Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)

[WillPS]

Originally Posted by TheDon

The Wire only finished up last year and that was 4:3

The USA has been very slow on the uptake for Widescreen. I was shocked to find that prime time programming, such as The Apprentice (their version obvz) was still in 'full screen'.

[zantarous]

The majority of stuff out of the US has been in HD for at least 10 years, at least for drama and this has spilled over to sitcoms as well. Remember in the US HD and widescreen go hand in hand, there is no 16x9 SD over there.

[frogstamper]

Originally Posted by royaltiger

I think its only Nat Geo that has been broadcasting true HD since all HD channels have come on as its the only channel showing dolby digital on the amp, all others are pro logic as the SD channels. That was one of the things I was looking forward to the improvement in sound quality.

On Sunday night I watched "To the edge of the Universe" on Nat Geo-HD, it was absolutely stunning one of the best shows I've seen in HD.

[Andrewcrawford23]

Originally Posted by zantarous

Outside of animated shows I am struggling to think of many US or UK produced shows that are still in 4:3 apart from the very cheap US talk shows. Everything else is 16x9

Extreme makeover: home edition that is 4:3 if i really tohught about it could find plenty others, widescreen is not a standard i wihs it was bloody annoying watching 4:3 on widescreen tv dnt mind for old stuff btu new stuff i do

[EBD3000]

Originally Posted by frogstamper

On Sunday night I watched "To the edge of the Universe" on Nat Geo-HD, it was absolutely stunning one of the best shows I've seen in HD.

QFT.

It is was one of the best pictures I've seen, especially the Quasar and the nebula.

Closely followed by Oceans last night on BBC HD.

[cupcakes aka dd]

Originally Posted by frogstamper

On Sunday night I watched "To the edge of the Universe" on Nat Geo-HD, it was absolutely stunning one of the best shows I've seen in HD.

Tried to buy this on Blu-ray a few months back but its only available for the States. Glad they have shown it.

[royaltiger]

Originally Posted by Stephen

All HD channels are always in Dolby Digital, however its not always 5.1 there are plenty of progs that are just Dolby Digital 2.0 as reported by my amp.

I think you will find that it is Dolby Pro logic II which is what my amp says and not Dolby digital which is a 6 way signal, Dolby pro logic II is a stereo signal pushed through to 5 signals, IE a stereo signal converted to a 5:1 surround system, where as Dolby Digital is a natural 6:1 Surround signal with no conversions. Everything on the V+ is Dolby Pro Logic II with the exception of HD supposedly, but as stated earlier I am definitely only seeing Nat Geo so far broadcasting with continuous Dolby Digital which is good, but they may not have all programs that way, also BBC hd is mostly Dolby digital but it also changes back to pro logic II. Theoretically these HD channels should be sounding the same as a Blu-Ray and they are nowhere near the same sound quality.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by royaltiger

where as Dolby Digital is a natural 6:1 Surround signal with no conversions

No It's not!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_D...configurations

Although most commonly associated with the 5.1 channel configuration, Dolby Digital allows a number of different channel selections. The full list of available options are:

• Mono (Center only)
• 2-channel stereo (Left + Right), optionally carrying matrixed Dolby Surround
• 3-channel stereo (Left, Center, Right)
• 2-channel stereo with mono surround (Left, Right, Surround)
• 3-channel stereo with mono surround (Left, Center, Right, Surround)
• 4-channel quadraphonic (Left, Right, Left Surround, Right Surround)
• 5-channel surround (Left, Center, Right, Left Surround, Right Surround)

All of these configurations can optionally include the extra Low Frequency Effect (LFE) channel. The last two with stereo surrounds can optionally use Dolby Digital EX matrix encoding to add an extra Rear Surround channel.

[chass]

while were on the topic of sound has any one else noticed that the hd channels have a low volume ?

[royaltiger]

Dolby Digital, or AC-3, is the common version containing up to six discrete channels of sound. The most elaborate mode in common usage involves five channels for normal-range speakers (20 Hz – 20,000 Hz) (right front, center, left front, right rear and left rear) and one channel (20 Hz – 120 Hz allotted audio) for the subwoofer driven low-frequency effects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_D...#Dolby_Digital

My point was you should be listening to Dolby Digital as it was made for and that is a 6:1 sound system, and not in stereo which is what we are getting

[i am annoyed]

Finally got HD channels working last night - got a more helpful person on customer support. All they had to do was turn them on for my account since for some reason they weren't, took them about 3 minutes

[Felim_Doyle]

Originally Posted by Pushkar

Mmm that's what I thought, it doesn't look like full HD.

Did it look like excellently upscaled SD?

[daveetwo]

Originally Posted by chass

while were on the topic of sound has any one else noticed that the hd channels have a low volume ?

BBC HD has always been lower than other channels for me. Irritating but i just ingore it now.
Same on ne channels too.

[Felim_Doyle]

Originally Posted by moroboshi

HD on a good sized (50"+) 1080p HDTV from an appropriate viewing distance represents a huge leap in picture quality over SD.

IMHO ...

Apples and pears.

I would imagine that 50"+ sets will not be the norm in the average household. Some early adopters and technophiles will have large flat panel displays now and may well be a high proportion of the current HDTV owners but most of us will opt for something that doesn't obscure the light of day from the bay window!

I wasn't aware of any programming being broadcast in 1080p so surely we're comparing the quality of picture between upscaled SD and either 720p or 1080i HD.

Just to put things in perspective (so to speak!).

This was my theory on why some people insisted that sports were only watchable in HD. They've got huge screens and need the higher resolution so that every pixel isn't individually visible. However, it seems as though the ESPN HD content does not meet that criterion yet.

[royaltiger]

Originally Posted by Felim_Doyle

IMHO ...

Apples and pears.

I would imagine that 50"+ sets will not be the norm in the average household. Some early adopters and technophiles will have large flat panel displays now and may well be a high proportion of the current HDTV owners but most of us will opt for something that doesn't obscure the light of day from the bay window!

It would be interesting to know how many of us have 50" screens or above, to be honest I would have said 50" would soon be average size if not definately 42". They hang on a wall perfect and take up so much less space than on a stand or tucked in a corner. Your theory on sport could be correct, I watch quite a bit of football in SD and it is very blurry on the screen compared to HD which shows it very sharp.