G9 Starz HD Gone...

[gardo403]

Well it finally went dark...G9 starz hd e/w 122, 124 gone. No more hd movie channels on the 4d..


Should I get the HDD 200 out of my ET center to free up some space of leave it connected?

Hmmm......

 

[wallyhts]

G9 starz hd e/w 122, 124 gone.

BOO!!!

I use my HDD-200 as a line doubler.

 

[goaliebob99]

Sad, if they would have been adding channels instead of getting rid of them, HDTV on 4DTV could have gained steam.

 

[gardo403]

Well said, their down to one (hdnet) now... and pbs ( if your in to that )

I did not get a green light on the Wealth Channel HD either... So thats most likely dead to

 

[photoman76]

They have switched the mux to DVB-S2.
Six HD channels, all encrypted.

IndiePlex HD
RetroPlex HD
Free Preview HD
Starz in Black HD
Starz Cinema HD
Encore West HD

 

[pro96]

You gonna see alot of them on ebay now.. 4DTV is dying quicker then HDDVD did

 

[lonewolf454]

I am tired of this s**t. When my Starz sub runs out in June, that'll be it for them. Their movies are old 1 and 2 star movies I already saw 15 years ago anyways.

They were the last to set us out with the evening trash though, but no option for hd sucks. It's not us, it's them. I say f..k em all and when they won't take my money I'll blind scan and watch their junk for free when possible and anything else fta.

These companies can't put out much good material anymore and I suspect most's days are numbered. I will not miss them and they can't die fast enough.

I am ready for FreeCanadaHD and freedbs. Screw Viacom, Comcast, Disney, and the alphabets.

 

[tvropro]

The picture quality of the HD lite versions being offered of the big cable channels on pizza pale in comparison to what the HDD-200 or a DVB HD master can provide. Last I heard Charlie is down to 4 to 4.5 meg per channel for his HD lite fare, and the bitstarving shows. Eventually all the cheating and screwing of us by these big companies will come back and bite them.

 

[wallyhts]

Last I heard Charlie is down to 4 to 4.5 meg per channel for his HD lite fare

Perhaps that's why my locals look so much better Thur the antenna then the 77 sat.

Well glad we still have one channel left on C3.

 

[TMair]

I'll be honest I don't see what the big deal is for HD, I have an HD TV, and a blue ray player, Dolby HD Digital rocks, but the picture is not what I thought it would be.
I will also be surprized if there are any movie channels left in 5 years, Netflix and Red Box have got to be hurting them big time, I can't imagine paying what they want for the privlidge of watching the same movie 50 times, when I can go to Red Box, pay $1.00 and get a relativly new release, and never watch the same movie more then once...unless it is a good one!!

NetFlix, and Amazon.com both have a set up so that you can download right to your TV, if I knew how to do that

I wouldn't blame it on the 4Dtv, I think these companies are feeling the pain and cutting where they can.
Terry

 

[TMair]

Perhaps that's why my locals look so much better Thur the antenna then the 77 sat.

Well glad we still have one channel left on C3.

My parents have Dish, and a 45" Digital HD tv, today I went down and hooked it up so they could bet the locals off air, I think they where impressed by the quality difference, I know I was, I knew they had a bad picture quality but to see it side by side WOW, I can't believe people pay for that, and I can't believe it hurt C Band as badly as it has, I have been nothing but happy with 4Dtv and C Band with just a couple of exceptions, the biggest being that if you want to watch two different programs in different rooms at the same time you have to pay double, that is the biggest drawback, but I still love it.
Terry

 

[tvropro]

Most quality Hi Def (Blu ray, broadcast master) IMHO is more or less what I have watched in the past on a good analog master on my bud. There is a widescreen aspect ratio over SD but it's not so spectacular to my eyes. Now when I see bitstarved HD such as pizza provides I see a soft picture with digital macroblocking and mosquito noise. To some one who was watching pizza SD or a ghosty snowy picture for years it may look great, but to us old timers who have been watching a buds quality picture for years it's no biggie.

 

[Inno]

I'll be honest I don't see what the big deal is for HD, I have an HD TV, and a blue ray player, Dolby HD Digital rocks, but the picture is not what I thought it would be.
I will also be surprized if there are any movie channels left in 5 years, Netflix and Red Box have got to be hurting them big time, I can't imagine paying what they want for the privlidge of watching the same movie 50 times, when I can go to Red Box, pay $1.00 and get a relativly new release, and never watch the same movie more then once...unless it is a good one!!

NetFlix, and Amazon.com both have a set up so that you can download right to your TV, if I knew how to do that

I wouldn't blame it on the 4Dtv, I think these companies are feeling the pain and cutting where they can.
Terry

As far as blu ray goes, the picture quality varies a great deal depending on a number of factors.
There is a list I think on avs forums of some of the best PQ blu ray movies. The Pirates of the Caribbean movies all look fantastic imo. It depends on how the movie was originally filmed, some formats convert to HD better than others.
With a good quality Blu Ray, the picture looks freakin' awesome!!

 

[pendragon]

Most quality Hi Def (Blu ray, broadcast master) IMHO is more or less what I have watched in the past on a good analog master on my bud.

I would never claim DN's or DTV's HD approaches 1080i, but you did specifically call out Blu-ray and broadcast masters.

