Washington, D.C. (July 19, 2010) -- DIRECTV announced last April that it would air all five seasons of the HBO series The Wire in High-Definition for the first time.

Liars!

DIRECTV last night debuted the first episode of The Wire, but it was definitely not in HD. Instead, DIRECTV stretched (or cropped) the program from its original 4:3 format (as it aired on HBO) to 16:9 so it would fill the entire screen, apparently trying to fool people into thinking it was in HD.

By using this technique, which has become known as 'Stretch-o-vision" in the HD community, the picture for the first episode was soft and often appeared as if it was filmed underwater. There was little detail in the actors' faces, and the surroundings of Baltimore, where the drug drama was filmed.


Is that a DIRECTV executive?

In short, the picture quality for HBO's standard-definition edition of The Wire was better than this so-called 'HD version' as broadcast by DIRECTV.

I can't say I'm surprised. DIRECTV's announcement last April caused some high-def observers, including this one, to scratch their heads. The Wire, which aired on HBO from 2002 to 2008, was not actually filmed in high-def.

Consequently, in April, I wrote here that either HBO or DIRECTV would have to invest the time and money to transfer the series from 35mm film to HD.

Well, apparently, DIRECTV decided that wasn't necessary. Instead of making the transfer, the satcaster apparently decided that it would just say the show was in HD and hope people would be tricked into agreeing.

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