TNT-HD: Worst HD channel ever?
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HDTVFanAtic said:
UniversalHD has been bad since the beginning. I agree totally. Yes ...there is a ton of stuff on TNT that is stretched, but there is also a good number of movies and sporting events that look great. I have been asking Directv to add tnthd for a while now and they haven't. For me it is a must have HD ch.
It is most definitely not the TV. Although it may be true that the better the TV then the easier you will detect their Stretch-0-Vision.
There are threads on many forums about all of the programming shown on TNT in their 4:3 stretch mode. They take a 4:3 image, zoom it a bit - which cuts off a bit on the top and bottom and then they apply a stretch mode which keeps the center close to the natural aspect ratio but stretches the sides more.
Many of the movies they show in apparent HD are Stretch-O-Vision. It drives me crazy. I can't watch it. But it seems that a number of HDTV owners don't pick up on it at all - which boggles my mind.
The list of recent movies shown in S-O-V is really surprising, given that 16:9 or 2.35:1 sources should be readily available. Heck, it would better for them to use a $20 DVD as a source.
As to TCM, I'd love to get an HD version, that showed their letterboxed 2.35:1 movies in OAR. It can be tricky to show those in 16:9 because if you don't pan & scan, and you show only the center matted 16:9 image, you might end up with some strange screen cuts, with faces half shown.
I really like Showtime-HD tonight, which showed Dolores Claiborne in OAR letterboxed 2.35:1 HD. Excellent! I watched for about an hour before I even noticed the black bars on the top & bottom.
There are threads on many forums about all of the programming shown on TNT in their 4:3 stretch mode. They take a 4:3 image, zoom it a bit - which cuts off a bit on the top and bottom and then they apply a stretch mode which keeps the center close to the natural aspect ratio but stretches the sides more.
Many of the movies they show in apparent HD are Stretch-O-Vision. It drives me crazy. I can't watch it. But it seems that a number of HDTV owners don't pick up on it at all - which boggles my mind.
The list of recent movies shown in S-O-V is really surprising, given that 16:9 or 2.35:1 sources should be readily available. Heck, it would better for them to use a $20 DVD as a source.
As to TCM, I'd love to get an HD version, that showed their letterboxed 2.35:1 movies in OAR. It can be tricky to show those in 16:9 because if you don't pan & scan, and you show only the center matted 16:9 image, you might end up with some strange screen cuts, with faces half shown.
I really like Showtime-HD tonight, which showed Dolores Claiborne in OAR letterboxed 2.35:1 HD. Excellent! I watched for about an hour before I even noticed the black bars on the top & bottom.
Tom Bombadil said:
I doubt TCM would do any P&S or trimming- they are excellent about that. If they are showing 2.4:1 letterboxed movies in SD, why would they trim them in HD? I could see trimming a 3:1 movie, but how many of those exist? 10? 20?
I watched Poltergeist on TCM last night, and it appeared to be 2:35:1
I've never seen Universal HD, but at least it has a different schedule than any other channel.
My problem with TNT-HD is, half the time you can switch to regular TNT and it will look BETTER. I recorded Angel again this morning, and it is obviously distorted. (Yesterday, I thought it was just stretched, which is fixable.)
Now that I know Angel reruns are on, I will probably start DVRing them-but off the SD channel.
I realize I would probably feel differently if I watched sports.
My problem with TNT-HD is, half the time you can switch to regular TNT and it will look BETTER. I recorded Angel again this morning, and it is obviously distorted. (Yesterday, I thought it was just stretched, which is fixable.)
Now that I know Angel reruns are on, I will probably start DVRing them-but off the SD channel.
I realize I would probably feel differently if I watched sports.
They are using S-O-V on Angel? I thought all of those episodes were originally aired in 16:9. Perhaps only the later seasons were. I had a standard 4:3 set when they originally aired and I remember they were in "widescreen" letterbox format.
I had to watch the OKC Hornets/Kings game on Cox in SD.Minsk1 said:NBA on TBT-HD has outstanding PQ
Was hard to tune off yesterday but need some sleep too.
The Spurs/Denver game on TNT-HD had great PQ on my 811.Tom Bombadil said:
This was a "Connor" episode, so that's season 4, right? There were only 100 episodes, and this one was #70-something.
Season 5 was the only one I regularly watched when it was new- it seems like it MAY have been 16:9, but I can't remember. They should be up to season 5 in a week or two, so I'll check then. I know the season 1 & 2 DVDs were 4:3.
Todays episode was the one that has an incredibly long super-slo-mo sequence as axes and wooden "bullets" fly back and forth. The distortion from the "panoramacized" picture almost made me ill.
Buffy was always 4:3 (except one episode), and there's a funny note about it in the season 4 DVDs. Apparently, people actually wrote and complained that the DVDs weren't letterboxed.
mdonnelly said:I had to watch the OKC Hornets/Kings game on Cox in SD.
I'm not a sports guy, but doesn't it suck you usually can't see your home team in HD?
I do watch hockey from time to time. The day I got my HD hooked up, there was a Coyote's game on HDNet. I was excited to sit down and watch, but it was blacked out. I didn't even bother flipping to Fox Arizona.
ravma479 said:
Wow. So that's even more inexcusable.
If they want to stretch 4:3 stuff, I guess that's a matter of taste. If Angel was in 16:9, that means TNT is actually chopping it AND stretching it.
Worst...HD Channel...ever...
They are only doing the same with Angel and X-Files that they are doing with dozens of movies. No big screen movies are shot in 4:3, yet TNT is taking high resolution (HD-like) 4:3 P&S versions of movies and then employing Stretch-O-Vision to show them in "HD" 16:9.
Perhaps there are no P&S 16:9 versions out for those movies, so TNT simply takes their 4:3 version and S-O-V's it into a pretend HD.
I'd say about half of their movies are true HD and half are S-O-V. Of course, even the true HD ones are interrupted by commercials and may be subject to time editing.
At least the sports programming is good.
Perhaps there are no P&S 16:9 versions out for those movies, so TNT simply takes their 4:3 version and S-O-V's it into a pretend HD.
I'd say about half of their movies are true HD and half are S-O-V. Of course, even the true HD ones are interrupted by commercials and may be subject to time editing.
At least the sports programming is good.
What appears to happen is that TNT must choose between:
A) We have a high definition 2.35:1 copy that we could show letterboxed in full HD resolution.
B) We also have a 480i 4:3 P&S copy of the same movie that we can upconvert, zoom, and stretch to fit a 16:9 screen.
TNT "HD" then almost always chooses B).
But I must admit, from what I read in various on-line forums, I think more people would complain about having black bars on the top and bottom of their screen than what do when they show stuff in faux HD. There are a LOT of people who cannot tolerate black bars / letterbox.
If they have a 16:9 HD P&S then they do show that.
A) We have a high definition 2.35:1 copy that we could show letterboxed in full HD resolution.
B) We also have a 480i 4:3 P&S copy of the same movie that we can upconvert, zoom, and stretch to fit a 16:9 screen.
TNT "HD" then almost always chooses B).
But I must admit, from what I read in various on-line forums, I think more people would complain about having black bars on the top and bottom of their screen than what do when they show stuff in faux HD. There are a LOT of people who cannot tolerate black bars / letterbox.
If they have a 16:9 HD P&S then they do show that.
