It might well be the most stylish series on television. But when "Mad Men" beams into the homes of some of its most devoted viewers, the picture quality might make them think they've had one martini too many.
The 2008 Emmy drama champ airs on AMC, but the cabler's high-definition channel isn't on the menu of such major providers as DirecTV and Time Warner Cable.
Not that AMC is alone in this regard. Comedy Central, Golf, Lifetime, MSNBC and Travel are among several other networks that haven't found nationwide distribution for their HD selves.
The issue is significant for those watching on HD sets.
[...]
However, when the standard-definition broadcast is viewed on an HD set, there is murkiness, with colors not ringing true and images looking diffused.
Wha!?! No Mad Men in HD on DirecTV? But rather than being an issue of technology limitations, it seems to be a matter of time due to legacy carriage agreements that predated the HD channels, and HD won't likely come to those outlets until the carriage agreements come up for renewal.
It seems then though that either Comcast was very proactive, or the existing agreements ran out with very good timing. At this point I can't think of anything I watch that doesn't have an HD channel, and in the cases of shows like Mad Men on AMC or Sons Of Anarchy on FX, the HD channels are available and the show's are available in HD On Demand.
The problem Variety notes about murkiness, etc., is much more pronounced on bigger screen TVs. What looks pretty much just fine on a 24" widescreen, looks worse on a 42" widescreen and much worse on a 61" widescreen.
At this point though, my issue isn't so much with the availability of HD channels, but rather that not everything aired on those channels is in HD. I still see the occasional baseball game that isn't in HD, sometimes just in pure SD, and sometimes in badly up-converted HD. But the increased availability of HD channels and programming over the last couple of years has been rapid.
I still want everything to be available in HD On Demand but concede the advances over the last year or two particularly have been very nice, at least on Comcast.
I’m still using a 32″ CRT.
Old school! No murkiness issues w/Standard Def though.
I watched Glee on my friend’s CRT the other day and discovered that apparently Fox (and maybe NBC, too?) have decided to just say fuck it to anyone who hasn’t upgraded to a widescreen yet. Definitely reason not to go cheap and buy a used CRT for me.
I have a 42″ and SD for the most part looks fine on it. The odd channel stinks but a few of them come out almost perfectly.
HD snobbery gets to be a bit much sometimes. I know it’s really distracting on like a gigantic 61″ screen, but it’s you have a gigantic 61″ screen, you’re lucky to afford one so shaddap, you can put up with some murk once in a while
But when it’s like an average-sized HD screen, SD is usually perfectly tolerable. “OH MY GOD THESE COLORS DON’T RING QUITE TRUE, I CAN’T WATCH THIS”
Mumbo, at this point, I agree with you. But since the digital conversion freed up bandwidth it seems like Comcast has added over 25 HD channels just in the last couple of months. But if I was a DirecTV or Time Warner customer, and I had paid for a big ass TV and I was paying lots of money to DirecTV or Time Warner (my Comcast bill is not exactly cheap either) I would be pissed that I couldn’t get Mad Men in HD.
And I would be quite righteous in my indignation!
We’re on Dish Network and AMC is only available in SD. We love Breaking Bad but it really does detract from the viewing experience.
I actually wonder sometimes if LCD TVs should come with a “CRT emulation mode” to make SD content look as close as possible to how it’d look on a CRT. There’s a screensaver for GNU/Linux that actually emulates one, with bizarre consequences, but I suspect such a thing would work in terms of hiding the artifacts you see when over compressed SD content is upscaled to HD.
Fios has been VERY good with adding HD channels.
I think the main problem is when a show is only available in SD, people choose to watch their shows in stretch-a-vision, rather than dealing with black bars. With black bars, the picture is comparable, not worse, to a SDTV.
I have Time Warner service and while I don’t particularly care about Mad Men, I am annoyed by all HD counterparts not being available. Standard definition channels are not unwatchable, but look like you’re watching a VHS tape at best. It could have a minor effect on cable channel viewing, but should have zero effect on broadcast network viewing since all of those should be available in HD for most (if not all) services.
I have Time Warner Cable, and AMC is in HD.
I have Time Warner Cable, and until about three or four months ago, AMC was not available in HD. Now the only channel I ever watch that isn’t available in HD on Time Warner is Comedy Central, but AMC definitely is available. As an avid Breaking Bad and Mad Men watcher, who is really looking forward to The Prisoner, I’m very aware of AMC being in HD, and would find another way to view it if it were not available.
I notice on Time Warner at least that they leave certain channel numbers available for future additions – for example, my HD channels start at 700, and there’s a channel 744 and 746 but no 745… channel 45 is the standard def Comedy Central, so I assume it’s just a matter of time until they have 745 being Comedy Central HD.
One issue with Comedy Central HD is that they don’t have shows in HD yet – I was working at the Daily Show last year and they were planning their transition to HD, and it should be happening around now, but it hasn’t happened yet. Once that starts broadcasting in HD, then the HD channel being available will follow.
As long a the picture is clear I don’t care. I can live with the mystery of NOT seeing every pore on an actor’s face. Yuck!
The main reason I find HD essential is that it fills the screen without the annoying black bars on the side. I lived in Britain for years (up until two years ago)and every SD show is broadcast in proper full widescreen. Does anyone know why only HD shows are shown in true ‘fill the whole screen’ widescreen in the US? It seems to make no sense.
I’m not positive about this, gmjh, but since most SD TVs sold in the U.S are 4:3, that is the reason SD content is 4:3. The barrier to HD, is new equipment, and I can’t imagine a show upgrading to wide-screen SD cameras without just doing the full HD upgrade. Nearly all new shows are HD, so this only applies to older shows.
ah okay thanks dave.