# TV Land in HD?



## khearrean

Has anyone heard if TV Land would ever be a candidate for Dish to add in HD? This may have been talked about in this forum, but I couldn't find anything on it. I ask because I have considered trying to get approval to switch to "HD only" programming, but this is the only channel that has kept me from doing it as I love a lot of the old programming they offer.

Ken


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## BattleZone

Very unlikely, given the nature of their content, and the cost to remaster the film-based content to HD, assuming the original film is even still available. With so many studio sales, auctions, fires, etc., a lot of content no longer has original film masters.


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## Michael P

Be careful what you ask for. Many of those old shows were shot on grainy film (unlike the feature films of the same era). Remastering these shows in HD may just bring out the flaws that were covered up by television's old SD resolution.


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## TvilleBee

However, I really enjoy the remastered Hogan's Heroes on HDNET


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## Jim5506

The older shows (early to mid 50's, maybe later) were live and saved via kinescope which IS very low quality.

Shows originally recorded on film will be much better.


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## TechnoCat

TvilleBee said:


> However, I really enjoy the remastered Hogan's Heroes on HDNET


Me too. My favorite scene... Newkirk (the safe "cracker", though in this case cheating) reading through binoculars the combination Klink is dialing, and telling them to Le Beau. With HD I could clearly see that the numbers stated did not match the numbers on the safe!


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## ZBoomer

Michael P said:


> Be careful what you ask for. Many of those old shows were shot on grainy film (unlike the feature films of the same era). Remastering these shows in HD may just bring out the flaws that were covered up by television's old SD resolution.


You'd think so, but the old stuff they used to show in HD on VOOM channels was stunningly good.

They used to show Flipper from the 60's on the VOOM family channel, and the quality was awesome, MUCH higher than any SD show I've ever seen on TV, and rivaling modern HD stuff.


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## BattleZone

Flipper was cutting edge and high-budget for TV in the mid-60s, which is why it looks so good. But that also makes it not very representative of the whole of TV programming from the 50s and 60s.


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## Paul Secic

IIP said:


> Very unlikely, given the nature of their content, and the cost to remaster the film-based content to HD, assuming the original film is even still available. With so many studio sales, auctions, fires, etc., a lot of content no longer has original film masters.


Hogan's Heros is HD. Sometimes I catch it on HDNET. But they move it.


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## Paul Secic

ZBoomer said:


> You'd think so, but the old stuff they used to show in HD on VOOM channels was stunningly good.
> 
> They used to show Flipper from the 60's on the VOOM family channel, and the quality was awesome, MUCH higher than any SD show I've ever seen on TV, and rivaling modern HD stuff.


I saw Sahare 1943 on VOOM, Filmfest. It was stunning in HD.


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## Yes616

I read somewhere a few years ago that more shows were going to be up converted to HD. Gilligan's Island among others were talked about but as far as I know, it never really did happen.

I too have been enjoying Hogan's Heroes on HDNet. It looks fantastic! As discussed earlier, Flipper looked great as well! So did many of those older movies on MonstersHD.

I would bet there is lots of content that could be made into HD but the costs are the reason it is not happening. This could also be the reason ChillerHD has not launched yet. What's the rush if "Tales from the Darkside", etc. is not yet available in HD?

I agree that TV Land would be excellent in HD as long as many of the shows were really made into HD. Someday I suppose as I suspect the costs to upconvert them should go down as HD becomes more and more mainstream.


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## Michael P

Jim5506 said:


> The older shows (early to mid 50's, maybe later) were live and saved via kinescope which IS very low quality.
> 
> Shows originally recorded on film will be much better.


I was not referring to Kinescope. I can name one program that was on in the late 80's early 90's that was shot on grainy file ("Life Goes On"). I could see the grain on my 1975 Zenith. There was one episode where they cut to scenes shot in video (same quality as early MTV), the difference was shocking. I''m sure that show would look terrible in HD. "The Wonder Years" is another one that looked grainy. I think they did it on purpose since it was about an earlier era (not to mention cheper film cost).

There are different qualities of film. If a program was shot for TV there is no reason to use the same quality as theatrical releases. For some reason TV series shot in the 60's like those mentioned earlier in this thread used higher quality film than some later TV series. I guess over time the producers realized that they could get away with grainer film in the 80's.


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## Steve

The original Rod Serling _Twilight Zones_ on SCFIHD look stunning, even the kinescopes. They're not stretched, but shown pillar-boxed in high-resolution. They're usually on in the middle of the night (here on the East Coast). Record a few and you'll see what I mean. I'd love for Nick at Night to do the same.

/steve


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## Link

They added Hallmark in HD and what do they show that's actually HD? I watch the regular feed as ususal.


