I recently received a mailing from Shaw dated October 18, 2006 outlining the introduction of Shaw HD Plus. This is the same letter first received by some Shaw customers in August but it now says that National Geographic HD and Showcase HD will be launching in December 2006 and not in November. Theoretically they can now start them on December 31, 2006 and start charging for them the next day. Cynic that I am..

Alan B.

Over the years, I'm sure Shaw has contributed to making each and everyone of us a little more cynic than we already were.

Their track record with this sort of things speaks for itself. If NG launches on Shaw the same day as it does on other Canadian providers, it will be the first time we get an HD channel on day one.

As long as the free preview of those two (NG and Showcase) is at least a couple months long, then I'm fine with Shaw missing a "day one" launch by a few days or a couple weeks. To put is simply, we need a preview period before forking over $9 to ensure the new ones aren't completely abysmal like A&E HD. Two weeks over a Christmas break isn't nearly sufficient. Here's hoping Shaw does the right thing and provides customers a decent enough free preview to make an informed decision...

I have been looking through the thread and haven't been able to find anything about the Canucks on high definition other than CBC ever once in a blue moon. I bought the PVR for the main reason of some HD sports...sure NFL and CFL are there all the time, but I love my hockey and mainly the Canucks, losing or not. Wish they would broadcast HD and especially for PPV...paying 10$ for standard definition...pffft. No thanks.

Anyone have info on what may come in the future in terms of canucks HD?

Both Showcase and National Geographic HD launch on December 19 2006.

I have been looking through the thread and haven't been able to find anything about the Canucks on high definition other than CBC ever once in a blue moon. I bought the PVR for the main reason of some HD sports...sure NFL and CFL are there all the time, but I love my hockey and mainly the Canucks, losing or not. Wish they would broadcast HD and especially for PPV...paying 10$ for standard definition...pffft. No thanks.

Anyone have info on what may come in the future in terms of canucks HD?
Unless your a Leafs fan, HD games are few and far between. You'll get the occasional one on the SNETHD, and as you mentioned a few on CBCHD (even many of those are simply upconverts, except the Leaf games ;))...Many of the games advertised on SNETHD and TSNHD are upconverts as well...and obviously all the PPV games are SD.

I purchased the Flames PPV package, and while I like to be able to see the games, it sure would be nice to see them in HD.

This has been discussed time and time again, notably in the What's on in High Def forum, but yest, non Leafs HD games are rare.

Sportsnet HD DOES NOT chow HD games as they only have a regional license to broadcast games. Since they only have one, national HD channel, they can't broadcast games in HD. Only on their regional Sportsnet channels, wherever you may be.

TSN HD does have some HD games. Tonight, they are showing....errr, the Leafs. :( As if Leafs fans did not get enough games in HD already...

ANyone know when the National Geographic HD channel is coming to Shaw??

ANyone know when the National Geographic HD channel is coming to Shaw??

December 19 2006

Sweet...so we get it an A&E for a grand total of 12 days until we have to pay for it............LAME.

I am a new subscriber to Shaw HD and I am shocked at the poor PQ of what they're passing off as 'HD'.

I just bought a new Samsung LCD HDTV and the Shaw HDTV cable box last night, and was very excited to experience the revalation of HD broadcast... and then I saw it and was disgusted. Terrible compression artifacts, smearing, and the constantly shifting aspect ratio. Not all content was awful; the sit-down talk shows with hardly any movement were quite nice - until Jay Leno moved his hands too fast :)

A lot of people on this thread have been talking about these problems - for any of you early adopters, have you noticed a further decrease in the quality since the new HD plus package went on the air?

Also wondering - why are some commercials (say on NBCHD) window-framed (i.e. have black borders on all sides)? The aspect ratio of the commercial looks 16:9, so why are they shrinking it down?

ada

I also find some channels to have soft PQ. I think these HD channels ( or providers) should be showing the best possible PQ to try and really impress people so that more will buy an HD tv. I've had friends over to see what HD is all about and sometimes they aren't impressed.

adaboy

Welcome to the wonderful world of HDTV. There are problems that have been well covered in postings on this forum. Also check out the FAQs section of this site for some good information on how to optimize equipment setup and get to know what problems are being experienced by others and what situations they have been able to correct or to find work arounds to.

