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Wired News has learned that on Tuesday, March 6, Microsoft and Viacom will release the first-ever high-definition episode of the Comedy Central series South Park exclusively on Xbox Live Marketplace.

For the first two weeks of availability, all Xbox Live members will be able to download the episode, titled "Good Times With Weapons," for free.

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--- Jason

I'll never say no to free stuff! Sweet.

To quote Cartman: " That's t**ts!"

Awesome, this is one of my favorite episodes!

I don't know if cartoon style shows have any benefits for being in HD, but I can't wait to see.

I'll never say no to free stuff! Sweet.

To quote Cartman: " That's t**ts!"

here here

Cool! Free Southpark, and one of my favorite eps. Butters taking a throwing star to the eye is classic! Classic I say!

I don't know if cartoon style shows have any benefits for being in HD, but I can't wait to see.I think hand-drawn cel animation would be a lot more purty in HD due to the better resolution of the ink strokes, but I agree with you. I'm not sure that South Park is going to be such a vast improvement, and yet... I'm eager to see for myself.

Free is always good. Free Southpark is great.

I would expect to see a similar difference as we see in the simpsons vs simpsons movie trailer. there is a pretty big difference there. you can probably get a good idea of what kind of enhancement the sp episode will get by downloading/watching that.

Great news. Thanks.

Hello from Canada, MS.

We like movies and South Park too. Espescially in the winter, when it's minus 35 plus wind chill and outside looks like Lost Planet.

Hellllllooooo???

It's there now 1007.49 MB .

Quality is pretty nice but this type of animation does not really benefit too much from the higher resolution .

--- Jason

If you've ever watch the simpsons or family guy on fox you'd know there's no realy benefit to HD 2d animated with flat shading. Now a Miazaki film would be incredible. That said I'll give it a try just absed on the fact that south park is awesome and it's free.

Hello from Canada, MS.

We like movies and South Park too. Espescially in the winter, when it's minus 35 plus wind chill and outside looks like Lost Planet.

Hellllllooooo???

Just this once then:
"South Park in HD will only be available in English (with no options for sub-titles) in the following Xbox Live regions: United States, Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand."

If you've ever watch the simpsons or family guy on fox you'd know there's no realy benefit to HD 2d animated with flat shading. Now a Miazaki film would be incredible. That said I'll give it a try just absed on the fact that south park is awesome and it's free.
Simpsons and Family Guy are not shown in HD. They do, however, have 5.1 audio when watching over digital broadcast.

I downloaded it earlier..... looks damn good in HD (far better than the SD version we get on comedy central).

But one thing that bodes well for video marketplace was I was actually able to get this w/o any problems on day 1. The servers really havent been tested like this since the inception of the video marketplace when we saw the content that was downloaded a bunch had all kinds of problems with slow transfers and files never completing. I was able to pull the full 1 gig file down in about 45 mins which is pretty much maxing out my cable connection.

How is it that this episode is in widescreen? I thought the show was made in 4:3. Are they simply just croping the top and bottom? Is it possible then to go back and make all 4:3 shows Simpsons, Family Guy in widescreen?

This is the slowest Xbox Live download I've ever done. Almost there, though!

Just this once then:
"South Park in HD will only be available in English (with no options for sub-titles) in the following Xbox Live regions: United States, Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand."

Well, my goodness. Cover me in maple syrup and Canadian Bacon, I'll have to get the wife to trek out back and turn on the generator tonight, there's going to be some HD watching in the igloo, eh!

How is it that this episode is in widescreen?I don't think it is ... at least, not that anyone here has mentioned it. In any event, the high-def versions of the original Star Trek available on the marketplace are 4:3 even though the programs themselves are in HD. (Though some of the revamped FX shots use the full frame.)

it is widescreen..... i havent compared it to the original version to see what they did though.

it is widescreen..... i havent compared it to the original version to see what they did though.You're right, much to my surprise it's totally widescreen. Looks like they've cropped the top and bottom of the frame to make it so, judging by the old RealMedia file of the episode which I had laying around.

Free is always good. Free Southpark is great.

Free is NOT always good.. think about all the things you can get for free...


Free Southpark OTOH.. :D

You're right, much to my surprise it's totally widescreen. Looks like they've cropped the top and bottom of the frame to make it so, judging by the old RealMedia file of the episode which I had laying around.

It doesn't seem to be just a simple crop through out the whole episode. I have a dvd recording off of comedy central and some scenes are cropped but some had more picture added to the left and right. While some scenes had graphics added or removed.

All the anime scenes look like they had more picture added to the top and bottom though, becuase in the 4:3 version whenever it switched to the anime parts it went to a 2.35:1 AR now it stays 16:9 and in some scenes you can see thier shoes which was cut off before.

So they actualy went back and altered the episode for a 16:9 format? Can this be done with other animated 4:3 shows once they are released in either Bluray or HD-DVD?

Huge diffrence in picture (xbr960). I dont like the episode since I hate jap animation anyway. But wow what a diffrence in both sound and picture

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/1137/southparkhd001gx5.jpg

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/3945/southparkhd003wr6.jpg

nice screenshots.... it really does look great.

there is a damn good chance im gonna buy every hd episode they put out.

Ive got em all in rm format and finally being able to delete them for good would be great (esp since i can redownload the hd ones whenever i want) and is the reason i havent bought any of the ones out now because i would just want to repay for it when the hd versions come out.

