What's new

Showtime: Why is their HDTV content nearly empty & full of upconverted broadcasts? (1 Viewer)

Matt_Stevens

Supporting Actor
Joined
Dec 3, 2000
Messages
747
The only HDTV channel to get actual 2.35 content in true 2.35:1 and their schedule is nearly empty, filled with mostly upconverted 480i crap! Why?
I have a 47" Panasonic HDTV due next week and am seriously thinking about a DISH 6000, but I don't want to pay for cropped HBO. Is SHOWTIME getting worse, because I once heard they had a lot of 1080i content.
Thanks
------------------
www.deceptions.net/superman
 
M

MaxY

Showtime may not have has much True HD but when they do HD they do it right.
Most of their older movies are still shown as upconverted 4x3 but most of their new and especially bigger name movies are shown in HD OAR and DD 5.1 if there is a 5.1 track avalable.
They are not getting worse.
HBO crops to 16x9 most everything. Croping in my opinon is worse then Pan & Sacning to 16x9 because it just cuts the sides until it fills up the screen top to bottom with no attempt to scan back and forth and follow the action. At least that is what I think they are doing.
Well Even though HBO does that they do seem to be getting Hd transfers of most of what they put on with the exceptions being their own made for TV series like Sex in the City, Arlis and Six Feet Under.
The croping is not awful for 1:85 movies. They do use DD 5.1 sometimes and have been better about it lately. I use a Big Dish to get it and I have heard some of the mini dish users complain that they don't get the DD 5.1, even on shows I know were 5.1 through the big dish.
So yeah Showtime does it right but they are not doing as much of it, they seem to focus their HD on mostly big name recent movies.
Max
------------------
Maxsig.gif

Browse My Collection of DVDs at DVD profiler
Equipment Lists for My HTs
 

PerryD

Supporting Actor
Joined
Aug 28, 2000
Messages
736
Here is a fairly comprehensive list of all the movies (64 total) that Showtime has shown in High Definition over the past year. I would guess that the total only increases at around 2 per month on the average.
200 Cigarettes
3 Strikes
Angela's Ashes
At First Sight
Being John Malcovich
Black Mask
Bringing Out the Dead
Dead Man on Campus
Dirty Work
Disturbing Behavior
Double Jeopardy
Election
Enslavement: Fanny Kemble
Flawless
General's Daughter
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
Harlan County War
Inspector 2: Shred of Evidence
Just the Ticket
Knock Off
Limey
Locked In Silence
Mission: Impossible 2
Mod Squad
Movers and Shakers
Next Best Thing
Night at the Roxbury
Ninth Gate
Noriega: God's Favorite
One Kill
Out-of-Towners
Payback
Possessed
Rage: Carrie 2
Rated X
Ronin
Rugrats Movie
Rules of Engagement
Runaway Bride
Simple Plan
Sister Mary Explains It All
Sleepy Hollow
Snake Eyes
Snow Day
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
Species II
Star Trek: Insurrection
Stigmata
Stir of Echoes
Supernova
Superstar
Talented Mr. Ripley
Tea With Mussolini
Teaching Mrs. Tingle
Terms of Endearment
The Wood
Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her
Thomas Crown Affair
Truman Show
Varian's War
Varsity Blues
Walter and Henry
Who Killed Atlanta's Children
World Is Not Enough
There is also another 125 movies that were shown upconverted over the same time which I am not listing. So, in total, Showtime showed 189 different movies in widescreen (I think always OAR) in the past year. Keep in mind that HBO generally does something like 60 different movies each month.
 

Matt_Stevens

Supporting Actor
Joined
Dec 3, 2000
Messages
747
Wow. A lot of really terrible films in that list. Dirty Work? There were very few good ones listed (Rules Of Engagement, Sleepy Hollow are two). Ouch.
So HBO just zooms in the HD suignal? They are not actually securing open matted transfers of 2.35:1 Super35 films like PERFECT STORM? If they are just cropping them, then that is pathetic. The Full Frame version would be better!
------------------
www.deceptions.net/superman
 

Jim Ferguson

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Sep 9, 1998
Messages
83
Many of the Super35 movies on HBO, including The Matrix, American Beauty, The X-Files etc. are done mainly by opening up the matte at the top or bottom of the image. Some image is cropped at the sides, but not as much as with anamorphic scope pictures.
It's still wrong. American Beauty looked horrible this way. There was a huge amount of dead space at the bottom of the frame.
 

Michael St. Clair

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 3, 1999
Messages
6,001
Many of the Super35 movies on HBO, including The Matrix, American Beauty, The X-Files etc. are done mainly by opening up the matte at the top or bottom of the image. Some image is cropped at the sides, but not as much as with anamorphic scope pictures.
Until a special effects shot or any shot where something intruded on the frame, then it's time to get out the knife.
Either way, it's sick.
 

Matt_Stevens

Supporting Actor
Joined
Dec 3, 2000
Messages
747
Nearly every Super35 2.35:1 film has the FX shots done at 1.85:1. The Matrix, Gladiator, ID4, and Titanic all have numerous 1.85:1 composed FX shots and that is becoming common place (because of HDTV?). Typicaly, the shots that are not are done in 70mm.
Either way, HBO still sucks.
------------------
www.deceptions.net/superman
 

GlennH

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 28, 1998
Messages
2,155
Real Name
Glenn
Is it SHOWTIME that is to blame for the meager amount/selection of true HD, or are they doing all they can with what the studios will give them? Aren't the studios kind of stingy with their product these days, waiting for the new digital copy protection schemes to take hold? Or waiting for more of a market to develop before investing in doing more HD transfers (although you would think all newer movies would have this anyway)?
 

Mark Zimmer

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
4,318
Is it my imagination, or is there almost zero worthwhile HDTV content out there? I've been dithering about getting a STB but HBO crops, Showtime's got nothing I want to see that I don't already have on DVD.....when are we ever going to see something worth having HDTV for? I'm not convinced, not at all.
frown.gif

------------------
"This movie has warped my fragile little mind."
 
M

MaxY

Yep SG 1 is an Upconvert. It does look good but it does not Look True HD good. It is also put out with DD 5.1 which does sound good as well.
As for seeing the difference between an Upconvert and True HD...
HBO Aired some eps of the Sopranos in 16x9 upconverted form and they too looked good but last season when they moved to true HD boy did it really look good. No DD 5.1 for the Sopranos yet. (Well on DVD but not HBO HD at least)
Max
------------------
Maxsig.gif

Browse My Collection of DVDs at DVD profiler
Equipment Lists for My HTs
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Forum statistics

Threads
356,814
Messages
5,123,724
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top