How long does it take to convert old films to HD?
 

I was just wondering how long it will take for film companies to
convert a particular film to blu-ray or HD DVD. I assume that it will
be alot quicker than it was when Dvd first started out. And the quality
will be better for the latest movie releases than it will be for old
films released decades ago correct?
I am just worried that there won't be a discernable visual difference.

How long does it take to convert old films to HD?
 

How long does it take to convert old films to HD?
 

On Mon, 22 May 2006 16:00:50 -0400, Alan Figgatt wrote:

wrote:

I was just wondering how long it will take for film companies to
convert a particular film to blu-ray or HD DVD. I assume that it will
be alot quicker than it was when Dvd first started out. And the quality
will be better for the latest movie releases than it will be for old
films released decades ago correct?
I am just worried that there won't be a discernable visual difference.

Do you get HDNet Movies? Or for that matter, any of the premium movie
channels? Assuming you don't have DirecTV with their heavily compressed
HD-Lite channels, you should be able to tell just how good an older
movie title can look when they have a well preserved master to work
from. Many of the 20 to 50 year old movies on HDNet Movies have looked
excellent in picture quality and much better than DVD. But it can depend
on the physical state of the best available master of the film. If the
35mm film reels have not been well preserved, the HD version will
reflect this.

To answer your first question, the studios have been converting older
movie titles to HD for years in part to prepare for the HD-DVD and
Blu-Ray era. It is an on-going process with apparently quite a lot of
older titles already done. However, there are titles that were telecined
to HD back when the process was in it's early days and not as mature as
it is now. I suspect the bottleneck for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray won't be the
number of HD conversions to be done, but instead just how fast do they
want to push titles onto what will be for several years, a comparatively
small niche market, compared to DVD.

Alan F

Also, there are many cases where the film has deteriorated so much that
they remaster it digitally, removing scratches, holes, etc. and readjusting
the color back to its unfaded state. All the hard work is done, and the HD
DVD should be relatively straightforward.

Brad H

How long does it take to convert old films to HD?
 

Alan Figgatt wrote:

wrote:


To answer your first question, the studios have been converting older
movie titles to HD for years in part to prepare for the HD-DVD and
Blu-Ray era. It is an on-going process with apparently quite a lot of
older titles already done. However, there are titles that were telecined
to HD back when the process was in it's early days and not as mature as
it is now. I suspect the bottleneck for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray won't be the
number of HD conversions to be done, but instead just how fast do they
want to push titles onto what will be for several years, a comparatively
small niche market, compared to DVD.

Alan F


It will continue to be a niche market until one standard defeats the other.

Too bad the FCC lacked jurisdiction to prevent these industry children
from entering a big bucks ****ing contest.

If nothing else, even the dim bulbs should be able to figure out that
the industry holds the public in utter contempt.

How long does it take to convert old films to HD?
 

Brad Houser wrote:



Also, there are many cases where the film has deteriorated so much that
they remaster it digitally, removing scratches, holes, etc. and readjusting
the color back to its unfaded state. All the hard work is done, and the HD
DVD should be relatively straightforward.

Brad H

One of my old favorites, the 1953 release of War of the Worlds was fixed
up nicely a few years ago when it was released to DVD.

What can they do about the fact it was shot in 4:3, though? Seems like
that is a major barrier to bringing it out in Hi Def.