I know that HD has a higher resolution but if a film is shot on 35mm film (which almost all major films are) Is it possible for it to look any better showing it on HD? I would have thought unless you've shot it with Hi Def cameras, Progressive scan would be about as clear as you could make a film Hence me thinking there would be no real point of HD movies on pay per view. Can you can clear this up for me?

Hawkboy

You are wrong in thinking that film has poorer resolution than HDTV. Film still has higher resolution than any HDTV resolution.

Well I wasn't exactly saying I was right and anyone else was wrong. I'm just curious about the whole thing thats all. I just don't understand why there was such a big deal about Star Wars Episode II being shot on Hig Def cameras if standard 35mm is still so much better picture wise.

Shooting in a digital format can pay dividends for the digital theatres of which there are few. The nearest one to Calgary is in Ricmond BC I think. As for Star Wars I'm not sure but I think it's a resolution higher than typical 1080p but I'm not sure - I do agree that the effective resolution of film is at least equal to 1080p.

With regards to film, DVD, and HD basically what happens is the film is scanned in and converted to a digital format. For DVD it's scanned at 480 resolution and for HD it would be 1080. There's no question that film material broadcast in HD is a major step up in quality over current DVD. If I had to quantify it I'd say it's about the same as the leap from broadcast SD material to a good DVD.

What I want:
** HD PPV - in 2005 - expect to pay $10/movie


That would make no sense... why not just rent a DVD for $5 and watch them in your progressive scan player?

I think they will want $10/movie with HD because they charge $5/movie for SD.

The results with a progressive scan player are not as good as HD (for me at least). But running the DVD from my PC using enhancing software like ffdshow gets me very close to broadcast HD quality. That's why I said I would pay only $2/movie for HD PPV. It should be cheaper than renting DVDs, considering the movies on PPV are older.
Btw, I also think renting DVDs for $6/movie is too expensive in the broadband Net age. They seem to have learned nothing from the experience with mp3's in the late 90s.

What I want:
** HD PPV - in 2005 - expect to pay $10/movie


That would make no sense... why not just rent a DVD for $5 and watch them in your progressive scan player?

I think they will want $10/movie with HD because they charge $5/movie for SD.


Well I was with Rogers HD around 1.5-2 years ago. At the time HD PPV was only $1 more than regular movie. I think it was either ($4 for SD and $5 for HD) or ($5 for SD and $6 for HD).

Of course, that doesn't mean Shaw won't try to scam customers and charge $10 like you suggest.

Well I was with Rogers HD around 1.5-2 years ago. At the time HD PPV was only $1 more than regular movie. I think it was either ($4 for SD and $5 for HD) or ($5 for SD and $6 for HD).
Rogers had PPV HD 2 years ago and still no PPV HD on Shaw :(
$1 extra seems reasonable, but again even $6/movie would be too much for me. I rent the best movies on DVDs when they come out, and I would only watch on PPV older second-hand movies. I would definitely not pay as much as a DVD rental for it.

Some funny posts here based on speculation.

When DVD first came out P&S was high demand... OAR was frowned upon by the masses. Walmart realized they were dealing with a market that wasn't about to have 32" + HD ready units let alone Widescreen TV's at $4K a pop.

Times are changing however... nearly 2 years ago FS reported that the Widescreen TV's were making up over 40% of purchases... HD ready TV's were in excess of 70%... (That was the buying season of two Christmas' ago).

We are now at the point where P&S and W/S are at relatively equal demand points... with W/S overtaking P&S.

What is difficult to fathom is why Shaw or others release films to us in P&S (a TAMPERED format) and not in it's OAR,WS, Anamorphic, 16x9 or whatever you are comfortable in naming it format...

Personally, I'm ready to sue the next broadcaster that puts at the start of my film "This Movie has been formatted to fit your screen"...

So yes, although a bit off on a rant... Shaw wake up!!!... the odd HD simulcast of a film on MC doesn't cut it... I'll never order up SOD if it continues to be in P&S.

/rant. 8)

We are now at the point where P&S and W/S are at relatively equal demand points... with W/S overtaking P&S.


If the demand for both formats is equal then it's not translating into sales. When a DVD has both widescreen and Pan and Scan versions available the Widescreen far outsells it Pan and 'Scam' brother.Check out the Amazon.com sales rank comparison for the top selling movies that have both versions available. Remember theses are just the ranks so lower is better....
http://www.widescreenadvocate.org/sales.html

One thing I would like to see from Shaw is a better website. They have one of the worst website layouts I have ever seen. I've been waiting more than two years since they changed to this layout for them to realize this. They still haven't (or is it just me?) I thought their old one was way better than this thing http://www.shaw.ca/. Am I off on this one or do others agree?

The "lite speed version" of the site is all outdated, most links are outdated or bad hyperlinks (all parts of the site) and some sites are so outdated they still refer to scramblevision screens

Shawguy
(I agree with you)

I hate to dogpile on but I've wanted to vent a bit about Shaw's "Website" for a while now.

The DHTL (I think it is) is "cool" and all but functionally it stinks absolutely. It's slow, bandwidth intensive and seems to be very much form before function. Information as noted is outdated which leads me to believe that updating the pages isn't the easiest thing, either.

The search function isn't very good (try searching for "NFL" or "NFL Sunday Ticket".

HeaTransfer,

I'm with you, the Shaw website is the most dysfunctional thing I have ever laid eyes on.

To bring the thread back on track, I would like a few things:

HD-PVR with DVI, Firewire and Component Outputs
UHF Remote Control
Major League Baseball Extra Innings
NHL Centre Ice
Time Shifting for all channels with two feeds
Sportsnet Regional Channels (all of 'em)

So a little technical stuff and more sports programming, please!