A & E HD Channel

[alfbinet]

WTF...this is not high def. When did this come on? Last week or so? I was wondering why they were showing so many CSI:Miamis for so long. They are showing Miami Manhunt at the moment and it is not even in widescreen.

Dish subscriber since February 1999.

[Geronimo]

WTF...this is not high def. When did this come on? Last week or so? I was wondering why they were showing so many CSI:Miamis for so long. They are showing Miami Manhunt at the moment and it is not even in widescreen.

Dish subscriber since February 1999.



Do a search there are lots of threads her and at the other site on this. BTW there is a DISH HD forum. I am not trying to be sarcastic just pointing out that there isa lot of discussion.

[emathis]

They actually showed Crossing Jordan with black bars on all 4 sides of the screen. Why bother calling it HD.

[John W]

The ignorance of people is amazing.They DO show more recent programs that were made in HD in HD.

[emathis]

The ignorance of people is amazing.They DO show more recent programs that were made in HD in HD.

The ignorance of some people who don't know the program I am talking about was produced in HD and being shown cropped to 4:3 on this so called HD channel!

[Mike D-CO5]

Everyone wants real HD not just stretched to fit or old reruns of more recent hd cop shows like CSI etc. The problem is there is not enough being produced yet in reruns or even origional hd programming to fill one hd tv channel much less than 31 . The only sure way to get "new" content is to take old film movies and make an hd print and you get an hd movie of a film show. This is where Voom came in.

We are in transition right now, just like we were in the 1960s with black and white going to color tv. It will take another 5 - 10 years to get just about all cable channels and network tv in full hd . THAt is why I don't think that any of the "NEW" channels that Directv says that they will have will look any different than A&E in hd channel looks today. They will be most likely simulcasts just like A& E is today. Especially Sci-fi channel and CNN and others that Directv is claiming to have already signed up to get on board for hd later in the year.

Next decade we will all be watching either real hd or hd prints from old tv shows made in film. I don't know what they can do for shows filmed in video tape - which maked up most of the 80s and 90s programming. By the end of the next decade we will all be wanting to upgrade to 3-D tv which will be all the rage. Just think of how many people will be mad that all the shows that are only in plain old hd rather than Ultra 3-D tv.:sure:

[TNGTony]

Also please remember that some one can make a high definition print of a 4x3 film program. Even though there may be black bars on the sides it could well still be an HD program. About three weeks ago TNT showed "The Wizard of Oz" in true HD. But the ORIGINAL FILM IS 4x3. So you will have black bars on an HD program. Universal HD has an HD transfer of Northern Exposure originally shot on 4x3 film. It is still and HD program.

I do understand the point though about some programs which are obviously not HD being shown on channels that label themselves HD. But I keep telling people that having an HD set now is like having a color TV set in 1965. In 1965 nearly all the prime-time programming was in color. CBS and NBC just went full time color. ABC was almost there, but in 1966 they finally went 100% prime-time color. News programs would be in color in the studio an black & white for film reports. ENG or "edge" color video equipment would have to wait another decade! Reruns of old programs were all in black and white because they were never shot in color with rare exceptions like The Lone Ranger or Superman which were shot in color film way before color TV. Even reruns that may have been shot in color would sometimes be played in black and white because the local station didn't have a color telecine machine to be able to show it in color.

Today just re-read the statement above and switch the year and change "color" to "High Definition" and "Black & White" to "Standard Def".

Anyone here remember when the TV Guide would have a (BW) next to the program listings? I still have a TV Guide from 1972 with a SLEW of (BW) listings. :)

See ya
Tony

[ebaltz]

This afternoon was the worst. It was "A Few Good Men" in letter box. Since it was like 2:1 ratio, the actual image filled only about 1/4 of the screen. Black bars on the side and big on the top. On my 50" set it was like watching it on a 20". That is completely ridiculous. I'd rather it been 4x3 and at least fill the screen top to bottom. How come they couldn't get a 15 year old movie and show it in HD. It can't possibly be a licensing thing with an older movie like that. C'mon.

