# LOTR on TNT HD



## JDErickson (Jul 10, 2007)

Next Weekend TNT HD is presenting all of the Lord of The Rings movies. 

Any ideas if these movies will actually be HD quality or will they be the DVD quality upconverted?


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## richiephx (Jan 19, 2006)

Only TNT knows for sure.


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## Amon37 (Mar 5, 2007)

They won't be a HD transfer like a Blu-ray or HD-DVD. It's just an upconverted signal.


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## grooves12 (Oct 27, 2005)

Amon37 said:


> They won't be a HD transfer like a Blu-ray or HD-DVD. It's just an upconverted signal.


How can you say this with certainty? Not ALL of the content on TNT is upconverts.


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## Lyle_JP (Apr 22, 2002)

They have shown the trilogy before. It is true HD, and beautiful, but the aspect ratio has been modified to 16:9 (they were filmed Super35 so most shots have the matte opened more), and no one is safe from the dreaded screen-filling TNT banner ads. Also, these are the theatrical cuts, not extended (but no network censorship that I recall).

Still, it's better than a crap upconvert. Actually, lately more than half of TNTs movies have been true HD transfers, including the recent broadcast of Air Force One.


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## Lyle_JP (Apr 22, 2002)

Amon37 said:


> They won't be a HD transfer like a Blu-ray or HD-DVD. It's just an upconverted signal.


Bzzzzt. Wrong answer. But thanks for playing.


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## khearrean (Mar 24, 2004)

Lyle_JP said:


> Also, these are the theatrical cuts, not extended (but no network censorship that I recall).


I hope you're right, but if it's not edited to pieces (either voice or video), it'll be a first for TNT !! I've gotten to where I refuse to watch TNT for this very reason.....

Ken


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## braven (Apr 9, 2007)

Oh and don't forget all the wonderful commercials... yuck. I just don't dig TNT.


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## Taco Lover (Jan 8, 2007)

Lyle_JP said:


> They have shown the trilogy before. It is true HD...


True HD? Are you sure about that? I just don't think TNT would take the time to remaster the film.


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## Lyle_JP (Apr 22, 2002)

Taco Lover said:


> True HD? Are you sure about that? I just don't think TNT would take the time to remaster the film.


First of all, yes, I _do know _what real HD looks like and yes, they are mastered as such. Secondly, why all the fuss and doubt? At least half the movies TNT shows every weekend are from HD transfers lately. Why the shock about LOTR? Finally, I doubt that TNT is responsible in _any way _for the HD masters. I am sure they have been created by the studios for future broadcast on multiple mediums.


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## skibama (Jun 13, 2007)

I used to work for Turner (TNT) and basically they play whatever they get from the studio. If the movie studio gives them a movie that was mastered in HD, then they'll play it. A lot of the time it is an upconvert of a digibeta, but sometimes they actually do play a true HD mastered movie. Most of the shows were filmed, and transfered to HD, just like most of the movies.
And yes, I hate that stretch-o-vision crap too.


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## DoyleS (Oct 21, 2002)

I like TNT as they are one of the only stations that has new content in the summer. In fact they really take advantage of it by running specials and short series. The Closer, Heartland and Saving Grace are all good shows and the 3 week special The Company was also really well done. 
With LOTR, it is great that we now have the USB hard drive interface active as I don't have to worry about grabbing 6 hours worth of programming and running out of storage space. 
I would agree that the stretch-o-vision is a bit of a visual pain but in my case I am watching on a Front CRT projector so I like to have the 16:9 screen filled to prevent any uneven load on the phosphor. 

..Doyle


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## joebird (Sep 15, 2003)

Doesn't seem to be stretch-o-vision -- looks like HD.


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## rocky01 (Mar 20, 2005)

I think they stretch o vision the commercials during a HD feature. It makes everyone look like Eddie Murphy's alter ego in the The Nutty Professor.


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## ibglowin (Sep 10, 2002)

Watching it tonight and PQ is excellent. 

Not OAR but 1.85:1 and definitely HD. Not even HD-Lite. Very happy.


