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

[askii2]

It's so funny that they have to explicitely say "Asli HD" because of the mess created by DishTV.

 

[prankey]

Not just Dish TV, they also had a fake HD channel - Star Plus "HD" like in Reliance Big TV.

I saw another thread where a user is requesting help deciding on a 40+inches TV to be connected to Dish TruHD (as it has 30 HD channels) Hope he has learned the FACTS before falling prey to it.

While I still feel Dish TV has the best infrastructure (except for not having DD) to provide most HD channels in India, they also seems to have WORST Market Research, Marketing, Planning and Implementation staff. Bad "technical" support do not help their cause as well.

 

[kumararvind]

To just correct the initial reviewer,Only Star Gold and the HD version have different programming, apart from that rest 3 channels have the same programming with maybe a few seconds / minutes lag due to no ads in the hd version and fillers in the end to compensate the breaks.

Apart from this I would like to add that these are NOT the South East Asian feeds like NGC HD & Discovery HD but are dedicated Indian Feeds/ even in Star Movies HD and Star World HD

There is a lot of problem of audio drops and digital noise in Star Gold HD. I have not yet watched much for a detailed report on the other channels

 

[delhite2]

To just correct the initial reviewer,Only Star Gold and the HD version have different programming, apart from that rest 3 channels have the same programming with maybe a few seconds / minutes lag due to no ads in the hd version and fillers in the end to compensate the breaks.

Although the feed for Star HD channels is completely different with respect to their SD counterparts, the content differs only at some times for STAR WORLD, MOVIES & PLUS
like on Sat the 16 i.e. today 9PM movies have been different for both Star Movies and Star Plus.
Star Gold HD has different content all the time.

 

[sanjay0864]

I guess it was too good to really be true, 'Star Plus HD' was the one channel that I thought had no upscaled SD programs, but it turns out this is not the case. I just saw a serial 'Maayke Se Bandhi Dor' being shown in upscaled SD. I must add though that the picture quality of this serial is very good, considering that it is upscaled SD and not real HD. I do feel though that the whole Asli HD laim is kinda of hollow, due to so much unwarranted upscaled SD programming. Don't get me wrong, I still think these channels are a step in the right direction, but then again, just as we should not accept FAKE HD channels from 'Dish FraudTV', we should also not accept upscaled SD in atleast 'Star Movies HD'. In 'Star World HD' too, only a few upscaled programs should be acceptable and that too only the one's that are originally not in HD. But what should definately not be acceptable is programs that are originally shot in HD but are being shown in SD by the technical morons at Star TV.

The following is a list of the programs that I have noted are in HD and upscaled SD on the four Star HD channels.

Star Plus HD

HD Movies:
Action Replayy
Dil Toh Bacha Hai Ji
I Hate Luv Storys
Wanted

HD Serials:
Aap Ki Kachehri
Comedy Ka Maha Muqabala
Gulaal
Hamari Devrani
Maayke Se Bandhi Dor
Mann Kee Awaaz Pratigya
Navya
Sasuraal Genda Phool
Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai

Upscaled SD:
Maayke Se Bandhi Dor (Excellent quality for upscaled SD)

EDIT: It seems that this show is being shown in real HD except for one paricular episode, which was shown in upscaled SD.

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Star World HD

HD:
Community
Desperate HOusewives
Detroit 187
Dexter
Family Guy
How I Met Your MOther
Las Vegas
Mr. Sunshine
Raising Hope
The Good Guys

Upscaled SD:

Originally shot in SD, therefore understandably upscaled SD.
Burn Notice
Friends
Simpsons
The Bold & The Beautiful
Whose Line Is It Anyway

Originally shot in HD but being shown in upscaled SD. This is totally ridiculous and moronic. It is obvious that somebody in the technical team needs to be fired for not doing their job right.
American Idol
Kofee With Karan

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Star Movies HD

HD:

Not cropped. Presented in original 2.35:1 (approx.) aspect ratio.
Daybreakers
Enemy Of The State
Universal Soldier: Regeneration

Cropped to 16:9 (1.78:1) from an original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. This is acceptable.
The Accidental Husband
Hollow Man
White Chicks

Cropped to 16:9 from an original 2.35:1 aspect ratio
The 6th Day
Bad Boys II
Bandslam
Double Team
From Paris With Love
Hollow Man 2
Prince Of Persia: Sands of Time

