# Cinemax hd ALL HD 9-1-08



## dennispap (Feb 1, 2007)

Last night while watching Cinemax HD , they are running new commercials saying
" starting 9-1-08 Cinemax HD will be the only full time 24 hour all TRUE hd channel.
All movies, all shows, series, interviews, everything."

WIll have to see if that holds true. Hopefully it will


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Look for flying monkeys in close proximity to Madonna's backside.


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## Chinatown (Dec 13, 2003)

The only improvement would be showing all that HD in proper aspect ratio.


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## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

If that's true, they must have been working overtime shooting a lot of new HD soft-core porn...


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

HDNet is always HD... so is HDNet Movies... and Discovery HD Theater... probably others than I'm not thinking of at the moment. So I'm not sure how Cinemax could even dream of claiming to be the first 24/7 HD channel.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Chinatown said:


> The only improvement would be showing all that HD in proper aspect ratio.


If you're seeing something squished or stretched on Cinemax, it is undoubtedly something wrong at your end. To my knowledge, they've never participated in the silly putty method of filling the screen.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

IIP said:


> If that's true, they must have been working overtime shooting a lot of new HD soft-core porn...


Most of the adult series appear on ActionMax and MoreMax, so this shouldn't be an issue. Coed Confidential is their lone HD pron series.


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## Chinatown (Dec 13, 2003)

harsh said:


> If you're seeing something squished or stretched on Cinemax, it is undoubtedly something wrong at your end. To my knowledge, they've never participated in the silly putty method of filling the screen.


There have been numerous 2.35:1 features that they stretch, same thing on their parent HBO. Hd Net Movies, Voom,(Yes Voom,again).........were true to the filmmakers original concept.


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## dennispap (Feb 1, 2007)

HDMe said:


> HDNet is always HD... so is HDNet Movies... and Discovery HD Theater... probably others than I'm not thinking of at the moment. So I'm not sure how Cinemax could even dream of claiming to be the first 24/7 HD channel.


Maybe since they say they will be in 1080i, they are thinking they will be the 1st.
Are the hdnets and others in 720 or 1080?

From their website
The Cinemax HD channels are presented in a format called 1080-line interlaced (1080i).

www.cinemax.com/apps/schedule/ScheduleHDView.jsp


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

dennispap said:


> Maybe since they say they will be in 1080i, they are thinking they will be the 1st.
> Are the hdnets and others in 720 or 1080?


The channels I mentioned are all 1080i. For that matter, most channels are 1080i except for a handful. ABC and FOX are 720p, as are ESPN/ESPN2HD. I presume ESPNNewsHD is also 720p but have never seen for sure. I'm also curious about the rest of the Disney channels (DisneyHD, Toon DisneyHD, ABC Family) since I would expect them to be in 720p like their initial HD launches, but have not seen for sure.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

According to the info on my cable boxes hidden diagnostic screens, Toon Disney HD, Disney Channel HD, ESPNEWS HD, ABC Family HD are 720p as are Fox Business News HD, ESPN HD, ESPN 2 HD, A&E HD, Bio HD, History HD, National Geographic HD, and local channels, ABC HD, Fox HD, PBS HD and My Network TV HD.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

It looks like your cable system is downconverting many channels to 720p to better fill their channel muxes. I would not trust that list as a "delivered to cable/satellite in 720p" list.

The ABC/Disney owned networks (including ESPNs) should be in 720p ... the rest are more likely to be 1080i.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

James Long said:


> It looks like your cable system is downconverting many channels to 720p.


All the channels Steve listed with the possible exception of PBS (which could go either way) should be 720p.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Chinatown said:


> There have been numerous 2.35:1 features that they stretch, same thing on their parent HBO.


In my experience all of the content that is 2.35:1 is letterboxed or cropped on the sides. In either case, the aspect ratio appears to be correct.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Local channels are up to local broadcasters, but they shouldn't ALL be 1080i. Plus there are channels listed that are known to have been 1080i.

Again, I wouldn't trust that list as a "delivered to cable/satellite as 720p".


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

Nice try. My cable company isn't down rezing anything HD, with SDV there is no need to. If your precious Dish Network listed it that way you'd buy it. All channels I listed are either fully or partly owned by Disney or News Corp both which are 720p distributors. Which channels are known to be in 1080i, enlighten me. Before you go spouting off what you do not know, provide some facts please. PBS HD in my area was 1080i at one point, but switched to 720p over a year ago.

As for me, see post #1. If Ken got something wrong, someone would have let him know. So take what I posted above as a fact.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=164671


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

James Long said:


> Again, I wouldn't trust that list as a "delivered to cable/satellite as 720p".


