Movies now on DishTV HD

[askii2]

I found Movies now to be available on DishTV HD today. I watching Die Hard 4 movie now. It's real FullHD for sure. I haven't seen DH4's blu-ray, but I have a guess that blu-ray will be better for sure.

Sound unfortunately is just stereo like the other HD channels on DishTV HD, though is better than the stereo on other SD English movie channels.

 

[sanjay0864]

Not only is the audio/video of 'Die Hard' on 'Movies Now' not anywhere as good as the blu-ray, but the really sad part is that 'Movies Now' is not even showing the movie in it's correct aspect ratio and is instead showing this and many other movies by cropping the sides of the picture and using pan & scan to fill the 16:9 frame.

 

[askii2]

Aspect ratio works correctly on my LCD widescreen TV (samsung). I have connected my TV to STB through HDMI. I just have to let the TV detect aspect ratio automatically ("Just Scan" setting) and it gets it correctly. I had to do that manually for my projector since it's connected through component video and is 4:3 by default.

I checked another movie - "Speed". It's higher resolution compared to SD and is widescreen. It's not FullHD, though. English sub-titles and Movies Now logo are FullHD.

I liked his channel it's far better than SD format. However when I compare Movies Now to Discovery HD or NG HD, the difference of quality is obvious. It's quality is similar to some hindi BDs - for example Kurbaan. Not sure why they can't get it right.

 

[askii2]

The channel is broadcast as FullHD, but movies aren't. The information about movie schedules that appears in breaks is also FullHD.

I guess they are using DVDs as their source. That's a pity since they (Movies Now/DishTV) have all the HD equipment. Why couldn't they get rights to BDs?

On the brighter side I saw this on DishTV's HD related website - "THEATRE LIKE SOUND EXPERIENCE Powers digital stereophonic sound to deliver superior theatre like experience." No claims to surround sound!

 

[sanjay0864]

Aspect ratio works correctly on my LCD widescreen TV (samsung).

You are misunderstanding the aspect ratio issue i have referred to. What I am referring to is that 2.35:1 aspect ratio movies, such as 'Speed', 'Die Hard' etc., are being cropped from the side and panned/scanned to fill the 16:9 aspect ratio of the HD channel. Tohe correct way would be to present the movies in their original aspect ratios woith black bars on top & bottom.

PS: 'Dish TruHD' is not equiped to deliver DD 5.1 audio. Thus none of the channelos on 'Dish TruHD' will have DD 5.1 audio.

 

[askii2]

You are misunderstanding the aspect ratio issue i have referred to. What I am referring to is that 2.35:1 aspect ratio movies, such as 'Speed', 'Die Hard' etc., are being cropped from the side and panned/scanned to fill the 16:9 aspect ratio of the HD channel. Tohe correct way would be to present the movies in their original aspect ratios woith black bars on top & bottom.

I understand now. I have to differing opinions on this. DVDs and BDs also do this some times. I prefer a 2.35:1 aspect ratio for action, suspense and thriller movies.

A pan scan with fitted to suit 16:9 is better for drama or family type movies. (I am married so I have to watch them, I hope you'll understand .)

 

[reju]

I thought FHD is not yet available for broadcast...It must be HD...1080i

 

[sanjay0864]

I understand now. I have to differing opinions on this. DVDs and BDs also do this some times. I prefer a 2.35:1 aspect ratio for action, suspense and thriller movies.

A pan scan with fitted to suit 16:9 is better for drama or family type movies. (I am married so I have to watch them, I hope you'll understand .)

Don't you think the preference of aspect ratio ought to be the director's perogative? Most dramas and family movies are 1.87:1 (close to 16:9) but when they are not, I prefer to see the movies in the original aspect ratio as per the director's vision.

 

[askii2]

Don't you think the preference of aspect ratio ought to be the director's perogative? Most dramas and family movies are 1.87:1 (close to 16:9) but when they are not, I prefer to see the movies in the original aspect ratio as per the director's vision.

You missed my wink. My better half sets all preferences for such movies. A related preference is: tube-lights on .

 

[askii2]

@sanjay0864: I am trying to use your quote from another. I hope it appears correctly here.

You are mistaken about 'Movies Now'. It is definately a TRUE HD channel with HD content. The audio/video quality of 'Movies Now' is definately not upto the level of blu-rays and the quality also varies from movie to movie, depending on the quality of the digital master. Also, all the movies that are wider than 16:9 are cropped from the sides to fill the 16:9 ratio. But even then, the channel is REAL HD, ie. the video is 1080i and the audio is DD5.1.

Not sure about this. I have tried a few movies since Sunday and haven't been impressed. I can understand yesterday's Home Alone movie's quality since this movie wont'be available in HD quality.

Let me try to do a comparison of my Transporter BD at 9:00pm tonight's show.

@reju: I meant 1080i when I said FullHD. I forgot about the 1080p versus 1080i.

 

[askii2]

I did a comparison of images between my Transporter BD and the same movie being shown by Movies Now channel (MN). I set my BD to 1080i so both of them should be comparable. The BD is 2.35:1 whereas MN is 16:9, so I did a zoom of the BD image using my LCDs setting. The images from both were comparable, although MN's image was a little larger.

