HD Movie Channels Truly High Definition?

Question

My TV is capable of 1080p and I have the HD DVR (capable of 1080i) through Dish Network and I recorded "The Matrix Reloaded"(HBO HD)....

I started to watch it and noticed that this movie did not look as if it was in True HD

So I pop in the same movie (DVD) into the XBOX 360 to see what the HDMI upscale (1080p) looks like

THE SAME as it did on HBO HD, Whole thing is I've never seen the HD DVD or Blu-Ray Version of this film and I thought I could see it through HBO HD.

So are these supposed HD Movies just Upscaled?

I'll have to also compare "Ghostbusters" when it airs on HDNET to make sure I'm not getting ripped off.

Answer 1

You may not be getting what you expect but you are not getting ripped off. You just need to understand some of the realities.

If you consider that only about 700 movies are available on Blu-ray or HD DVD it is quite likely that you are not getting a 1080p original version of the movie broadcast to you. In fact, why would the broadcaster bother since the end result will be much lower quality anyway (See below for why). It's probably a DVD you saw that had been upconverted. And that is HD ... just not what you might have expected.

Technically video only has to be at a resolution of 720p, 1080i or 1080p and it's considered "High Defintion".

Also HDTV is broadcast in 720p or 1080i ... and you could have been watching either ... but it certainly was not 1080p.

Second, 720p, 1080i or 1080p are all compressed not uncompressed video (even Blu-ray). This is a good thing since otherwise we wouldn't be seeing HD video at all.

But, compression CAN be taken too far (at least from the perspective of some users). Furthermore broadcasters -- particulalry satellite and cable companies -- can, and do, vary the compression of the signal they send out so they can fit more stations into available bandwidth.

So it's very likely what you saw is "overcompressed" (from your perspective .. not the broadcaster's) 720p or 1080i HD ... which your 1080p HDTV converted to 1080p (so called True HD .. a misnomer since it's no more true than any other resolution) ...but your TV couldn't put back detail lost during compression, nor remove compression artifacts.

It's analogous to taking a RAW or TIFF image with a digital camera (original film) recording a JPEG image at a high quality setting (the Blu-ray movie) and then resaving it (HDTV broadcast over cable or satellite) at a lower  quality level (higher compression) ... you make the file smaller while retaining the resolution. If the movie was broadcast from a DVD (instead of Blu-ray or HD DVD) the quality suffers even more because it starts compressed at a lower resolution, get's upscaled and further compressed ... but the concept is the same.

You are simply seeing what many viewers with good TVs and a sharp eye are seeing ... compression artifacts.  That is one reason many discerning videophiles prefer Blu-ray (or HD DVD) to HDTV.

The only way to improve what you see -- and it still won't be as good as an HD disk -- is to use a good outboard video processor ($500 - $5000). However, some providers do a better job than others so you could look around to see if there are any other provider options.

See the link for an article on compression.

Answer 2

I'm not certain but I know that not all programming on HD channels are broadcasted in HD format.  Maybe this is the case with The Matrix....it might have been a non-HD movie airing on an HD channel.

Answer 3

HD Channels broadcast in HD, but the original station's signal might not have been in HD. See, if you take a non-HD station and you broadcast digitally, and then in HD, the HD version will look better, but it's not real HD from the source.

Also keep in mind that Satellite HD is more compressed than HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. That being said, it should be stunning. I don't know whether HBO is an all HD station - check that.