Upscaled SD:

Cropped to 4:3 from an original 1.85:1 aspect ratio
Antonia & Jane
Blue In the Face
The Brothers Grimm
Commando
The Sixth Sense
Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Cropped to 16:9 from an original 2.35:1 aspect ratio
Red Baron

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Star Gold HD

HD:
Anjaana Anjaani
Billu Barber
Darling
De Dana Dan
Dil Toh Bacha Hai Ji
Don
Life Partner
Tere Bin Laden
Toonpur Ka Superr Hero
Veer
Wanted

Upscaled SD:
Anjaam
Deewanapan
Dinotopia (dubbed movie)
Haste Raho Club (comedy show)
Karz: The Burden Of Truth
Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega
Main Hoon Chimpazee (dubbed movie)
Mein Meri Biwi Aur Woh
Main Hoon Chimpazee (dubbed movie)
Mr. Bechara
Rang De Basanti
Satya
Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya

 

[gras4]

One correction - Simpsons is shot in 5.1.

 

[sanjay0864]

One correction - Simpsons is shot in 5.1.

Huh..??? "5.1" relates to audio, whereas my post refers to the aspect ratio of the picture.

 

[aijaz21ahmad]

Excellent job by tatasky we love to see more hd channel as available
No more blu-ray or hd content download to watch getting directly from SKY.


Thanks you
TataSky

 

[prankey]

Excellent job by tatasky we love to see more hd channel as available
No more blu-ray or hd content download to watch getting directly from SKY.


Thanks you
TataSky

Absolutely, I have watched some movies in Real HD with excellent sound which are almost impossible to be found with such quality over Internet.

 

[prankey]

But what should definately not be acceptable is programs that are originally shot in HD but are being shown in SD by the technical morons at Star TV.

Sanjay, lets not assume that Star TV India CAN procure original HD copy of those programs, there might have been constraints. I hate speculating things here, however we should also respect them for providing otherwise great content which has exceeded our expectations in many ways. Hope they keep improving their content quality especially on aspect ratio.

We should see BURN NOTICE in HD from season 3 onwards.

Originally shot in HD but being shown in upscaled SD. This is totally ridiculous and moronic. It is obvious that somebody in the technical team needs to be fired for not doing their job right.
American Idol
Kofee With Karan

These serials are certainly shot in 16:9 aspect ratio, however that doesn't warrant them to be shot and edited in HD. Still, Star TV should atleast work towards procuring the original wide screen content or crop it to be presented in 16:9 before upscaling.

Cropped to 4:3 from an original 1.85:1 aspect ratio
Antonia & Jane
Blue In the Face
The Brothers Grimm
Commando
The Sixth Sense
Who Framed Roger Rabbit

CORRECTION: They were cropped as 4:3, but presented as 16:9 which makes them distorted for some HDTV users. This can not be fixed by the STB as well as STB treat all HD content as 16:9 content so will not show as letterboxed (fixed aspect ratio) version either.

Upscaled SD:
Anjaam
Deewanapan
Dinotopia (dubbed movie)
Haste Raho Club (comedy show)
Karz: The Burden Of Truth
Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega
Main Hoon Chimpazee (dubbed movie)
Mein Meri Biwi Aur Woh
Main Hoon Chimpazee (dubbed movie)
Mr. Bechara
Rang De Basanti
Satya
Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya

Some of these SD masters carry top and bottom black bars which SHOULD be CROPPED to be presented correctly in 16:9 upscaled container.

 

[sanjay0864]

Sanjay, lets not assume that Star TV India CAN procure original HD copy of those programs, there might have been constraints. I hate speculating things here, however we should also respect them for providing otherwise great content which has exceeded our expectations in many ways. Hope they keep improving their content quality especially on aspect ratio.

Why should they not be able to procure HD copies? It is their professional responsibility to do so and in case if it is unavoiable, then they ought not to be showing this on a HD channel. The funny thing is that, these upscaled shows end up contradicting their own "AsliHD" marketing campaign.

These serials are certainly shot in 16:9 aspect ratio, however that doesn't warrant them to be shot and edited in HD. Still, Star TV should atleast work towards procuring the original wide screen content or crop it to be presented in 16:9 before upscaling.