Attached image shows difference between the two. Left half of the image is of BD and the right half is MN. As you can see BD shows more detail and has a higher color depth. Viewers also need to note the presence of "moire" effect because I used a digital camera to record them.

If BD was also 16:9, the difference would have been more. Overall I would say MN isn't of BD quality, but is still good unless their source is of lower then BD quality.

 

[askii2]

Did some more experiments. I used Dolby Prologic II with surround speakers set to output marginally before the front speakers. It works perfectly for Movies Now + DishTV HD. Surround sound isn't as great as Dobly Digital 5.1, but is good enough.

 

[prankey]

Are you good receiving distorted sound on Movies Now? I am surprised no one talked of it on Dish TruHD. It is terribly distorted during ambient high volume sound and despite reported on day 1, they still have not fixed it completely by reducing the volume (their 5.1 to 2.0 mixing is also flawed with incorrect channel mapping on Left and Right channels). Not sure when can they start passing through DD5.1 so we get away from such issues.

Beware - the kind of distortion which comes from low frequency create temporary DC current with can potentially destroy or damage your amplifier or speakers (especially large ones capable of reproducing very low frequencies).

 

[prankey]

I did a comparison of images between my Transporter BD and the same movie being shown by Movies Now channel (MN). I set my BD to 1080i so both of them should be comparable. The BD is 2.35:1 whereas MN is 16:9, so I did a zoom of the BD image using my LCDs setting. The images from both were comparable, although MN's image was a little larger.

Attached image shows difference between the two. Left half of the image is of BD and the right half is MN. As you can see BD shows more detail and has a higher color depth. Viewers also need to note the presence of "moire" effect because I used a digital camera to record them.

If BD was also 16:9, the difference would have been more. Overall I would say MN isn't of BD quality, but is still good unless their source is of lower then BD quality.

Lets not compare EXTREMELY high bitrate BR video to a broadcasted 1080i one. The extra compression itself compromise the quality to the near lossless compression on Blue rays.

 

[askii2]

Lets not compare EXTREMELY high bitrate BR video to a broadcasted 1080i one. The extra compression itself compromise the quality to the near lossless compression on Blue rays.

Good point. Although both are 1920x1080, blu-ray is 1920x1080p at upto 40Mbps and HDTV broadcast is 8 to 15Mbps. So it'll be unfair to compare blu-ray and HDTV broadcast.

 

[askii2]

Are you good receiving distorted sound on Movies Now? I am surprised no one talked of it on Dish TruHD. It is terribly distorted during ambient high volume sound and despite reported on day 1, they still have not fixed it completely by reducing the volume (their 5.1 to 2.0 mixing is also flawed with incorrect channel mapping on Left and Right channels). Not sure when can they start passing through DD5.1 so we get away from such issues.

I didn't find their sound to be of bad quality except for it being 2.0. It's as good as Discovery HD or National Geographic HD.

Beware - the kind of distortion which comes from low frequency create temporary DC current with can potentially destroy or damage your amplifier or speakers (especially large ones capable of reproducing very low frequencies).

Low frequencies typically won't damage speakers unless the amplifier is of low power and results in distortion. DC current never gets to speakers because it's always filtered through capacitors (or the like).

 

[askii2]

Ah.... I am listening to Z Studio HD and it sounds like my headphones have a few plastic beads set lose in them .

 

[sanjay0864]

I am listening to Z Studio HD

Ah.. you must mean 'Z Studio FAKE HD'.

 

[prankey]

I did not talk of DC being passed to the speakers. I talked of the terrible clipping on Movies Now due to the extreme volume of Subwoofer mixed to Left and Right channel which cause temporary DC like situation during clipping at HIGHEST AMPLITUDE (you could easily see it on an oscilloscope or draw a sign wave on a paper and increase amplitude beyond the max range). This clipping causes SHORT CIRCUIT of VOICE COILS of a speaker as VOICE COILS are DC SHORT CIRCUITED (same wire across + and - terminals!). Hence those voice coils will overheat and loose their insulating coating, damaging them permanently.

Strange that you do not hear this terrible clipping on BOTH Movies Now and Zee Studio "FAKE" HD. Movies Now is basically distorted on Low frequencies (could potentially damage your woofers) and Zee Studio HD has mid to high frequency "spikes" (could damage your mid range or tweeters).

 

[prankey]

I didn't find their sound to be of bad quality except for it being 2.0. It's as good as Discovery HD or National Geographic HD.

I agree that quality is good, I commented on the DISTORTION which has nothing to do with quality if the sound is coming within range. That distortion on this channel comes during ambient sound or when subwoofer (.1 of 5.1) sounds are delivered. Subwoofer sound is incorrectly mixed causing audio to distort even when a tiny low frequency comes through .1 (distributed on L and R). I also use NS7390 as surround speakers (have Pioneer bigger ones for Main) and I believe NS7390 should be delivering those distortion very faithfully to irritate us terribly during time and again.

Low frequencies typically won't damage speakers unless the amplifier is of low power and results in distortion. DC current never gets to speakers because it's always filtered through capacitors (or the like).

Those capacitors may still pass part of those temporal clipping of digital sound which are perfectly chopped during PCM D/A conversion.