Old movies in Blu-ray

[voiz]

I see all those old movies like Superman going out on Blu Ray. Now.. Are these going to be HD?!

Is there a major difference between those versions versus the regular DVD versions?

Thanks

[The Don]

when they are blu-ray, it is HD...

I like how well they remaster the older movies in blu-ray....

Enter the Dragon on blu-ray is a gem...I am waiting for the Kubrick films to come out along with Caddyshack...

[voiz]

That is impressive.. They take the original films and put them into Blu ray without compression i guess?

[The Don]

Originally Posted by voiz

That is impressive.. They take the original films and put them into Blu ray without compression i guess?

yeah...while they can only do so much with the older films, it is very impressive...

it's not like they can make them look like they came out now...but there is a significant difference..

[Chad Varnadore]

Originally Posted by The Don

yeah...while they can only do so much with the older films, it is very impressive...

it's not like they can make them look like they came out now...but there is a significant difference..

They can. They just usually don't, due to the expense of bringing the master up to date. Film has has more than enough resolution for HD. Depending how old you're talking about of course. Prior to a certain date, movies weren't stored or cataloged well. Home video wasn't in sight or at least didn't pose any immediacy. Discs like The Searchers are proof that anything can be done. But the more work involved, the less return on their investment for what some studios feel are limited life technologies that at least currently aren't bringing in big enough dollar signs to justify more.

[voiz]

Star Wars and Lord of the Rings would make inscredible blu ray movies

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by voiz

That is impressive.. They take the original films and put them into Blu ray without compression i guess?

Audio can be uncompressed or losslessly compressed. Video however cannot. Not on BD anyway.


fuad

[The Don]

exactly...I mean the originals to these movies are probably above our "HD standards"...so they could be 1080p...but just older looking I guess...

[Knight-Errant]

Well the great thing about film is that it's essentially always been the same material so the resolution of 35mm film thirty years ago is basically the same as 35mm film used today.

Just takes a careful remastering process to make lovely HD transfers of all your old favourites

[Gremal]

Think of it like this: old movies were previously being released on VHS and DVD for viewers using NTSC technology (480 interlaced lines of resolution). Simply by virtue of moving to HDTV and using a BD version of the movie, you can more than double that resolution and view progressive frames. So even if it's a bad transfer, there is no question it will look better than a comparable transfer to DVD.

[voiz]

Interesting..

But then, why does TV stations have to change their material to broadcast in HD?

I guess its because their new material is automatically digitally recorded in HD?

[buckshot]

old technicolor films like the searchers look absolutely amazing. the only reason they look different than newer movies is because of the differences in film chemicals. technicolor has more vivd colors than real life and new films are geared to as realistic as possible. I would love to see other technicolor classics come to bluray. if monument valley looks that amazing in the searchers imagine how rural ireland will look in the quiet man. the bad part in 1 channel audio.

[Chad Varnadore]

Originally Posted by buckshot

old technicolor films like the searchers look absolutely amazing. the only reason they look different than newer movies is because of the differences in film chemicals. technicolor has more vivd colors than real life and new films are geared to as realistic as possible. I would love to see other technicolor classics come to bluray. if monument valley looks that amazing in the searchers imagine how rural ireland will look in the quiet man. the bad part in 1 channel audio.

As I understand it the color for The Searchers had to be completely redone from the ground up due to the condition of the source, which illustrates my point, as aside from being extremely saturated, it doesn't unnatural or lacking even in chroma.