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## bestivo (Feb 14, 2007)

I recorded them all, but had only time to check few minutes from fellowship. To me it looked worse than my upconverted DVD special edition. And it is streched a bit to fill the whole screen.


I'll watch some more tonight. maybe a part of TTT, see if it's better


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## allargon (May 3, 2007)

It was definitely HD. However, it was stretch-o-vision. I was annoyed.

I'm getting really annoyed with these stations thinking Joe6Pack is upset about black bars. Of course, this is our fault for complaining about A&E and Nat Geo. As a result, we get stretch-o-vision on TNT and Cinemax (_The Departed_ is not 1.78:1!) and zoom-o-vision on Discovery networks.

We really need to nip a lot of these networks in the bud and tell them stretch-o-vision and zoom-o-vision are NOT cool.


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## ibglowin (Sep 10, 2002)

This was NOT stretched in any way. It was crisp and cropped to 1.85:1 If you were seing stretch-o-vision it was your TV's or STB set to something other than normal.



allargon said:


> It was definitely HD. However, it was stretch-o-vision. I was annoyed.
> 
> I'm getting really annoyed with these stations thinking Joe6Pack is upset about black bars. Of course, this is our fault for complaining about A&E and Nat Geo. As a result, we get stretch-o-vision on TNT and Cinemax (_The Departed_ is not 1.78:1!) and zoom-o-vision on Discovery networks.
> 
> We really need to nip a lot of these networks in the bud and tell them stretch-o-vision and zoom-o-vision are NOT cool.


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## allargon (May 3, 2007)

ibglowin said:


> This was NOT stretched in any way. It was crisp and cropped to 1.85:1 If you were seing stretch-o-vision it was your TV's or STB set to something other than normal.


Hmm... Are you talking about Return of the King or The Two Towers? Return of the King looked cropped. Two Towers looked stretched. Of course, it was late. I'll admit it that i could've been wrong.


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## ibglowin (Sep 10, 2002)

I caught all 3 of them just for the purpose of checking out the PQ. All three were great. (I am on E*) The only thing that sucked was all the commercial breaks and onscreen banners.

That definitely sucked but I guess goes with the territory.


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## Lyle_JP (Apr 22, 2002)

allargon said:


> It was definitely HD. However, it was stretch-o-vision. I was annoyed.
> 
> We really need to nip a lot of these networks in the bud and tell them stretch-o-vision and zoom-o-vision are NOT cool.


Despite the fact that Pan and Scan (and variants of it) has been with us for as long as widescreen movies have been, some people still don't recognize it just because they're watching a widescreen set. *There was no stretching.* It was recomposed to 16:9 through a combination of cropping and opening of the matte (since the film was shot Super35, the aspect ratio of the camera negative is around 1.66:1).


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## djzack67 (Sep 18, 2007)

Any Chance these movies to be on again in HD?


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## HarryS (Mar 6, 2005)

Man, you are digging up the past. Doya really think anyone here is a TNT exec, and knows that?


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## GrayCalx (Sep 29, 2006)

They just replayed them again before the holidays. I'd check the schedule at tnt.tv


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## jrb531 (May 29, 2004)

JDErickson said:


> Next Weekend TNT HD is presenting all of the Lord of The Rings movies.
> 
> Any ideas if these movies will actually be HD quality or will they be the DVD quality upconverted?


Unless they show the full movie and not the ones that had so many cuts to fit in a smaller time slot I would rather watch my upconverted DVD's.

These were not small cuts that made a scene slightly shorter but entire chapters cut from the book to make room.

If all you have seen was the theater version (or not read the books) then you may not know what I'm talking about but once you see the extended edition DVD's with the missing chapters and scenes you can never watch the cut version again.

-JB


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## GrumpyBear (Feb 1, 2006)

LOTR on TNT-HD?!?!?!?!
Ok, 3 hours worth of movie, in the Theaters, just how many extra hours was it on chopped up, 10min commercial break TNT??? Didn't watch it, as why would you??? When there are the Directors editions out on DVD? Even upconverted would still be TONS more worthy than watching something that good on TNT.

Granted New Line is going to screw us over, when they finally come out with the HD version of the movie's.
Going to do the Theater version 1st and then the Extended.


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