Something is dreadfully wrong with SCI-FI HD they are broadcasting movies, such as Dark Kingdom, in "window box". Windowbox contains both letterbox and pillar bars and I can't imagine anyone enjoying movies broadcast in that manner.

Without a doubt SCI-Fi is the biggest disappointment with all the new DirecTV HD programs. All the others are broadcasting in true HD everyday. Maybe SCI-FI does not have any titles filmed in HD and they are starting from scratch?

Give them time, apparently they don't have HD rights for these movies. I'm sure now that they have an HD channel they will start getting HD rights in the future.

At least they aren't stretching them across the screen and labeling them HD like some other channels are doing.

Something is dreadfully wrong with SCI-FI HD they are broadcasting movies, such as Dark Kingdom, in "window box". Windowbox contains both letterbox and pillar bars and I can't imagine anyone enjoying movies broadcast in that manner.


wow, I bet that's ugly to watch.
Postage Stamp TV:p

From what I've seen on SciFi HD, the new season of SGA was in HD. Also, Species the Awakening, the new Flash Gordon series, The Bionic Woman and Dark Ride were all in HD.

Without a doubt SCI-Fi is the biggest disappointment with all the new DirecTV HD programs. All the others are broadcasting in true HD everyday.

That is just not a true statement. From what I have seen of TBSHD they have even less HD than TNTHD has had... Many of the new HD channels launched by DirecTV and Dish are a lot of zoomed or stretched filler right now.

Sci Fi is showing their originals in HD - including their cheesy (but usually fun) Sat. movies. I don't see how anyone could characterize them as anything but "one of the best" of the new batch of HD channels.

It would be nice if they moved the bug up in letterboxed programming and zoomed it. They have quite a bit (probably even a majority) of programming in 16:9 and it could be zoomed with no cropping or stretching.

Why on earth would you want the bug moved up and zoomed at the source? Just zoom your TV or the receiver and most of those annoying bugs or 1/3 screen animated with sound ad's will be on the portion you've "removed"

There was a time I couldn't wait for SciFi-HD but to me sci fi has fallen off significantly. I don't even watch the channel anymore and I used to really enjoy it. Besides I don't even think I want to see any of their movies in HD. Can you imagine how bad their low budget effects would look now that you can watch SciFi orginals in HD?

I know what you mean. I still watch Stargate Atlantis and BSG, and I'm holding out a sliver of hope for Farscape to return--they're making a series of short 'webisodes' of Farscape in case you haven't heard.

It should be no surprise that many of the new HD channel have very limited HD programming at this time.

Just glad S4 of BSG (and RAZOR) will be HD first-runs.

SciFi HD is doing a great job of not stretching and zooming things that are NOT in HD and show things that are in HD in HD. I'd rather they leave the image alone if it's not originally in HD. If they letter boxed it in SD, fine. It's will look "postage" stamped. The image that's there is good and not cropped and zoomed. Dr Who was an example of a good job in my opinion. So what if the image doesn't take up the whole screen.

So what if the image doesn't take up the whole screen.
It's a waste of perfectly usable space. If they can zoom in without changing the aspect ratio or cutting out any part of the picture, I am 100% for it. All channels should eliminate dead space as much as possible, while staying within my two stipulations. There's nothing wrong with that, and I honestly can't imagine why anyone would be against it.

Why on earth would you want the bug moved up and zoomed at the source? Just zoom your TV or the receiver and most of those annoying bugs or 1/3 screen animated with sound ad's will be on the portion you've "removed"

I'd rather they remove the bug completely, but that's not going to happen. Neither will zooming if it results in half the logo missing.

If it is 16:9 programming, there's no reason not to send it full 16:9 on the HD channel.

I'd rather they remove the bug completely, but that's not going to happen. Neither will zooming if it results in half the logo missing.

If it is 16:9 programming, there's no reason not to send it full 16:9 on the HD channel.

Agreed, but that is the only time I actually want a channel to manipulate the signal.

When Sci Fi was just SD, I could use either my TV or the D* DVR to fill the screen with a semi-watchable picture. Since they are now using an HD signal, neither device will do anything. Of course, the postage stamp picture is REALLY sharp!

