First impressions and brief reviews of the newly launched Star HD channels.

sanjay0864

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 23, 2009
Messages
1,213
Points
83
Location
NCR (National Capital Region)
'Satr Plus HD' is the only channel of the four, that has ALL true HD programming, In two days there has not been a single program that is upscaled SD. This is not only great, but it is also pleasantly very surprising. If anything it is 'Star Movies HD' and 'Star World HD' which one would expect to have only true HD programming.

Star World HD
Programming is different from Star World.

Video:
1. True HD channel, 1920x1080i.
2. Mix of True HD and upscaled programming.
Upscaled programs are shown with a vertically squeezed picture. Thus, one has to use the zoom on the TV, to correct the squeezed picture. Examples of upscaled programs are: 'Bold & The Beautiful', 'Friends', 'Kofee With Karan', 'Simpsons' and 'Whose Line Is It Anyway'.
'Bold & The Beautiful', 'Friends', 'Simpsons' and 'Whose Line Is It Anyway' were all originally shot in SD, therefore upscaling them is not only expected but also totally understandable.
On the other hand, 'Kofee With Karan' is originally shot in HD, a fact borne out by the 16:9 aspect ratio and therefore showing it in upscaled SD is just plain stupid. In other words, the technically chalenged idiots at 'Star World' are taking an originally shot HD program, down scaling it to SD for 'Star World' and then upscaling the downscaled SD for 'Star World HD'. Uff... it's hard to believe that these people are actually paid for their stupidity.

Audio:
1. Dolby Digital
2. True 5.1 audio (Program linked. Some programs such as 'Kofee With Karan' don't have 5.1 audio.)
3. The volume levels are a little low.

---------------------------------------------
Star Plus HD
Programming is different from Star Plus.

Video:
1. True HD channel, 1920x1080i.
2. Surprisingly 'ALL' programmes are in true HD. (Atleast, I have yet to see any upscaled programming)
3. Quality varies from good to mediocre and is not as good as the HD programming on Star World. The quality may not be that great, but it is still much, much better than SD or even the FRAUD upscaled SD on 'Dish FraudHD'.

Audio:
1. Dolby Digital
2. NO 5.1 audio (this is program related, the channel itself has 5.1 audio).

---------------------------------------------
Star Movies HD
Programming is identical to Star Movies, only the timings are different by a few minutes.

Video:
1. True HD channel, 1920x1080i.
2. All programming as expected is quite dissapointingly NOT true HD. 'Antonia & Jane' & 'Red Baron' are examples of upscaled SD movies.
4. Unlike 'Movies Now' which has only true HD movies, 'Star Movies HD' has unfortunately chosen to mix in some upscaled SD movies too. It is totally unexpected and unacceptable for 'Star Movies HD' to be showing upscaled SD movies.
5. The picture quality of the true HD movies is substantially better than that of 'Movies Now'.
5. 'Star World HD' has unfortunately chosen to follow 'Movies Now' and it's own 'Star Movies' with the same stupid policy of cropping (panning & scanning) 2.35:1 movies to fit a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Audio:
1. Dolby Digital
2. True 5.1 audio
3. The volume levels are a little low. But still, this is much, much better than the wayyyy too loud audio on 'Movies Now'.
4. The DD 5.1 audio is very good (ofcourse this varies from movie to movie).

---------------------------------------------
Star Gold HD
Programming is different from Star Gold.

Video:
1. True HD channel, 1920x1080i.
2. Mix of mostly True HD and some upscaled SD programming. The upscaled programs are horizontally stretched (vertically squeezed).
3. Atleast the True HD movies shown so far, ie. 'Don', 'Veer', 'Anjaana Anjaani', 'Wanted' are all being shown in their original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. I wish 'Star Movies HD' would learn something from this.
4. The upscaled programming is much superior in quality to the SD counterpart channel. All in all, the quality is good enough to view, atleast until 'Star Gold' presumably upgrades the movies in their catalog to HD.
4. Picture quality of 'Don' on 'Star Gold HD' although as expected is not as good as the 'blu-ray' of Don, but it is comparitively still quite good.