Full BW analog was very nice in its day, but it's a very inefficient technology for coding information (resolution/picture quality). There was some interesting research done a few years ago on the limits of human visual acuity that concluded 4K projectors would be required to achieve this level for SMPTE-recommended viewing distances. 1080p is roughly midway between 480i and 4K.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but having worked in the broadcast world, having access to some of the finest source material over the past 35-odd years and having compared all generations of optical storage, master feeds, etc. on both high and low end displays I am in complete disagreement with your view. I enjoyed 4DTV HD while it lasted, but I have no desire to return to 1970s-grade studio SD.

One can hope the C-band providers will pull a rabbit out of the hat by for example convincing Motorola to adapt their Shaw Direct receiver designs for 4DTV purposes, but currently that would be limited to 8PSK DCII with MPEG2 with just DVI outputs. Read the Canadian forums to see the frustration levels SD customers are experiencing waiting for the forever delayed next-generation receivers that could do H.264 and/or DVB-S2. Our market is smaller and dwindling faster.

 

[tvropro]

The only problem is that 99% of the people out there are never privy to the studio source. Beyond that point everything is a compromise one way or the other. I believe that a very nice old analog satellite master looks superior to most that the general public see's.

I'm sure there are broadcast sources that are true eye candy, what I have seen of Blu ray and HD in general isn't that true eye candy. Im sure If I was privy to inside the studio and saw some outstanding HD video my views could change.

 

[pendragon]

I hear you about the general dearth of good quality material available to the masses. It probably doesn't matter for the most part because a lot of people simply watch SD on HD screens at best.

There are some horrible Blu-ray transfers, but a fair amount pushes the limits of what can be done with 1080p24. The same can be said for high rate (30-40 Mbit/s) FTA HD feeds. There is not a dramatic difference between either of these and uncompressed HD video.

 

[Inno]

Agreed and watching SD on an HD screen is probably the WORST way to watch TV.
I remember when the first plasma and LCD sets came out. I was working at a consumer electronics store at the time. There was only 2-3 channels of HD available on Bell and nothing on cable at all in our area. So many people were upset when they got their gorgeous new set home only to find out that it looked like absolute crap with their analog cable or SD satellite signal. To some degree things are still a bit like that IMO. The majority of folks only wanting a large quantity of channels and don't give much thought about quality.

Since the dawn of the TV age, quality was always the focus. From black and white to color, then with satellite and cable the picture quality got even better. All improvements in quality. Now it just seems like we have the potential for greatness in picture quality but it is coming at the wrong time because as already stated, everybody wants more. If we could be happy with less channels then we could have all of them in good quality HD........never gonna happen. All most folks want is lots and lots of channels as cheap and as easy as possible. Just shut off the brain and surf surf surf.:rant::rant::rant::rant::rant:

 

[tvropro]

Agreed and watching SD on an HD screen is probably the WORST way to watch TV.
I remember when the first plasma and LCD sets came out. I was working at a consumer electronics store at the time. There was only 2-3 channels of HD available on Bell and nothing on cable at all in our area. So many people were upset when they got their gorgeous new set home only to find out that it looked like absolute crap with their analog cable or SD satellite signal. To some degree things are still a bit like that IMO. The majority of folks only wanting a large quantity of channels and don't give much thought about quality.

You can watch SD with very good results on a HD screen. It depends on your source material, and the scaler in your tv. My AQUOS looks absolutely beautiful on SD even in smart stretch mode, as long as I feed it an outstanding source. The sources I feed is either a 1st generation master feed from my 4DTV (via s video 480i), a 1st generation master feed from my Visionsat (via component 480i) or a excellent DVD (via component at 480p)

Now hooking up a HDTV to SD pizza or digital cable will look pretty sad. You have to watch there HD to get any satisfaction. On a good day there HD lite approaches the quality of a good SD source.

 

[TMair]

You can watch SD with very good results on a HD screen. It depends on your source material, and the scaler in your tv. My AQUOS looks absolutely beautiful on SD even in smart stretch mode, as long as I feed it an outstanding source. The sources I feed is either a 1st generation master feed from my 4DTV (via s video 480i), a 1st generation master feed from my Visionsat (via component 480i) or a excellent DVD (via component at 480p)

Now hooking up a HDTV to SD pizza or digital cable will look pretty sad. You have to watch there HD to get any satisfaction. On a good day there HD lite approaches the quality of a good SD source.

I was just thinking this same thing, I just got anew HD tv, 55" I replaced a 65" Mitsubishi HD with it, I get great results from my 4Dtv, my DVB box, and cable once I scaned in the digital piggy backed channels as I said earlier I just hooked up an of air antenna to my parents HD tv, it is amazing how much difference there is between the digital channels off air to Dish channels, anyway now that ICe has gone Pizza don't want to be to hard on it
Terry

 

[truckracer]

i stayed in a 4 star hotel that advertised "HD tv in every room"....Yeah.. it was an HDtv with analog cable or some bastardized analog headend in the hotel complete with some snow, ghosting, and lines on some of the channels. what a waste of a tv if you ask me.

I have never thought Dish or Directv looked that good with their HD. They map their SD channels (directv) beside the equivalent HD version of a channel and when you compare the difference you think "wow ..HD is great" but stop and think...the SD channel is so bit starved it makes their bit starved HD channel look good.

I know 4DTV was slipping downward when i got into it 7 years ago. i just would not bring myself to signing two year contracts with the pizza pans and cable company.
I do not see myself married to them that long with an expensive early termination fee.
i do not like the fact that directv holds your credit card hostage either.

when 4dtv is gone....i will simply be FTA and OTA. Nothing more. or if something would happen to my 4dtv receivers.