Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Dumb question regarding HD and DVDs...

I've noticed there is a lot of old movies out on HD DVD and Blu-Ray...

I wouldn't think these movies were filmed, mixed or whatever in HD back in the day, so how do these movies get to be HD? Are they something like a remastered CD? For some reason I'm having a difficult time figuring out how a 40 year old movie can be put on DVD through HD.

There *has* to be a simple solution, I'm bettin'.

Film, being analog, has much higher resolution than the DVD. Therefore, they can get a bit more out to make HDDVD/Blu-Ray editions look better than DVD.

At least, that's what people said when I asked the question awhile back.

If that's the case, I wonder if the old, old stuff can be put out on HD....like the old black and white stuff from the 30's and 40's?

Thanks Ken, I knew somebody brighter than myself would have asked first!

The HD-DVD of Casablanka is really good.

Rick:
Ken is correct. Film has much higher resolution than HD video, so there's lots to work with from the old negatives.

The bigger problem is damage to the original films, either by them being dirty or colors fading over the years. Restoration work on the negatives, frame by frame, is painstaking but can yield beautiful quality HD.

I saw an article late last year(Popular Mchanics?) on the pixel amounts of SD/HD and film. Film has billions of pixels per frame and it is cut back to size for it to fit our meager big screens in the house. Kind of like when I back up a DVD from a dual layer DVD and shrink it to a single layer, when that back up is played on a larger screen than my own 36" crt it looks a little fuzzy as some of the content was removed to shrink it.

I've got The Adventures of Robin Hood on order and am really looking forward to it. First, it's a 1938 Warner Brothers swashbuckling classic (IMHO, arguably the best swashbuckler ever). Second, even the film version broadcast on SD TV has colors that are stunning. I'm eager to see how it looks on HD DVD. If it looks as good as I anticipate, I'll likely have to buy a copy. I only wish it were wide screen, and had a DD 5.1 surround soundtrack with a 20Hz to 20kHz frequency response. Oh well, can't have everything.

Jack, you'll be pleased to know that it does look really good for such an old film. I had it on HD DVD, and I passed it along to my sister when I was done with it. Some of the shots are actually very beautiful, fake color and all. The Looney Tunes cartoon included on the disc also looks very nice.

Also, I'll back up EFalardeau about Casablanca looking great on HD DVD. I was really wondering if I'd be able to tell much difference between it and the special edition DVD I had, but the difference was obvious.

I know what you mean about the color, though I wouldn't use the term "fake." The color is almost "comic book"-like in the way it pops which, IMHO, fits the theme and nature of the story. Having been raised on comic books, I like it. Also, remember this was 1938, which was a full year before Wizard Of Oz. The three-color Technicolor process was brand spankin' new. In fact, all 11 of the Technicolor cameras in existence in 1938 were used on the film. It all just all works for me. YMMV. Wonderful escapist, "good triumphs over evil" fare.

Just a quick FYI. Basil Rathbone, everyone's favorite Sherlock Holmes, who plays the villainous Sir Guy of Gisbourne, was considered to be the greatest swordsman in Hollywood history, superior even to Errol Flynn, who was no slouch himself. Flynn, by the way, did all his own stunts in the movie.

OK, one last FYI. Remember this was in the days long before computer generated special effects. The famous archery shot where Robin Hood splits an arrow with one of his own was done by professional archer Howard Hill in one take with no trick photography. Now that's some shootin'.

(Sorry. I just love the classic Hollywood era, it's actors, and it's movies)


Oh Thanks, Charles. Now I'll have to buy that one as well. I, too, have the 2 DVD special edition.

Just to be clear, I wasn't trying to use the word "fake" as an insult. I'm glad you responded to it, though, as that's some interesting stuff to know.



What a showoff. That's awesome.