I know it had alot of care given to it, but The Searchers was on HDNMV today and that print is unbelievable. That movie is over 50 years old.
Another problem for TCM HD is that most movies prior to the late 50's were shot in an aspect ratio closer to 16:9, so it would probably not be worth it to transfer them.
Oh, and to mntwister who said the library available to them would be small because the studios haven't made many transfers...Turner essentially IS the studio in this case. They own most of the movies they show. It is up to them to do the transfers.
Actually, it is Warner Brothers who is doing the MGM high-def transfers, not TCM, although they are doing a few on their own. My sister works at Paramount and while that's not MGM or TCM, I can tell you that it takes alot more than transferring these old films to high def. They need extreme work to make them look good in 1080 resolution. It's not like taking a print and transferring it to dvd, not if they want to get it right and have it look its best. Some negatives need alot of work which can take a year or more per film. Most of the studios only started making high def transfers 4 to 5 years ago, and it takes a long time to restore one film, so my statement is true, there are not thousands of movies available to show in high def yet.
I WANT MY VOOM BACK! Sorry guys, I want get over it or move on!