Anyone else surprised that SpikeTV is not in HD?

but then again, most HD nuts are somewhat (even slightly) geeky. You have to be to spend the amount of time we do on avsforum.com.

I don't think Spike TV's target demographic is those male geeky HD-loving nuts. Sorry.

What actual HD content do they have? They have very few original shows.

Although next week, the very promising looking series, The Killpoint is on which I would have really liked to have seen in HD.

I wouldn't instantly associate the AVS crowd with the Spike crowd either. I doubt the core audience of Spike has much interest in things like MPEG bit rates and which Faroudja processor they are using.

I think the common factors like watching things blow up, space ships and breasts are where AVS and Spike men overlap, after that I think we probably go in a different direction.

We really care how good those explosions and naked cheerleaders look and sound on our screens.

Duhhhh... Econ 101??

Well, Trek is certainly geeky. But the way they show it on Spike -- with time compression, overlaid graphics, and often a grungy image -- shows just how little they care about PQ. HD has to be pretty far from their minds.

I'm more surprised about Comedy Central, since they actually have a lot of content already produced in HD.

I've never heard of "SpikeTV", and from the name, it doesn't sound like something I'd be interested in.

No.

Done, waiting on CBS to release it.


TNG, DS9 and VOY were shot on film/video tape. The special effects were done in 480 video editing. In order to get those in HD, they would have to recreate all of the special effects in HD. Between those three shows, you are looking at about 500 hours of content to be redone. Don't expect it anytime soon or with a cheap price tag.

Not only is Spike not in HD.... but on my provider (comcast seattle) it has the lowest bitrate and the worst picture on cable.

The UFC have been filming all of their content in HD for several years now.

Spike and Comedy Central are both owned by budget minded (read cheap) Viacom. It's still a big surprise to me that MHD was created.

No, I'm not into volleyball.

I'd like to see Casino Cinema in HD.. especially the segments with Beth O in them.

To be honest... I'm not sure why SpikeTV is even a channel. I barely even notice it in the guide, and have rarely tuned to it.

The shows that it does have that interest me, are either available elsewhere or I already have on DVD.

Blade, which is rerunning on HDNet, is also a show they produced in HD. They do offer a lot of actions films I would watch if they did not look so bad.

Just think of "most extreme elimination challenge" in stunning HD...

I actually miss Blade, too bad I don't get HDNet because I doubt its going to get a DVD treatment. It wasn't a bad show and the way it was constantly on Spike 24/7 I was suprised that it was cancelled. Of course its hard to keep ratings up if everyone knows a new show will be on 4-5 times a week so if you miss it first run its no big deal.

I hear ya! They used to replay the title cards on INHD, but haven't for over a year now.

Art

I certainly agree with that, but Spike 'edits for content', which is far worse than mucking with the OAR, in my opinion. That pretty much guarantees no breasts. I prefer my HD to be uncut.
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If it's in film does it mean it was shot in 16:9 then they only show the 4:3 aspect ratio like they do now with HD shows. Star trek is pretty much the only reason I watch SPIKE formally TNN. At least they changed their Name when they changed content, unlike MTV the discovery channel and other that haven't changed their name.

It's true that the demographics for SpikeTV are slightly different. A/V nerds (I use that term loosely) don't mix too often with beer swilling meatheads, although the two can overlap I'm sure. Where I am located picture quality is pretty much par for the NTSC course, while sound quality is absolute crap. If something is too loud or several effects go on at once the sound gets distorted and kind of resembles digital hash and static. Going to HD would (I hope) cure those maladies. I'd like to see Courtney Hansen of the Powerblock in HD. They've been showing Sin City this week obviously with chopped OAR & 'edited for television.' No topless Carla Gugino... but I digress. The shows I do watch regularly, Horsepower and Musclecar, would look infinitely better in HD, more for the cars than the hosts. Is Most Extreme Elimination Challenge filmed in HD? Probably not. Like mythical_phenix, don't cut my HD!!

It was formerly called TNN, which at one time stood for The Nashville Network. It changed to SpikeTV a few years ago.

Oh, daddy. Courtney is hot...... Anyway, I would think doing the Powerblock shows in HD would be as easy as it gets, once they have the equipment. I'd sure like to see SpikeHD but I'm guessing it will be one of the last cable nets to go that route.

would that be the channel that shows ST:TNG in a little chat window? makes TNT looks like a model of class and restraint.

you're thinking of G4 "tv for gamers" or whatever tag they are using right now. If it was up to them they would probably ditch the chat window. They are probably only keeping that on so they can be interactive with the kids, to try and prove they haven't ditched their original theme in favor of just being a poor Spike clone.

This after buying TechTV - then killing all the shows from that channel. Following that, they all but killed the gaming related programming. I checked the guide the other day and could count the number of tech (or even gaming) programming on one hand. Of course most of their viewers can't even count that high. Even if they could, their hands are probably too occupied with other things...

oops, I have my marginal channels mixed up.

yeah I liked TechTV, esp. Leo and his computer geek friends. too bad it died.

incidentally, spike has a new series called the Kill Point, which may be worth checking out.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0862593/