HDTV broadcasts, how????

[Totti]

I wonder what kind of media they use for HDTV broadcasts right now.
Are movies already being remastered to HDTV???
Do they put them on tape or the new HDVD blue ray system???
Or even maybe they use regular dvds and make people beleive they are getting HDTV??
I would appreciate your opinios, because I'm considerng getting a HDTV monitor, and this service is very expensive, with only a few channels available right now.

[Anthology123]

Many films that are being remastered for DVD, are also being remastered into HD for a future HD-DVD format. One example is Yellow Submarine.

[Clay]

impressive equipment list
http://www.hd.net/mobileunitspecs-hd1.html
lots of shows in HD
http://www.hdtvgalaxy.com/broad.html
The over the air shows in HD are awesome and free.
DVDs are just not as cool looking after seeing 1080i over the air tv shows.

[Drew]

Most lists of HDTV stations that I've seen aren't very up to date. Every over the air station in the Columbus now has a HDTV equivalent. The PBS station is the most recent to go on the air back in February.

I've seen many movies broadcast on the local NBC station in 1080i but I was surprised when they showed the first Jurassic Park movie in 480p. The feed from the network must've been set to that resolution.

On the otherhand, UPN showed the first James Bond movie "Dr. No" in 1080i a few months back. Seeing Ursula Andress come up out of the surf in that bikini in HD like that is like seeing it for the first time.

[Joe Nino-Hernes]

I wonder what kind of media they use for HDTV broadcasts right now.
Are movies already being remastered to HDTV???
Do they put them on tape or the new HDVD blue ray system???
Or even maybe they use regular dvds and make people beleive they are getting HDTV??
I would appreciate your opinios, because I'm considerng getting a HDTV monitor, and this service is very expensive, with only a few channels available right now.

Movie film is allready wide format, so the conversion to HDTV is seamless, and quite logical. Film has always been wide screen format, so wide screen broadcast is very logical, because it eliminates the need to reformat the film to fit "square" TV's.

[Totti]

Yes I understand this, maybe I should refrase my question.
Are they actually remastering movies to HDTV right now???, or what we get is regular DVDs thru a digital broadcast.

[Pinknik]

Yes, a great deal of the movies coming out on DVD now are being mastered in Hi-Def. These can be used for HDTV broadcast, in full HD, and also provides a better looking DVD. In the future it may provide an HD release on tape or disc. I imagine in most cases, these films are being recorded to HD tape based formats. A handful of new releases are even being scanned at higher than HD scan rates, and being stored as large computer files. These can be used to make higher quality DVD's, higher quality HD presentations in a variety of formats, and might even be high enough resolution to be put back onto film once effects or picture enhancements have been done digitally.

[Pinknik]

Movie film is allready wide format, so the conversion to HDTV is seamless, and quite logical. Film has always been wide screen format, so wide screen broadcast is very logical, because it eliminates the need to reformat the film to fit "square" TV's.

Reformating will happen, for better or worse, in HD. Not all film formats have a wide aspect ratio, and some ratios are wider than others. So films shot in Panavision type ratios, will either still be slightly letterboxed, or they will pan and scan them to fit the less wide HDTV 16:9 aspect ratio. Films projected in 1.85:1 ratios will fit with a minimal amount of change. Films and television shot and projected in 4:3 (like standard square TV) will either be letterboxed on the sides or panned and scanned to fit the HD aspect ratio. So, the same ol' trouble will greet us no matter the video format.