SPACE: The Imagination Station okayed for HD by CRTC
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Scifi is still SD but I have heard rumors of it going HD this year. I would be surprised if Space did it anytime this year. I would love that though. In fact I have been considering watching CityTV HD instead of Space since they are at least offering HD versions of BSG albeit 1 year later.
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I would have thought SPACE: The Imagination Station would be a no-brainer for an HD facelift. Proves what I know. The techie geeky sci-fi crowd I would expect "over-index" on HD and early adopter anything and therefore make for an interesting, and unique, advertising audience which can only be enhanced in HD. Pity Moses Znaimer has retired to classical fiords and and is no longer running the CHUM MotherShip.
You can be darn sure I'd be making time to watch a lot of old favourites if Space does go HD. Watching the facelifted original Trek in HD? Oh yeah! Plus Next Generation, Buffy and Firefly (assuming they were filmed as opposed to videotaped)? Totally there! Not to mention all the movies they air. Oh man, SpaceHD would be shiny indeed.
cheers,
supervij
cheers,
supervij
As far as I know CityTV-HD does not show BSG in HD, except for 2 ot 4 episodes. Like many others I got all excited after watching in high-def, only to be plunged back into SD despair
It's still better PQ than Space, but it still doesn't compare to watching the DVDs (especially on a good upconverting player). And with the box-set of season 3 likely coming out -- again -- before CityTV shows it, I will most likely be renting (or buying -- come on, Universal, give us a sweet deal).
I have tried contacting City-TV repeatedly asking two simple questions:
1. When will BSG-S3 begin? If they wait until September they will risk losing viewers to the box set.
2. Will they show it in HD? Again, if it's not HD and it comes out after the box-set is released, what is my motivation?
It's still better PQ than Space, but it still doesn't compare to watching the DVDs (especially on a good upconverting player). And with the box-set of season 3 likely coming out -- again -- before CityTV shows it, I will most likely be renting (or buying -- come on, Universal, give us a sweet deal).I have tried contacting City-TV repeatedly asking two simple questions:
1. When will BSG-S3 begin? If they wait until September they will risk losing viewers to the box set.
2. Will they show it in HD? Again, if it's not HD and it comes out after the box-set is released, what is my motivation?
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Unfortunately, that part of SPACE's site seems to require a username & password to view. Does anyone have an alternative source of that content?
All you have to do is watch a good SD master of the original Trek and compare it to a show from the sixties that was videotaped and you should know right away that Trek was indeed filmed in 35mm. Same with the Next Generation.
The problem is that SPACE would have to get a hold of tapes that were remastered from the films to Hdcam SR masters. The cost of doing that and allocating the extra bandwidth for HD may not justify such a decision at this time.
I don’t know if the studio could remaster in 16:9. The shows were shot for 4:3 television and they may have used lenses that utilized the film in 4:3 aspect ratio. Not sure on this point.
Well they now have permission to broadcast in HD along with some other CHUM specialties (make that CTVgm specialty channels)
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2007/db2007-172.htm
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Hogan's Heroes has been playing in "HD" on HDNet. I don't know from personal experience but I'd expect it is offered in 4:3, not 16:9. Same would apply to the various film originated Star Trek TV series.
Now that there is green light for Space HD, let's hope they put it on the 2008 business plan.
Now that there is green light for Space HD, let's hope they put it on the 2008 business plan.
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If we have to wait for BEV to carry Space HD, it may be a long time.
Something tells me if Space HD were offered in the next six months, with compelling HD content, a number of providers would gobble it up. Bell's participation is, more-or-less, irrelevant. Nice to have, of course: but hardly a deal breaker until they find some HD capacity.
Something tells me if Space HD were offered in the next six months, with compelling HD content, a number of providers would gobble it up. Bell's participation is, more-or-less, irrelevant. Nice to have, of course: but hardly a deal breaker until they find some HD capacity.
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3,243 Posts
I wouldn't make that assumption. Have you noticed how few HD channels have appeared over the last year or so? May just have the something to do with the likelihood of them being picked up by a majority of the Cdn. television providers. Not just Bell, but SC and many of the cable companies.
-Mike
-Mike
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2,886 Posts
In the last 18 months launched in HD:
Raptors
Discovery "Theatre"
Movie Central 2
MPix HD
MMore HD
HD Net
Leafs HD
The Score HD
A&E
Showcase
National Geographic
WGN (on Rogers; was on Bell)
HD Movies On Demand
Rush
Equator
Oasis
Treasure
Canal D
Canal Vie
Historia
Series +
Vrak
Z-Tele
That's not a bad list, is it? Plus prime time network TV actually is something like 80% HD now and more local programming is turning up in HD -- on City, Sun, OMNI -- and stuff like NBC Nightly News has moved to HD.
Of course there is room for more but there's no reason to suspect more won't arrive in 2007 assuming the capacity can be found.
Raptors
Discovery "Theatre"
Movie Central 2
MPix HD
MMore HD
HD Net
Leafs HD
The Score HD
A&E
Showcase
National Geographic
WGN (on Rogers; was on Bell)
HD Movies On Demand
Rush
Equator
Oasis
Treasure
Canal D
Canal Vie
Historia
Series +
Vrak
Z-Tele
That's not a bad list, is it? Plus prime time network TV actually is something like 80% HD now and more local programming is turning up in HD -- on City, Sun, OMNI -- and stuff like NBC Nightly News has moved to HD.
Of course there is room for more but there's no reason to suspect more won't arrive in 2007 assuming the capacity can be found.
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4,218 Posts
Not to change the subject but I think in some cases Bell may have to resort to going to HD Lite on some channels in order to squeez a few more in. For example instead of having a 1920x1080 signal, you would get a 1440x1080 or 1280x1080. Dish and DirecTV already do this in the USA. It's quite contraversial but I could see the Canadian Satellite companies up here doing the same thing in order to keep up. For now StarCHoice will use 8PSK modulation to get 11-15 more stations on their satellite. Who knows maybe Bell will migrate to 8PSK as well.
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6,296 Posts
Still on Bell EV.
Already done with TMN and possibly MC. It has also been widely discussed that many EV channels are converted from 1920x1080i to 1280x720p.
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