ACE - Professor
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8.2K Messages
Univision (3002) says HD, but it's not
Subject says it all. Why am I seeing the "HD" indicator for some shows on 3002 when they're obviously not in HD?
Do I suffer somehow because Univision is not OTA in my area, where in those areas that have it OTA in HD, U-Verse offers it via their boxes in HD? (Did I confuse you by that?)
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*I am not a DIRECTV employee, and the views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.
aviewer
Expert
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3.2K Messages
10 years ago
The HD channel is an HD feed. U-verse cannot control what the provider provides on that feed.
Not sure of the point of the HD indicator. Seems moot to me. First run ndicator would be more valuable.
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JefferMC
ACE - Expert
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36.9K Messages
10 years ago
In my house, the HD indicator says that this was something recorded during the HD preview (or some other preview) and it needs to be watched and deleted to free up space!
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skeeterintexas
ACE - Expert
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28.3K Messages
10 years ago
TCM-HD (Turner Classic Movies/1790) has the HD indicator for the 1930 movie "Bright Eyes". Call me crazy but I don't think that movie is in HD.
Just because something is on the HD feed, it's not necessarily going to be TRUE HD. It will look nice, but not HD.
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JefferMC
ACE - Expert
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36.9K Messages
10 years ago
That depends on how it was transfered from 35mm film to digital. It could be HD resolution, but the format for that film is 4:3.
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skeeterintexas
ACE - Expert
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28.3K Messages
10 years ago
Well now...I'm totally confuzzled.
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JefferMC
ACE - Expert
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36.9K Messages
10 years ago
HD is all about resolution. When something on film is made digital for home distribution something samples the image on the film and breaks it up into pixels. Most movie film (even old movie film) has more than enough effective resolution to pull off a transfer to 4K, so 1080 pixels of vertical resolution is even easier.
A lot of people equate HD with wide screen and aspect ratios, but you can have HD resolution (1080 vertical) with 4:3 aspect for a horizonal pixel count of 1440 (instead of 16:9's 1920 pixels). Which means, yes pilar boxing, but it still could be HD.
If the conversion of that film was done for normal 480i viewing, then, no it won't be HD. But if done recently, it very well could be.
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baseballisback
ACE - Professor
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8.2K Messages
10 years ago
I'm watching live TV on 1903 (Starz West HD). I see the "HD square" and it's 16x9, as it should be, etc.
I flip over to 3002 and see that same "HD square" in the guide and it's 4x3 SD with the black bars on either side of the image.
You're saying that because 3002 has 1080 lines, then the HD indicator appears? That's odd...
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ethanedwards
Mentor
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46 Messages
10 years ago
The HD flag is set by the content provider, so blame them, not U-verse. It was more useful back in the aughts when stations broadcast only 2 or 3 hours of HD content a day. It's analogous to TV Guide flagging color broadcasts back in the sixties. (People want their money's worth from their new expensive TV.)
Nowadays, with ubiquitous upconversion providers will slap the HD tag on everything they are going to broadcast. A few providers like Starz will leave the HD tag off of upconverted content.
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ethanedwards
Mentor
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46 Messages
10 years ago
You're not crazy, you're right. I'd say less than 10% of TCM-HD's content is truly HD. The way to tell: If you are watching a wide screen movie on 1790 and it looks like you are watching 790 with Zoom3 on (ie., small black bars on the sides), it's upconverted SD; if it fills the screen on 1790, it's real HD.
Regards.
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JefferMC
ACE - Expert
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36.9K Messages
10 years ago
If the vertical resolution of the content is at least 720 pixels, then it qualifies as HD, whether the aspect ratio is 16:9 or not.
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JefferMC
ACE - Expert
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36.9K Messages
10 years ago
Aspect ratio does not determine HD. Resolution does. You can have wide format SD content, and narrow format HD content. (But that's not the way to bet).
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ethanedwards
Mentor
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46 Messages
10 years ago
Where did I say that aspect ratio determines HD? I said that if you see small black bars on a wide screen movie on TCM-HD you are seeing upconverted SD.
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skeeterintexas
ACE - Expert
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28.3K Messages
10 years ago
So HD doesn't always mean 16:9 and 16:9 doesn't always mean HD? Same with 4:3 & SD?
Clear as mud.
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baseballisback
ACE - Professor
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8.2K Messages
10 years ago
Well, we know that the "new" form of SD is the 16x9 SD which puts black bars on all four sides of a 16x9 TV. This makes it easy to zoom, but when you zoom, you lose PQ.
IMO, if it's not 16x9, it shouldn't be called HD. If it's 4x3, it should be SD. Easy as that.
It's also weird that they're doing that.
Take, for example, ESPN. They're on channel 602 in 16x9 SD. They're on 1602 in 16x9 HD. I'm sure the SD channel is still 480. The HD channel is 720.
But 3002...is that an HD channel or an SD channel? Some shows appear to be in HD, but they're not 16x9. Some shows, given the same 4x3 image, are listed as SD.
Yeah...clear as mud.
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JefferMC
ACE - Expert
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36.9K Messages
10 years ago
You're entitled to your opinion. However, HD stands for High Definition. Definition is another way of saying resolution.
You can get a hi-rez scan of a 4:3 format movie and that would be HD. And obviously some SD channels letterbox to show HD content in SD. There's also a standard for showing 16:9 on 480 vertical resolution (Wide 480p).
1024 x 768 (remember that old standard PC resolution?) is considered HD and is 4:3.
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