Any chance of TCM-HD in the near future?

Re: Any chance of TCM-HD in the near future?

You could make a similar argument for HDNet Movies, but they don't hesitate to show many classic films. I think it's more due to financial/technical reasons. By the way, as much as I love HDNet Movies, the technical quality is inferior to what you get on HDDVD/BR. On the other hand, if all you want is DVD quality, that might be enough for you.

Re: Any chance of TCM-HD in the near future?

I'm certainly no expert but wouldn't it be a bigger problem to get HD transfers for all the movies? TCM must have the biggest library on cable and I can't imagine that many of the movies they play have HD transfers yet.

On a side note, if TCM did have an HD feed, I would become a shut-in and watch their channel all day.

Re: Any chance of TCM-HD in the near future?

I'd love it if TCM went HD.

Re: Any chance of TCM-HD in the near future?

I have Cablevision and I just noticed TCM-HD today. It is channel 734 for those who have this cable provider.

They're showing an older film right now so I don't know what the pic quality will be like. It is windowboxed properly though and looks better than the standard def channel. We'll see when they show Dr. Strangelove tonight how good the HD looks (if they show it in HD).

Re: Any chance of TCM-HD in the near future?

Oh, well, despite the duplicate posts, at least this thread is in the right forum, unlike the original one. My cable company (Comcast in south Florida) is very slow to add new HD channels, even cut HD Net last year, so I'm not holding my breath waiting for AMC-HD or TCM-HD. Hell, I'm still waiting for FX-HD. (I watch all the FX originals like Rescue Me and Damages via "On Demand" because they're available in HD there, even though Comcast doesn't carry the HD version of the channel. Go figure.)

Regards,

Joe

Re: Any chance of TCM-HD in the near future?

I have Time Warner Cable, and they, of all people, don't seem to have TCM-HD on their lineup.


I know. It could end up being dangerous.

Re: Any chance of TCM-HD in the near future?

Comcast just sent me a flyer with the new upcoming channel line-up. They are adding a ton of HD movie channels, but alas no TCM HD.

Time Warner Cable Manhattan just added TCM-HD this week. What remains to be seen is whether this will be one of their HD channels that gets good reception (e.g., HBO) or one that is subject to constant break-up (e.g., TNT). Only time will tell.

TCM (Turner Classic Movies) broadcasting in Hi-Def on Time-Warner NYC (ch. 782)

Not sure this is the appropriate forum, but I thought people would be interested to know that TCM is now available in HD.  If you live in New York City (at least in Manhattan) and have Time-Warner cable, it's on channel 782.  I assume other areas and companies are making this available as well... so check it out.

Obviously how good a movie looks in HD depends on the source being broadcast.  The good stuff looks REALLY good.  The not so good stuff, looks arguably a little worse in HD than in SD.  Yesterday I watched chunks of The Old Maid which looked so good I could have sworn I was in a 1939 movie house watching a pristine print; and Trouble in Paradise, which didn't look so hot (noticeable chroma).  Can't wait to see some wide screen films  (The King and I is on next Wed., yippee!).


[Combined w/existing thread]

Just got TCM HD in my area.

Good stuff!

 Come on DirecTV!

It's here!!
The upgraded Comcast systems in Atanta have TCM HD.
The newer movies look great. I just discovered it two days ago.
The older movies appear to be upcoverted or just shown with bars on the side
It would be nice if Comcast notified subscribers about new channels.

I've noticed a lot of talk about Comcast and Time Warner. I have ATT Uverse and was wondering if anyone here subscribes to this service as well.

I've been watching the announcements, but have yet to see any announcement regarding Uverse offering TCM-HD. Does anyone know if this channel pickup is a possibility?

We just got this in my area and I`ve noticed that all of TCM`s true HD presentations so far have been windowboxed on all sides.

Has anyone else noticed this? Is this common practice?

I have not seen this at all.  All of the TCM-HD widescreen movies that I've seen have been displayed full-width. Some letterboxing for wider movies and pillarboxing for 4:3 movies, but not both.

Yeah, I've noticed it but my TV is set for no overscan (on purpose) and perhaps yours is too. I bet with overscan you can't see the black side bars on wide screen presentations.

Cox in Fairfax is getting it later this month.  Can't wait.

I contacted Comcast here in Richmond, Va about TCM-HD and was basically told there was not enough interest in our area for this.  Anyone in the Richmond area know if any of the other cable providers have indicated they will be carrying it? 

"I contacted Comcast here in Richmond, Va about TCM-HD and was basically told there was not enough interest in our area for this."

That is just wrong.

Wow--- just discovered that Comcast here in Richmond, Va is now showing both MGM HD and TCM HD.  So far for the latter they have been showing nothing but 1.33 movies so I hope when they do show things in widescreen, it will use the full width of the screen. As has been mentioned so far in the thread, image quality may vary.  POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE looked ok, but when they were doing their movies of the month, the image quality was incredible in places.  I do hope TCM continues to show movies in the correct aspect ratio... nothing worse than the new trend for cropping 2.35 movies to fit in the 16x9 tv format.  At least the sound appears to be better.  In the last four years or so in this market TCM was exclusively mono.

I wonder if it's just in my area, but it always appears to me that the movies shown on TCM HD are just upconverted SD (even ones that are sure to have high definition transfers).

I compared French Connection recorded on HD HBO or Cinemax to the showing on TCM HD and the HBO one had more detail and looked like true HD (I also believe it was not the Friedkin blu-ray transfer I heard about as the picture looked quite congruent with other movies on the channel) while the TCM version looked nice but more like an upconverted DVD. Similarly, a movie like 2001: A Space Oddysey looked 16:9 DVD quality on TCM HD.

It could be that my cable provider provides HBO/Cinemax in 1080i and TCM in 720p which makes it all look softer?

While it would be nice to have the type of picture I get from HBO/Cinemax HD, it's just great to be able to turn to TCM and have an improved quality experience compared to the true SD version (especially when it comes to widescreen movies).

I have watched several films on TCM-HD, which I get from Time Warner Cable in 1080i, and image quality varies by movie. On color films, the fact that many of them are upconverted is painfully obvious. B&W films look better, but still not on the same level as an actual HD source. It's still better than SD, although at least 3 1.85:1 films (A Face in the Crowd, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, and Murder on the Orient Express) were shown 4x3 letterboxed within the 16x9 frame!

Of course, it may take time to switch to the HD transfers (where they exist) from the studios.

Recently, every widescreen movie that I've watched on TCM-HD has been shown in 4:3 (letterboxed and pillarboxed).  I'm not sure that much of what they show is in true HD anyway, but it was nice to have a 16x9 presentation of the widescreen movies.  Does anyone know what's going on?  The TCM website claims they are still evaluating whether to provide an HD channel.  Yet I've had one labeled TCM-HD for months.

That must be a local cable issue, because the widescreen movies on TCM-HD here (Comcast) have not been pillarboxed. I just recorded A Big Hand For the Little Lady on the weekend and it fills the 16:9 screen, as did several others I've watched, sampled or recorded recently.

Hmm.  The last one I recorded was Performance, with Mick Jagger, and it was pillarboxed.  For evidence to share with my cable company, did anyone else see that in 16:9?