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## HarveyLA

Steve said:


> The original Rod Serling _Twilight Zones_ on SCFIHD look stunning, even the kinescopes. They're not stretched, but shown pillar-boxed in high-resolution. They're usually on in the middle of the night (here on the East Coast). Record a few and you'll see what I mean. I'd love for Nick at Night to do the same.
> 
> /steve


Looks like the same old 16mm syndication prints to me- a little higher quality on an HD channel though. The very best TZ quality is from the remastered DVD's (from the 35mm originals) although there is a rumor they'll be released on Blu Ray later this year. They certainly don't want to put the high quality versions out for free when they can make money by selling them. Real Twilight Zone fans should be horrified by the treatment on channels like SciFi with its constant on screen promotions, even characters from upcoming shows appearing on top of the TZ episode, and the way episodes are chopped up to add commercials. The original Star Trek on Blu Ray is great. Hoping for the same experience with TZ-Blu Ray.


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## Steve

HarveyLA said:


> Looks like the same old 16mm syndication prints to me- a little higher quality on an HD channel though [...]


Apparently something's changed since I posted that back in 1/09. I assume at that time they were showing the remastered episodes. Not sure what they're showing now.


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## surfdude85

c'mon, that would be great watching the jupiter 2 and all those goofy creatures on "lost in space" in HD? Even the original star trek would look great too.


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## jimborst

surfdude85 said:


> c'mon, that would be great watching the jupiter 2 and all those goofy creatures on "lost in space" in HD? Even the original star trek would look great too.


The original Star Trek has been converted and can be purchased on blue-ray. The show was syndicated and ended its run about 6 months ago. Here the local CBS carried it, it looked very good.


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## Paul Secic

khearrean said:


> Has anyone heard if TV Land would ever be a candidate for Dish to add in HD? This may have been talked about in this forum, but I couldn't find anything on it. I ask because I have considered trying to get approval to switch to "HD only" programming, but this is the only channel that has kept me from doing it as I love a lot of the old programming they offer.
> 
> Ken


TVLAND doesn't show any 50's television shows anymore hardly. Just go to http://www.hulu.com.... Soon TVLAND might be full of reality junk.


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## Glen_D

I'm a fan of classic TV, and as you might expect, I have a collection of many series, primarily from the mid-1960s through the 1970s, on commercially available DVDs. The packaging often says "Digitally Remastered", and when played on my Blu-ray player and viewed on a 1080p LCD, the quality of most of these shows is quite impressive -- near HD quality, I would say.

If these old shows could be made to look that good on DVD, I would think they could be made to look good on an HD TV channel. Unfortunately, TV Land doesn't show much classic TV anymore. In fact, I can't remember the last time I watched anything on TV Land.


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## Yes616

It looks like TV Land has announced that HD is coming though no launch date has been set yet. Time Warner and Cablevision have already agreed to carry it.


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## Paul Secic

Yes616 said:


> It looks like TV Land has announced that HD is coming though no launch date has been set yet. Time Warner and Cablevision have already agreed to carry it.


There's not much on to bother with.


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## harsh

ZBoomer said:


> They used to show Flipper from the 60's on the VOOM family channel, and the quality was awesome, MUCH higher than any SD show I've ever seen on TV, and rivaling modern HD stuff.


While the detail was awesome, the cropping to fit the 16:9 screen format was disturbing at best. Many of the close-in scenes featured what I like to call "decaps" where the top of the head is cut off.


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## James Long

OAR is best ... I wish everyone used it but alas too many programmers seem to think "fill the screen" is the goal.


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## jadebox

harsh said:


> [re: Flipper in HD] While the detail was awesome, the cropping to fit the 16:9 screen format was disturbing at best. Many of the close-in scenes featured what I like to call "decaps" where the top of the head is cut off.


 ... and in scenes with the dolphin you could sometimes see the ball-on-a-stick used to coax it to do the tricks.

-- Roger


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## dakeeney

I just received an advertisement for AT&T U-Verse and under the HD listings I see where they're listing TV Land HD. Anybody heard anymore info on TV Land being in HD now?


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## Orion9

I googled around and found that it launched in Nov 2011. Some comments from an AT&T forum:

"Not liking it, due to it is not upscaled to HD. Still just the SD. "

"Same here, looks like SD on the HD channel, but everything on there is pretty old, so kinda what I expected"


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## Paul Secic

Orion9 said:


> I googled around and found that it launched in Nov 2011. Some comments from an AT&T forum:
> 
> "Not liking it, due to it is not upscaled to HD. Still just the SD. "
> 
> "Same here, looks like SD on the HD channel, but everything on there is pretty old, so kinda what I expected"


I had U-verse twice and it was horrible!


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## HarveyLA

"The Twilight Zone" and the original "Mission Impossible" series are in HD on Netflix instant play. As far as I know, the only other way to get TZ in HD is to buy the Blu-Ray set. MI has never been available in HD anywhere else. If your internet connection can handle it, the quality is very good. Otherwise it downgrades to non-HD. These are full uncut episodes, as originally shown, and with no commercials, unlike TVLand. They also have a number of other old series- not sure how many are in HD. After I finish with TZ and MI I will be dropping Netflix instant play, however, due to the price increase, as it offers nothing else I want to see. (I have a computer connection-HDMI cable- to my HDTV, which is useful for this)


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## MCHuf

Paul Secic said:


> I had U-verse twice and it was horrible!


Really. It's hard to see the difference between hd and sd on U-Verse in the first place.


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