rdinkel said:Just went back to review the Charlie Chat recording. With about 25 minutes left in the show, Jim and Charlie were talking about what we will get with the Platinum HD package. At the end of that discussion, Jim said Cinemax HD and Encore HD, as well. There was no Mention of Starz HD at that point.
Sarang said:I thought he said Starz then Cinemax. Why ARE we so giddy about this anyway? I think we all would rather have 5 movie HD channels for the same price as a suite of premium channels like HBO, Showtime and Starz. I would pay $15 for that and Mark Cuban could make out on that.
Sarang said:I thought he said Starz then Cinemax. Why ARE we so giddy about this anyway? I think we all would rather have 5 movie HD channels for the same price as a suite of premium channels like HBO, Showtime and Starz. I would pay $15 for that and Mark Cuban could make out on that.
M Sparks said:But the point is, 95% of "Hollywood" movies make their TV premiere on either HBO, Showtime, or Starz. And they have exclusive rights. Then the HBO movies trickle to Cinemax, Showtime to TMC, and Starz to Encore. Cuban could put up a suite, and that would be great, but he doesn't own the rights to premiere anything new. Eventually, I would expect him to start putting in bids for exclusive rights, and then I would expect him to expand his movie channel offerings. But he doesn't have the programming right now.
Personally, if given a choice, I'd rather have Cinemax, TMC, and Encore than the other three, because they all have more variety. You get the "big" movies a month or two after they premiere, and more variety of older movies. But then you don't get the series and specials from HBO and Showtime.
I realize that many say Starz had a lot of upconverts, but maybe they'd try harder if they had more carriage. The point is, I'm betting most of the premiere stuff was in HD, and that's really the only reason I would prefer to add Starz HD. I've found that while I rarely watch any of the Showtime or HBO SD channels anymore, I still watch Starz SD quite a bit, because they have a lot of premieres that aren't being shown in HD anywhere.
Encore shut down their HD channel last March. He must have meant StarZ.rdinkel said:Jim said Cinemax HD and Encore HD, as well. There was no mention of Starz HD at that point.
HDTVFanAtic said:Apparently it was mentioned on the same chat that said mpeg4 was a year off and spoke of EncoreHD - even though that shut down a year ago![]()