how do "pre-HD era" movies on HBO and Showtime get shown in HD?

[secretanchitman]

how the heck can they do that? its a 20 year old movie (came out in 1986 i think) and they play it in "HD"? obviously its not shot in it, but how the heck can they make the picture quality look so much better? what do they use?

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

The movie was still shot on film. They can still do a HQ transfer direct from film to whatever digital format they want. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong please.

 

[Kaervak]

Film has a really high resolution. A lot of stuff that wasn't "shot in HD" can be digitally scanned in as HD or close to it. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

The original film was widscreen.

Film translates well into HD.

 

[secretanchitman]

thats pretty cool, so basically most movies can be upconverted to HD? niiiice.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

Originally posted by: secretanchitman
thats pretty cool, so basically most movies can be upconverted to HD? niiiice.

heh, more like downconverted. HD still can't compare to film, though on a small screen it would be hard to tell.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Originally posted by: secretanchitman
thats pretty cool, so basically most movies can be upconverted to HD? niiiice.

Mark Cuban's HD Net has taken the original film masters of the Charlie's Angels and Hogan's Heroes and converted them into the HD format. They look pretty good.

And you're not really "upconverting" film into HD. Film is already more or less at HD resolution.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
The original film was widscreen.

Film translates well into HD.

Widescreen doesn't qualify it for HD. I have widescreen VHS movies (Titanic).

But i would imagine that the original film is much higher than SD... it would have to be to be projected onto a huge theatre screen.

 

[Kaervak]

Originally posted by: secretanchitman
thats pretty cool, so basically most movies can be upconverted to HD? niiiice.

It's not really upconverting per say. The needed amount of resolution is there, it just takes a little extra to get there. With upconverting, the resolution isn't there. It's kinda like taking nothing and making something from it.

 

[Epic Fail]

The HBO honchos pray to the HD God and say they will repent from their earlier sins of using other formats, the next day, a HD format of the film is on the desk. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: Looney

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
The original film was widscreen.

Film translates well into HD.

Widescreen doesn't qualify it for HD. I have widescreen VHS movies (Titanic).

But i would imagine that the original film is much higher than SD... it would have to be to be projected onto a huge theatre screen.

bingo.

 

[totalcommand]

Originally posted by: Kaervak
Film has a really high resolution. A lot of stuff that wasn't "shot in HD" can be digitally scanned in as HD or close to it. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

i would try to correct you but you're right.

 

[totalcommand]

take a look:

4k film scan
http://www.cintel.co.uk/technology/images/lock_house_4k_full_image.jpg

2k film scan
http://www.cintel.co.uk/technology/images/lock_house_2k_full_image.jpg

35mm frame
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/363/35mmareas5hi.gif

 

[slackerinabox]

Also, a friend of mine who works for the dvd company Criterion told me that they've been pre-mastering to 1080P digi-beta for the past few years. They downsample to 720p for dvd releases but can easily make the transition to HD-DVD or bluray since all the films archived at the higher resolution.

 

[secretanchitman]

Originally posted by: totalcommand
take a look:

4k film scan
http://www.cintel.co.uk/technology/images/lock_house_4k_full_image.jpg

2k film scan
http://www.cintel.co.uk/technology/images/lock_house_2k_full_image.jpg

35mm frame
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/363/35mmareas5hi.gif

nice thanks!

so why do all those movies only go up to 1080i and not 1080p? probably because most people in the US have 720[/1080i capable displays?

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: secretanchitman

Originally posted by: totalcommand
take a look:

4k film scan
http://www.cintel.co.uk/technology/images/lock_house_4k_full_image.jpg

2k film scan
http://www.cintel.co.uk/technology/images/lock_house_2k_full_image.jpg

35mm frame
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/363/35mmareas5hi.gif

nice thanks!

so why do all those movies only go up to 1080i and not 1080p? probably because most people in the US have 720[/1080i capable displays?