Both these shows are confirmed shot in HD. 'American Idol' is shown in HD across the world and there is absolutely no reason or justification for ti to not be shown in HD in India and that too on a HD channel. As for 'Koffee with Karan', it highly improbable that they are shooting the show in 16:9, yet tit is not in HD. As a matter of fact, Star TV and Karan Johar are themselves using 'Koffee With Karan' as an example to distinguish their Asli HD from that of the other's upscaled SD. They are claiming that not only is 'Koffee With Karan" shot in HD, but that also the audio is recorded in DD 5.1. I am not sure what you mean by suggesting that a HD show is not 'edited' in HD. Why would they not edit in HD? It would be stupid to shoot a show for a HD channel and then not do the post production in HD. As unlikely as this is, if it really is this reason, then those involved in the decision to do so need to be fired for blatant incompetence.

Regarding 'American Idol', it is Star TVs professional responsibility to arrange for the HD sources for the show, instead of upscaling a downscaled SD sourceand showing it on a HD channel. These two shows are proof that someone at 'Star TV' is obviously not doing their job right and is taking the original HD video, downscaling it to SD and then upscaling it to a 1920x1080i horizontally stretched video and then showing it. Talk about being technically challenged.

PS: There are reports by some that a few episodes of 'Karan with Koffee' have actually been shown in HD, although I myself have yet to see this.

CORRECTION: They were cropped as 4:3, but presented as 16:9 which makes them distorted for some HDTV users. This can not be fixed by the STB as well as STB treat all HD content as 16:9 content so will not show as letterboxed (fixed aspect ratio) version either.

I'm not sure what is that you are "correcting". Cropped is 'cropped', meaning part of the picture has been cut out to reduce the width of the picture and nothing can bring that missing part of the picture back. As for the distortion that you refer to, I suppose you mean the horizontally stretched picture. This is the result of upscaling a 720 x 576 (PAL) or 720 x 480 (NTSC) picture as 1920 x 1080. This can be fixed in the TV by zooming in. Ofcourse there is no way to bring the missing picture back, either in the STB or the TV, which is why cropping is always bad. After all, for people who care more about filling their TV screens rather than watching the complete original picture, there is always the option to use the zoom on the tv to fill the screen. Bottom line, there is absolutely no excuse or justification for cropping a picture, atleast not on a 16:9 TV.

Some of these SD masters carry top and bottom black bars which SHOULD be CROPPED to be presented correctly in 16:9 upscaled container.

Again, I am not sure what is it that you are saying. I sincerely hope you are not suggesting that the picture be cropped.

 

[Anil Sehrawat]

All the movies on Star Movies are censored and even word's like it always got silent when used a F word or any sort of abusing. it kills the movie some way

 

[prankey]

Why should they not be able to procure HD copies? It is their professional responsibility to do so and in case if it is unavoiable, then they ought not to be showing this on a HD channel. The funny thing is that, these upscaled shows end up contradicting their own "AsliHD" marketing campaign.

I completely agree on the "Asli" HD campaign. They should restrict these HD channels for Real HD programming ONLY. They may be constrained to get HD copy of those programs due to existing contract which may restrict them to get SD copies only (HD content is more expensive than SD).

Both these shows are confirmed shot in HD. 'American Idol' is shown in HD across the world and there is absolutely no reason or justification for ti to not be shown in HD in India and that too on a HD channel. As for 'Koffee with Karan', it highly improbable that they are shooting the show in 16:9, yet tit is not in HD. As a matter of fact, Star TV and Karan Johar are themselves using 'Koffee With Karan' as an example to distinguish their Asli HD from that of the other's upscaled SD. They are claiming that not only is 'Koffee With Karan" shot in HD, but that also the audio is recorded in DD 5.1. I am not sure what you mean by suggesting that a HD show is not 'edited' in HD. Why would they not edit in HD? It would be stupid to shoot a show for a HD channel and then not do the post production in HD. As unlikely as this is, if it really is this reason, then those involved in the decision to do so need to be fired for blatant incompetence.

I am certain that the episodes of Koffee with Karan they are currently showing were mastered in SD. Even the sound is in Mono (forget about 5.1). That is a common practice of video editing personnel to record using HD cameras and still master in SD as HD requires very high-end systems. Production houses invest in HD cameras to be future ready but may still do editing in SD if their contracts are for SD only (and hence they will produce SD masters only to the provider. Now that they know of these HD channels, they may start mastering newer episodes in HD by increasing the contract pricing accordingly.

