TNT is the only channel that constantly changes resolution during commercial breaks. This changing back and forth from 1080i to 480i is extremely annoying. This combined with their pop-up's is almost enough for me to quit watching TNT. Is this just me or do others feel the same?

Its called stretch-o-vision

Many people feel as you do; many people do not. As it is, TNT consistently has the best ratings over the summer, so they're clearly doing well enough for enough people.

For me, I don't notice commercials at all, and what I watch on TNT (The Closer, Saving Grace, and The Company) are among the best original dramas on television this summer. Fantastic stuff.

I am glad I don't watch this channel

TNT is the only channel that constantly changes resolution during commercial breaks. This changing back and forth from 1080i to 480i is extremely annoying. This combined with their pop-up's is almost enough for me to quit watching TNT. Is this just me or do others feel the same?
Can you be specific about your comment? How does the 'resolution' on TNT change?

Many people feel as you do; many people do not. As it is, TNT consistently has the best ratings over the summer, so they're clearly doing well enough for enough people.Since we're in an HD forum, and discussing HD, this comment makes no sense.

You will be hard pressed to find anyone viewing TNT HD, other than yourself, who thinks what TNT does with stretching SD and all the pop ups is acceptable.

I find many interesting programs on TNT and the popups really do not bother me that much. As far as quality seen on the screen, it pretty much depends on the quality of the content. The newly recorded programming comes over very good on my display. At its' best, the quality can look very good. As far as stretching an older program, some people prefer it and some do not. There are some who like to fill the screen with content no matter what the content. If they cropped a number of programs, people would complain then as well. No way could they please everyone. I still enjoy the programming offered.

If you can't stand TNT's stretching like me, the solution is rather simple. Don't watch it. Skip it.

Limit your TNT-HD viewing to their high-definition series and get a DVR to skip all commercials. I don't think I've seen a commercial or stretchovision on TNT-HD in at least two months.

TNT is the only channel that constantly changes resolution during commercial breaks. This changing back and forth from 1080i to 480i is extremely annoying. This combined with their pop-up's is almost enough for me to quit watching TNT. Is this just me or do others feel the same?I haven't seen any resolution changes. My set would be constantly responding back and forth to different input resolutions since my stb is set to passthrough SD as 480i.

TNT-HD appears to always be broadcasting in 1080i. However, it does change to upconverted SD for commercials. I won't bother discussing the horror that is stretch-o-vision. :eek:

Its called stretch-o-vision
It's not stretch-o-vision he's refering to. ;) TNTHD shows are 1080i or upconverted to 1080i. Sometimes (not every time) when they go to a commercial it will switch to a 4x3 480i/p format, then back to 1080i when the show comes back on. I've even seen it switch to 720p for a commercial once. They just recently (last month or so) started doing this. I rarely watch TNT so not sure when this started. I have my cable box SA 8300HD DVR set to pass 480i/480p/720p/1080i and let the tv (Sony XBR2 LCD) do the scaling. When the cable box switches format it flickers and my tv pops up an info display showing me what format it is receiving.

Wow, are they really changing actual resolutions on the fly? I've never seen that before. Sure my PBS changes from a 1080i to several 480i sub channels (and back) twice a day, but I've never heard of a channels changing resolution for commercials.

I have Dish, so my STB is locked at a single resolution output. I guess that you need to have a receiver/tuner that support native resolution to witness this.

My cable box is set to output 1080 as 1080 and 480 as 480. TNT HD never switches to 480.

TNT is the only channel that constantly changes resolution during commercial breaks. This changing back and forth from 1080i to 480i is extremely annoying. This combined with their pop-up's is almost enough for me to quit watching TNT. Is this just me or do others feel the same?


Do you have Time Warner Cable?

If so - then its the commercials they are adding in themselves.

We get this in NYC. When TWC does go in with their own commercials on any HD channel - the signal changes to 480.

This actually started about a year ago... before then they never jumped in with their own commercials... which made watching the HD channels even better, because we didn't have to deal with the really crappy local ads.

Do you have Time Warner Cable?

If so - then its the commercials they are adding in themselves.

We get this in NYC. When TWC does go in with their own commercials on any HD channel - the signal changes to 480.

This actually started about a year ago... before then they never jumped in with their own commercials... which made watching the HD channels even better, because we didn't have to deal with the really crappy local ads.
I have TWC and that explanation makes since.

Comcast doesn't do that. Yet.

I'm not going to defend stretcovision on TNT, but I have NOT seen them changing resolution on the fly, at least not here in Atlanta on Comcast.

