SCI-FI in HD? No.

Sundance · 07-27-05, 12:19 AM

Has any one heard anything about Sci-Fi channel going HD. It's time they got off their butts. A lot of there content is 16:9 so one would assume a lot of it is HD. But I guess since they are cable and Sat. they really don't have to ever go to HD unless they get pressure from viewers to do so or another channel of Sci-Fi content comes around that is HD.

Jerry G · 07-27-05, 12:25 AM

Voom has a monster channel in HD. That might spur Sci-Fi to go HD.

jagouar · 07-27-05, 12:36 AM

dunno but whoever offers it first will get my buisness for scifi fridays alone.... im there with you, scifi is my most wanted channel right now since it seems universal is going to screw around with battlestar. And we all know stargate atlantis is shot in HD and shown in HD up in canada.

Sundance · 07-27-05, 01:24 AM

AkaStp ...happy

(guess the header does get changes when I edit, sorry)

Jagouar,

I agree, that 3 hours is the best 3 hours of TV all week ...IMO.

paintit77 · 07-27-05, 01:02 PM

NBC Universal isn't smart enought to offer an HD version of Sci-fi Network. It could be one of the most killer applications for HD on any providers service. NBC-Universal would like to stop broadcasting in HD if they could because they don't like the cost and they don't like not having the broadcast flag. Microshaft which I think still owns part of MSNBC is trying to get their VC-9 compression scheme off the ground for HD. They aren't even smart enough to make an HD version of MSNBC and compressing it in VC-9 to show the world what it can do. Total and Complete Dumb ASSES. Their ignorance is painful.
Even if they did, Comcast wouldn't carry it because they still think HDTVs are only in a few thousand house holds.

Marcus Carr · 07-27-05, 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paintit77

Comcast wouldn't carry it because they still think HDTVs are only in a few thousand house holds.

"As Super Bowl frenzy reaches a fever pitch, Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), announced it has now deployed more than one million high-definition television (HDTV)-capable Digital Cable set-top boxes in customers' homes, adding more than 800,000 of them in 2004 alone. "

http://www.cmcsk.com/phoenix.zhtml?c...lar&id=669619&

dweebe · 07-27-05, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AkaStp

Misleading thread title. How about adding a "?"

I agree. Sounds like an announcement the way it is.

keenan · 07-27-05, 04:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paintit77

NBC Universal isn't smart enought to offer an HD version of Sci-fi Network. It could be one of the most killer applications for HD on any providers service. NBC-Universal would like to stop broadcasting in HD if they could because they don't like the cost and they don't like not having the broadcast flag. Microshaft which I think still owns part of MSNBC is trying to get their VC-9 compression scheme off the ground for HD. They aren't even smart enough to make an HD version of MSNBC and compressing it in VC-9 to show the world what it can do. Total and Complete Dumb ASSES. Their ignorance is painful.
Even if they did, Comcast wouldn't carry it because they still think HDTVs are only in a few thousand house holds.

Obviously these are opinions and not facts.

A fact: George Thompson of NBC,and an AVS member, has repeatedly stated that all NBC/UNI properties are being looked at for HD versions. Now, being "looked at" doesn't mean anything is confirmed, but if you consider that SciFi and USA have some of the highest rated cable programs in the business, and that they are both subscription networks being cable/sat only, I'll bet at least SciFi will be a shoo-in for HD.

I started a thread asking this very question awhile back and GT's answer is in the thread. Try a search for SciFi.

Number_6 · 07-27-05, 05:30 PM

I'd like to see Sci Fi in HD...particularly since their SD cable channel always looks crummy, even for SD, on my cable system. Does that suggest a problem with SciFi's outgoing signal, or is it more likely a local cable problem? I mean the black levels are basically gray, and there is horribly low contrast. Watching the battle scenes in Battlestar Galactica is like watching indistinct gray smudges exploding against a darker gray background. (And my blacks are fine on most other channels, DVD, and HD).

Ken H · 07-27-05, 11:30 PM

No known info on SciFi going HD.

TheRock · 07-28-05, 04:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Number_6

I'd like to see Sci Fi in HD...particularly since their SD cable channel always looks crummy, even for SD, on my cable system. Does that suggest a problem with SciFi's outgoing signal, or is it more likely a local cable problem? I mean the black levels are basically gray, and there is horribly low contrast. Watching the battle scenes in Battlestar Galactica is like watching indistinct gray smudges exploding against a darker gray background. (And my blacks are fine on most other channels, DVD, and HD).

SciFi has always looked horrible to me. I just hope that if they do finally offer an HD channel they will get rid of there horrid logo. It would also be nice if they didnt interrupt the end of programs to advertise future programs. I am amazed they aren't forced to show the "credits" in a manor that allows humans to read them.