Be careful in concluding that your TV is giving poor quality HD video until you are sure you are trying to display a good quality HD signal. When you are watching a HD channel you can be viewing a good quality HD picture or poor quality SD pictures that have been up converted to HD for broadcast. If you are sure you are supposed to be viewing a good video quality HD program and you are getting the results you report you are probably not using the correct cabling for HD signals and/or do not have your cable box or TV settings optimized for these signals.

With regard to the formatting problems, these are generally most common on channels that have the least experience in broadcasting HDTV. Even the US channels that were pioneers in HDTV broadcasting continue to have problems in getting the aspect ratio and sound signal properly formatted. Check out this thread for some discussion on the issues http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=42447

Well I'm happy to report that I did in fact have quite a positive experience watching "Lost" on ABC-HD last night, and now I don't feel quite so resentful towards Shaw... if all HD programming looked this good, I wouldn't have much to complain about (not saying it was perfect, but still much beter than SD).

A friend of mine pointed out that the window-framed ads are probably the result of SD ads that are letterboxed to give them a 'film' look - but because they are still just 4:3, they get pillar-boxed on HD and hence the window frame.

AB

You are right about the ads...if you notice, very few ads are in HD (yet), so when a commercial break comes on, you'll notice that the screen will resize to 4x3 with the 'pillar boxes' on the sides. Some ads are shown on 4x3 with black on the top and bottom to give them a 16x9 look, resulting in the 'picture frame' look when seen on a 16x9 screen.

I wonder if those ads are actually available in HD, but the networks don't yet show them in that format either to save bandwidth, or to avoid 'flip-flopping' during commercial breaks.

When/if will Shaw add GlobalHD, CityHD, AChanel HD (Does it exist?), and what other channels (other then National Geographics and ShowcaseHD) will Shaw be adding or new channels launching in the next 1-6 months+? My land lady just got an HDTV+6200 and only has basic cable and will not pay for anything else (as in no HDPlus bundle, Tier1/2/3 etc). My mom might go HD next year and she loves BBC Canada, HGTV, (What not to wear etc).

When could Canada get CNNHD (Does it exist) TLCHD.

I am brand new to HD and taking a more serious interest esp since cable isn't working except my outlet and the 6200 can display HD channels on my 1992 Toshiba 29" TV! So a 6200 (GOD would the price come down to like $200) seems tempting to watch HD TV on my regular TV I can't exactly afford a new TV (and am getting desperate for a new computer for early 2008).

I am watching teh eastern CFL final on cbchd. LOL.. Why is cbc have such craptacular HD programming

it looks like crap!

Stupid cbc! is this what they mean by canadian content

You are right about the ads...if you notice, very few ads are in HD (yet), so when a commercial break comes on, you'll notice that the screen will resize to 4x3 with the 'pillar boxes' on the sides. Some ads are shown on 4x3 with black on the top and bottom to give them a 16x9 look, resulting in the 'picture frame' look when seen on a 16x9 screen.

I wonder if those ads are actually available in HD, but the networks don't yet show them in that format either to save bandwidth, or to avoid 'flip-flopping' during commercial breaks.

Well...who cares about the ads? One of the main advantages of owning a PVR is you get a lot more options to skip the stupid things. If I'm watching a live show, put it on pause for about 5 min, then do something else, resume watching and then you can skip over all the ads that follow with that 3-5 min lead. :D

I am watching teh eastern CFL final on cbchd. LOL.. Why is cbc have such craptacular HD programming

it looks like crap!
You do realize the East Final was widescreen SD, not HD...

Most of the channels you just mentioned either don't exist, there is no demand for, or have very little content not already available on the existing HD channels (CBS, NBC, ABC). By the way, consider spell checking your posts.