Oscars 2004 in HDTV (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

Francis Ford Coppola didn't stand up with the rest of the audience did for Sean Penn. I actually am glad that Bill Murray wore his emotions on his sleeves. Usually we get the "gracious" reactions of the non-winners, but Murray really wanted to win, and wasn't afraid to show his disappointment.

 

[ChuckSolo]

Here in San Diego on Cox Digital Cable we had a pretty good HD broadcast, although the picture and sound dropped 2 or 3 times. I'm sure glad I got my HDTV before the show because I really enjoyed it. Normally I walk in and out of the room during the Oscars, tending to some other things, but this time I stayed glued to the screen. The HD picture on my RCA was gorgeous.

 

[Paul_Stachniak]

Murray was ROBBED!!! ROBBED I TELL YOU! I always hated that Sean Penn. Even before 'I am Sam', tho that film certainly didn't help matters.

 

[ChuckSolo]

Why do you hate Sean Penn? I may not agree with his politics, the WMD comment was out of place methinks, but there is no denying that the gentleman can ACT!! Heck, that was evident back when he made "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "Bad Boys" not to mention "At Close Range" and "State of Grace." To go further, I absolutely abhorr Alec Baldwin's politics, but movies like "Glenn Garry, Glenn Ross" prove even HE can act!

 

[Paul_Stachniak]

^ I hate him cause he sucks! And maybe because I really wanted Peter Venkmen to win.

 

[Steve_Tk]

Actors must really think they are important if they think we care what their political views are on an awards show. How self involved if you think "I'm so damn important that I'm going to let the whole world know exactly what I think on XXXX, because I'm just that damn smart," and then force feed us all what they believe. That goes for all actors.

 

[Ken Chan]

On ABC, wouldn't it be 720p -- but at 60 frames/sec?

 

[Paul_Stachniak]

Didn't look like it. Looked like full 1080i.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

ABC and ESPN are 720p/60, so your Canadian affiliate probably converted it to 1080i/30.

Actually, in broadcast terms only 720p/60 is actually better than 1080i due to technical and compression issues and how sets usually handle 1080i. If more sets could handle 720p/60 properly and in its native resolution (besides 720p projectors), then you'd probably like 720p/60 better overall than 1080i/30.

Now, if the darn Grand Alliance steering committee had had the foresight to give HDTV enough bitrate and bandwidth space then we'd be seeing glorious 1080p/60 right now.

All the pixel depth of 1080i, but with all the benefits of a faster frame rate and progressive scanning. Stupid, stupid, stupid!!

Dan

 

[Yee-Ming]

I was wondering if Francis had just sat down faster than everyone else (ie couldn't be arsed to give a really long standing ovation, or he's old and feeling it?), he seemed to be shifting in his seat just as the camera flashed to him. Or maybe he never got up.

I do wonder: what prompted the audience to give Penn a standing ovation? I don't remember anyone else getting a standing ovation, save for Edwards' lifetime achievement or whatever it was called (for those it certainly seems appropriate to stand).

As an aside, when they showed the tribute to deceased artistes, it was interesting to try and gauge popularity/fame by volume/intensity of applause when the person's picture came up. For instance, lesser-known screenwriters got polite applause, stars like Charles Bronson got loud applause. I was wondering if Elia Kazan might get less, given his chequered past, or more particularly Leni Riefenstahl, but AFA I could tell, most in the audience probably had no idea who Riefenstahl was and she got the same polite applause that most others got; Kazan's applause also seemed more-or-less the same.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

There wasn't much more the Grand Alliance could do, Dan. Whatever they designed would have to share the TV spectrum with NTSC for a transition period of unknown duration, therefore they had to use the same 6 MHz channels as NTSC. So bandwidth was already locked in. If they couldn't increase bandwidth to increase the bitrate, then a higher bitrate could only come as a quantity/quality tradeoff. If they came up with a modulation that had a higher bitrate to support 1080/60p, then it most certainly would be even harder to reliably receive than 8-VSB is already. Better to leave 1080/60p out of the spec than to include it with the knowledge that the bitrate can't handle it.

 

[Trenton McNeil]

HDNation.com Academy Awards HDTV 720p Screenshots

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