ITV3 showing in HD

[Francis Asis]

ITV3 are advertising that they are going HD, but all their programmes are old ones. I thought a programme had to be recorded/filmed in HD to be shown in HD. Am I wrong?

[Buenchico]

Quote:
"An increasing amount of ITV3’s classic drama will be broadcast in high definition as ITV re-masters its extensive back-catalogue".

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITV3#ITV3_HD

It's clearly the word 're-masters', in that quote, which is the most important one. This might be relevant:
http://ezinearticles....-Old-Reruns&id=419755

Chris

[heathfield]

Note too, that Blueray disc players will play the standard DVD discs and convert them to 1080p format. I haven't personally seen the results, but those who have seem to agree that the resulting HD picture is better than the SD image.

[Francis Asis]

Ah, so they're cheating. Thanks for the answers.

[bazwillrun]

There are units called upscalers and they give the impression of HD. In some blind tests a couple of them produced results that were indistinguishable from true HD, and if i remember correctly one of them was around £100 pound

[mike11111]

On a similar theme, why won't my TV show older programmes, e.g. those recorded in the 90s in 16-9 format, leaving a compressed picture with thick black lines either side. This is particulary noticeable on ITV3, which re-runs many older series.

[ChuckFickens]

Mike, probably because they were originally recorded in 4:3, so you are not seeing a compressed picture, you are seeing the picture as it should be. If you expand the picture to 16:9 (your TV/Sky box/freeviewbox should let you do this) then you will be seeing the picture stretched and everything (and everybody) will look wider than it should.

[mike11111]

My DTR must know that, because whenever I try to expand to 16-9 it stubbornly refuses and goes back to 4-3, but thanks for the explanation.

[ChuckFickens]

A quick way to see if a program is in 4:3 or 16:9 that works most of the time is to simply look at the channel logo in the top left corner (if there is one)

If the logo is right in the far left corner it's probably a 4:3 program, if the logo is set in from the left hand edge a little bit then it's probably a 16:9 program. The reason being is if the logo was right in the corner on a 16:9 program then it would be cut of if anyone views the program on an older 4:3 TV.

[mike11111]

Thanks again. My DTR must be more intelligent that I am because it knows the picture won't be good in 16-9. I have only experienced this with ITV3 before until last week, when ITV1 showed the first episode of Corrie from 1960 and the screen switched automatically to 4-3.