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Older programming, HD vs SD

Yesfan70

Yesfan70

I'm famous now bitches! vvvvv
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Has anyone ever compared an older TV show that's been broadcast on a channel's HD and SD feeds? I see a difference.

I was flipping through the channels and noticed Matlock (ok, so I couldn't find a better older show to compare) was on WGN. I flipped between the HD and SD feeds and there is a slight difference? Why? The most noticeable was the channel icon. The channel icon on the HD version clearly looks sharper and cleaner, but the show itself seemed just slightly sharper on the HD feed compared to what I saw on the SD one.

For the record, I made sure both channels were in normal view, no graybars, and not in any kind of Zoom or Stretch modes (though the differences were a bit more noticeable in Zoom). My box was in single mode too, so I just hit the swap button on my remote to flip between the two channels. Just to eliminate any variable from TV2, I also used the recall button to go between the current and last channels for comparison. I still see a slight difference either way.

IF there is a difference, then what resolution am I seeing? I know the native will be 720p, since it has to be unscaled to be viewed, but I want to say maybe the SD started out at 480i and the HD at 480p. So what's going on and why am I seeing a difference?
 
I setup my DVR by program name to record the first episode of Justified (Timmothy Olyphant). The DVR recorded the SD channel, since FX is simocast. The rest of the season I recorded the HD version, the difference in PQ is unmistakable. Although, some SD programming is better than other SD programming.

Rope
 
But what I don't understand is why does an old 80s show like Matlock look better on the HD channel and not on the SD channel? Shouldn't they look identical? To my knowledge there was no remastered version of this show for DVD or bluray (where it would have to be down converted for the SD feed), so in my eyes both channels should look identical.
 
Something as old as "Matlock" was probably shot on film; if they're broadcasting it on HD they probably did a film-to-HD conversion.
That's why a Bluray of, say, Wizard of Oz, (filmed in the 1930's) can look so good.
 
I've seen some shows actually look WORSE in HD at least on DirectTV. Edges appear jagged or it appears you are seeing "double.' Some older episodes of Family Guy on TBS have that "double image" look.
 
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