If one were to look at the positive side of things, then the good part about the upscaled SD programming being vertically squeezed is, that when you fully zoom the picture to correct the vertically squeezed picture, you get to watch just the movie without any of the obnoxious logos ('Star Gold HD' & 'Tata Sky'). :joy:

PS: It is totally inexcusable for movies, which by default are all shot in more than HD resolution, to be presented in anything less than true HD. Hopefully the current practise fo mixing in upscaled SD programming will be only until 'Star Gold HD' can increaase their catalog of HD movie masters. It does take time to transfer movies from film to HD masters. By the way, for those who may not know this, all movies shot on 35 film, even fifty year old 'black & white' movies, have a mich higher resolution than HDTV (1920x1080).

Audio:
1. Dolby Digital
2. 5.1 audio but only in the True HD movies.
3. The sad part is that even the SD masters should atleast have 5.1 audio, since these movies all originally had 5.1 audio mixes in the theater and their DVD releases.
4. The overall quality of the DD 5.1 audio is not great, but this may be dependent on the particular movie master. The movie I demoed was 'Don' which I also have on blu-ray and in a comparison between the audio of the 'blu-ray' and 'Star Gold HD', I am sorry to say the audio on the 'blu-ray' is far superior. The sub-woofer channel on 'Star Gold HD' is specially too boomy and loud, therefore totally upsetting the balance of the sound. I hope this limited to the 'Don' master and is not a universal problem with the audio of 'Star Gold HD'.

Edit: Regarding the audio on the 'Star Gold HD' channel, apparently the issue with the sub-woofer channel being too boomy is not a channel issue and is an issue that is specific to the audio of 'Don'. The DD 5.1 audio of 'Veer' is very good and without any such issues with the sub-woofer channel.
 
Last edited:
Superb review Sanjay

Starmovies SD normally dont do the pan and scan thing why would their HD version start this. They should be made aware that every hd tv has the zoom function and people can zoom it if they want letterbox movies in full screen

fortunately the 3 upscaled programs in starworld are the ones i dont watch,

hope they will launch these in bigtv too
 
Nice review but compare to National G. HD and discoveryHD all star HD channels r way behind.
At least i can make out from my Sony EX710.
 
Star World HD
Programming is different from Star World.

Video:
1. True HD channel, 1920x1080i.
2. Mix of True HD and upscaled programming.
Upscaled programs are shown with a vertically squeezed picture. Thus, one has to use the zoom on the TV, to correct the squeezed picture. Examples of upscaled programs are: 'Bold & The Beautiful', 'Friends' and 'Kofee With Karan'.
Both, 'Bold & The Beautiful' and 'Friends' were originally shot in SD, therefore upscaling them is not only expected but also totally understandable.
On the other hand, 'Kofee With Karan' is originally shot in HD, a fact borne out by the 16:9 aspect ratio and therefore showing it in upscaled SD is just plain stupid. In other words, the technically chalenged idiots at 'Star World' are taking an originally shot HD program, down scaling it to SD for 'Star World' and then upscaling the downscaled SD for 'Star World HD'. Uff... it's hard to believe that these people are actually paid for their stupidity.

Audio:
1. Dolby Digital
2. True 5.1 audio (Program linked. Some programs such as 'Kofee With Karan' don't have 5.1 audio.)
3. The volume levels are a little low.

---------------------------------------------
Star Plus HD
Programming is different from Star Plus.

Video:
1. True HD channel, 1920x1080i.
2. Surprisingly 'all' programming are in true HD. (Atleast, I have yet to see any upscaled programming)
3. Quality varies from good to mediocre and is not as good as the HD programming on Star World. Some of it is not that great but is still obviously much, much better than SD or the FRAUD upscaled SD on 'Dish FraudHD'.

Audio:
1. Dolby Digital
2. NO 5.1 audio (could be limited by programming).

---------------------------------------------
Star Movies HD
Programming is different from Star Movies.

Video:
1. True HD channel, 1920x1080i.
2. All programming as expected is true HD.
3. The picture quality is better than that of 'Movies Now'.
4. 'Star World HD' has unfortunately chosen to follow the same stupid policy of cropping by 'panning & scanning' 2.35:1 movies, to fit a 16:9 aspect ratio followed by 'Movies Now'.

Audio:
1. Dolby Digital
2. True 5.1 audio
3. The volume levels are a little low. But this is much much better than the wayyyy too loud audio on Movies NOw.
4. The DD 5.1 audio is very good.

---------------------------------------------
Star Gold HD
Programming is different from Star Gold.