All Disney, A&E and Fox channels are 720p. For whatever reason, so is NGC.

I think that the MNTV feeds may be 1080i and I'm pretty sure that PBS uplinks 1080i also.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Steve Mehs said:


> So take what I posted above as a fact.


No, thank you. I don't trust self described "cable trolls" who are using cable system information as their source. Cable systems have been known to modify their signals. A better source is needed.


> http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=164671


Thanks for eventually providing a good source. Now the "what is in 720p" question is answered we can get back to the real topic of this thread: Cinemax HD.


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## tcatdbs (Jul 10, 2008)

That's a lot of 720p that "I thought" were 1080i... looks almost like you're better off setting the Dish receiver to 720P to get a larger percentage of "native". I've tried both ways and see no real difference (so it's at 1080i).

Why don't we get Outer Max and Thriller Max?


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

tcatdbs said:


> That's a lot of 720p that "I thought" were 1080i.


For every 720p channel there are probably around 5 1080i channels.


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## CoolGui (Feb 9, 2006)

harsh said:


> Most of the adult series appear on ActionMax and MoreMax, so this shouldn't be an issue. Coed Confidential is their lone HD pron series.


You are insulting the entire porn industry by calling these shows porn.... :lol:


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

CoolGui said:


> You are insulting the entire porn industry by calling these shows porn.... :lol:


Don't want to wander too far off-topic and this is a family-friendly forum... but I remember reading/hearing somewhere that some adult movies are filmed with alternate scenes... so the "skin"emax movies could very well sometimes be those types of movies... which means you could buy the adult version, or watch it on MAX with the alternate less-detailed scenes.

At some point the adult film industry must have realized that more publicity is good publicity, and the ability to have a self-censored version available to a wider audience helps sell their product.

Anyway, back to the topic... Maybe MAX has a claim if they claim they are going to be the first Premium channel... but then you have to ask what that means, since one could argue that the Voom suite was a suite of Premium channels like MAX... and once again their "first" claim would fall short.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

They are overstating the FIRST (unless there is some small print there such as "nationally distributed movie channel") but it is good to see programmers taking HD seriously.

As far as the question of what porn is goes, Skinemax would be considered soft core. Since they are not real ratings the "X", "XX" and "XXX" are loose standard anyways. DISH Network considers PlayboyTV a single "X" network ... the other dedicated porn channels are mostly "XX" with "Fresh" being "XX.5" and Spice: Xcess and Xtsy being "XXX" (all per DISH Network's marketing ... not my opinion).
DISH Network Adult Programming

In my opinion Skinemax hours would likely earn only one "X" at worse ... which basically means that if submitted for ratings not suitable for an "R" or "NC17" rating. I expect a NC17 would be applied if the movies were submitted. (Be careful skimming through the movie networks at night if you're not using the EPG.)

*R*: *An R-rated film may include hard language, or tough violence, or nudity within sensual scenes, or drug abuse or other elements, or a combination of some of the above*, so that parents are counseled, in advance, to take this advisory rating very seriously. Parents must find out more about an R-rated movie before they allow their teenagers to view it.

*NC-17*: This rating declares that the Rating Board believes that this is a film that most parents will consider patently too adult for their youngsters under 17. No children will be admitted. NC-17 does not necessarily mean "obscene or pornographic" in the oft-accepted or legal meaning of those words. The Board does not and cannot mark films with those words. These are legal terms and for courts to decide. *The reasons for the application of an NC-17 rating can be violence or sex or aberrational behavior or drug abuse or any other elements which, when present, most parents would consider too strong and therefore off-limits for viewing by their children.*
http://filmratings.com/


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

James Long said:


> Be careful skimming through the movie networks at night if you're not using the EPG.


This is especially good advice if you are planning to show off your HD and invite people over. It helps to know in advance that if you invite the family over, don't even bother tuning to some channels after 9pm.


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## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

dennispap said:


> Last night while watching Cinemax HD , they are running new commercials saying
> " starting 9-1-08 Cinemax HD will be the only full time 24 hour all TRUE hd channel.
> All movies, all shows, series, interviews, everything."
> 
> WIll have to see if that holds true. Hopefully it will


I saw the same thing. However I think it has more to do with Cinamax flipping switches. Hopfully I'm wrong.


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## syphix (Jun 23, 2004)

harsh said:


> In my experience all of the content that is 2.35:1 is letterboxed or cropped on the sides. In either case, the aspect ratio appears to be correct.


Cinemax may not "stretch" the image, but cropping the image to fill a 16:9 TV is unacceptable, too, IMO. :down:

And Cinemax does it far too often.

BTW, shouldn't this thread be a different forum since it's not just a "Dish Network" topic?


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