Greg G · 07-28-05, 01:31 PM

I'd buy whatever I had to to see SciFi Friday in HD. Not holding my breath though...

-Greg

gparris · 07-28-05, 10:30 PM

Like sports, Sci-Fi in HD is something that would really take, especially for those, who enjoy the action and the whole genre, but NBC, since it bought Universal, is going for what it can get out of it and doesn't seem to understand the HD draw to this channel.

George Thompson · 07-29-05, 08:10 AM

Sci-Fi and USA come out of a different Jersey location than the rest of the NBCUNI cable channels. Since they are a relatively new build it will take a lot of justification to move them to the CNBC campus up the river in the near future. It has been mentioned and I know they are thinking about it. Just don't know when.
GT

NorthJersey · 07-29-05, 10:29 AM

I thought UniversalHD was created as a compromise for the cable and satellite companies, who were arguing about bandwidth space. Wasn't universal-hd to contain HD programming from USANetwork and SciFi Network, as well as any other NBC owned cable networks ?

jagouar · 07-29-05, 10:43 AM

yeah but showing stuff (battlestar) months behind the live showings on scifi is beyond stupid. If they showed BSG even an hour behind the premiere on scifi it would be fine but the whole season is shown before it shows up on universal. And even when they can show stuff its just select programming from scifi/use and only stuff nbc owns.

Example is stargate:atlantis..... its a mgm show so it airs on scifi but cant air on uni-hd because its not an nbc owned show. But its shot and aired in canada in HD.

MarkW · 07-29-05, 11:21 AM

No, showing it on UHD an hour after Sci-Fi would be beyond stupid. Why have the channel responsible for the development, production and marketing of a show lose any appreciable amount of its audience. Particularly when a percentage of that same audience will turn around and rewatch the show on a sister channel 3 months later? Double dip your advertising etc., etc.

rad · 07-29-05, 11:31 AM

Why not simulcast the Sci-Fi Friday night lineup, including the commercials that run on Sci-FI, on UHD? Right not I'm not seeing any real advertisements on UHD, usually just promo's for other NBC programming. That way they can maybe pick up some more viewers (the one's that say they don't want to watch SD versions) and create demand for more MSO's to pick up the UHD channel.

Mangar · 07-29-05, 12:24 PM

I don't think SciFi i HD will be the killer app that everyone thinks it has the potential of becoming. Most of the channel lineup is filler garbage, and heavily edited movies. Outside of a couple of standout shows, and re-runs of classics(Buck Rogers, Twilight Zone, and others that they don't show anymore) - I rarely watch the channel.

A HD channel with unedited movies and some more thought put into their program lineup? THAT would be a killer app. But just a HD version of the same old SciFi channel really won't be a selling point for just about any company. At least outside of a very small niche.

JimP · 12-15-05, 08:09 AM

Has there been any more news about SciFi going HD????????????????????

liquidnw · 12-15-05, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimP

Has there been any more news about SciFi going HD????????????????????

This may be nothing but if you look at th Universal-HD schedule for dec 31 they list everthing as SCIFIHD. Would be cool if they convert this channel to SCiFI hd and actually simulcast some the there shows which are already shot in HD.

BruceOrlando · 12-15-05, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by liquidnw

This may be nothing but if you look at th Universal-HD schedule for dec 31 they list everthing as SCIFIHD. Would be cool if they convert this channel to SCiFI hd and actually simulcast some the there shows which are already shot in HD.

On January 1st, they're going to start showing the first batch of 2nd season eps. every sunday nite, beginning with "Shattered".

Wonder how much their planning has to do with not wanting to preceed the DVD release for the first part of season 2?

Since I missed a few of the last batch, I'm looking forward to catching up.

-bruce

archiguy · 12-15-05, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BruceOrlando

On January 1st, they're going to start showing the first batch of 2nd season eps. every sunday nite, beginning with "Shattered".

I knew they would do this. How did I know? Because my provider, TWC, stubbonly refuses to add UHD to it's lineup, that's how.

JimP · 12-15-05, 01:45 PM

Brighthouse cable doesn't carry UHD either.

keenan · 12-15-05, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BruceOrlando

On January 1st, they're going to start showing the first batch of 2nd season eps. every sunday nite, beginning with "Shattered".

Wonder how much their planning has to do with not wanting to preceed the DVD release for the first part of season 2?

Since I missed a few of the last batch, I'm looking forward to catching up.