Until more actual HD material is available, I suppose an ideal world would have broadcasters leaving 4:3 material as OAR and not stretched, but any letterboxed SD sent out zoomed.

Why on earth would you want the bug moved up and zoomed at the source? Just zoom your TV or the receiver and most of those annoying bugs or 1/3 screen animated with sound ad's will be on the portion you've "removed"
Because zooming at the source means it happens before all the transmission compression happens. The video would be sharper than doing it at home.

In this case, it would simply properly format the video for the screens it will be displayed on. It doesn't distort crop video information.

For anything else, leave it alone since it wouldn't maintain a proper aspect ratio.

Not impressed with SciFi HD and most of the other "new" HD channels so far. Glad they are leaving the aspect ratio alone vs. Turner/Discovery. Now if there was only some way to zap the endless clutter on screen (the 24x7 billboard ads on top/left of the logo has got to go).

When HD channels are faced with an SD 16:9 image, I've always felt they should fill the 16:9 image area and use a small bug that indicates it's not HD.

Zooming the exact SD feed would result in a SciFi bug instead of a Sci Fi HD bug (which is what they're getting now anyway) - so that would accomplish what your talking about. But even if down the road they wanted the Sci Fi HD channel to always have a "Sci Fi HD" bug, I wouldn't have a problem with it as long as they don't put the "HD" indicator on the guide for upconverts.

No, I haven't heard. Details?

I'm holding out a sliver of hope for Farscape to return--they're making a series of short 'webisodes' of Farscape in case you haven't heard.

From what I've seen on SciFi HD, the new season of SGA was in HD. Also, Species the Awakening, the new Flash Gordon series, The Bionic Woman and Dark Ride were all in HD.

Almost all, if not all of Saturday's movies were available in HD... I kept checking every couple of hours or so... the spider movie had some amazing detail when I checked it...

~Alan

I just got the new DVR, and so far all the Sch Fi HD programming I've seen is letterboxed SD. Do they have any HD? And it is confirmed Razor and the new season of Battlestar will be in HD? That was a large reason I finally pulled the trigger.

I like the new channels, History HD is cool, and there's a ton of movie channels in HD now.

Friday and Saturday night is all HD.

I do not have scifi in hd yet but on time warner cable the sd version
also comes in window box or postage sized unless I stretch or zoom
it. I also have the same issues with the sd version of usa network.

The few hd channels I do have come in very nice and I hope once
the digital cutoff takes effect they will have more channels. Or I will
switch to dish or direct once the get all the local channles for my are.

I do not have scifi in hd yet but on time warner cable the sd version also comes in window box or postage sized unless I stretch or zoom it.
It's not window boxing if it's SD, because the bars on the side are being added by your receiver, they're not part of the video.

It would be nice if they moved the bug up in letterboxed programming and zoomed it. They have quite a bit (probably even a majority) of programming in 16:9 and it could be zoomed with no cropping or stretching.

It would be nice if the bug was inside the letterbox area on SD too(for those of us without Scifi HD). Zooming looks bad, but it looks even worse with part of the bug cut off.

Or my real dream: that cable channels would use an anamorphic widescreen, similar to DVDs. Since my SA cable boxes have an Aspect Ratio setting(4x3 or 16x9), it should work like a DVD player where choosing 16:9 will give a full screen 16:9 "digital widescreen" presentation. And it would still appear letterboxed on SDTV/4:3 sets. But of course, that makes too much sense!:rolleyes:

It's not window boxing if it's SD, because the bars on the side are being added by your receiver, they're not part of the video.

I know all about that. It's even worse when your cable STB outputs light grey sidebars:eek::eek::eek:!! About the only good thing about going with Navigator is now the bars a black, matching the top and bottom from the network.

If it is 16:9 programming, there's no reason not to send it full 16:9 on the HD channel.
You would think. BSG reruns were the biggest head scratchers for me. UHD aired them in HD, yet SciFi aired them in SD. Why?

That's all past tense since I can't remember the last time I even saw BSG on SciFi. I'm guessing it was when 4.0 ended.