You will be hard pressed to find anyone viewing TNT HD, other than yourself, who thinks what TNT does with stretching SD and all the pop ups is acceptable.I think you'd have to preface that with, "In this forum..." I believe the general public doesn't consider unacceptable many of the things many folks in these forums consider "unacceptable". My wife, for example, watches The Closer alongside me, and she doesn't find it "unacceptable". I'm sure people would rather not have the bugs; but I don't believe that, in general, people in general find it specifically "unacceptable". Perhaps people should look for some OTHER word -- something other than "unacceptable" because that implies that they don't watch it.

Does anyone have Nielsen ratings showing that, among original dramas on HD channels this summer, that The Closer is anything other than at top of the chart? Until such evidence is posted, the best objective information we have available is that TNT consistently has the best ratings over the summer, so they're clearly doing well enough for enough people.

Do you have Time Warner Cable?

If so - then its the commercials they are adding in themselves.

We get this in NYC. When TWC does go in with their own commercials on any HD channel - the signal changes to 480.

Yep. I have my HD SA8300 box set to output 1080i but its also set in 'Stretch' so that 4:3 signals fill my 47" 1080p LCD. When watching an SD channel the box fills the screen; when watching in HD the station is 1080i and the SD's 'stretch' doesn't distort the HD (best of both worlds). Even when I'm fast-forwarding through the "Law & Order" HD repeats (only show I really watch on TNT) I can see the fast-forwarded commercial breaks shrinking and expanding between HD 16x9 and SD 4:3 depending on which commercial is shown. Odd! :confused:

I find many interesting programs on TNT and the popups really do not bother me that much. As far as quality seen on the screen, it pretty much depends on the quality of the content. The newly recorded programming comes over very good on my display. At its' best, the quality can look very good. As far as stretching an older program, some people prefer it and some do not. There are some who like to fill the screen with content no matter what the content. If they cropped a number of programs, people would complain then as well. No way could they please everyone. I still enjoy the programming offered.And I think that's what the general case is. No one really "likes" the bugs or the fact that some shows just simply aren't available in "true" HD, but I believe the average person considers what TNT provides acceptable, especially given the alternatives available this time of year.

I think you'd have to preface that with, "In this forum..." ?

I did.

Since we're in an HD forum, and discussing HD, this comment makes no sense.

lol Ken...

sorry...too funny though

The things that TNT does are awful. During the PGA Championship, on many occassions their pop-up logos went right over the cup on putts!

I have never seen them switch resolutions though on Comcast in Seattle. But to be honest, the Moto box would only let you know if the channel were 480i/p, all HD resolutions must be output at either 720p or 1080i.

? I did.I wasn't sure you intended those two sentences to be related to each other. As such, your point is well-taken: For the unusual customers represented by the majority of the members of this forum, the pedestrian offerings are probably always going to be inadequate. As part of a niche market, such folks always have fewer options, and those options are always going to be markedly more expensive than the standard offerings.

So now we here are "unusual" customers because we don't like stretch-o-vision or excessive pop-ups, etc? :rolleyes:

It is well-established, and for many AVS Forum members, it is a significant source of pride, to be considered "unusual" customers of video services. However, no one has suggested that the distinction was because they "don't like" the way TNT presents some of its programming and its bugs. No one "likes" advertising bugs. I've said that many times, so I'm not sure why you're having trouble remembering that. Perhaps you can help me understand your confusion.

just as an observation, i think it's funny that many people in this forum who dislike "stretchovision" on TNT, stretch 4:3 SD to fit their HDTVs.

might be worth pointing out, too, that their newer acclaimed series are in HD, sports broadcasts also, and the movies of recent vintage that I've seen on the channel are in HD too. that seems like a good chunk of HD available to watch (bugs notwithstanding :D ).

just as an observation, i think it's funny that many people in this forum who dislike "stretchovision" on TNT, stretch 4:3 SD to fit their HDTVs.
Where do you get that from? The bulk of the people here are opposed to stretching 4x3 video. That's why they complain about TNT doing it.

Name one member here who complains about TNT stretching the video, but then does it themselves - or vice versa.

