TCM: Finally in Real HD? (1 Viewer)

[davidmatychuk]

On Saturday they showed THE BLACK STALLION. I had watched part of it a few weeks ago. This time it was in HD and boy did it make a difference. Ended up watching it from beginning to end. Also watched part of HIS GIRL FRIDAY. It looked HD to me as well from the detail and the quality of the "blacks". Figure there will be a lot of TCM in my life for the next little while as I check out which films they have HD masters of.

How do you get TCM-HD back East? Rogers? Out here in Vancouver, it's Shaw Cable, and it's TCM-SD period.

 

[Ken H]

Hi to all,

I’ve been known online as the notorious Ken H, lead HDTV Moderator at AVS Forums for some 12+ years. I too have noted the recent changes on TCM HD, starting on or about last November 11th.

1) The very small black border on film content disappeared. This results in images full frame from top to bottom for 4:3 AR, full frame top to bottom and left to right for ~16:9 AR, and full frame from left to right with letterbox on top and bottom for wider AR.

2) The bumper segments with Robert Osborne and Ben Mankiewicz are also full frame 16:9 and obviously, in my opinion, native HD.

3) Many of the films since that point have been subjectively much more detailed and looked like HD. These included Patton on 11/11/14 and On The Waterfront on 11/15/14.

4) An AVS member compared file sizes of an older airing of On The Waterfront to the airing on 11/15 and the recent file size is substantially larger.

In any event, I believe at least some real HD has finally come to TCM!

There is one caveat – not all films on TCM HD have been transferred to HD, so some still look much like they did before; varying degrees of SD transfer quality upconverted to HD. At least now it’s hit or miss, and the hits generally look very good.

Best regards,
Ken

 

[TonyD]

Ken has come back.

 

[Mike Frezon]

It appears so. Welcome home, Ken!

 

[Ken H]

Thanks for the kind words.

I'm now seeing something I haven't seen since the switchover - black bars on all 4 sides of 16:9 content, Tuesday 1/6/15 night's airing of The Sting. Only an anomaly, I hope.

 

[Matt Hough]

I've been seeing that fairly regularly with 16:9 shows recently. I just assumed those weren't in HD yet but were upconverted SD.

 

[GlennF]

They showed CHARADE and ARABESQUE on Sunday and they were both definitely high definition. The picture was sharp, the colour excellent, and they filled the screen.

 

[Roger Grodsky]

I, for one, am curious/concerned about what THE WAY WE WERE will look like on 1/20. Lately TCM has been showing a pan-and-scan version (horrors!) and of course now there is a high-def Panavision version on blu-ray.

 

[Garysb]

The Way We Were was pan and scanned. 1:77 instead of 2:35 . It was also shown that way on HDNET recently. I noticed Georgy Girl was shown on TCM at 1.33 with the opening titles at 1.66. I am guessing this is what Sony supplies to TCM . Surprised TCM doesn't put the disclaimer ," This film was formatted to fit this screen"

The only complaint I have with Verizon Fios is that they still have not added TCM HD.

 

[TonyD]

Some relatively notable upcoming hardly seen movies coming up that may now air in HD


Lost In Yonkers Friday 8p es


Biloxi Blues Friday 10p es


Under the Yum Yum Tree Sunday 1/25 12p es


Irma La Douce Mon 1/26 3:15p es




Also A Rod Taylor set of films on the 29th starting with

The Birds at 10p

Sunday in New York

Young Cassidy

The Glass Bottom Boat


Hopefully all in HD

 

[Mike Boone]

Hi to all,


I’ve been known online as the notorious Ken H, lead HDTV Moderator at AVS Forums for some 12+ years. I too have noted the recent changes on TCM HD, starting on or about last November 11th.


1) The very small black border on film content disappeared. This results in images full frame from top to bottom for 4:3 AR, full frame top to bottom and left to right for ~16:9 AR, and full frame from left to right with letterbox on top and bottom for wider AR.


2) The bumper segments with Robert Osborne and Ben Mankiewicz are also full frame 16:9 and obviously, in my opinion, native HD.


