Anone see the Abe Lincoln documentary on PBS in HDTV? (1 Viewer)

[Claude S]

I watched part one of a six hour documentary about Abraham & Mary Todd Lincoln on PBS last night on a standard television set and found that it was great with beautiful cinematography. It was a HDTV presentation and was wondering how this program looked in in that very high resolution format. It was not listed in the credits but does this three part mini series also have a 5.1 Dolby Digital sound track?
I sure envy many of you that can watch an excellent show like this in HDTV. I have noticed that a DVD is available from PBS for about $60.00 and I am planning to get it because the picture quality will be much better than what I am getting now from a cable feed.
-Claude S

 

[TimothyP]

I saw it in HD. Yes the video quality was excellent as was the content IMHO. The sound was not 5.1 (at least not from my PBS affiliate). Like many others on this forum, I find myself watching bad programs just because they are broadcast in HD. Somethimes I do this even when a great show is on another channel in SD. When good content is presented in HD, it's SICK it's so good.
Tim
I want more HD content!

 

[orestes]

Yes, I saw it in HD! I watched it just a bit, for I was watching some Spanish soap in the evening. I don't have the optical cable hooked up yet to see if a HDTV broadcast is DD 5.1 or not.
I was amazed at the picture, and detail which I was able to see. I don't have words to describe it. Even the old static pictures shown during the show with pictures of the White House, Lincoln, and his wife were fantastic to look at. A jaw-dropping experience in my opinion! I was able to see manuscripts and documents on my screen as if they were actually on paper before my eyes. I could almost touch the silverware, and plates that I saw while coming in and out of this broadcast. The flickering of candles and its reflection on the small silver bell on one table was used to show the quality of the HD broadcast. I could almost feel the warmth from these candles.
I watch this broadcast using my Toshiba TW40X81, DST-3000, and RS double bow-tie antenna on KQED in San Francisco, channel 30-1 digital. I can only get two digital channels, KQED channel 30-1, and KICU channels 52-2 and 36-1.
Sincerely,
orestes.

 

[Jim Ferguson]

I've seen parts 1/2 and 3/4 WETA here in D.C. I don't know when the remaining two hours will be on. The nice thing with WETA is they repeat their HDTV programming for at least a week or two.
One thing I noticed is that many documentaries use old photographs, or paintings, or newspaper articles and so forth for visuals. With HDTV it is very obvious when they "cheat" and use a second source for these visuals, such as printed books etc. rather than taking fresh HDTV videos of the original materials. You can see the individual dots in the recent prints as opposed to the original photo surface.