Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in HDTV! - Page 54

Glad to hear that the remastered Lawrence of Arabia BD is so good. Amazon shipped my copy over the weekend so I should get it later this week. As you said, the Amazon price was right.

I got into the game early in 2004 and viewed it, first, a couple of years before. I have never seen anything as good as what Urga is showing us. When you say in the early days here, it was often better than that, I would have to ask in what way was it "better than that?"

TCM showed a newer print of George Pal's version of The Time Machine last night, and if it's any indication of what it will look like in high definition then it's really bad news. Everything is brown.

" Zulu " ( 1964 ) master HD Paramount :

Those were some spectacular shots. I was channel surfing over the weekend and saw this via Dish and it was terrible. Consider yourself lucky.

I would like to know the reason for the quality difference between American and European television. It goes way beyond more channels (spectrum and band useage) on the American system. The pictures that Urba sends are the closest thing you will ever see to being perfect. I have to get the images out of my memory prior to looking at television here.

I think its because, in general, in Europe, the channel is sent out as a relatively high rate h.264 stream, and then passed on to the consumer as is. In the US most channels are now distributed in h.264 as well, in very good quality. But then either the cable-co or network affiliate get their grubby hands on it and transcode it to MPEG-2. Both DBS companies (Dish and Direct) use h.264, but they cram in a whole bunch of channels into each transponder. I know Dish is 8 or 9 channels per 40mbps transponder, which just doesn't cut it.

I was channel surfing last night and saw ‘Lawrence’ on the Sony Movie Channel. It was much better than what I saw on TCM the other night. While better, it was still not in the same league as the French version, but way better than TCM. At least it was watchable, whereas TCM was not.

I watched my BD of the remastered version of Lawrence earlier this week and was blown away. It is filled with startlingly beautiful images and has become my demonstration BD for great PQ. It's a shame that such a wonderful transfer is being wasted on watered down HD or, in the case of TCM in the US, upconverted SD.

TCM HD fr. :

Mpeg4 , 1920x1080i 75Hz , 16,4 Mbits/s , Pal RGB 16-235 ...

Next movie to see in HD " Jason and the Argonauts " :

http://tcmcinema.fr/films/fiche/jason-and-the-argonauts-1963_4655/

Urga, I just had a thought! How about showing some pictures of non-TCM programming? Perhaps, something we might recognize from American programming.

Hello ,
The programming is not the same in the US...
" Dave Bowman TCM HD " TCM HD free said it was presented a lot of copies of ancient native HD movies...
Edited by Urga - 12/20/12 at 12:32am

Is TCM the only thing in your programming that, also, appears in the U.S.? I'm just looking for something that we would recognize other than TCM.

+1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_stations_in_France

Under "Nouveau CanalSat" I see ESPN, E!, Disney, Discovery, Nickelodeon, CNN, Cartoon Network, MTV and VH1. I imagine other, French only, channels play American imports.

Hello ,
Csat also on :

13éme Rue HD , SyFy HD ...

Found this:

http://www.tvhistory.tv/1950-59-Other-French-TVs.htm

apparently the French used an 819 line BW system in the early 50s and experimented with 819 line color in the 60s!

819 lines VHF it was for black and white, passage of color in 1967 in 625 lines UHF Secam for the France analogue herzien...

First black and white TV (Grammont) of my father in 1957 which was vendor/repairer in my village:



http://www.earlytelevision.org/grammont.html


Edited by Urga - 12/23/12 at 2:32am

 

Why do think there's a quality difference?

Well, maybe because there is, and has been well before HDTV....

Yeah, I think if you tell people those shots are of the BD, they would say that's a great looking BD.

There could be better PQ, but you'd have to see it live. From a photo, that is as good as it gets.

What a great tv system to produce pictures like this. A lot of American techies would be very discouraged to see how far away they are from having a truly excellent tv picture. The American television system is just not capable of producing this kind of picture quality, no matter how much money or effort is expended by any individual toward this end.

Then, do describe to us your excursions to France [or anywhere in Europe] and your television picture quality _viewing_ impressions?
 

So where are the Harryhausen shots?

Quote:
"Then, do describe to us your excursions to France [or anywhere in Europe] and your television picture quality _viewing_ impressions?"


I am unable to do that. I must rely upon Urga's pictures.

Hello ,

" Lawrence d'Arabia " :

Master TCM HD :



Master Blu Ray Sony S790 :

Hey Urga, let's see a screenshot of your standard, residential satellite dish installation!  
 

Edited by Solfan - 12/26/12 at 5:49pm