When TataSky is adding more HD channels

[technobhatt]

All English Movies HD channels are broadcasting almost all movies in cropped 16:9 ratio.

And yeah, ZEE CINEMA HD is the only channel which comes with very good picture quality. True 1080i HD with Stereo Sound. Rest all HD channels don't look better than a bad quality 720p broadcast!! I prefer ZEE CINEMA HD to watch many popular old Hindi movies in HD. Its bit rate is quite high, thus picture quality is great.

 

[htfan17]

I am misinformed about aspect ratio .....lol .. never mind.

I dont see the funny part? Is it the language? may be i shd have said 'U r wrong about this' so that u cud take it offensively Just kidding. I was only being polite as it appeared from ur statement like u havent been watching movies on HD channels for a long long time, hence the ignorance.

 

[htfan17]

And yeah, ZEE CINEMA HD is the only channel which comes with very good picture quality. True 1080i HD with Stereo Sound. Rest all HD channels don't look better than a bad quality 720p broadcast!! I prefer ZEE CINEMA HD to watch many popular old Hindi movies in HD. Its bit rate is quite high, thus picture quality is great.

Star Gold HD is also broadcasting correctly. If movie is recent / source is right, they will broadcast in right aspect ratio of 2.35:1 in 16:9 with true 5.1 and in great 1080i resolution. But I must admit i am yet to experience a recent movie in zee cinema HD so just curious according to ur opinion, is zee cinema HD noticeably better than star gold HD? Or is it that u r specifically talking about quality of old movies only ? because there i agree star gold HD quality of old movies sucks

 

[sam9s]

I dont see the funny part? Is it the language? may be i shd have said 'U r wrong about this' so that u cud take it offensively Just kidding. I was only being polite as it appeared from ur statement like u havent been watching movies on HD channels for a long long time, hence the ignorance.

no offence taken ...chill out, Yes I have not seen movies on these HD channels for long and true I admit I did not notice that all movies are broadcasted in 16:9 aspect ratio ......

 

[htfan17]

But the Channel Movies Now TS telecast is not True HD I think. How ever there is no Stretch in pic as the telecast itself is in 16:9. Find the difference in logo and picture quality. HD channel bears the logo with " HollywoodinHD". Those who have other DTH with MoviesNow HD please confirm.
As TS is already tied up with Movies Now why they resorted to upscale (I think) I don't understand.
This is the one HD channel I am looking at TS for a long time. But now got with a little disappointment.
As TS So far have all True HD channels, I wish my doubt should be proved incorrect in case of this most popular English Movies Channel.

Further, the time counter of movies in HD and SD is absolutely identical, the Commercials and ads are all exactly the same. This is not the case between Star movies HD and SD.

 

[technobhatt]

Star Gold HD is also broadcasting correctly. If movie is recent / source is right, they will broadcast in right aspect ratio of 2.35:1 in 16:9 with true 5.1 and in great 1080i resolution. But I must admit i am yet to experience a recent movie in zee cinema HD so just curious according to ur opinion, is zee cinema HD noticeably better than star gold HD? Or is it that u r specifically talking about quality of old movies only ? because there i agree star gold HD quality of old movies sucks

The 16:9 ratio, I'm talking abt is only for English Movies HD channels.
Star Gold HD and other Hindi HD channels shows movies in correct ratio.
However recently Zee HD screwed KaiPoChe and one more movie by cropping them to 16:9 ratio.

Yes, Zee cinema HD is noticeably much better than star gold HD!!

StarGold HD shows only new movies in HD. The quality of these new movies such as ZNDB looks not more than a 720p broadcast, but 5.1 sound is a plus.
All the old movies are in very very bad upscaled quality and screwed up aspect ratio (sometime half of the screen is covered with black bars).
But Zee Cinema HD never shows any movie in upscaled version. They seem to have transferred all their old movies in HD quality.
You might be surprised to know that ZeeCinema HD shows old movies like Seeta&Geeta, Shaan, Lawaris, Deewar, PremRog etc, in HD.
And few of my favourites on ZeeCinema HD are Tirangaa, Iqbal, Krantiveer, Sholay

If you compare the bitrates of StarGold HD and ZeeCinemaHD, then the difference can be known correctly. I had seen it once using a TV tuner

 

[prepress]

Further, the time counter of movies in HD and SD is absolutely identical, the Commercials and ads are all exactly the same. This is not the case between Star movies HD and SD.

