How is Hogan's Heroes in HD - Blu-ray Forum

MrTaxMan · 04-07-2009, 09:38 AM

I saw an episode of Hogan's Heroes on Universal HD network today and could not get over how good the video quality was. It was full HD. Never saw such an old show (1967) that looked like it was filmed in the past few years. Even though the episode itself was not entertaining, I couldn't switch the channel because of that quality.

And why was it in 16:9 aspect ratio? They didn't make it like that. Did they?

Did the studios back then look 40 years into the future and somehow anticipate people would have wide-screen HD TVs and decide, "We're going to make it in an HD format that people won't be able to appreciate for 40 more years?"

Afrobean · 04-07-2009, 10:10 AM

Plenty of older television shows were shot on film. Film has greater fidelity than SD television can display, so if they take the original film source and rescan at a higher resolution, they have an instant HD version of a very old TV show.

As for the aspect ratio, there are three possibilities:

#1: They cropped. Just chopped off some of the top and bottom to fill the 16:9 screen. Think of what they do with theatrical movies to get them to fit a 4:3 screen. Same idea.

#2: The original material did not fill the entire frame of the film. They could have shot it with mattes, and so, all they'd need to do is go back to the source film and simply look at the additional film that never showed up on the screen before but was still captured. Unless I'm mistaken, this is highly unlikely for a TV show, at least one as old as this. I believe Scrubs has been shot in this way as they planned on changing the aspect ratio later on once 16:9 became more standardized.

#3: A combination of the two above. There is probably some additional material on the sides of the frame which has never been visible before, but yet, not enough to take the 1.33:1 image up to 1.78:1. So they add a little on the sides and crop a little from the top/bottom. They did this with Seinfeld already. I'd guess that this is the most likely of all scenarios.

Dr Strangelove · 04-07-2009, 11:57 AM

Wow!
I wanna see Gilligan's Island in HD!!

sonyhomenet · 04-07-2009, 10:12 PM

I have witnessed this phenomenon!!! The other night I was surfing around (channel,not web!) and ran across a showing of "Gunfight at the OK Corral,from 1957....and it looked like it was shot YESTERDAY!!!

mdabb · 04-07-2009, 10:27 PM

Love Hogan's Heroes !!! Glad to see them in HD, Maybe someday in Blu.........

steve_dave · 04-07-2009, 10:53 PM

Hogan's Heroes is cropped for the HD presentation. Sorry, it is not like Seinfeld where there was extra informaiton on the sides to help mask the cropping.

HDNet and CBS Television worked together to create these new HD masters. At first, they were cropped to 1.78:1 widescreen (some episodes are still like this) but the framing ruined the composition. The tops of heads were severly cropped which resulted in the edge of the frame being uncomfortably close to the eyes, overscanning would result in the edge literally touching the top of the eye. Same with the bottom of the frame, no there was no artificial panning from top to bottom added to "mask" some of the cropping.

Since this resulted in a non too popular picture, a majority of the episodes were remastered at 1.66:1. This results in side bars but with this AR, the side bars are either very thin or lost altogether with overscan.

The resulting image was also cleaned up and restored to provide that jaw dropping picture.

Becker airs on USA and Universal HD in high-definiton 1.78:1 and JAG was recently added to HDNet. Both are CBS Television properties, however unlike Hogan's Heroes, the producers of these shows composed for 1.33 but shot 1.78:1 safe. So there is more picture information than the SD broadcast on the sides.

thedarkangel1975 · 04-07-2009, 11:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdabb

Love Hogan's Heroes !!! Glad to see them in HD, Maybe someday in Blu.........

I want everything in Blu. No matter how good or bad, just to bring the format completely mainstream.

cdittmer · 12-09-2021, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdabb

Love Hogan's Heroes !!! Glad to see them in HD, Maybe someday in Blu.........

Hogan's Heroes was released on Blu-ray in Germany. I have the set and it looks excellent.

