Phil LaMarr was Samurai Jack--a black guy playing an Asian. Even Richardson, the black guy in the video, played the 2nd to last cartoon Joker.

The article says that content creators take their 1.5 Gbps 1080i signal and compress it with MPEG-2, which Verizon passes along unchanged. That's a standard Blu-ray codec. Has anyone compared a FIOS TV signal vs. a Blu-ray release of the same show on a 1080i TV? I know from Comcast, my HD only looks marginally better than DVD.

I've only tried the DVD version, but I've read message boards that say the HD DVD/DVD combo disc of DVE was just the regular DVD version of DVE with a few HD test patterns on the other side--which is why I held off rebuying it. This version looks to be a little more tailor-made for HD.

I intended to only buy Blu-ray discs since January, but it looks like I'll have to add one more HD DVD to my collection...

I've started a thread on Toon Zone about it, where it'll hopefully get more attention: http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=206930

Ah, you cracked it. I think you're exactly right. There's definitely more info in the frame in the 2nd episode; it's obvious during the title sequence. Fortunately, my Philips LCD has an auto-resizing feature, so it actually looks rather nice--or at least fills the screen. But people without that function will have to stick with the analog version, I guess.

I emailed CW and my local affiliate last week and got no response. I also submitted a question to Greg Weisman's site, which I posted a link to above. That may be our best hope. But since we're probably the only people discussing this topic on the internet, if not the planet, I'm not holding my breath that it'll get fixed.

Yeah, it was a great show, but only SD in Minneapolis too. I've submitted a question about it to the supervising producer on his website to see if he can fix it: http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=10294 I'm hoping there's a 5.1 mix hiding in there as well.

I thought certain scenes looked squished, but not all of them. Did you compare the DT signal with analog to see if there was more of the frame on screen?

Yup, it was made in HD. The producers said so at Comic-Con: http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=18289 They've also been releasing screenshots exclusively in 16x9, including one at 1920x1080: http://marvel.toonzone.net/specspidey/media/gallery/04.jpg It's produced by Sony and I recall talk of a Blu-ray release too, but I can't find a link.

So, in other words, if it doesn't air in HD tomorrow, it's because someone didn't bother to plug in the right tapes, I guess. Which is sad because it'd be the first animated series to broadcast in widescreen HD. And Spidey was made for HD and 5.1.

You already answered your own question: http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/12/09/1080p-charted-viewing-distance-to-screen-size/

In other words, the standard line is you need a big enough TV to appreciate 1080p, otherwise you won't notice the difference. As a long time PC gamer, I think higher resolutions are always better, but I couldn't say if that applies to TVs.

On most DVD special features are pretty lame and a good encoding is never a given. I guess having fancier tools and higher bitrates doesn't mean the studio will spend more time on it.

Er, "the memo"--i.e. the fact that HD DVD failed--is not evidence that is was the worse format. Finished spec, no region encoding, less DRM, mandatory codecs, mandatory features beyond improved video/sound, cheaper... HD DVD may have been doomed from the start, but it was the more consumer-friendly format in many ways. Still, Toshiba saying they didn't make any mistakes is pretty foolish. They obviously didn't have what it takes to compete.