TNT HD - Why are they stretching the non-wide programming? (1 Viewer)

[Ryan L. Bisasky]

actually, with universal hd, even though its a 5.1 signal, they only use the left and right channels for movies. And not everything is oar, when they show the movie "casino" it was 1:78 and not 2:35, now i know that the movie was shot in super 35 but the framing to me looks better in 2:35.

 

[Mark_B]

It's not just movies. It seems most of their 5.1 signal does this and it drives me crazy. No center speaker sound at all. What I do when I watch it is switch over to an anolog feed from the TV and my receiver themn puts it in PL II. Makes it much nicer sounding.

 

[ThomasC]

You've got to be kidding me. You're really not making a typo for 4x3?

 

[Ric Easton]

OK, sorry 4x3! (I said 3x4) But they're still stretching that sucker when they should be showing the widescreen versions.

 

[MarkHastings]

When I lie on the couch, the image is 3x4.

 

[Brian Little]

My local NBC affiliate (KARE 11 in Twin Cities) just started running the local news in HD. It looks fantastic. Native 16x9 in the newsroom and whenever they can shoot the local news segments in HD. Anything 4x3 is pillarboxed with blue bars on the side. Anytime they can use 16x9 material during, say, the sports segment is used. You can really tell the folks at this station pride themselves on a quality broadcast and it shows.

I know this is a bit off topic from TNT HD but since it was brought up....

Going on topic now I must say that I pretty much have ignored TNT HD. Its the most dreadful HD channel I've seen since the first days of ESPN "Stretch Mode" HD. Thankfully ESPN has gotten their act together since then. I don't forsee TNT doing the same for a long time as they don't have an incentive to do so at all.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Since when has THAT stopped cable channels from doing things?

 

[Lyle_JP]

This is the most infuriating thing Universal HD does. They send out a 5.1 signal, regardless of content. More than half the time, only the left and right channels are active. That means the only way to get proper surround sound is to use the analog outs of my SAT box. And since the levels on that are so low, by the time I've cranked my system enough, I have to put up with a steady hiss along with my movie. :frowning:

BTW, the very worst "crop it vertically" offender has to be Animania, a Voom (now Dish) channel. They take tons of made-for-TV cartoons from the 70s and 80s and crop them all to 16:9! By comparison, what TNT does isn't really as bad. Many TVs can compesnsate for a stetched HD image, like the Samsung DLP sets, which will pillar-box even an HD signal if you tell them to. You can't compensate for picture that has been lost to cropping.

-Lyle J.P.

 

[MarkHastings]

Doesn't your reciever have processor modes where you can 'phantom' a pro-logic setup?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I assume that by "5.1" you mean "Dolby Digital", since if it were actually 5.1 you wouldn't, by definition, be getting only two channels out of your system. Dolby Digital isn't, of course, always 5.1. It can be anything from 1.0 up, depending on the source material. So it is perfectly possible to get 2-channel stereo when your receiver (correctly) reports that the input signal is Dolby Digital.

Now if your DD signal actually contains more than 2 channels and you aren't getting it, you made need to make an adjustment on one or more pieces of equipment.

Does your satellite receiver or cable box have audio options? Either it or your receiver may have a setting that gives you control over how a DD signal is output or processed as the case may be. I don't get Universal HD, but my HD DVR is set to DD for its digital ouput, connects to my receiver via an optical cable and the only time I've ever gotten anything other thatn the "right" sound out of any channel or program is when an extended power outage has screwed up my DVR settings.

Regards,

Joe

 

[JeremyErwin]

It's possible to specify that a signal is "5.1", but only actually use the front left and right channels. They should be formatting the dolby digital stream as 2.0, but they (apparently) don't.

 

[Mark_B]

Then they're just sending left and right over a Dolby Digital signal. It may be proper, but sounds terrible. Rather than change receiver settings for the optical feed out of my satellite box, it is easier just to change the input to analog and hear it in Pro Logic. That way I don't have to change the reciver back when the feed is more than 2 channels.

 

[Dave Mack]

Wow. We don't have this channel but it sounds awful. Watching ANGEL basically panned and scanned now on TNT is terrible with actors being chopped in 1/2. Stretching that image? eesh...

 

[Ryan L. Bisasky]

I have on kill bill vol 1 on tnt and its stretched. More like what the "wide zoom mode" on my tv looks. I am watching it mainly bad the editing is, so far its not too bad, although "party wagon" instead of the more graphic term made me laugh. Although in regards to the anime scene, the blood spray is cut out but when we see O Ren as a child under the bed, we still see some blood. I would be surpised if the whole black and white scene is left intact.