Video:
1. True HD channel, 1920x1080i.
2. Mix of some True HD, but mostly upscaled SD programming. The upscaled programs are vertically squeezed.
3. Atleast the True HD movies shown so far, ie. 'Don', 'Veer' & 'Anjaana Anjaani' are all being shown in their original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. I wish 'Star Movies HD' would learn somethign from this.
4. The upscaled programming is much superior in quality to the SD counterpart. All in all the quality is good enough to view, atleast until 'Star Gold' presumably increases the number of movies in their HD movie catalog.
4. Picture quality of 'Don' on 'Star Gold HD' although as expected is not as good as the 'blu-ray' of Don, but it is comparitively still quite good.

If one were to look at the positive side of things, then the good part about the upscaled SD programming being vertically squeezed is, that when you fully zoom the picture to correct the vertically squeezed picture, you get to watch just the movie without any of the obnoxious logos ('Star Gold HD' & 'Tata Sky'). :joy:

PS: It is totally inexcusable for movies, which by default are all shot in more than HD resolution, to be presented in anything less than true HD. Hopefully the current practise fo mixing in upscaled SD programming will be only until 'Star Gold HD' can increaase their catalog of HD movie masters. It does take time to transfer movies from film to HD masters. By the way, for those who may not know this, all movies shot on 35 film, even fifty year old 'black & white' movies, have a mich higher resolution than HDTV (1920x1080).

Audio:
1. Dolby Digital
2. 5.1 audio but only in the True HD movies.
3. The sad part is that even the SD masters should atleast have 5.1 audio, since these movies all originally had 5.1 audio mixes in the theater and their DVD releases.
4. The overall quality of the DD 5.1 audio is not great, but this may be dependent on the particular movie master. The movie I demoed was 'Don' which I also have on blu-ray and in a comparison between the audio of the 'blu-ray' and 'Star Gold HD', I am sorry to say the audio on the 'blu-ray' is far superior. The sub-woofer channel on 'Star Gold HD' is specially too boomy and loud, therefore totally upsetting the balance of the sound. I hope this limited to the 'Don' master and is not a universal problem with the audio of 'Star Gold HD'.

Edit: Regarding the audio on the 'Star Gold HD' channel, apparently the issue with the sub-woofer channel being too boomy is not a channel issue and is an issue that is specific to the audio of 'Don'. The DD 5.1 audio of 'Veer' is very good and without any such issues with the sub-woofer channel.

Are you using DVR or non-DVR? How you do find the quality of SD channels?
I used to have Tata sky couple of yrs back and it was ok then. But I saw some negative reviews on forum on Tatasky+.
 
An interesting point to note is no-one has voted for DishTV in another poll in this context.
 
@Sanjay: How about the Frequent Audio Jitters or Drop outs in Star Movies HD? Its quiet annoying. And for Star Movies HD, programming is Same as SD. Only that they differ in timings for few Mins. Again this is just the observation as of today's schedule.
 
An interesting point to note is no-one has voted for DishTV in another poll in this context.
That is simply because Dish TV has chosen to be a FRAUD organization showing upscaled channels instead of broadcasting available HD channels like these or Max HD.

@Sanjay: How about the Frequent Audio Jitters or Drop outs in Star Movies HD? Its quiet annoying. And for Star Movies HD, programming is Same as SD. Only that they differ in timings for few Mins. Again this is just the observation as of today's schedule.
I am observing jitters on almost all channels on TS recently. I hope they fix this at the earliest.
 
That is simply because Dish TV has chosen to be a FRAUD organization showing upscaled channels instead of broadcasting available HD channels like these or Max HD.

To rub salt into the wound, Tata Sky sent a message on the STB, advertising the new channels as ASLI HD. :lol:
 
Starmovies SD normally dont do the pan and scan thing why would their HD version start this. They should be made aware that every hd tv has the zoom function and people can zoom it if they want letterbox movies in full screen
Unfortunately that is not quite correct. They too crop (pan/scan), atleast all the 2.35:1 movies to a 16:9 aspect ratio. It is only the 1.85:1 movies that they don't crop (pan/scan) to a 4:3 aspect ratio. This too I think is only since the advent of HD. My theory is that they are using the same video masters for both channels, ie. 'Star Movies' and 'Star Movies HD'. They simply downscale the picture for their SD channel. This would explain the exact same programming for both channels and also the same aspect ratios used for showing movies on both channels. For example, currently 'Prince of Persia' is showing on both channels and the cropping is identical on both channels.
 