[TNGTony]

I understand the frustration. I feel all the stations should at the very least "zoom" their product so that the image best fits the screen without distoring the image. However I learned how to expand the picture. You can "zoom" some of these movies in with black bars on all sides and they do look pretty good. The 622 has several great format options, one is a "zoom" that expands the image equally on the y and x axes to remove the black bars from the sides. No it isn't deal, but it makes for a more pleasant viewing experience.

See ya
Tony

[patmurphey]

ebaltz,

Something thing must be wrong on your end - "A Few Good Men" was full vertical black sidebar 4:3 with excellent (HD?) resolution on my set. Aspect was set to "normal". This programming demonstrates why, when we complain about not enough HD, we shouldn't blame E*,D*, and cable for the growing pains of the new HD network offerings.

Pat

[ebaltz]

ebaltz,

Something thing must be wrong on your end - "A Few Good Men" was full vertical black sidebar 4:3 with excellent (HD?) resolution on my set. Aspect was set to "normal". This programming demonstrates why, when we complain about not enough HD, we shouldn't blame E*,D*, and cable for the growing pains of the new HD network offerings.

Pat

Nothing wrong on my end, you had your TV zoomed or something without knowing it. You can make a small image go bigger but you can't make a full image letterboxed. So it was your setup. Ask anyone else who saw it with an HD TV. Do you actually have an HD TV? A 16x9 HD TV? And the picture quality was terrible. It looked like crap. It certainly wasn't anything near HD especially not 16x9 HD.

[Geronimo]

Anyone here remember when the TV Guide would have a (BW) next to the program listings? I still have a TV Guide from 1972 with a SLEW of (BW) listings. :)

See ya
Tony

I mut be older than you. I remember when each of the networks made an announcement before a show that it was in color (or in NBC's case "living color").

Does anyone else remember t peacock?

[TNGTony]

I do! It was just that I was in Puerto Rico until 1970! I caught the tail end of that. We did not have a color TV until 1967 either.
http://www.classicthemes.com/images/NBCpeacock1956.jpg (http://members.aol.com/ktedsel/video/50s_NBC_peacock.mov)
Click HERE (http://members.aol.com/ktedsel/video/50s_NBC_peacock.mov) late 50s
or HERE (http://members.aol.com/ktedsel/video/60s_NBC_peacock.mov) Most of the 60s

I still remember the Brady Bunch standing on the stairs with the "In Color" logo below them before the programs started on Friday nights. :)

[thefunks67]

Yes, I remeber the "peacock".

So special...........

-Funk

[Mike D-CO5]

I do! It was just that I was in Puerto Rico until 1970! I caught the tail end of that. We did not have a color TV until 1967 either.

I still remember the Brady Bunch standing on the stairs with the "In Color" logo below them before the programs started on Friday nights. :)


Every Friday night . I remember that shot with all the Brady Bunch on the steps and a "IN Color" logo underneath the name . I used to watch the following every friday night as a kid:

7:00pm Brady Bunch
7:30pm Patridge Family
8:00pm Room 222
8:30pm The Odd Couple

I loved Friday nights as a kid and I loved the fact that it was all" in Living Color "w the Peacock on Nbc or "IN Color" like on Abc.:D

[DonLandis]

Step 1 Get the channel

Step 2 Get HD programming to fill the 24 / 7 channel

A&E is still at step 1. Stop complaining. They built the channel and now will be working over the next year or so in filling the channel with HD programming. In the meantime you will have the upconverts to fill the time. Since you were a Dish customer since 1999 as you claim, either you were a Dish HD customer just recently or you never bothered to watch the older HD channels but both HBO and Showtime offered a scant of HD programming in the beginning with many upconverts. I recall in year 2001, 2 years after the HBOHD debut that it was still striving to reach 50% HD. Even today you will find some upconverts on HBO. The only channels I have seen that are truly 100% HD are HDNet and even then they are what many call downrezed 1080i since much of HDNet's programming is produced from HDCAM cameras that only do 1080i x 1440. My suggestion for any HD snobs is to avoid any broadcast or sat channels and stick with HD DVD or Blu Ray since that IS pure HD at its best.