I had same thing in my mind, noticed that the telecast timing is almost same, as other HD channels synchronization doesn't match with their SDs like Star movies.

But seen Movies Now HD has different logo, it swaps with HD for few seconds continuously. May be they telecast on HD and SD at same time, but SD with compression and low resolution.

A common example for this is M Tunes HD, this is same as Movies Now HD. Same telecast but with different resolution.

 

[technobhatt]

I had same thing in my mind, noticed that the telecast timing is almost same, as other HD channels synchronization doesn't match with their SDs like Star movies.

But seen Movies Now HD has different logo, it swaps with HD for few seconds continuously. May be they telecast on HD and SD at same time, but SD with compression and low resolution.

A common example for this is M Tunes HD, this is same as Movies Now HD. Same telecast but with different resolution.

Movies Now is a single channel. That is Movies Now with 1080i resolution and 5.1 Dolby Sound.
Tata Sky was earlier showing its demodulated SD version with Stereo Sound.
Airtel DTH has its demodulated SD and original HD version both, so that both Sd and HD customer can watch it.
Hnece the same schedule and ads and all.
SD version is cropped to 4:3 ratio with black bars so that it can fit well to 4:3 SD TVs without any stretched images.

And there is no HD logo on Movies Now, so that SD version don't see the HD logo...because it's the same replica of HD channel

 

[prepress]

The 16:9 ratio, I'm talking abt is only for English Movies HD channels.StarGold HD shows only new movies in HD. The quality of these new movies such as ZNDB looks not more than a 720p broadcast, but 5.1 sound is a plus.
All the old movies are in very very bad upscaled quality and screwed up aspect ratio (sometime half of the screen is covered with black bars).
But Zee Cinema HD never shows any movie in upscaled version. They seem to have transferred all their old movies in HD quality.
You might be surprised to know that ZeeCinema HD shows old movies like Seeta&Geeta, Shaan, Lawaris, Deewar, PremRog etc, in HD.
And few of my favourites on ZeeCinema HD are Tirangaa, Iqbal, Krantiveer, Sholay

If you compare the bitrates of StarGold HD and ZeeCinemaHD, then the difference can be known correctly. I had seen it once using a TV tuner

Agree, In which they cover half of the screen with black bars, Star Gold use DVDs for those old movies and they hide the company logo. But the movie they telecast, they own the rights but may be not received the hi-res (HD) version or under transfer progress, so they use DVDs for that time. They telecast DVD prints mostly at night or early morning (till 11am). But in the day time they use HD content.
Once they have played Khuddar (Govinda) at night was DVD but after few days they played that in day but that was HD. Same thing happened with Ziddi, Krishna, Sabse Bada Khiladi, Beqabu, Dil Dosti etc, Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi etc.

One more thing, noticed many times that the movie they telecast in the morning (6am or 8:45 am) doesn't have any songs. They delete them not sure why? Recent example was Chamatkar (Shahrukh Khan).

 

[prepress]

And there is no HD logo on Movies Now, so that SD version don't see the HD logo...because it's the same replica of HD channel

Movies Now HD has same logo as on SD channel but after some time it rotates and shows only "HD" for few seconds then rotates again to Movies Now logo (same as SD channel).

 

[htfan17]

So essentially what u guys are saying is Tatasky is broadcasting the correct Movie now HD. This is my first time with movie now HD and i am :sad: to see the sorry state of its HD quality because it looks almost upscaled compared to Star Movie HD which defnitely looks much better and truer to HD.

Thanks technobhatt for clarifying b/w Star Gold and Zee cinema HD difference. I see now. Very excited to check out shaan and sholay etc in HD now. So in sum one great addition to Tatasky HD finally :yahoo:

 

[htfan17]

With the final conclusion, In a way I am happy that no mistake of Tatasky as there is no upscaling. Movies now HD is being braodcast as is. Channel Source is the main culprit.

