Master and Commander - HBOHD version
Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 10:58 pm
The great sea epic "Master and Commander" just appeared on HBO HD channel this month on DirecTV.
The picture is zoomed to fill the top and bottom bars of this widescreen film, cropping the wide vistas off and cutting off tops of heads, the surround sound is weak without the impact of the DTS sound on the DVD version. and the video quality little better than the DVD. I went back to play the DVD again just to be sure.
In a word a this is disappointing and pathetic presentation. I enjoyed the widescreen DVD with DTS sound a lot more, and stopped watching the HBO film after 10 minutes. I like this DVD too much to sit through this HBO chop job. I have noticed that all widescreen films on HBO seem to end up this way. Sad. HDTV has the capability to do better, but DirecTV clearly is not delivering the goods.
Yes, this film is much better than DirecTV SDTV channels showing this film on HBO, but this is NOT HDTV! I don't get a lot of HDTV here, but it burns me to see this quality labeled HDTV when a good film comes along.
Dale has evangelized about the great things to come in delivering a new era in home entertainment with HDTV. HBO on DirecTV is flunking the test. Is it possible this is new form of copy protection? Don't show the original film at all in full widescreen HD?
If anyone sees this HBO film on HD cable please comment, I hope it is better. Maybe it is not HBO, but DirecTV at fault here.
The picture is zoomed to fill the top and bottom bars of this widescreen film, cropping the wide vistas off and cutting off tops of heads, the surround sound is weak without the impact of the DTS sound on the DVD version. and the video quality little better than the DVD. I went back to play the DVD again just to be sure.
In a word a this is disappointing and pathetic presentation. I enjoyed the widescreen DVD with DTS sound a lot more, and stopped watching the HBO film after 10 minutes. I like this DVD too much to sit through this HBO chop job. I have noticed that all widescreen films on HBO seem to end up this way. Sad. HDTV has the capability to do better, but DirecTV clearly is not delivering the goods.
Yes, this film is much better than DirecTV SDTV channels showing this film on HBO, but this is NOT HDTV! I don't get a lot of HDTV here, but it burns me to see this quality labeled HDTV when a good film comes along.
Dale has evangelized about the great things to come in delivering a new era in home entertainment with HDTV. HBO on DirecTV is flunking the test. Is it possible this is new form of copy protection? Don't show the original film at all in full widescreen HD?
If anyone sees this HBO film on HD cable please comment, I hope it is better. Maybe it is not HBO, but DirecTV at fault here.