Showtime HD very disappointing

After waiting for Sho HD for the past 18 months, one would think 2 days insufficient to judge whether Sho HD is a good thing or not. I too think HBO's HD programming is quite good, and am thrilled that we have more HD choices as of April 30.


I will reserve judgement on Showtime HD for the immediate future.

Here we go!

Watch some of The Green Mile thats just starting. It may be an upconvert but it's one of the better ones.

Anyone know of a good person we can mail at Showtime to thank for their HD channel, and politely request more HD content?


I would like to see some of the material that was only available via SHO, like the Stargate SG-1,

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Well, not too bad at all Dan; Thanks for pointing this one out. If it's a choice between wide screen upconverts like this or plain ol' SD, I'll take this anytime. I'm really glad that us DirecTV'ers have this channel at last.


Greg

Sure Greg. I'm generally not one of those that gets all caught up in the upconvert debates. I only point it out for reference because if I dont, someone else will. Yeah, in principle it's lame but that doesnt keep me from enjoying them.


Actually the real beef I have with Showtime is the movies they get the rights to in the first place. Kind of second rate, save a few (like TGM). If they could swap Exclusives with Starz!, it would be a better channel. At least to me. Oh well.

Maybe I'm confused. I've read countless times on this forum that the Showtime HD crowd was enthralled with the quality of the upconverts and the fact that Showtime showed everything in OAR. How is that almost every upconvert I've seen thus far is NOT shown in OAR? Widescreen yes, OAR no. Many of this group are the same guys that are the first to rip HBO for not doing OAR. Why is it that Showtime gets a pass and HBO gets "panned" (sorry, I couldn't resist that). In fact, I'm far more willing to give HBO the pass as the result of the far greater amount of HD they show.


I also found it kind of ironic that while Showtime was showing Tom Hanks in a non OAR, non HD upconvert, HBO was showing Tom Hanks in a superb OAR HD transfer of Forest Gump.

It's very inaccurate that Showtime lists on its website that certain upconverts like 'The Green Mile' are in OAR. During this movie, switching back and forth between regular SHO and SHO HD clearly revealed that the top and bottom were cropped off on the HD channel. Consequently, you actually see less picture on SHO HD because no picture information is gained on the sides.


It appears the SHO HD pans and scans upconverts more than HBO HD does on true HD transfers. When I swithch between HBO and HBO HD, I usually see about 15% more picture on the sides. So far this isn't the case on SHO HD upconverts that fill the whole screen. We should contact SHO about their inaccurate OAR description of upconverts. This deception is the most disappointing fact about SHO HD IMHO. True OAR would be nice even on upconverts (atleast on par with DVDs).


Andrew

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Yep.


Honeymoon is ova'.


-Mr. Wigggles

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Hey, it's all light......I find it very amusing, actually, and that's why I brought it up! I find the backpeddling even more funny!!

For the extra 10 bucks a month, plus having to climb up to install the Sat C kit, I'll stick with DVD - equals most Showtime and it's OAR!


HBO still rules.

I have no complaints. More content will come as time goes on. I am just happy to have another HD movie channel. Bring on the next channel!

I find it hard to believe that someone would spend the money for a sat-c kit , install it, order the sho-hd channel then cry over how disappointed they are with no 1080i content. Hello!!! Didn't you think to do some research first before you go through all that trouble. I went to sho.com and immediately knew that there were only a few a week at best. I still got it because more will come and it cost me nothing save for the lnb cost.


Stop whinning. You should have known better from the beginning. This was no surprise.


The green mile yesterday was very good quality.

I'd dump DISH in about 2 seconds if DirecTV also got CBS-HD. The HDNet addition would be sweet!