Regarding The Last Samurai; Marc has said it was a HD tape. I saw a quality image and offered an opinion based on what my eyes told me, not on what the schedule said. The aspect ratio for me was 16:9, the usual CBC OTA image that I receive.

Since Master and Commander broadcast the very next evening, we could compare PQ with Samurai. PQ was good but not nearly as nice as Samurai.

Perhaps with the different broadcast venues ( i.e. OTA, cable HD, sat.HD ) there is a signicant variation in PQ. I do believe a thread discussing the variety of HD PQ has been recently posted by 57, "What is HD, Really?"

Neild, I am curious as to what aspect ratio you viewed and how it differs from what I receive.

Regarding The Last Samurai; Marc has said it was a HD tape. I saw a quality image and offered an opinion based on what my eyes told me, not on what the schedule said. The aspect ratio for me was 16:9, the usual CBC OTA image that I receive.

Since Master and Commander broadcast the very next evening, we could compare PQ with Samurai. PQ was good but not nearly as nice as Samurai.

Perhaps with the different broadcast venues ( i.e. OTA, cable HD, sat.HD ) there is a signicant variation in PQ. I do believe a thread discussing the variety of HD PQ has been recently posted by 57, "What is HD, Really?"

Neild, I am curious as to what aspect ratio you viewed and how it differs from what I receive.

On Saturday I was out at a party. They had their HDTV on (unfortunately a rear projection CRT type) and I took a minute to check out the Last Samurai. The picture was soft, but there was no way to tell if it was the broadcast or the RP-CRT causing the softness. The aspect ratio was 1.78 (it filled the 16:9 screen with no apparent zoom options on the TV set).

But if you are familiar with Last Samurai that film is very panoramic, much wider than 16:9, probably 2.35 aspect ratio. In the course of scaling or cropping the picture I think the picture quality was affected. It didn't have anything like the crispness of movies shown on Movie Central. But certainly some of that could have been due to the monitor.

Master & Commander on the other hand I was able to check out on a more optimal high resolution HDTV setup. On that config you could see instantly it was not HD but a convert. A pretty good zoom mind you, it reminded me of those times when networks sometimes have a HDTV movie that just looks fuzzier that it should.

I did some compares against the DVD (upconverted) including setting a vertical zoom so that both had a similar (wrong) aspect ratio. The broadcast audio was 2 channel. I did the comparison with the sound off so as not to be influenced by the comparison of 2 channel vs 6 ch DTS.

When discussing picture quality of HD films, it is kind of suspect when the film has been stretched from its intended resolution. Was it stretched by the tape's producer? At transfer? By CBC? At broadcast? Depending on where and how the film was stretched to 1.78 could affect the quality.

(unfortunately a rear projection CRT type)The picture on a CRT will look different than on a fixed pixel TV. Fixed pixels can appear to "look sharper" since they are digital, however, a properly set up RP-CRT may simply look "smoother" since it is a different technology, in the same way that 1080i and 720P can vary the HD viewing experience.

It's not necessarily that one is "better", rather that they are different. What one person calls "soft" another may call "smooth" or "accurate". ;) Films are not always "vivid".

The picture on a CRT will look different than on a fixed pixel TV. Fixed pixels can appear to "look sharper" since they are digital, however, a properly set up RP-CRT may simply look "smoother" since it is a different technology, in the same way that 1080i and 720P can vary the HD viewing experience.

It's not necessarily that one is "better", rather that they are different. What one person calls "soft" another may call "smooth" or "accurate". ;) Films are not always "vivid".

Right I absolutely agree. My point is just that on a fixed pixel display you can tell instantly if something is HD or not. On RP-CRT, the 'smoothness' will tend to make it hard to tell for certain. Agree?

I watched the Trudeau program last night which was supposed to be in HD. I found the PQ grainy and the colours washed out. The PQ was pretty much the same as what was on a CBC SD digital channel (which was letterboxed).

Too bad....

