Harry Potter on ABC HD
 

Just a quick question, because I'm deeply disturbed after watching Harry Potter 1 on ABC HiDef Channel last night. I thought it looked exceptionally crisp, so I popped in my DVD to check the diff. The difference was unbelievable. My DVD looked all washed and blurry compared to the HD image. I have a pretty cheap Panasonic DVD player, but it is component and my reference disc Monsters Inc. always looks superb. I have a Sony 50" GW LCD.
I guess my question is, should Harry P have looked that much better or was it just a not-so-great transfer that was done on the DVD or do I have a crappy DVD player? I mean the difference was absolute night and day. I realize that the HD is a purer signal, but jeesh, the difference was incredible. My wife never notices such things, but she even was blown away by the diff.

A HDTV signal is much, much sharper than a DVD, that's why. A HDTV signal comes through at 1080i, while a DVD is only 480p.

Well, how bad was his acne? :p

I knew it'd be sharper, but the diff was amazing. Like comparing VHS to DVD. I was shocked and awed.

was the hd feed oar or cropped?

If it was ABC wouldn't it have been broadcast at 720p?

It filled my widescreen, so I guess it was cropped. And yeah, I thought I heard ABC does 720p. So that makes it even more impressive, because that picture was pristine.

I caught a bit of this last night and the picture was quite stellar. Gotta love HD!

You may be right...I forget what ABC broadcasts at. Still, there's a noticable difference. The VHS/DVD comparison is a good one.

Sorry to digress from the topic of HD Vs DVD.

Did anyone notice that there were extra scenes in the ABC presentation that were not there on the DVD?

1. After the scene where Harry meets Hagrid, there is a scene where they are shown going in a bus (or train?) and Hagrid snaps at a woman in the bus "What are you looking at?"

2. In Snape's class, where he questions Harry, after he says "Clearly fame isn't everything", there are extra scenes where Harry tells Snape to ask Hermione and he takes points off from Gryffindor for "having the cheek" to insult him.

they did advertise that extra scene's were gonna be on the broadcast.

Actually, it's a Super35 movie so it's open matte.