'Talented Mr. Pipley' and 'The Beach' in HDTV (1 Viewer)

[Frank]

Both these films were in HDTV last night and they both looked fabulous. 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' took place in Italy and was incredibly scenic. The DD5.1 was flawless. It was on Showtime-HD. HBO was showing 'The Beach' full screen even though it should have been 2.35x1. Since it was filmed in Super35 it didn't look quite as bad as their normal pan and scan nonsense. The picture quality was absolutely stunning. The audio was DD5.1 but it was terrible. No directionality and it was plagued with dropouts. Showime does a much better job with their HDTV presentations. Too bad they don't have more of it.

 

[BillF]

I recently wrote to Showtime to complain about how few of the movies on their HiDef channel were actualy HiDef.
Here's the reponse I got:
Dear Sir.
Thank you for your inquiry about Showtime's high definition broadcasts. We are doing our best to originate as many of our movies as possible in high definition. Unfortunately, much of the studio product we air is still not available to us in this format, due to copy protection concerns. We are hopeful that, once a common copy protection technology is agreed to by all of the studios, we will be able to offer a more complete schedule of high definition product. In the meantime, we thank you for your patience and hope you will continue watching Showtime.
Sincerely,
Richard Keatinge,
Showtime Engineering.

 

[Frank]

HDTV movies are not available to them? Then why are they available to HBO in HD then????
I'll try to answer my own question.
Perhaps because HBO is screwing up the aspect ratio and the sound and Showtime is not.

 

[CRyan]

The Beach looked great, but the audio problems about put me over the edge. Has anyone posted any responses from HBO? Do they know this is a problem? Has anyone told them? If not, we need to get a little petition together.
That Showtime response scares the Hell out of me. Do they realize that if a copy protection standard is adopted, all of their current HD subscribers will be left out in the dark! Quite literally. Good greif.
C. Ryan

 

[Chris S]

HDTV movies are not available to them? Then why are they available to HBO in HD then????

From what I understand HBO does their own HD conversions of the films that they air. Thanks, Chris
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Home Theater: http://www.ig-88.net

 

[Dan Hitchman]

HBO does transfer films themselves because they're owned by Warner Bros. I have a hunch that's why all 1.85:1 movies on WB DVD's are reduced to 1.78:1. HBO then doesn't have to re-transfer those titles to get rid of those "nasty black bars."
Now that most DVD's are OAR, and people are starting to "get it" (since DVD is growing in popularity daily) there is absolutely no reason HBO and other pay HD channels, and TV broadcasters have to butcher the original theatrical ratios any more. Most people with HD capability understand the need for letterboxing anyway.
Dan
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