John1701D · 12-09-2021, 11:33 AM

CyberpunkCentral · 12-09-2021, 12:42 PM

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04-07-2009, 09:38 AM	#1
MrTaxMan Member Member since:Nov 2008 Blu-ray collection:33 Blu-ray reviews:1	How is Hogan's Heroes in HD I saw an episode of Hogan's Heroes on Universal HD network today and could not get over how good the video quality was. It was full HD. Never saw such an old show (1967) that looked like it was filmed in the past few years. Even though the episode itself was not entertaining, I couldn't switch the channel because of that quality. And why was it in 16:9 aspect ratio? They didn't make it like that. Did they? Did the studios back then look 40 years into the future and somehow anticipate people would have wide-screen HD TVs and decide, "We're going to make it in an HD format that people won't be able to appreciate for 40 more years?"

04-07-2009, 10:10 AM	#2
Afrobean Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Oct 2008 Blu-ray collection:-	Plenty of older television shows were shot on film. Film has greater fidelity than SD television can display, so if they take the original film source and rescan at a higher resolution, they have an instant HD version of a very old TV show. As for the aspect ratio, there are three possibilities: #1: They cropped. Just chopped off some of the top and bottom to fill the 16:9 screen. Think of what they do with theatrical movies to get them to fit a 4:3 screen. Same idea. #2: The original material did not fill the entire frame of the film. They could have shot it with mattes, and so, all they'd need to do is go back to the source film and simply look at the additional film that never showed up on the screen before but was still captured. Unless I'm mistaken, this is highly unlikely for a TV show, at least one as old as this. I believe Scrubs has been shot in this way as they planned on changing the aspect ratio later on once 16:9 became more standardized. #3: A combination of the two above. There is probably some additional material on the sides of the frame which has never been visible before, but yet, not enough to take the 1.33:1 image up to 1.78:1. So they add a little on the sides and crop a little from the top/bottom. They did this with Seinfeld already. I'd guess that this is the most likely of all scenarios.

04-07-2009, 11:57 AM	#3
Dr Strangelove Active Member Member since:Mar 2008 Location:Los Angeles, California 4K collection:11 Blu-ray collection:196 DVD collection:131	Wow! I wanna see Gilligan's Island in HD!!

04-07-2009, 10:12 PM	#4
sonyhomenet Member Member since:Jan 2009	I have witnessed this phenomenon!!! The other night I was surfing around (channel,not web!) and ran across a showing of "Gunfight at the OK Corral,from 1957....and it looked like it was shot YESTERDAY!!!

04-07-2009, 10:27 PM	#5
mdabb Power Member Member since:Jan 2008 Trading Score:1	Love Hogan's Heroes !!! Glad to see them in HD, Maybe someday in Blu.........

04-07-2009, 10:53 PM	#6
steve_dave Blu-ray Duke Member since:Nov 2008 Trading Score:21	Hogan's Heroes is cropped for the HD presentation. Sorry, it is not like Seinfeld where there was extra informaiton on the sides to help mask the cropping. HDNet and CBS Television worked together to create these new HD masters. At first, they were cropped to 1.78:1 widescreen (some episodes are still like this) but the framing ruined the composition. The tops of heads were severly cropped which resulted in the edge of the frame being uncomfortably close to the eyes, overscanning would result in the edge literally touching the top of the eye. Same with the bottom of the frame, no there was no artificial panning from top to bottom added to "mask" some of the cropping. Since this resulted in a non too popular picture, a majority of the episodes were remastered at 1.66:1. This results in side bars but with this AR, the side bars are either very thin or lost altogether with overscan. The resulting image was also cleaned up and restored to provide that jaw dropping picture. Becker airs on USA and Universal HD in high-definiton 1.78:1 and JAG was recently added to HDNet. Both are CBS Television properties, however unlike Hogan's Heroes, the producers of these shows composed for 1.33 but shot 1.78:1 safe. So there is more picture information than the SD broadcast on the sides.

12-09-2021, 11:33 AM	#9
John1701D Blu-ray Count Member since:Mar 2011 Trading Score:9

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