-bruce

The problem is that they are starting to run the first half of Season 2 on UHD only 5 days before the first episode of the second half of Season 2 airs on SciFi. If you are watching it on SciFi to stay current, I would Netflix the the first half next Tuesday and forgo the UHD broadcasts, unless the HD aspect is something you want. Or, wait until the second half of Season 2 comes to UHD, whenever that may be. They sure don't make it easy for us HD fans...us course we are talking about NBC/Universal which one journalist referred to as "less of a TV network and more of a psychological experiment"..

alsgoods · 12-15-05, 02:08 PM

The Triangle was the first thing sci-fi has done in a long time that did not suck. What did suck was the PQ on a 133" screen...it looked like a dirty screen door...I would settle for "good" SD.....HD aint gonna happen IMO anytime soon.....sci-fi is analog on my nj subrban cablevision system

Ken H · 12-15-05, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimP

Has there been any more news about SciFi going HD????????????????????

No.

JimP · 12-15-05, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken H

No.

Man of few words.

CPanther95 · 12-15-05, 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alsgoods

The Triangle was the first thing sci-fi has done in a long time that did not suck. What did suck was the PQ on a 133" screen...it looked like a dirty screen door...I would settle for "good" SD.....HD aint gonna happen IMO anytime soon.....sci-fi is analog on my nj subrban cablevision system

Agree about the Triangle PQ - horrible - wanted to Windex my screen the whole time I was watching. Don't agree with your first sentence, unless you are disregarding their original series'.

keenan · 12-15-05, 03:05 PM

Ditto on The Triangle, I thought it was just me, it did look really bad. So bad that now I'm wondering what Battlestar Galactica is going to look like come Jan-it wasn't bad at all really during the first half of Season Two, even being scaled up to 16x9.

07-27-05, 12:19 AM	#1 \| Link	<a href='http://rev.avsforum.com/phpAdsNew/adclick.php?n=a4ac4393' target='_blank'><img src='http://rev.avsforum.com/phpAdsNew/adview.php?what=zone:30&n=a4ac4393' border='0' alt=''></a>
Sundance Advanced Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 748	SCI-FI in HD? Has any one heard anything about Sci-Fi channel going HD. It's time they got off their butts. A lot of there content is 16:9 so one would assume a lot of it is HD. But I guess since they are cable and Sat. they really don't have to ever go to HD unless they get pressure from viewers to do so or another channel of Sci-Fi content comes around that is HD. Last edited by Sundance; 07-27-05 at 01:21 AM..

07-27-05, 12:36 AM	#3 \| Link
jagouar AVS Special Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: College Station, TX Posts: 5,447	dunno but whoever offers it first will get my buisness for scifi fridays alone.... im there with you, scifi is my most wanted channel right now since it seems universal is going to screw around with battlestar. And we all know stargate atlantis is shot in HD and shown in HD up in canada. __________________ AggieFans.com http://www.bundyology.com/bal2.jpg "Pretty women make you buy beer. Ugly women make you drink beer." -Al Bundy-

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paintit77 AVS Special Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Broomfield, CO Posts: 1,443	NBC Universal isn't smart enought to offer an HD version of Sci-fi Network. It could be one of the most killer applications for HD on any providers service. NBC-Universal would like to stop broadcasting in HD if they could because they don't like the cost and they don't like not having the broadcast flag. Microshaft which I think still owns part of MSNBC is trying to get their VC-9 compression scheme off the ground for HD. They aren't even smart enough to make an HD version of MSNBC and compressing it in VC-9 to show the world what it can do. Total and Complete Dumb ASSES. Their ignorance is painful. Even if they did, Comcast wouldn't carry it because they still think HDTVs are only in a few thousand house holds.

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Ken H AVS HDTV Moderator AVS GOLD CLUB MEMBER Join Date: Nov 1999 Location: Metro Detroit Posts: 38,788	No known info on SciFi going HD. __________________ 'Better Living Through Modern, Expensive, Electronic Devices' ™

07-29-05, 08:10 AM	#14 \| Link
George Thompson AVS Special Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Westchester, NY Posts: 1,114	Sci-Fi and USA come out of a different Jersey location than the rest of the NBCUNI cable channels. Since they are a relatively new build it will take a lot of justification to move them to the CNBC campus up the river in the near future. It has been mentioned and I know they are thinking about it. Just don't know when. GT __________________ Views expressed are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer or its parent company.

07-27-05, 12:25 AM	#2 \| Link
Jerry G 3/4 Baked Join Date: Apr 1999 Location: West Los Angeles Posts: 5,238	Voom has a monster channel in HD. That might spur Sci-Fi to go HD.

07-27-05, 01:24 AM	#4 \| Link
Sundance Advanced Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 748	AkaStp ...happy (guess the header does get changes when I edit, sorry) Jagouar, I agree, that 3 hours is the best 3 hours of TV all week ...IMO.