 

[technobhatt]

Thanks technobhatt for clarifying b/w Star Gold and Zee cinema HD difference. I see now. Very excited to check out shaan and sholay etc in HD now. So in sum one great addition to Tatasky HD finally :yahoo:

You're welcome.
Just to share a little more info...
Sholay's Transfer on Zee Cinema HD is not good, but far better than DVD version. But rest assured, Films like Shaan, Lawaris and Tirangaa will definitely give a sort of theatrical look.
However few films like Seeta&Geeta, Deewar, Coolie are cropped to 16:9 ratio from their original 4:3 ratio, but 4:3 ratio is retained in few films such as PremRog. But 16:9 cropped version of Deewar and Coolie doesn't make much difference to the image, as per my experience.
I wish this channel had rights for 'Kala Patthar' as well, cause that's my favourite YashChopra movie, but this movie is stuck with SetMax and Sony right now.
Films which are originally in 2.35:1 ratio are telecast as it. No tweaking with ratio.
even Mithun films like 'Dalaal' (Gutar Gutar) and 'Ravaan Raj' are available. I couldn't stop myself watching Dalaal movie on this channel.

Enjoy Zee Cinema HD

 

[just4kix]

I was watching Movies Now HD just now and I agree with above assessments. The channel does not feel like 1080i.

 

[jice505]

Finally movies now HD came in TS but not much impressed with PQ :sad:

 

[soorya_g]

Fine. The channel by TS is true HD but not upscaled. Regarding PQ, those who watch the channel through other DTH only can compare. If the PQ is not equal to other DTH then it could be due to high rate of compression.
I feel the deterioration in PQ of Star Movies in TS for the past few months. This also may be compared. The PQ of Movies Now has been improved and not as bad as in the morning.

 

[htfan17]

The PQ of Movies Now has been improved and not as bad as in the morning.

I felt it also had something to do with movie source. yesterday Golden Eye, Tomorrow never die had bad sources which reflected more pixellation. Where as later, recent flicks like Torque came in better quality. EVen Casino royale right now is better looking than the older bond movies.

 

[nSinghal]

Good to know they added more HD channels. What I can't understand is how they found the bandwidth for these channels now. Either they were lying about the bandwidth excuse earlier or they're lowering the bit rates of other HD and SD channels to add the new channels. Neither is acceptable to me. anyways, it's too little and too late for me. Already moved to netflix and removed all English channels from tata sky. Need to keep Hindi & sports channels for the family otherwise if it were for me only, I'd have done away with dth altogether.

 

[htfan17]

Good to know they added more HD channels. What I can't understand is how they found the bandwidth for these channels now. Either they were lying about the bandwidth excuse earlier or they're lowering the bit rates of other HD and SD channels to add the new channels. Neither is acceptable to me. anyways, it's too little and too late for me. Already moved to netflix and removed all English channels from tata sky. Need to keep Hindi & sports channels for the family otherwise if it were for me only, I'd have done away with dth altogether.

Their Bandwidth issue is like the beaten to death automated network coverage messsage we get for every single error in phone calls. Nobody knows why actually the call ddnt get connected

 

[soorya_g]

Good to know they added more HD channels. What I can't understand is how they found the bandwidth for these channels now. Either they were lying about the bandwidth excuse earlier or they're lowering the bit rates of other HD and SD channels to add the new channels. Neither is acceptable to me. anyways, it's too little and too late for me. Already moved to netflix and removed all English channels from tata sky. Need to keep Hindi & sports channels for the family otherwise if it were for me only, I'd have done away with dth altogether.

Space is created by converting their existing channels from Mpeg2 to Mpeg4. So far they have converted more than 50 of their existing channels, added 27 new Mpeg4 channels and 4 HD channels.
Though out of topic: which device you are using for Netflix. Are u getting super HD movies.What about the quality. My GooglTVbox (Logitech Revue) stopped working and I am thinking of going to AppleTV. Please suggest.