I don't know if it was mentioned or not here, I did a quick scan and didn't see it but Best Buy is going to have a promotion where they give away this episode on HD DVD if you buy a 360 or the HD DVD add-on starting on March 20th.

i'd be willing to bet that southpark was originally in 16:9 and clipped for TV, either from the beginning, or maybe sometime after season 4 or something.

this episode was one i really liked for some reason, and watching it in HD was awesome... miles better than SD on comedy central via comcast.

i'd love to watch simpsons and family guy, and hell even futurama in this quality, and hell, i'd even pay for it (i dont pay for anything really) lol

It took me 3 hours to download(i'm on DSL). However I agree the quality is much better. Though again for south park it's a bit unnessary(Honestly the best part of south park is the storylines and audio). When Comedy Central eventually goes HD I'll be happy watching/recording that but until then the SD broadcast will be fine.

this type of animation does not really benefit too much from the higher resolution .

--- Jason
Man I have to really disagree. This HD version of south park looks great. Leaps and bounds better then the normal version.

The colors really jump out when you look at the HD version. It is almost night and day between the HD version and the regular Comedy Central broadcast.

The colors really jump out when you look at the HD version. It is almost night and day between the HD version and the regular Comedy Central broadcast.I agree. As I indicated earlier in the thread, I wasn't expecting that I would appreciate seeing South Park in HD ... but after watching "Good Times With Weapons", all I can say is: Let's fighting love.

The ending song sounds like a rippoff of some anime show on cartoon network i used to watch can't quite remember the name of it though.

ROFL.

The ending song sounds like a rippoff of some anime show on cartoon network i used to watch can't quite remember the name of it though.

ROFL.

That's because most anime uses either J-pop or J-rock for their themes. Trey made a J-rock song and made it as Engrish as possible.

I didn't think the episode was that good. 19 minutes of set up for a 3 minute joke payoff.

I didn't think the episode was that good. 19 minutes of set up for a 3 minute joke payoff.

yeah the episode was devoid of humor up until the payoff............NOT.

Seriously dud the episode had more overall themes than the one your mind happened to figure out.

I didn't think the episode was that good. 19 minutes of set up for a 3 minute joke payoff.
Hey, what are you doing expressing your own opinion?!?
Conform or leave! :rolleyes:

This looked awesome, it is a BIG step up from the normal SD SP. I WANT ALL THE SOUTH PARKS ON HD-DVD! SP is definitely the funniest animation EVER.

I dont like the episode since I hate jap animation anyway.

Interesting. That's exactly why I did like the episode.

Interesting. That's exactly why I did like the episode.I agree. Indeed, I don't see why it would matter whether someone enjoys Japanimation or not... this episode doesn't ask you to LIKE it, but to laugh along and have fun with it and point out its quirks. Similarly, I don't care for MMOs and have never played World of Warcraft, but I sure did enjoy the "Make Love, Not Warcraft" show.

haha, make love, not warcraft.... classic.

i'm not a WoW fan either, but that episode was so freaking funny. probably because it's half-true :D (no offense to hardcore wowers out there)

So they actualy went back and altered the episode for a 16:9 format? Can this be done with other animated 4:3 shows once they are released in either Bluray or HD-DVD?
Looks like all the anime parts are true 16:9 but, most of the normal "South Park" animation appears to be cropped from the 4:3 version (this just judging from a quick comparison I did).

This should be moved to the HD programming section.

Also, I shocked not to see anyone upset that this is not in OAR. After all, SP is 4:3, but shown 16:9 with the top and bottom chopped off!

To each their own I guess, but by the time it reached the "go ahead, prove Mel Gibson wrong, Kyle...." part, I was nearly pissing my pants.

Man I have to really disagree. This HD version of south park looks great. Leaps and bounds better then the normal version.

While it certainly does look better I think most of you are comparing it to watching on TV (cable/sat) but if you have seen the DVD's then it is not leaps and bounds better . Besides this is very basic and limited style of animation that does not lend itself to any amazing 'whoa look at that' moments . The japanime characters have much more flair in their artistry but again the animation is far from fluid . It does look nice however and it would be great to see more episodes get this treatment .

--- Jason

While it certainly does look better I think most of you are comparing it to watching on TV (cable/sat) but if you have seen the DVD's then it is not leaps and bounds better . Besides this is very basic and limited style of animation that does not lend itself to any amazing 'whoa look at that' moments . The japanime characters have much more flair in their artistry but again the animation is far from fluid . It does look nice however and it would be great to see more episodes get this treatment .

--- Jason
I'v not watched SP for a long time and tbh i turned it of after 12 mins, they should have chosen a funny episode.

I'v not watched SP for a long time and tbh i turned it of after 12 mins, they should have chosen a funny episode.They did.

Absolutely, one of my favorites from the last couple of years.

While it certainly does look better I think most of you are comparing it to watching on TV (cable/sat) but if you have seen the DVD's then it is not leaps and bounds better . Besides this is very basic and limited style of animation that does not lend itself to any amazing 'whoa look at that' moments . The japanime characters have much more flair in their artistry but again the animation is far from fluid . It does look nice however and it would be great to see more episodes get this treatment .

--- Jason

Completely agree.