The Killing on AMC HD - Page 2

I watched the first season of Breaking Bad via Amazon and was quite pleased with the picture quality, audio was good as well. Via TiVo Series 3.

Only watched the first hour of the premiere ("pilot") and this is definitely a keeper. Love the tone and pacing. Not enthralled with the detective lady from "Big Love" but she will be fine I'm sure.

But wow, the actress who plays the mom - she was fantastic in "In Treatment" and just as fantastic here. I agree with others, the scene in which she hears the fate of her daughter over the phone was so gripping with emotion. Not only b/c of her, but the two younger brothers nailed it perfectly - as they watched on knowing the news was bad, the fear in their faces was flawlessly done. it is a scene in TV that will actually stay with me.

The main down note was the picture quality which was brutal. I was hoping it was just b/c I watched a encore presentation and something was wrong with that particular feed but it sounds like AMC really decompresses its HD? that'd be unfortunate, if ture.

AMC on TWC is horrible too (at least here in LA). I gave up on "The Walking Dead" after 2 eps and waited for the Bluray -- 1000% better.

the first thing I saw Michelle Forbes (the mom) in was "Swimming with Sharks." Loved her immediately. Check it out, if you haven't seen it. It's a great flick.

Too much compression can degrade PQ. Or cable providers putting too many feeds on one QAM channel.

larry

I first saw her in STAR TREK: TNG (as Ensign Ro). Followed by KALIFORNIA and SWIMMING WITH SHARKS. But she was pretty sexy in TRUE BLOOD and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

Great episode tonight. Really compelling series. Reminds me of Se7en in tone. I wish DirecTV carried amc in HD.

Word on the street is that, because Cablevision can't afford anything better than 4 HD per QAM, they're only sending 9 Mbps for each of their four HD channels (AMC, IFC, WE, whatever the other is) to everyone, so no one can say Cablevision looks worse. So, everyone gets to watch AMC HD as if it were crammed on one QAM with four other channels, whether or not that is actually the case. As a result of this practice, even Verizon has decided to put all four on one QAM to free up bandwidth for programming that would actually benefit from the higher bandwidth.

If you're interested in PQ, it seems like your best bets are VOD (possibly), iTunes (only 720p), or just waiting for the Blu Rays.

I'm not sure I follow what you're saying. Do you mean Rainbow Media is transmitting 4(or 5?) channels per satellite transponder? Or sending 4 channels per 256QAM on their own cable system? If it is 4(or 5?) per transponder, is it in MPEG4 format? Because if it is, 9mbps is a fairly decent bitrate for MPEG4 and shouldn't affect PQ too badly.

Presumably they mean 4 per transponder. No idea if it's MPEG4.

Who's capable of picking it up in MPEG4 besides DirecTV (which doesn't carry AMC HD)?

Well, they all are really, it's then transcoded/converted to MPEG2 like in the case of a cable systems like Comcast. HBO content is sent via MPEG4, has been for a few years now, I believe ABC and NBC also distribute their content using MPEG4, it's then converted to MPEG2 for ATSC transmission.

The point is, while 9 mbps might be bit-starving a MPEG2 data stream, it might be just enough for a decent image using MPEG4. These first 2 episodes via Comcast here in the San Francisco market have averaged around 13 mbps minus bumpers and previews. I don't recall seeing any artifacting, certainly nothing that's taken me out of the viewing experience. The show has a very gritty look and feel to it to begin with, obviously an even better image would be nice but those days are pretty much over for "HD" TV as quality has far surpassed quality. I really don't expect much PQ-wise from TV anymore myself.

AMC kinda sneaked this show by me last week so I had to catch up last night. I guess that's one problem you get for skipping ads on the DVR. Usually the local TV rag has the new show on the cover but it was "The Borgias" last week. Having lived much of my life in Seattle it is funny how they try to pass off parts of Vancouver (which I'm also familiar with) as Seattle and all the reassuring aerial shots of downtown Seattle and the space needle (almost overkill). But another great series from AMC and I'm hooked. Put the DVD of the yet to be US released original version in my Netflix queue.

I didn't learn about The Killing until last weekend, which I spent at my daughter's house. She told me how much she had enjoyed it so I checked online and saw that it would be rerun on Sunday, followed by the next episode. I recorded both the two hour pilot and the next episode on Sunday but have only watched the pilot so far.

I think The Killing is a promising show. It's large ensemble cast is remarkably talented and the pilot was intelligently written. It seems pretty clear to me that no over the air network would have taken a chance on a show with a premise that would take 13 episodes to solve a single murder, especially not one as dark and convoluted as The Event. I am looking forward to seeing more.

I get a kick out of how they use Badalamenti style minor chords, sort of a homage to "Twin Peaks."

@gwsat: The Event? Hope this was a typo -- especially with the glowing things you said.

