Digital, analogue & HD picture Broadcast Question

[hershon]

Following up on what my man Brandon wrote in another thread, if one has an HDTV Digital
Box from the Cable Company (Time Warner in this case), and there are seperate channels for the network shows and the HDTV network shows, i.e. ABC is channel 7 and ABCHD is 1107, does this mean that for non HD broadcasts, ABCHD (1107) is still being broadcast digitally and ABC 7 is an analogue broadcast even though they're going through my digital box? The reason I'm asking is the picture of the non HD broadcast (I can tell by the black bars) still looks a 1000 times better on the ABCHD channel then the ABC Channel?

If the picture on the HD channel is not a complete full screen picture, even if the black bars are relatively minor in dimension, does that mean it is not being broadcast in HD?

Why exactly are not all shows broadcast in HD format? Does it cost alot extra to do so? If not, I don't get it.

Lastly, if you rent a DVD that will not fill up the full screen in "standard format"- what 480i option would you recommend watching on? I think I've been using HD stretch plus. I have about 9 or so options such as expand, stretch, zoom, narrow, etc.

[eisforelectronic]

You are pretty much right. Even though you have a digital cable box, not everything that comes through it is necessarily a digital broadcast. Your regular ABC channel is most likely an analog feed. Your HD ABC channel is however digital whether it's in HD or not.

Is your TV a 16:9 widescreen set or 4:3 standard?

Typically if you are watching an HD feed you will not be able to use any of your picture options on your TV. Some cable boxes do have some limited stretch options that do apply to the HD channels though. Take note that the letterboxing between many programs and movies may vary due to the original aspect ratio used for filming. Most anything that originated as HD should fill the typical 16:9 HD set. Movies may vary as I'm sure you've noticed when watching DVD's on an analog set.

HD production is still rather expensive for many companies to do, although cheaper and quicker than film. Many companies simply have not been able to covert their entire business to HD yet, so they have a few crews working in HD and upgrade the rest as they can afford to. For example take a typical NFL game, you need a HD production truck (several million $), as many as 60 HD cameras (near 100k each depending on lens configuration), and of course a HD crew to run it all. Also, keep in mind that there is still a rather large demand for standard definition programming that needs to be satisfied as well. Many companies while realizing that the switch is unavoidable are still going to be a little reluctant to switch before 100% viewership is available.

As far as watching DVD's, whatever picture mode you use is completely up to you. Personally I would take note of how the picture changes between each mode. You may notice that parts of the picture get cut off, you have to decide for yourself what is acceptable.

[hershon]

Thanks for the info, this is the only board on the internet I've actually learned alot of things on. A followup question if you don't mind, my HDTV is 16:9 (as far as I know that's all they're selling now, mine is a new Mitsubishi 48" HDTV). As you implied when I'm on the HD Input which gives 1081 picture all I can do is one other option besides standard but standard looks far better. When I'm on the 480 input (through which I play my DVD on)- I have about 9 options for the picture. My question for you, which I'm still having trouble understanding, is if I'm watching say the news on an HD Channel and/or a movie, and the picture is great but they're still some minor black bars, does this mean what I'm watching is not being broadcast on HD? In other words, is only a full screen event on an HD channel, a true HD broadcast? Appreciate your or anyone elses answer,


You are pretty much right. Even though you have a digital cable box, not everything that comes through it is necessarily a digital broadcast. Your regular ABC channel is most likely an analog feed. Your HD ABC channel is however digital whether it's in HD or not.

Is your TV a 16:9 widescreen set or 4:3 standard?

Typically if you are watching an HD feed you will not be able to use any of your picture options on your TV. Some cable boxes do have some limited stretch options that do apply to the HD channels though. Take note that the letterboxing between many programs and movies may vary due to the original aspect ratio used for filming. Most anything that originated as HD should fill the typical 16:9 HD set. Movies may vary as I'm sure you've noticed when watching DVD's on an analog set.

HD production is still rather expensive for many companies to do, although cheaper and quicker than film. Many companies simply have not been able to covert their entire business to HD yet, so they have a few crews working in HD and upgrade the rest as they can afford to. For example take a typical NFL game, you need a HD production truck (several million $), as many as 60 HD cameras (near 100k each depending on lens configuration), and of course a HD crew to run it all. Also, keep in mind that there is still a rather large demand for standard definition programming that needs to be satisfied as well. Many companies while realizing that the switch is unavoidable are still going to be a little reluctant to switch before 100% viewership is available.

As far as watching DVD's, whatever picture mode you use is completely up to you. Personally I would take note of how the picture changes between each mode. You may notice that parts of the picture get cut off, you have to decide for yourself what is acceptable.

[eisforelectronic]

The black bars themselves would not determine whether you are watching a HD broadcast or not. They could be taken as possible evidence of the programming going through some sort of conversion at some point though. For example, a local channel may still be shooting their daily newscasts in SD and then upconverting for their HD channel. Or they could be doing the opposite and down converting for SD. Movies tend to have varying aspect ratios as well, so if a movie was shot in any format that does not match the 16:9 ratio exactly and they preserve that aspect ratio, you will see some form of letter or pillar boxing. Only the actual broadcaster can tell you for sure what is really being done to the signal. There aren't too many channels able to do full time Hd programming yet, so until everyone gets up to speed your going to see lots of picture differences.