Rodan was on late saturday night/early sunday morning on CBC-HD Toronto. My guide said that the channel should have been off the air. It filled my 16x9 screen, not sure if it was HD. It didn't look all that great, but it is a 1956 Japanese monster movie. IMDB.com shows the academy aspect ratio of 1.37:1 so it must have stretched or something.

I just found it interesting that a 1956 godzilla type movie was shown in widescreen.

CBC.ca HDTV Listings show 7-10 p.m. Ending before the National News so there will be no interruption.

Do I need to watch any of the new episodes on dvd this week so that I'm up to speed as far as the storeyline goes? What are those new titles, please?

I watched the original Star Wars these many years ago, but couldn't make it through The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi.

I would suggest watching The Phantom Menace, which sets up the characters for Attack of the Clones. Revenge of the Sith is the other new title but comes after Attack of the Clones. You don't need really need to watch any of the originals to follow the new episodes. In fact, I'd rather watch them after the new ones to make it a continuous timeline.

Thanks, VuMax. May the Force be with you.

I was never going to sit through Phantom Menace again, so I watched Clones, Sith, Star Wars, Empire and Jedi all in order, and it was great. Although, Vader when from being potentially the ultimate in evil (Sith) to being some guy in a clown suit (orignal Star Wars). Just a slight bit of a disconnect.

It looks to me like Pirates of the Carribean will be SD, while ABC is carrying the same movie tonight in HD. I really don't understand why CBC does not broadcast many movies in HD. Carriers could almost drop the CBC HD and save some bandwidth.

ha typical of the CBC. Another network is showing a movie in HD, so the geniuses at CBC go "hey, what if we show the same movie on our network, but in SD! That'll give us a nice large number of viewers..."

ha typical of the CBC. Another network is showing a movie in HD, so the geniuses at CBC go "hey, what if we show the same movie on our network, but in SD! That'll give us a nice large number of viewers..."Do you really think that most viewers are making decisions about to watch based on SD vs. HD? I think it's only us geeks!

anyone who has an HDTV will, 4:3 movies look like garbage on Widescreen HDTV's

Tuesday, December 26 --- 8:00 - 10:00 PM, PART 1

Wednesday, December 27 --- 8:00 - 10:00 PM, PART 2

CBC HD

Anybody check out the HD Presentation of Monsters Inc. on CBCHD Sunday Night?

Our family has watched the DVD too many times to mention, but when the HD movie started we all stopped what we were doing and picked our jaws off the floor. The picture seemed to pop out of the TV and it was the best looking HD show I think I've ever seen.

When I mentioned the Bluray is coming out in a few months everybody yelled "Buy IT!"...:p

CBC HD has run Monster Inc. in HD last year and I captured it from OTA (as opposed to Shaw feed of CBC HD which sucks big time). Picture quality (OTA) was not bad and was a bit better than the other showing I captured from ABC HD (when I was in US) almost 3 years ago, although CBC HD showing was in 1080i and ABC HD showing was in 720p. However, they're still in general no comparison to BluRay quality, which like many say you'll have to sit at a distance no more than 1.5 times the TV size (e.g. 60" from a 40" TV) to be able to appreciate every single detail.

Anyways, back to CBC HD movies, CBC actually used to run G/PG-rated HD movies every sunday 5-7pm last year about this time. They'll probably do that again near Christmas and perhaps the same batch of movies they did last year. CBC also runs HD movies sunday nite and weeknite late nite and are uncensored (unlike some movies CTV shows). Some CBC HD movies I can remember: the Harry Potter's, the Pirates', the SpiderMan's, Polar Express, Devil Wears Prada, the Princes Diaries', etc.

I had the same reaction to Monsters as Fortmacdude. HD was amazingly detailed. For once a movie broadcast in HD didn't disappoint.

In addition to Monster Inc, they have also shown Disney animations like Chicken Little, Pinocchio, Valiant, Sleeping Beauty, Ratatouille and Meet the Robinsons, etc.

Video quality is excellent on every single animation. Picture is sharp save some motion blur from the compression. It's comparable to Blu-ray except for the sound.