Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in HDTV! - Page 3

It has happened numerous times that I've seen on some of their cult offerings, where presumably they couldn't get a better print from the distributor at the time of airing.

Films like Wings of Desire (although they had procured a widescreen print the next time it showed) and The Green Slime.

Wonder if they would start sliding in more newer movies like "SP Ryan" the other night....didnt AMC shift to more newer movies in between the older movies too.

I would also agree, but mention that the DVD didn't also compete against the HD-DVR at inception. If people can save an un-cut, commerical free, OAR HD version of a film as part of a tv package that they're already spending a small fortune on, they may be less-inclined to purchase it on BD.

I can think of one Vistavision film on Blu-ray

The Searchers? Bet there's another, but I can't think of it offhand. Wikipedia has a list of VistaVision movies.

The Green Slime.

Ah yes. A great terrible movie. Back in the day I managed to score a vinyl disc with several radio spots for the film, with an even-worse-than-the-film rock song with "Green Slime" as the chorus. Always good for a chuckle from the gang when under the influence.

And I do recall another big guilty pleasure film from Japan that was also letterboxed, The H Man: the Yakusa meets The Blob. I think a properly restored version of this might be quite popular.

broadcasts will just spur people to spend money to buy the Blu-ray version so that they have a higher quality, personal copy of a movie

I'd like to think so, but I dunno. Forbidden Planet reputedly only sold in the mid-hundreds in its HD DVD incarnation, and it has not yet been released on Blu-ray. These old films may be just too specialized a market for the powers that be to be interested in.

If Wikipedia is correct, then there's In the Realm of the Senses as well, although it certainly doesn't look the part.

North by Northwest is supposed to come out later this year. Excerpts of High Society are in the That's Entertainment! boxed set.

[VistaVision used in] In the Realm of the Senses as well, although it certainly doesn't look the part

As I recall, John Dykstra bought some- maybe all- of the original VistaVision cameras for use in Star Wars. Maybe they got lent out.

Has anyone seen any news of this yet outside AVS Forum?

No
It's an AVS Exclusive

The lack of an official press release 8 days after the channel has supposedly gone live has me wondering if this is all just a sick joke.

Not a sick joke. People watching uplinks to C band distribution on Satelliteguys.us confirmed that it was being uplinked (and in the clear for a few days) last month. It's out there. I wrote to DISH about it, and for the first time they didn't say "It doesn't exist" but they still didn't say whether they would carry it.

Doubtlessly money has to change hands and considerable politicking (sp?) with the various providers has to take place for this to happen.

I was being a bit sarcastic, guys. I guess you didn't pick up on that. I know that this has been confirmed by some people from Turner. I'm just a little confused as to why they're not letting anyone know about. If you're one of the 99.999999999999999% of the population that do not visit AVS Forums, you have no idea this channel even exists. You would think that they'd want subscribers to call their TV providers and ask them to add this channel. How are people going to ask for a channel they don't know exists? Come on Turner, get on the ball already.

99.999999999999999% of 306,637,958 (the current estimated US population -- I'm assuming you meant US population -- according to the US Census) is 306,637,958. Your numbers are a little off.

OMG! Does everyone around here take everything so seriously. You are totally missing the point. I was merely stating that basically 99.9 etc. % of the population of this country DO NOT come to this site and read posts. I was exaggerating to make a point that if AVS Forums is the ONLY place to learn that TCM now had an HD version of the channel, NO ONE would know about it, since Turner doesn't seem to care about making an official announcement that the channel does exist. Geesh, I'm sorry I started the whole thing.

I sent a e-mail asking if D* had any plans to pick up TCM HD and the response was : I see that you have been a loyal DIRECTV customer since 1998. We want to thank you for your continued business.

While we don't have plans to add Turner Classic Movies in HD at this time, we're working to bring you even more HD channels in the near future. Stay tuned to directv.com/hd to keep up with the latest HD news.


Then signed by an employee with a employee number.

You could replace TCM HD with ASS HD and you would get the same reponse.
It's a form letter!

I'd expect that Turner would wait until all of the cable companies have the necessary information (like, "hey, TCM HD exists now"). There's a lot of people involved in the cable business, you know, and it takes a non-zero amount of time to get that word spread around, including all the way out to the edge meaning the cable CSRs drones who answer the phones.

For all we know there might also be business negotiations going on. For example, DirecTV had CNN-HD exclusively for a short period when it launched in Sept 2007.

Horse, cart, etc. We just happened to find out it was coming before it was officially launched. Be thankful for that, wait, and quitcherbitchin

And more importantly, I would hope that they are in the process of transferring their library to pristine HD. We all, obviously, don't want to see inferior prints.

Totally agree. In fact, I have ammassed quite a library of recorded/archived HD titles doing just this very same thing. My BD purchases have pretty much all but ceased.

I just wonder who would perform the HD transformation. Would it be TCM or the studio/distributor that supplies the print???

I have Cablevision here in central New Jersey. No TCM HD yet. Is there a time frame when Cablevision will add this channel?

I just wonder who would perform the HD transformation. Would it be TCM or the studio/distributor that supplies the print???

Remember Turner owns the MGM library pre-1986 or so, and the old Warners library, and RKO, and there might be a few more in the package he bought when he bought MGM in the eighties (and promptly re-sold, keeping the rights to the film library). Those items would be done by Turner/Warners. Ted surrendered a lot in the nineties when he lost The Braves, but I think he still holds the movies.

The other films TCM shows would be done by the other copyright holders.

Yeah, I was trying to do that, too. But then I did a side by side comparison between the HDNET Movies presentation of the Godfather and the Blu-ray edition of the Godfather.

HDNET typically has the best presentation of any network showing HD movies: high bit rates, full resolution, OAR, etc.

And the Blu-ray was SO MUCH better looking and sounding, it was silly.

AMEN Brother!!!

I don't have duel HD projection systems so I couldn't do a "side by side" comparison between the BD disc Vs the HDNMV presentation of the restored Godfather. I really didn't need to. I was more than satisfied with the PQ/AQ of the broadcast version. To me it looked absolutely fantastic on my 108" screen.
Just to avoid any misunderstanding and any further debate on this issue, I'm not saying the broadcast is the same or superior to the BD disc - just that, for me, the HDNMV version is more than good enough to retire my DVD version.
I'm really looking forward to adding select TCM HD titles to my growing digital library.

That's what I do. Even though TCM is not yet HD, the 480i quality of their prints is excellent. Films are first stored on my HD-DVR and for 25 cents two movies (three if they are very short) are then dubbed onto a DVD-R with excellent results.

I'd be broke if I tried to amass the collection I already have by purchasing individual DVDs.

Of course, dubbing is fine even for color films like "Bandwagon", "Bells Are Ringing", "Bundle of Joy", etc. but for epics like "Ben Hur", "Dr. Zhivago", "Lawrence of Arabia" or remastered versions of "The Searchers", "Forbidden Planet" etc. DVD is of course the best way to go.

Regarding bluray, older films are still only upconverted to 1080i and not truly HD. With that in mind, opt for the DVD version or do what I do and dub onto DVD-R.

Hopefully this should all change with TCMHD. Assuming that there is a good negative to transfer and aside from the HD required aspect ratios, older films can absolutely be transferred to pristine HD.

Here are a few links with more information

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archi.../t-806092.html

http://pic.templetons.com/brad/photo/pixels.html

http://www.popularmechanics.com/tech...o/4258801.html