sanjay0864
Well-Known Member
'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.
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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).
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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).
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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.
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.
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