And there's no 1080p players yet.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Originally posted by: Looney

Originally posted by: secretanchitman

Originally posted by: totalcommand
take a look:

4k film scan
http://www.cintel.co.uk/technology/images/lock_house_4k_full_image.jpg

2k film scan
http://www.cintel.co.uk/technology/images/lock_house_2k_full_image.jpg

35mm frame
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/363/35mmareas5hi.gif

nice thanks!

so why do all those movies only go up to 1080i and not 1080p? probably because most people in the US have 720[/1080i capable displays?

And there's no 1080p players yet.

Aren't blu-ray and HD-DVD players 1080p compatible?

 

[Looney]

Blu-ray will do 1080p. HD-DVD will eventually, but the first ones won't.

 

[juancferrer]

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212
Also, a friend of mine who works for the dvd company Criterion told me that they've been pre-mastering to 1080P digi-beta for the past few years. They downsample to 720p for dvd releases but can easily make the transition to HD-DVD or bluray since all the films archived at the higher resolution.

damn...can't wait until criterion starts putting those 1080P movies out on the market.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: totalcommand
take a look:

4k film scan
http://www.cintel.co.uk/technology/images/lock_house_4k_full_image.jpg

2k film scan
http://www.cintel.co.uk/technology/images/lock_house_2k_full_image.jpg

35mm frame
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/363/35mmareas5hi.gif

yup, 35mm film is scanned at very high resolutions film is definetly superior. its why even very old films restored look stunny on even dvd these days. which is in stark comparison to the silly film makers that used dv cams and those look like sh*t even on dvd let alone hd. short term thinking. another reason not to shoot digital until they reach high resolutions iguess. check out tv dvds. the original startrek tv series was filmed on 16mm? or 35..whatever it was, it was film. on the dvd its crystal clear. whereas the next generation was video and it looks like a soft muddy mess

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: Looney
Blu-ray will do 1080p. HD-DVD will eventually, but the first ones won't.

The first players might not, but the first movies will be in 1080P, waiting for a player ready for their full res.

 

[0roo0roo]

not to mention many old films were 70mm

 

[spidey07]

On that subject....

Where does HBO get the movies from and in what format?

I'm just asking because many of the HD movies shown look like a pretty bad transfer, not much better than DVD.

IMHO the power of HD comes through via video and not film.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Schfifty Five

Originally posted by: Looney

Originally posted by: secretanchitman

Originally posted by: totalcommand
take a look:

4k film scan
http://www.cintel.co.uk/technology/images/lock_house_4k_full_image.jpg

2k film scan
http://www.cintel.co.uk/technology/images/lock_house_2k_full_image.jpg

35mm frame
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/363/35mmareas5hi.gif

nice thanks!

so why do all those movies only go up to 1080i and not 1080p? probably because most people in the US have 720[/1080i capable displays?

And there's no 1080p players yet.

Aren't blu-ray and HD-DVD players 1080p compatible?

eventually yea. ever try play8ing back 1080p on a pc? its %#@ hardware intensive. esp mpeg/h264 type compression. plain ts stream is bad already

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: spidey07
On that subject....

Where does HBO get the movies from and in what format?

I'm just asking because many of the HD movies shown look like a pretty bad transfer, not much better than DVD.

IMHO the power of HD comes through via video and not film.

i dont see how, film has so much resolution that it easily maxes out hd. some films are badly transfered or perhaps using old transfers. its the same with dvd, look at early transfers, very poor, sometimes using ld masters old film needs to be cleaned up and restored, but that costs money. its not really an issue since the studios are preparing for the future, every other dvd of an old film has a restoration special feature video showing how they trasnfered the thing at 4k or whatever and cleaned it up in prep for hd release. and digital video..ever see collateral in the theater? it had an ugly video like quality that just didn't look right in many scenes. bad stuff. but for current hbo video, they wouldn't spend the money to do their own restoration, they probably use whatevers around good or bad.