film4

branie

Anyone here think the channel should start showing films in high definition, thus following the likes of Sky Movies, MGM HD and TCM?

xtal191

I thought film4 hd was on sky

Looper007

branie wrote: »

Anyone here think the channel should start showing films in high definition, thus following the likes of Sky Movies, MGM HD and TCM?

They should start getting back to the film schedule they had when you had to pay for it. Remember they used to show amazing documentries Mark Kermode made just for Film 4 (Blade Runner one was amazing) or European masterpieces like 1900 uncut (at the time it wasn't on dvd). Now its just full of far too many commercial films with the odd gem shown at night.

e_e

I love Film 4 but my biggest gripe with them is how often they get the aspect ratio wrong (especially on classic films in the 4:3 ratio). Older films tend to look stretched and squashed because of it which does take away from the enjoyment.

johnny_ultimate

e_e wrote: »

I love Film 4 but my biggest gripe with them is how often they get the aspect ratio wrong (especially on classic films in the 4:3 ratio). Older films tend to look stretched and squashed because of it which does take away from the enjoyment.

I think there might be a lot of factors playing into this. I watched Ozu's Good Morning on Film4 a few months ago and the screen was stretched to 16:9 - although when I manually changed my TV's setting it reverted back to normal 4:3. The aspect ratio even adjusted back to widescreen for the ad breaks.

I assume digital providers, individual channels and some TVs have software in place that automatically adjusts based on the setup (and amazingly there's probably still a lot of 4:3 TVs knocking around out there). It's always worth messing around with the options to see if it is fixable, as there is something inherently sacrilegious about a stretched image.

Zeek12

Like Looper007 I really wish they would address the quality of their movies first. And its not just since they went freeview that things went downhill. I remember they did brilliant seasons of European directors like Melville and Bertolucci only a few years back.
Those days are clearly over though. They're in the rom-com market now:o

e_e

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I think there might be a lot of factors playing into this. I watched Ozu's Good Morning on Film4 a few months ago and the screen was stretched to 16:9 - although when I manually changed my TV's setting it reverted back to normal 4:3. The aspect ratio even adjusted back to widescreen for the ad breaks.

I assume digital providers, individual channels and some TVs have software in place that automatically adjusts based on the setup (and amazingly there's probably still a lot of 4:3 TVs knocking around out there). It's always worth messing around with the options to see if it is fixable, as there is something inherently sacrilegious about a stretched image.

Yeah I'll check that out. Planned on watching Ordet the other night and when I saw the picture quality I was so put off.

Though funnily enough TCM and other stations have the images in their original ratio.

Varik

Got a new TV last weekend and after setting it up I'd got all the English channels including film4, did the same on the rest of the TVs in the house afterwards.

Would like if they released a HD channel but I'm happy enough as is when them as it's a great channel.

Looper007

Zeek12 wrote: »

Like Looper007 I really wish they would address the quality of their movies first. And its not just since they went freeview that things went downhill. I remember they did brilliant seasons of European directors like Melville and Bertolucci only a few years back.
Those days are clearly over though. They're in the rom-com market now:o

I understand they want to compete with other film channels, so screening Rom Com's and action films is essential to that but could they have a second channel screening more obsure, foreign and independent cinema. It's dreaming of course but it be nice to go back to having Melville seasons and Mark Kermode Extreme Season.

mike65

Film Four is hardly worth the data stream it uses up during prime time.

Cantona's Collars

It's meant to be going HD this year,that will complete the Channel 4 family of channels except 4 seven which will be broadcast in HD on Sky.

branie

Its now in HD!

Horrocksjm

Film 4 is currently available on Virgin media in the uk and I believe it has just arrived on sky. So hopefully it will come to UPC soon

Swords4

Film4 HD is on Sky, Channel 315.

Faith+1

Too many repeats on Film4

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Before I had digital telly Film 4 was one of the channels I really really wanted to have. Since I've had it it doesn't seem to live up to the expectations I had of it. As other's have pointed out they seem to have changed their output considerably and often their schedule is quite poor really. Occasionally there's something interesting on but usually at 2 in the morning.

Funnily enough I saw today that their viewing figures for August were the highest in their history, so I guess it's working for them even if it's not working for me.