So I have been hoping to catch the latest series on Discovery HD about the American space program "When We Left Earth".
You know I can except a moderate level of compression. But what they are doing on the majority of these HD channels is pure bs.
On Discovery HD, Science Channel HD and many others they are showing the exact same program that they are showing on the SD channel just stretched to fit a letter boxed formated picture. Sure they are broadcasting it at 720p so I guess it
technically is HD but we all know it's not true HD.
I remember when we had only Discovery HD and a couple other HD channels. Discovery HD was one of the best. That was back when the two Mars rovers images were first being shown. Now when they show them you can really tell it's been chopped and stretched.
During When We Left Earth I flipped back and forth between the SD and HD Discovery channel. Now to me the SD channel looked better. It may have been a little softer image but the aspect ratio was correct, not stretched.
I know, I know... Joe six pack hates to see them black bars on either side of the screen. But I did not spend this much money on an HDTV just ti have the picture intentionally distorted.
Why don't they shoot in HD wide screen format, show that on the HD channel and chop the edges for the SD channel? Hell even my local TV station can do that with the 6:00 o'clock news. Don't tell me little old KING-5 TV has a bigger budget and better production staff on the evening news than the Discovery channel has.