3) Many of the films since that point have been subjectively much more detailed and looked like HD. These included Patton on 11/11/14 and On The Waterfront on 11/15/14.


4) An AVS member compared file sizes of an older airing of On The Waterfront to the airing on 11/15 and the recent file size is substantially larger.


In any event, I believe at least some real HD has finally come to TCM!


There is one caveat – not all films on TCM HD have been transferred to HD, so some still look much like they did before; varying degrees of SD transfer quality upconverted to HD. At least now it’s hit or miss, and the hits generally look very good.


Best regards,

Ken

Thank you Ken. Due to past disappointment with TCM's supposed HD channel, I was really excited to discover this thread today, and especially your thorough, excellent explanation of TCM's past vs present image quality. Any members who ran across Lawrence of Arabia on TCM HD, in past years, were probably quickly moved to abandon such a travesty in supposed HD telecasting. Better to tune in later, when such a pristine, beautiful example of classic cinematography, was not falling victim to what almost amounted to criminal vandalism.


Several months back, probably (and hopefully) before TCM upgraded its production methods, Ice Station Zebra was shown one weekend on TCM HD. That 1968 MGM release was filmed in Super Panavision 70, the same large format that was used to shoot 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was another MGM production that was released the same year.


Never having seen Ice Station, I must admit to feeling more curious about what sort of picture quality would be in evidence, than I was about how strong that cold war melodrama would be as pure cinema. Well, the image quality was certainly a let down, especially considering its large format source. Did not have the DVD of Ice Station to use as a comparison, but I'm sure that TCM's presentation offered very little improvement if the DVD was a well done transfer. (of course, being MGM, that's not exactly something that one could count on either)


Actually, from previous experience, I had not expected much of TCM's Ice Station Zebra telecast, but was hoping to be surprised.


About a year or two ago, for example, using a calibrated Panny P58VT25 plasma, I compared the DVD of 1960's B&W production The Apartment with its TCM HD presentation. The Apartment on DVD smoked its TCM counterpart in the areas of black level and overall contrast, and was at least the equal of the TCM version in clarity and detail.


So once again, let me express my appreciation to the creator of this thread, and everyone who has been contributing info to it to help all of us understand what has transpired at TCM HD.

 

[RolandL]

How do you get TCM-HD back East? Rogers? Out here in Vancouver, it's Shaw Cable, and it's TCM-SD period.

Its two seprate channels for Comcast in Connecticut. Channel 169 is TCM-SD, 1815 is TCM-HD.

 

[Rob W]

Its two seprate channels for Comcast in Connecticut. Channel 169 is TCM-SD, 1815 is TCM-HD.

Yes, Rogers offers TCM -HD.

 

[RolandL]

The Poseidon Adventure is playing right now. Definitely HD.

 

[Konstantinos]

Also A Rod Taylor set of films on the 29th starting with

The Birds at 10p

Sunday in New York

Young Cassidy

The Glass Bottom Boat


Hopefully all in HD

I would love a Rod Taylor Bluray boxset but I doubt it..

 

[Matt Hough]

I caught a few moments of The Poseidon Adventure this afternoon. It looked just beautiful.

 

[RolandL]

Spirit of St. Louis looks like HD to me. Maybe a Blu-ray will be coming out?

 

[Richard Gallagher]

Its two seprate channels for Comcast in Connecticut. Channel 169 is TCM-SD, 1815 is TCM-HD.

I have a relative who has Comcast in Hamden. There TCM-SD is Channel 73 and TCM-HD is Channel 1815.


If it were me I would prefer that they did it like DirecTV and have the SD channel adjacent to the HD channel, so with a simple Channel Up or Channel Down you could switch from one to the other.

 

[atfree]

I have a relative who has Comcast in Hamden. There TCM-SD is Channel 73 and TCM-HD is Channel 1815.

If it were me I would prefer that they did it like DirecTV and have the SD channel adjacent to the HD channel, so with a simple Channel Up or Channel Down you could switch from one to the other.

To me, Directv having the SD/HD channels adjacent to each other is a huge plus....when we travel and use Charter/Comcast etc, its always annoying to have the SD/HD channels separated by 50 channels.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Patton was in HD today too.