Cinemax going 100% high-definition on September 1st
By Darren Murph 
posted Aug 22nd 2008 3:02PM
posted Aug 22nd 2008 3:02PM
We already knew that Home Box Office was champing at the bit to rid itself of anything less than pure, unadulterated (okay, maybe just a little bit) HD, and now the outfit is announcing that its Cinemax channel will be going 100% high-def on September 1st. Granted, we're talking about the main channel only here, but this fall / winter is shaping up to be a good one for Cinemax HD. Subscribers will see the pay-TV premieres of The Bourne Ultimatum, Rendition, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and The Darjeeling Limited, and in the near future, viewers will see I Am Legend, Juno, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem and In The Valley of Elah. Of note, the release states that "true HD (1080i)" won't begin until September 6th -- odd, but we suppose a few extra days won't kill us. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]
Doesn't Cinemax crop 2:35 and 2:40 ratio movies to fill 16:9 with no "black bars?" At least they did last time I was subscribing. If they still do, it would be hard to get excited about this.
-Owl
Original Aspect Ratio > Cropped HD > SD.
So I'm still excited.
Gee, this is great, But as a TWC subscriber in SE Wisconsin, I won't have Cinemax HD or Starz HD or TMC HD or Disney HD or GOlf HD or CNN HD or ABC Family HD or The Weather Channel HD or Food HD or FOXNEWS HD or many, many others unless I drop TWC for DirecTV or U-Verse.
By the way, you forgot to mention that Engadget and Cinemax have the same parent.......
What happened to the whole "Part of the TW Family disclaimer"???
TW ---->owns HBO and Cinemax
:)
This is good news, though of the five Cinemax channels that Dish Network gives you, only one is SD these days.
owl: it does that with most movies though I've seen a few where the black bars have been put in. Money Train is currently on circulation on those channels and that had black bars when we DVR'd it recently. Hopefully that's the start of a trend.
Nice. I get Cinemax (and Cinemax HD) for free, so this news excites me. A lot.
Ok, the story actually requires some more explanation, I just re-read it and it didn't make any sense. What I believe is actually happening is that the main channel is going to be 1080i from September. Which I assume means, right now, it's 720p.
Whoopee-freekin'-do.
No, it means that every show on Cinemax will be in HD. Cinemax is already 1080i.
Currently, there are a handful of shows (mostly the "after dark" stuff) that are still in SD.
Ok, wierd. I'd never come across a single show on the HD versions of Cinemax that weren't HD. So their porn isn't? Well, what's the point in that?! Geez...
No the were using stretch o vision before , upconverting everything SD to HD .. i think it was in WIRED this month
What about HBO , SHOWTIME u know channels people actually want (not thrown in a package deal) .. I know people will enjoy some late night HD skin-amax but damn
There are quite a few "legitimate" movies on Cinemax that are either new or good.
Ok, maybe I'm a little slow on this.. I have Comcast in Houston and have HBO, Showtime, Stars & Cinemax in HD (Each channel has one HD station while the other 4 or 5 are SD) what does that mean to me?
But when will they go 100% OAR (Original Aspect Ratio) and quit chopping off the sides of movies?