07-27-05, 05:30 PM	#9 \| Link
Number_6 Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 317	I'd like to see Sci Fi in HD...particularly since their SD cable channel always looks crummy, even for SD, on my cable system. Does that suggest a problem with SciFi's outgoing signal, or is it more likely a local cable problem? I mean the black levels are basically gray, and there is horribly low contrast. Watching the battle scenes in Battlestar Galactica is like watching indistinct gray smudges exploding against a darker gray background. (And my blacks are fine on most other channels, DVD, and HD).

07-28-05, 01:31 PM	#12 \| Link
Greg G Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: NJ Posts: 202	I'd buy whatever I had to to see SciFi Friday in HD. Not holding my breath though... -Greg

07-28-05, 10:30 PM	#13 \| Link
gparris A/V Consultant Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Pleasant Prairie Wisconsin Posts: 272	Like sports, Sci-Fi in HD is something that would really take, especially for those, who enjoy the action and the whole genre, but NBC, since it bought Universal, is going for what it can get out of it and doesn't seem to understand the HD draw to this channel.

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NorthJersey AVS Special Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Northern NJ Posts: 2,188	I thought UniversalHD was created as a compromise for the cable and satellite companies, who were arguing about bandwidth space. Wasn't universal-hd to contain HD programming from USANetwork and SciFi Network, as well as any other NBC owned cable networks ?

07-29-05, 10:43 AM	#16 \| Link
jagouar AVS Special Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: College Station, TX Posts: 5,447	yeah but showing stuff (battlestar) months behind the live showings on scifi is beyond stupid. If they showed BSG even an hour behind the premiere on scifi it would be fine but the whole season is shown before it shows up on universal. And even when they can show stuff its just select programming from scifi/use and only stuff nbc owns. Example is stargate:atlantis..... its a mgm show so it airs on scifi but cant air on uni-hd because its not an nbc owned show. But its shot and aired in canada in HD. __________________ AggieFans.com http://www.bundyology.com/bal2.jpg "Pretty women make you buy beer. Ugly women make you drink beer." -Al Bundy-

07-29-05, 11:21 AM	#17 \| Link
MarkW Advanced Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Ardmore, AL Posts: 715	No, showing it on UHD an hour after Sci-Fi would be beyond stupid. Why have the channel responsible for the development, production and marketing of a show lose any appreciable amount of its audience. Particularly when a percentage of that same audience will turn around and rewatch the show on a sister channel 3 months later? Double dip your advertising etc., etc. __________________ Mark...

07-29-05, 11:31 AM	#18 \| Link
rad AVS Special Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Austin TX Posts: 2,601	Why not simulcast the Sci-Fi Friday night lineup, including the commercials that run on Sci-FI, on UHD? Right not I'm not seeing any real advertisements on UHD, usually just promo's for other NBC programming. That way they can maybe pick up some more viewers (the one's that say they don't want to watch SD versions) and create demand for more MSO's to pick up the UHD channel.

07-29-05, 12:24 PM	#19 \| Link
Mangar Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 47	I don't think SciFi i HD will be the killer app that everyone thinks it has the potential of becoming. Most of the channel lineup is filler garbage, and heavily edited movies. Outside of a couple of standout shows, and re-runs of classics(Buck Rogers, Twilight Zone, and others that they don't show anymore) - I rarely watch the channel. A HD channel with unedited movies and some more thought put into their program lineup? THAT would be a killer app. But just a HD version of the same old SciFi channel really won't be a selling point for just about any company. At least outside of a very small niche. __________________ Lucid Vision

12-15-05, 08:09 AM	#20 \| Link
JimP Average Guy Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Wetumpka, AL Posts: 10,710	Has there been any more news about SciFi going HD????????????????????

12-15-05, 01:45 PM	#24 \| Link
JimP Average Guy Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Wetumpka, AL Posts: 10,710	Brighthouse cable doesn't carry UHD either.

12-15-05, 02:08 PM	#26 \| Link
alsgoods Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 162	The Triangle was the first thing sci-fi has done in a long time that did not suck. What did suck was the PQ on a 133" screen...it looked like a dirty screen door...I would settle for "good" SD.....HD aint gonna happen IMO anytime soon.....sci-fi is analog on my nj subrban cablevision system

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keenan AVS Addicted Member AVS CLUB MEMBER Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Santa Rosa,CA Posts: 21,747	Ditto on The Triangle, I thought it was just me, it did look really bad. So bad that now I'm wondering what Battlestar Galactica is going to look like come Jan-it wasn't bad at all really during the first half of Season Two, even being scaled up to 16x9.