OT: What source materials are used for for movies broadcast on HBO HD, etc.?

I'm sorry if I'm beating a dead horse on the wrong forum, but a lot of people on this forum seem pretty knowledgeable about this sort of thing, and this is the forum I regularly follow. I think the question is somewhat relevant to plasmas, as I have an ED Fujitsu and was just wondering how or why movies broadcast on HD will look better than off of DVD as has been well established in previous posts. I know HD programs which were made specifically for HD broadcast will have more information and therefore look better than what's on DVD, but what I'm wondering about is when were talking about the same movie being transferred from film to video, why is HBO able to present it in HD. Do studios provide them with a higher quality film to video transfer to use for HD programming? That is, do movies that come out on DVD generally have a higher quality counterpart that is used for HD networks? I apologize again if this is really off topic for this forum, but I really didn't find anything that specifically addresses the question elsewhere.

Quote:
Simon,


I agree it's a legitimate question. While it may have been addressed on the HDTV forum, I - like you - haven't been able to find it answered there.


Perhaps someone reading this thread can ping a forum member who works on the b'cast / cablecast side. That person, in turn, might suggest links.


Here's my guess: sources for HD broadcasts may indeed be DVD-level quality - or worse - for some run-of-the-mill catalogue movies. It may often make no business sense to pull a film reel out of storage just to make an HD telecine transfer.

There are a couple people who frequent the DVD discussion forum

who "appear" to work in the industry. At least that's where I see

them. Simon, you aren't the first person to post an OT question here

or any other forum. However, think of it this way: If you did get your

question answered here and then somebody else came to AVS

"asking" the same question, do you think they would look in the

Plasma and LCD panel forum? These forums have a TON of correct

information (and not so correct ), but the search engine is just not

up to the task of making it easy to find things.


Yesterday, two new channels came on cable, INHD1 and INHD2. They

both played older movies (1979, 1987, and 1980ish). The PQ on one was

inferior to that of recent DVDs. I have a few DVDs of "old" movies where

the PQ is not so hot. The quality of the "master" definitely affects the PQ

of the next incarnation of the film. However, like you said, I've never

seen a movie on a HD channel that is as good as some of the HD recorded

TV shows I've seen, eg. PBS loops, "Chronicles" - a local Boston area

HD show. After 7 months of watching HDTV, my jaw still drops on some

of the material I see. INHD had some pretty amazing footage shot from

a space shuttle. Well, I'm starting to ramble, coffee is kicking in, better stop.


larry