HD home video formats... ruining the classics!

AnitaPeterson

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2001
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While lots of people (myself included) appreciate the resolution and quality of new home video formats, there are times when less is actually more.

Case in point

The background is either a bad matte painting or a nasty retro projection screen, but either way, the film's entire prologue is rife with it, and the magic is lost...

How can something like this pass the quality control teams is a mystery...
 

ppdes

Senior member
May 16, 2004
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Clearly the aliens encased the Earth with an observation space station before sending down the monolith. Its faint appearance in the sky is obviously meant to clue you in that something abnormal is under way.
 

AnitaPeterson

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2001
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Originally posted by: ppdes
Clearly the aliens encased the Earth with an observation space station before sending down the monolith. Its faint appearance in the sky is obviously meant to clue you in that something abnormal is under way.

LOL!

I's not just the sky, though, it's the ground as well, look above the second hominid on the left
 
May 31, 2001
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I saw Spider-Man 3 in the theater, then I saw it later on Blu-Ray on an HDTV. I couldn't believe how much worse the animation looked.
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
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bad restoration:p
many old 70mm classics have more than enough resolution for hd if restored. frankly it'll be the first time many of us will get to enjoy such films in almost all their glory. dvd just doesnt cut it.
 
May 31, 2001
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Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
bad restoration:p
many old 70mm classics have more than enough resolution for hd if restored.

When they restored the original Star Trek series, which was shot on film, it wound up looking better than Star Trek: The Next Generation in terms of picture quality. They had allowed whatever magnetic media they recorded TNG on to degrade.
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,862
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yea i rented some of the original series startrek, damn clear film image. quite amazing. they still had the original tv film prints so they could restore. its amazing that we get to watch it in so much better quality now than when it first aired lol:)
i'm not so sure they still have the original prints of the next generation:( maybe only the lousy video blurry mess tape is left for that sadly enough.
 
May 31, 2001
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Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
yea i rented some of the original series startrek, damn clear film image. quite amazing. they still had the original tv film prints so they could restore. its amazing that we get to watch it in so much better quality now than when it first aired lol:)
i'm not so sure they still have the original prints of the next generation:( maybe only the lousy video blurry mess tape is left for that sadly enough.

It might be, but since it tends to be small glitches rather than continuous degradation throughout the episodes, at least from what I have seen, you would think they might just do a little digital magic and repair the worst spots.

Back in TOS days they used to edit the episodes by cutting and splicing the film. :laugh: I actually have some pieces of the film from the cutting room floor.
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
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yea i've seen collectors sites sell film pieces or whatever... i hope that doesn't mean they sold off the original prints to be cut up for collectors.

glitches? you talking tos or tng? the dvd of tng was uniformly fuzzy video tape quality. not much can be done with that really. but yes, film degrades unevenly.
 
May 31, 2001
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Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
yea i've seen collectors sites sell film pieces or whatever... i hope that doesn't mean they sold off the original prints to be cut up for collectors.

glitches? you talking tos or tng? the dvd of tng was uniformly fuzzy video tape quality. not much can be done with that really.

I meant glitches in TNG. Didn't notice the fuzz really, likely due to the crappy television the DVD player was hooked up to. That will suck when watching them on a decent set. :(
 

Raduque

Lifer
Aug 22, 2004
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Yea the TNG DVDs, at least the first season are all fuzzy, like a bad divx encode.
 

AnitaPeterson

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2001
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Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
bad restoration:p
many old 70mm classics have more than enough resolution for hd if restored. frankly it'll be the first time many of us will get to enjoy such films in almost all their glory. dvd just doesnt cut it.

I wonder if they restored it at all, considering how hideous this screen looks.
And it's not the DVD, it's the 1080p Blu-Ray version!

That's the thing, the original DVD didn't make this mistake so glaring! I'd never seen that before!
 

T9D

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2001
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That would have all been seen on film if it was played in theaters. HD is great. Just shows what is there. If it bothers you all that much all you have to do is watch those movies through s video or composite. Problem solved.
 

imported_Baloo

Golden Member
Feb 2, 2006
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Unfortunately, until they go thru and clean it up, damge from age shows like that. This is not a case of bad matt painting, its deterioration of the media.
 

pulse8

Lifer
May 3, 2000
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Originally posted by: Baloo
Unfortunately, until they go thru and clean it up, damge from age shows like that. This is not a case of bad matt painting, its deterioration of the media.

How can you claim a problem with the media when it clearly doesn't affect the whole frame?
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
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Originally posted by: hellokeith
Looks like a bad master or bad transfer to me. Nothing to do with HD formats..

Her point is that the high resolution exposes flaws that would otherwise not be noticeable.
 

shabby

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,779
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Why are you complaining about something you didnt pay for? Clearly thats a bluray rip as the title in media player suggests.
 

SlickSnake

Diamond Member
May 29, 2007
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Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven
Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
yea i've seen collectors sites sell film pieces or whatever... i hope that doesn't mean they sold off the original prints to be cut up for collectors.

glitches? you talking tos or tng? the dvd of tng was uniformly fuzzy video tape quality. not much can be done with that really.

I meant glitches in TNG. Didn't notice the fuzz really, likely due to the crappy television the DVD player was hooked up to. That will suck when watching them on a decent set. :(

Since I have a large 37 inch screen SD TV, I have noticed this grainyness on STNG episodes before. It appears mostly in low light scenes where they have lowered the fstop setting on the cameras too much or used completely different cameras to allow for low light filming. On some episodes it is REALLY noticable to the point of distraction. It may also be partly due to the fact they used different film crews and cameras on the various episodes, too. So there is no set standards for low light filming in place.

When they edited the series together after filming you would think they would have noticed these obvious grainy video quality problems. But because of tight production schedules, even if they did notice the poor quality, they would not have the time or money to reshoot overly grainy scenes where the cameras were not properly calibrated for low light.

And there was a ton of scenes throughout that series that were filmed in low light, like caves, dark corridors and the like. So the problem appears to be in nearly every episode, somewhere. On some episodes it is so severe it looks like they sandblasted the film. And when it occurs very badly, it also looks like they changed the speed of the film or the frames per second, too. Almost like they removed alternate frames from the final print, like it is a bit in slow motion, if you look closely. I don't think you can ever hope to clean up all that grainyness no matter what process they might use on it.

On a large screen HDTV an HD transfer will undoubtedly suck, too. Kind of like the HD transfer of Sleepy Hollow for the same low light reasons.
 

AnitaPeterson

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2001
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Originally posted by: shabby
Why are you complaining about something you didnt pay for? Clearly thats a bluray rip as the title in media player suggests.

Most worthless post ever... the trolls are out of the woods!

I don't "do" Blu-Ray, I invested in HD-DVD... and there's no way to get a screenshot from my standalone.... :Q

 

shabby

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Pointing out the fact that your pic came from a hidef rip of the movie makes me a troll?
 

AnitaPeterson

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2001
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388
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Originally posted by: shabby
Pointing out the fact that your pic came from a hidef rip of the movie makes me a troll?

Yes, especially when you post things like
Why are you complaining about something you didnt pay for?

... WTF does that got to do with subject I'm discussing? Troll, and a pathetic one, too!

Like I said, I HAVE the HD-DVD, which looks just like that as well, but I can't capture and post screenshots from a standalone, genius!