Are you using DVR or non-DVR? How you do find the quality of SD channels?
I have the non DVR TataSky HD STB. Quite honestly, I don't really watch much TV, atleast not SD TV, therefore I can't really comment on the quality of SD. This is specially since I think, pretty much all SD TV in India is quite crap. The new HD channels from Star, on the other hand, have inspired me to watch TV almost all day today. :) But then again, this too is more out of curiosity to check out the quality of the channels, rather than any great interest in TV viewing itself.
 
@Sanjay: How about the Frequent Audio Jitters or Drop outs in Star Movies HD? Its quiet annoying.
To be honest I have not noticed any audio jitters, except for a few issues with the audio in 'Star Plus HD'. Which STB are you using? I have the 'non' DVR STB and maybe the issue is with the 'DVR' STB.

EDIT: There are some intermittent spikes in the audio on 'Star Plus HD' & 'Star Gold HD' that I am noticing today which were not present yesterday.

And for Star Movies HD, programming is Same as SD. Only that they differ in timings for few Mins. Again this is just the observation as of today's schedule.
You are quite right, this did escape my attention and I have edited my original post to reflect this correction. Thanks for pointing it out.
 
Last edited:
Is it possible to get rid of the sub titles in star movies Hd. i find them quite distracting. Messed around with my tv settings but couldn't do it.
cheers
Sid
 
Guys, just a quick question.
I am planning to buy a HD set top box connection. Though i have narrowed down to Tata Sky HD, any other options to consider in terms of HD channles and audio output.
 
Unfortunately that is not quite correct. They too crop (pan/scan), atleast all the 2.35:1 movies to a 16:9 aspect ratio. It is only the 1.85:1 movies that they don't crop (pan/scan) to a 4:3 aspect ratio. This too I think is only since the advent of HD. My theory is that they are using the same video masters for both channels, ie. 'Star Movies' and 'Star Movies HD'. They simply downscale the picture for their SD channel. This would explain the exact same programming for both channels and also the same aspect ratios used for showing movies on both channels. For example, currently 'Prince of Persia' is showing on both channels and the cropping is identical on both channels.

i noticed lot of movies in starmovies in letterbox,compared to HBO which is almost always fullscreen, didnt realise they were doing this, may be they do it because 2.35:1 on a 4:3 screen would look too small
 
i noticed lot of movies in starmovies in letterbox,compared to HBO which is almost always fullscreen, didnt realise they were doing this, may be they do it because 2.35:1 on a 4:3 screen would look too small
Actually I think that it is only more recent movies, ie. last couple of years, that are being cropped from 2.35:1 to 16:9 and the reason for this is that the West has all shifted to HDTV and therefore the transfers are being made keeping the HDTVs 16:9 aspect ratio in mind. If it were not for this reason, we would still be seeing 2.35:1 movies being cropped, or should I say butchered, to a 4:3 aspect ratio.
 
Is it possible to get rid of the sub titles in star movies Hd. i find them quite distracting. Messed around with my tv settings but couldn't do it.
Unfortunately no, there is none. If only TRAI would mandate all channels and DTH companies to implement 'optional' subtitles, then those of us who do understand English, could be spared the irritating subtitles. Like everything else in this country, things are always reduced to lowest common denominator. I just hope they don't start putting the movie title on the screen as they do with the SD counterpart of the movie channels.
 
Check this out: http://www.bestmediainfo.com/2011/04/star-india-launches-star-plus-and-4-other-channels-in-asli-hd/

Not sure what they meant by calling Nat Geo HD launched in "Asli HD". Hope they are talking of fixing the Audio on that channel. As all these 4 Star Channels and Nat Geo HD seems to have discrete 5.1 sound (5.1 varies with content). Like if the sound is mono, it comes as same from all the 5.1 channels and if stereo, it comes as stereo or music from left and right and vocals are PRE PROCESSED to come from Center. This is much better than the real time 5.1 conversion done on Discovery HD World and MAX HD currently.
 
Last edited:
Wharfedale Linton Heritage Speakers in Walnut finish at a Special Offer Price. BUY now before the price increase.
Back
Top