| Video Noise September 2004
The Dark Ages of High
Definition
I am a huge fan of high-definition
television. There is nothing in home theater as cool as seeing a quality HD program on a
good HD monitor of almost any type.
But we are still in the Dark Ages of HDTV. We can buy
remarkable video displays, but finding programming worthy of their cost and performance,
and of your time, is almost impossible. If you’re a sports fan and not too picky
about which sport or teams you watch, you can find a moderate amount of HD coverage. But
my sport is Formula 1 Racing; so far, there’s no HD coverage of that.
In a month, I’m lucky to find more than four hours of
true HD programming on the nine HD channels available to me. That’s pretty pathetic
this many years into the HD revolution. I got giddy when INHD and INHD2 appeared in the
digital programming guide. "Finally," I thought to myself, "we’ll get
some seriously good HD programming." Not! I applaud INHD’s pioneering desire to
run HD programming without a third of it being commercials. Unfortunately, not much of it
is quality programming. High definition is so good that it just can’t get here
fast enough for me. Unfortunately, the growth of HD programming, especially high-quality
HD programming, is happening very slowly.
The HD programming available in my area is probably not
much different from what’s available to most people. Mine, in Honeoye Falls,
NY, is delivered by the Cable Company via a Scientific American HD set-top box. And
here it is:
- CBS and NBC: Our local CBS and NBC affiliates are so
cash-poor they can’t afford to broadcast HD. If you’re in a major metropolitan
area, you’re probably getting CBS and NBC HD and are seeing at least occasional
original HD programs.
- ABC: Our ABC affiliate has a pretty reliable HD
signal, but ABC has remarkably little HD programming.
- WB: Our WB affiliate has HD capability, which
surprised the heck out of me, but I don’t recall seeing any HD programming from them
except the odd sports event.
- INHD and INHD2: INHD and INHD2 endlessly repeat the
world’s most vapid HD programming. I give them credit for putting on about one decent
music concert per month -- crank the five-channel Dolby Digital sound and it’s almost
like being there. But for every good concert they run, there are a few that have me
scratching my head, wondering why this concert, shot in blurry 1970 film or video,
deserves to be broadcast in HD. Seeing movie trailers in HD is an occasional kick, but
after watching 30 minutes of commercials, I feel like a sucker.
- Discovery HD: Infrequent gems repeated ad infinitum.
It costs me nothing extra to receive this channel, though I understand that in many areas
you have to pay to get it. Nothing on Discovery HD justifies paying extra for HD, and
frustratingly little of the programming is even true HD. This is just another way to rip
off consumers: make them pay for an "HD" channel that runs programming that has
only been upconverted to HD. Discovery’s promos and "splash screens"
can be pretty amazing in their full HD glory; too bad the programming isn’t as
visually captivating.
- TNT-HD: TNT plays many movies that have no HD
transfers. Films shot in the 4:3 aspect ratio are stretched to fit TNT-HD’s 16:9 HD
format. Add five-channel Dolby Digital sound to a stretched seventh-run movie and you have
a truly obnoxious viewing experience. The stretching makes characters look fat in the
center of the picture, and even fatter at the edges of the screen. If you haven’t got
real HD programming, why are you feeding an "HD" channel? Here’s hoping
TNT-HD is not the future of HD programming.
- HD-Net and HD-Movies: In our area, HD-Net and
HD-Movies cost $5 a month extra, but these channels are so much like INHD and INHD2 that
it’s hard to believe anyone would pay extra for their content. Like the INHD
channels, HD-Net and HD-Movies repeat the same 10 or 20 hours of programming for what
seems like weeks on end.
- PBS: Despite being a relatively shoestring operation,
PBS has been broadcasting HD in our area longer than anyone else. Unfortunately, their
content is thin: Endless repetitions of the same shows is the rule, though they do shuffle
the repeats -- at least you don’t see the same shows in exactly the same sequence.
- HBO HDTV and Showtime HDTV: The programming is
exactly the same as on HBO’s and Showtime’s non-HD channels. If they run
something not originally shot in HD -- of which they run a fair amount -- it’s
displayed with black borders on all four sides. At least they don’t subject it to
TNT’s obnoxious stretching. Many of the "HD" movies shown are nothing but
DVD-quality 16:9 movies with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. Only the newest and biggest
movies get a true HD transfer, apparently. In the end, only 25% to 30% of what’s
broadcast on these pay channels (there’s no extra charge for them in our area, but
you have to subscribe to HBO and Showtime to get them) is true HD programming. Still,
I’d rather watch DVD-quality movies on HBO’s or Showtime’s HD channels than
on the non-HD versions, which are loaded with compression artifacts -- and you can see
every one.
The video quality of the programming on these channels is
all over the map, with precious few stunning "HD moments." But when you get a
good one, the programs look so much better than everything else that they just about
freeze you to your seat.
Movies in HD?
There’s not a single place in my area where I can rent
a high-definition movie on D-VHS/D-Theater videotape. Pre-recorded D-VHS tapes sell for
$30 to $40 each, and D-VHS decks cost $800 to $2000 (see our review of the JVC HM-DH40000U). And
only a few studios have released films in this format, so there aren’t enough people
with D-VHS decks to support tape rentals. To make matters worse, some D-VHS decks
won’t play D-Theater pre-recorded movies!
DVDs may look nice on HDTV monitors, but they aren’t
HD -- and a good HDTV monitor will reveal a DVD’s lack of sharpness compared to real
HDTV. Just watch a DVD of any new movie and contrast it with the true HD version on HBO
HDTV or Showtime HDTV and you’ll find the difference fairly obvious.
All the major players have demonstrated prototypes of
HD-DVD technologies, but we’re still a couple of years away from viable commercial
products. Like the high-definition surround audio formats of SACD and DVD-Audio,
there’s been a lot of rivalry for control of the HD-DVD format. This has slowed the
progress toward HD-DVD products being released. We will inevitably go through a period of
relatively expensive products, until the numbers of units manufactured is numbered in the
millions per year. It will probably be a few years before you’ll be able to rent
HD-DVD movies from a video store. Seems like a long time for hi-def software to catch up
to hi-def displays.
...Doug Blackburn
db@hometheatersound.com |