I'm not sure what is that you are "correcting". Cropped is 'cropped', meaning part of the picture has been cut out to reduce the width of the picture and nothing can bring that missing part of the picture back. As for the distortion that you refer to, I suppose you mean the horizontally stretched picture. This is the result of upscaling a 720 x 576 (PAL) or 720 x 480 (NTSC) picture as 1920 x 1080. This can be fixed in the TV by zooming in. Ofcourse there is no way to bring the missing picture back, either in the STB or the TV, which is why cropping is always bad. After all, for people who care more about filling their TV screens rather than watching the complete original picture, there is always the option to use the zoom on the tv to fill the screen. Bottom line, there is absolutely no excuse or justification for cropping a picture, atleast not on a 16:9 TV.

Resolution and aspect ratio are NOT linked. a PAL or NTSC recorded content CAN be in 16:9. And in this case 1920x1080 is showing 4:3 aspect ratio content which is incorrectly interpreted (atleast by default) by the STB and TV to be 16:9 (and hence the horizontally stretched images - distortion).

I corrected and clarified to educate forum members who can not see these channels that those content are shown in letterboxed (to correctly present 4:3 content in 16:9 container, which is NOT the case here). We have to manually set the TV to "4:3" letterboxed display which not all TVs support for HD channels (Eg. Most of the LG and Phillips TVs). Also, zooming will crop the top and bottom portion of those 4:3 content and is effective only for 16:9 or wider content which carry top and bottom bars.

Again, I am not sure what is it that you are saying. I sincerely hope you are not suggesting that the picture be cropped.

I talked of cropping the black bars so we get proper 16:9 aspect ratio in upscaled 1080i resolution. Its the same effect we get when we HAVE TO use ZOOM function on over TVs which results in REDUCED PICTURE RESOLUTION as it crops top and bottom portion of picture and hence those pixels are lost.

Again, I am COMPLETELY AGAINST upscaling as I feel SD content should be restricted only for SD channels. HD should only show REAL HD MASTERS.

 

[prankey]

Review of Fida on Star Gold HD:

True HD PQ though with ghosting on some motion scenes (transcoding artifact probably from 60Hz to 50Hz). Sound is properly mapped in 5.1 format, however music has high frequencies distorted which is very strange... seems the sound source was not proper.

 

[madhurshankar]

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.

Your comment"I don't really watch much TV" seems pathetic :lol::lol:

Below is taken from your profile.
Panasonic: PT-AE2000 | DaLite: 'Model C' 16x9 119" Matte White| Samsung 50" PS50C6500 | Denon AVR-5800 | Oppo BD83 | Sony PS3 | Paradigm Reference: 100, Center 350, Servo 15 | Tannoy: Mercury M5 | SunDirect HD | TataSky HD | Dish TruHD | Airtel IPTV

 

[sanjay0864]

Your comment"I don't really watch much TV" seems pathetic :lol::lol:

Below is taken from your profile.
Panasonic: PT-AE2000 | DaLite: 'Model C' 16x9 119" Matte White| Samsung 50" PS50C6500 | Denon AVR-5800 | Oppo BD83 | Sony PS3 | Paradigm Reference: 100, Center 350, Servo 15 | Tannoy: Mercury M5 | SunDirect HD | TataSky HD | Dish TruHD | Airtel IPTV

Pathetic? In any case it is not a comment, rather it is quite simply the honest truth. Just because I am willing to spend the money in my quest to get the best, does not mean that I actually have much use for it. Instead of terming my post as pathetic, maybe you should consider how rude your post is.

 

[Anil Sehrawat]

Yesterday i got my Onkyo 3300 installed so now m able to comment on sound of these HD channels.
watched Bhool Bhoolaiya on Star Plus and it was awesome feel the same way i felt in theater
also the IPL matches was a treat to watch
now i hv got the full package from HD channles

 

[prankey]

Yes but IPL matches in Max HD are in PSEUDO 5.1 and the sound keeps roaming across speakers with ever changing volumes. If you compare with SD channel with lower SQ, you would still get a consistent stereo sound which should have been passed as is on the HD channels as well (stereo).