Where do you get that from? The bulk of the people here are opposed to stretching 4x3 video. That's why they complain about TNT doing it.
Name one member here who complains about TNT stretching the video, but then does it themselves - or vice versa.
to prevent the need for me to run multiple searches on the forum, i'll just rephrase my observation to be more general. (it's just something i thought was interesting, nothing more)
"just as an observation, i think it's funny that many people in this forum stretch 4:3 SD to fit their HDTVs while many people dislike "stretchovision" on TNT. " (note that i am not saying that they are the same people).

to prevent the need for me to run multiple searches on the forum, i'll just rephrase my observation to be more general. (it's just something i thought was interesting, nothing more)
"just as an observation, i think it's funny that many people in this forum stretch 4:3 SD to fit their HDTVs while many people dislike "stretchovision" on TNT. " (note that i am not saying that they are the same people).I doubt that that many people in this forum stretch 4:3 SD to fit their HDTVs, more likely quite the opposite.

Indeed. I only do so when the presentation is letter-boxed within 4:3 (i.e., both letter-boxed and pillar-boxed) and even then only with certain programs. Some other folks do so less. Some other folks do so more. And no one here has any hard information about the average percentage of programs that are stretched by end-users.

I do stretch 4:3 material most of the time. Don't want my otherwise spectacular-looking CRT RPTV to suffer burn-in from pillarbox bars. Guessing many plasma folks do the same (or should).

Yeah, I could get an LCD or DLP set that makes phosphor burn a non-issue. As soon as someone finds a set like that for the same price I paid for my Hitachi CRT, I'll take it. So far, nothing even double the price has come close to my cal'd RPTV. So, stretch away I will.

Then again, if I watch TNT HD, it's only for occasional NBA games, L&O and WITHOUT A TRACE reruns--all in "normal" HD.

If I use the format button on my satellite receiver to eliminate pillar bars the picture quality is still better than the formatting TNT uses to stretch 4:3 programming. To try to compensate for the distortion by using the receiver's format makes the picture even worse.

The stretch is annoying. But labeling stretch-o as "HD" is lying. I totally give up TNT now because I can never find out which movies are real "HD" ahead of time.

If I use the format button on my satellite receiver to eliminate pillar bars the picture quality is still better than the formatting TNT uses to stretch 4:3 programming. To try to compensate for the distortion by using the receiver's format makes the picture even worse.

Do agree. TNT's stretch compared to TV/Cable/sat box versions is pretty bad.

It's not stretch-o-vision he's refering to. ;) TNTHD shows are 1080i or upconverted to 1080i. Sometimes (not every time) when they go to a commercial it will switch to a 4x3 480i/p format, then back to 1080i when the show comes back on. I've even seen it switch to 720p for a commercial once. They just recently (last month or so) started doing this. I rarely watch TNT so not sure when this started. I have my cable box SA 8300HD DVR set to pass 480i/480p/720p/1080i and let the tv (Sony XBR2 LCD) do the scaling. When the cable box switches format it flickers and my tv pops up an info display showing me what format it is receiving.

Must be the cable company inserting their commercials during the local breaks in the different formats. TNT-HD is 24x7 in 1080i and 5.1 Dolby Digital surround.

Must be the cable company inserting their commercials during the local breaks in the different formats. TNT-HD is 24x7 in 1080i and 5.1 Dolby Digital surround.
Yes, most likely.

It's not stretch-o-vision he's refering to. ;) TNTHD shows are 1080i or upconverted to 1080i. Sometimes (not every time) when they go to a commercial it will switch to a 4x3 480i/p format, then back to 1080i when the show comes back on. I've even seen it switch to 720p for a commercial once. They just recently (last month or so) started doing this. I rarely watch TNT so not sure when this started. I have my cable box SA 8300HD DVR set to pass 480i/480p/720p/1080i and let the tv (Sony XBR2 LCD) do the scaling. When the cable box switches format it flickers and my tv pops up an info display showing me what format it is receiving.

This is exactly what I meant by my question. My setup is the same and this flickering is very annoying and sometimes causes me to miss something. I thought that it probably was caused by TWC, but this is the only channel that this switching formats happens on.

This is exactly what I meant by my question. My setup is the same and this flickering is very annoying and sometimes causes me to miss something. I thought that it probably was caused by TWC, but this is the only channel that this switching formats happens on.
If it bothers you, change the output formats in the advanced settings on your cable box to output 1080i only. This will solve your problem as it will upconvert the 480 commercials to 1080i.

This is exactly what I meant by my question. My setup is the same and this flickering is very annoying and sometimes causes me to miss something. I thought that it probably was caused by TWC, but this is the only channel that this switching formats happens on.
Yep, TNTHD is the only channel I have it happen on also.

As sad as TNT is, this one isn't their fault. It's the cable company.

Cablevision does that with us on YES-HD. Very annoying.