I'm surprised nobody has posted about the HD PQ on E*. How is it?

I think AMC is the culprit for the low quality of its HD feed...it's the same across all cable providers...it can't be a coincidence that both The Walking Dead and now The Killing suffer from the same HD issues (I have RCN cable which uses the TiVo Premiere as its main box)

as far as the show itself, I like it...definitely a slow burn and of course since they won't reveal the killer until the very end all these early episodes will be filled with red herrings...does anyone really think those 2 kids killed her (Jasper and I forget the other kids name)?...no way

I didn't get the school janitor scene...was he watching them have sex through the hole in the wall?...then how come he couldn't identify Jasper as being there?...did he let the kids into the 'Cage' and did they know he was watching them?

Re: the janitor -- what was the last thing he said in the hospital scene?

"El Diablo"...referring to the devil mask

Ahhhh ... OK, thanks.

God! I meant The Killing, of course. Blame it on my youth. Anyway, I did get the show's title right the first time I mentioned it in my post.

I agree that the music used in the show is evocative. It fits with the dark subject matter and look of the show. In fact, it is almost creepy

I knew you did. Those remarks could no way be applied to The Event -- I lasted 3 episodes on that one.

Is AMC playing games with the start time for "The Killing" ?? I note a 10:30pm start time for the 4-17 episode. What gives? Isn't it normally 10pm?

Shows 7pm(10pm Eastern) on the TiVo guide(Tribune Media) listing here.

A very, very good show so far. Good storyline. Great detail (the beneifts of the 13-episode story line). I think Michelle Forbes and Brent Sexton are really bringing the goods so far, as the murdered girl's parents. They've really made me hurt for their characters.

Same here. TiVo's Tribune Media Services guide indicates that Cox OKC will carry the next two episodes of The Killing at 9:00 PM CDT on 4/17 and 4/24.

I agree that PQ was less than fantastic, here on TWC/LA. Acceptable, but blocking/motion MPEG artifacts are simply annoying and really unacceptable for viewers. I probably attribute it to low bitrate and re-compression from TWC/LA, which they also do even to local OTA networks... not to mention marking EVERY program as "copy-once/protected" other than the local OTA networks.

Anyway, I really have enjoyed the pilot and premiere episodes. Yes, kind of a "Twin Peaks" similarity.

But I find the AUDIO to be particularly poor. I think the too-loud background noise (from the constant rain), too-loud music, and other too-loud ambient sounds to make it difficult at times to make out what is actually being said. Almost seems like a foreign language (I know it's not), it's that unintelligible. I had no idea that the janitor said "El Diablo" as has been pointed out (which of course makes good sense)... it just sounded like mumbling to me, and I played it back a second time to try and make out what he'd said, but still couldn't.

Maybe the microphones themselves are crummy. Don't know. But compared to, say, the audio on last week's CMA awards on CBS which was fantastic, I think the audio on this show (or AMC-HD) is definitely in the "poor" category.

But I like the show.

Just awful PQ here on TWC as well. Looks like it's had the bejeezus rate-shaped out of it.


Two possibilities: One, Jasper has something he's holding over the janitor's head that made him lie about Jasper being there. Or two, the janitor came in late after Jasper had done the dirty deed and either left or moved out of peephole-range. My guess is the kids had their own key.

A bit slow moving and I really dislike the councilman storyline and his vote pandering character but I do like the show.

The audio engineer or the director should be fired. Similar thing on "Blue Bloods" a week ago during a fashion show runway scene. The background music effect was so loud that you could not hear what was said even with DVR repeated playback. Shows are getting so artsy that the dialog is secondary or tertiary. Thankfully "Justified" is an exception.

I'm glad I wasn't alone in observing this.

Aggravating it even more was the bias/skew of the microphones and mixing to the higher treble frequencies, making it more harsh and annoying to listen to.

But mostly, my complaint is that they might as well be talking "Danish"... when I can't understand what they're actually saying.

Let's see what it sounds like tonight.

OK, I sort of like this show, but can't decide if I'm losing my memory or it's the script.

Can anyone tell me when exactly it was revealed that it wasn't Rosie in the cage (and who did it and how); rather it was her friend whatever-her-name-is? I was left to infer that from a trail of conversation snippets after the interviews in the police station.

Also, at the end, when undercover-cop (sorry, I don't recall names) showed Rosie's picture to the worker in the dungeon-like campaign headquarters and the worker said he recognized her and motioned to the glass case (I think that's what he motioned to) why the cop's attention was drawn to the teacher? I assume a picture of Rosie was in there but there were pictures of a lot of other people. Why the "aha" moment about the teacher.

I mean, I sort of like the series, but I was hoping for another "Kingdom"-like experience and, at least as following what's going on, this series falls far short of that movie(s).

Thanks for any assistance in convincing me I'm not losing my mind.