Upconverted movies on VOOM?

[M Sparks]

Just a quick note because I had never seen this before...Godzilla Fantasia on Monsters this weekend had a message at the front that it "...was mastered from 35mm film in standard definition- enhanced for 1080i..."

It still looked OK... considering the poor quality of the source film, it probably didn't matter much.

 

[Sean Mota]

could be. I saw Godzilla Fantasia and it shows clips from various Godzilla movies. It could be a combination of various 35mm film cuts, 16mm film cuts and non 35mm film cuts. If you look on animania the serie Ape Alien (I think) it will say enhanced for High Definition. Also, one of the phil collins concerts (not the last farewell tour) was enhanced for High Defintion. They usually tell you in the beginning of the program whether it was enhanced or not.

 

[M Sparks]

I know a lot of the cartoons are up-converted...that was the first time I had seen it on a movie.

 

[hpman247]

Just out of curiousity, how would an old movie like that not be an upconvert. If the source is from film, which i thought most movies until recently were, then wouldn't it always be an upconvert?

 

[Sean Mota]

Just out of curiousity, how would an old movie like that not be an upconvert. If the source is from film, which i thought most movies until recently were, then wouldn't it always be an upconvert?

nope.

let's do some terminology first. An "Upconvert" means that you take the 480i or 480p source and upconvert it to 1080i or 720p (without any telecine process).

An HD transfer is not an "upconvert". Film (35mm or 16mm) has higher resolution than 1920x1080i so technically it is a downconvert from film. However, that terminology is rarely used and what you have is an HD Transfer using the telecine process. The "upconvert" does not goes through that process at all.

When I previously said that Gozilla Fantasia may have different sources, it could mean that some of it could have been HD transfer from 35mm film or HD transfer from 16mm film or simply video that was "upconverted".

To understand better the "upconvert" is like taking your current DVDs and put them on a High Definition Drive to play them. Technically the image that you will get on your TV is not HD but an upconvert of DVD from a 480i or 480p source. Hope that helps.

 

[M Sparks]

Sean, the thing I thought was weird was that it specifically stated "Mastered from 35mm film for standard definition." So they were just using the same source a regular channel would use.

I hope this isn't a view of the future. When people complain about the lack of variety, it's because HD sources for everything aren't available yet. But Rainbow has tons of movies in SD- they own AMC after all. I don't want to see them fill out the Voom schedule by simply uprezzing SD sources. I can live with "HD-Lite", but uprezzing everything is much worse.

 

[Sean Mota]

They have only done that whenever there is no film. The video looks bad upconverted. In this case some of that stuff on Godzilla Fantasia could have been video or just very bad condition 35mm film. Even 35mm film does not conserve the film in its original state. The conservations of films is a huge undertaking and it could affect the HD transfer as well. Also not all HD transfers are created equal. Some are expectacular while others lack the WOW factor. It all depends who does it, the source, the process and the preservation of the "master". Lots of variables but that is the case.

 

[Stargazer]

What is the difference in it being upconverted from the source or the television's tuner upconverting the signal? Is the quality better if it is upconverted at the source?

 

[Sean Mota]

Neither is good and the more upconvertion the worse it will look. Best case scenario is one upconvertion. e.g., DVDs on a HD Drive.

 

[hpman247]

yup. makes complet sense. thanks.

 

[T2k]

Yep, film (35mm) is still and - will be for long time - superior to any HD.