the makers of The Outer Limits said about the conversion from B/W to color. The costs would be too great. It might be that the demands for full conversions on the majority of SciFi programing is too costly because it is so heavily laden with special effects. When they do finally launch, if a good percentage of the programing winds up as enhanced SD they will alienate their target audience because they demand more than the average viewer of Food HD.
Even the programs that were not produced in HD would look better on an HD channel than they would on an over-compressed SD channel. I would gladly settle for a full-resolution SD version of any channel until it was available in HD.
I think it's a great analogy. I bet we would be amazed at the cheap computer iron the special effects animators use. I shoot and edit DV on a so-so to OK Windows box and any thing that requires the software to re-render a frame (like brightness or contrast change or crop or the like) and I can wait a day for 5 minutes to get rendered. And this is 480i.
I think you're right on that they imagine their audience would abandon them if a lot of movies were rendered in 480i. I sure wouldn't. I take my science fiction where I can get it and shut up about such things for fear they will take down the channel and replace it with an endless loop of "Little House on the Prairie" episodes shot in 16mm. (shudder). Or HD Quilting. (double shudder)
DirecTV CLAIMS it's upcoming. That's a lot different from it actually being in HD. Go to scifi.com, there isn't one mention anywhere about a possible HD offering. D* is either BSing, or they plan on doing some cheesy upconverting.
Like I've said before, upconverted SD won't be much different than all the other HD Lite D* foists on their customers, so I doubt anyone will notice.
The Sci-Fi channel will be the one channel that will actually cause me to fork out the extra 14 bucks for the HD pack. I just have the limited pack now. (Locals, premiums, PPV) It's a big deal to a lot of us, and I'm surprised SciFi hasn't offered and HD channel yet.
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Wow. Really eye-opening. That "eber" guy is one pugnatious, stubborn SOB. He actually thinks that upconverting SD is the same as HD. What a moron. I'm concidering wading in there to set him straight.
Tyralak,
Good Luck I gave up, I was the one that posted numerous responses to his completely incorrect NON Factual posts. BTW I won't bother anymore.
Even if Scifi representatives themselves responded to his posts to correct him he still wouldn't believe he is wrong. This guy is a beauty.
John
Yeah. You're probably right. I won't waste my time. This guy probably growls at his reflection in the mirror.
If the SD upconverts on a future Sci-Fi HD channel look similar to the new History HD, BUT WITHOUT stetch-o-vision, then that would be a significant improvement on my 30" LCD HDTV.
