I am a bit confused on this issue.
What makes these programs hi def??? They werent shot on a hi def camera, so what makes them 780p,1080i or 1080p??? If movies and tv shows are converted to hi def, does this mean that they are upscaled in some way?? Does this mean they are not true hi def??

Thanks.

Broadcast hi def is 1080i with DD sound.

Anything can be broadcast in hi-def format, regardless of it's format, but it's not "upscaled" in any meaningful way. The most common example is movies. Most are DVD-quality being broadcast in 1080i format. While this does not improve the picture quality, it does make for a loss-less broadcast. Only content that is produced in hi-def is actually 1080i, unless a master is re-sampled at 1080i. AFAIK, this is not done.

The irony is that many movies and TV shows are now shot in hi-def video, then converted to film, then re-converted to DVD quality for distribution and broadcast. So there are perfectly good Hi-def masters lying around that are never seen.

If the mastering is high-quality, DVD quality (480p), can look very good on a hi-def monitor. But alas, most DVD's are not "high-quality" due to compression using variable bitrate schemes and limitations of MPEG2.

If you have a true 1080i monitor, it's not hard to see the difference between 1080i and 480p, although it might require a larger monitor if the 480p is especially high quality.

GIGO

Thats why I think older movie will not be released onto high def. media why ?

Well the original recordings (masters etc of movies) are not in high def anyway. So you won't gain anything. Other than providing a compatible media for playback and maby more extras perhaps and so on.

DVD quality is still verry good. High def is better but still. I think playback of dvd movies and upscaling it is a good option, there are so many dvd movies out there and upscaling them (rentals etc) will look better on a HDTV than a standard TV.

But of course there will be more high def. movies etc in the future, a bit early still

Any movie *can* be re-mastered in Hi-Def or MPEG4 with excellent results. It's simply a matter of creating a new film-to-video transfer. But as I said, even a MPEG2 transfer at 480p can have excellent quality if done right.

If the movies are dvd quality, which is 480p, how is it converted to 1080i?? Isnt there some sort of upscaling involved??

There's no "conversion" in upscaling, you're still looking at a 480 image. "Upscaling" is a mis-leading term that's used a lot. It's still the same resolution, it's just being displayed with more lines. In some cases, upscaling has some pretty bad effects, in other cases it can help a tad. It really depends on the monitor and the source material. GIGO Same for interlaced vs progressive.