Last night Gladiator was on ABC HD. So I was wondering, is this a better picture than what is on the dvd. Is it a true high definition broadcast or is it dvd quality. It did seem to look sharper than my dvd copy. Thanks for the information.

If you have a HD receiver and TV, then the broadcast should be better than DVD. If you have a widescreen TV the picture should have expanded to fill it. That would indicate HD. During commercials the picture goes back to 4:3.

Hope that helps.

HD signals from the four major channels (ABC, FOX, NBC and CBS) are broadcasted in 1080i. DVDs are encoded at 480p. Hope that helps.

Actually, I believe Fox is broadcast in 480p, at least for the time being...

I believe ABC broadcast their signal in 720p.

Here is another thread I start this morning in the TV Forum:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...42#post4517942

ABC-HDTV showed Gladiator last night and it looked great, but I was wondering how much better than DVD.

After the show was over I popped in the DVD and looked at the sceens of the movie:
1. HD had clearer picture in the details in peoples clothes, faces, hair and the general background of the movie.
2. The sunset after the battle at the end of the movie looked clearer and more colorful.
3. I was paying close attention to the HD sound, but the DVD sound seemed to be crisper and to have more power than the HD broadcast.


Since I have had some time over the past 3 or 4 days to watch some true HD movies/shows, my DVD collections does not seems as cutting edge as it used to. I used to hate watching anything on TV because I knew that it would look better on DVD. Now, if I know a movie is coming on HDTV broadcast I will make the time to watch it, even if I already have it on DVD.

Anyone else having the same experience with HDTV Broadcast and their DVD collection?

You are correct - it still bugs me that "24" claims to be in high-def, but isn't (at least in my area)!

Wow, I didn't know that at all. I always thought the major stations broadcasted in 1080i (or at least 720p). That's a bummer.

I watched Gotcha!, an 80s film with Anthony Edwards, the other day on HDnet and the quality was amazing for such an old film. I don't know if it's on DVD, but I'm betting the quality isn't as good.

Anyone know what source they use to make these films in 720p or 1080i? I'm guessing DVDs use the same source, but are just limited by hardware, ie. 480p.

DVD is not HD. once people figure this out they might actually realize that dvd is merely in interim technology that is already obsolete.

I am now a believer that HD-DVD will take over the market in about 4 years.

Watching TRUE HD on my TV is awesome. That is why we need MicroSoft to stay out of the HD-DVD market, they would kill the quality with compressing the file to much.

Fox never claims anything to be high def. Next time, read it carefully and you'll notice that it says "high resolution," not high def. Tricky, huh? Nice try, Fox.

Does anyone know what HBO broadcasts thier HD in? I was watching Minority Report on HBO HD the other day, and the picture was good at times, but then at times there was alot of pixalation (for lack of a better term). The other channels have really great pictures, but for some reason HBO seems to have this problem alot.

I noticed that Minority report looked horrible on HBO. alot of HBO-HD looks grainy. but some stuff looks great. maybe the source ?

a lot of the HBO stuff is just upconverted to HD so it doesn't look nearly as good as the real thing.

How do you know what is upconverted versus a true HD master that many of the DVDs released were made from? I think some of the enhanced grain might be due to HBO not showing or transmitting in OAR. When the image is zoomed in to fill 16:9 diplays for movies greater than 1.78:1 in AR you're going to see more compression noise and film grain.

chipmac, if the picture fills the widescreen and its on an HD channel, chances are its true HD (although like you said, some claim that if its a 2.35:1 aspect ratio movie the stations will often zoom in to fill the 1:78.1 (16x9) aspect which is the HD standard, thus losing slight quality)......only espn stretches standard def programming on their HD channel when they aren't broadcasting in true HD, the other HD stations have black bars on the left and right. oh and if you watch it and have to ask "is this hd?" its probably not.

i have heard pixelation can occur if too much data is sent with not enough bandwidth to handle it. it is pretty rare from what i see through comcast cable.

CBS, NBC, HBO, and many others broadcast HD in 1080i

ESPN, ABC and FOX (Fall '04) broadcast HD in 720p

for now Fox broadcasts their "HD" stuff in 480p (dvd resolution)




lots of info to be had here in the hdtv forum:

www.avsforum.com

MACD23 I understand what true HD is but I was asking Broadwayblue how he/she knows if it's true HD taken from a new telecine master or an upconverted signal from a SD DVD and broadcast at Hd resolutions. There was a similar discussion on the Spot a few weeks ago and it was pointed out that most DVDs are authored from a HD master even if it is an older film not shot in HD. So when HBO shows a movie in HD how is one to know where the master signal is taken from? Is it just an upscaled SD master as Broadwayblue implied or a HD master? I was asking how he can make that claim that "lot of the HBO stuff is just upconverted to HD so it doesn't look nearly as good as the real thing"? Many people think that only things shot with HD video are true HD such as you see with sports in HD or documentaries on Discovery channel when this is not the case. If the master film elements are used to make a new HD master for either an anamorphic SD DVD or broadcast as an HD signal this new master is now HD even if it didn't originate as HD video. These two types of HD, video and film masters will have a different look but some people mistake the look of a film transfered to a new HD master be something less then HD video and not true HD.

my fault. i misread your post.