Blu-Ray Discs for Old Movies

[balkyboo]

Hi I'm a newbee but I have a question. How is one able to make blu-ray discs of old movies with the same High Def quality as a modern movie. They didn't have high Def cameras back then. For instance, a movie such as "The Godfather" which was filmed in the 1970s is available on a blu-ray disc.

[marzetta7]

I'm feelin' that word telecine comin from someone soon...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecine

...so I'll let someone else here who knows the process intimately explain.

[kevinbr100]

Originally Posted by balkyboo

Hi I'm a newbee but I have a question. How is one able to make blu-ray discs of old movies with the same High Def quality as a modern movie. They didn't have high Def cameras back then. For instance, a movie such as "The Godfather" which was filmed in the 1970s is available on a blu-ray disc.

film, motion picture or still the resolution is still higher than the high definition cameras we have today, telecine go read the link that the other guy posted. now that they have higher definition video cameras they can go back and recapture old films. its kinda like you have a photograph, u bought a scanner back in 1997 its max resolution it could scan the photograph at was 320x240. you buy a new scanner in 2008 which max resolution is 2048x2048. so you go back and rescan your old photos and get a much higher resolution digital copy of them.

[balkyboo]

Thanks kevinbr100..I learned alot...I'll do some more research on it

[supersix4]

Originally Posted by kevinbr100

film, motion picture or still the resolution is still higher than the high definition cameras we have today, telecine go read the link that the other guy posted. now that they have higher definition video cameras they can go back and recapture old films. its kinda like you have a photograph, u bought a scanner back in 1997 its max resolution it could scan the photograph at was 320x240. you buy a new scanner in 2008 which max resolution is 2048x2048. so you go back and rescan your old photos and get a much higher resolution digital copy of them.

yeah what he said lol the problem wasnt the cams back then it was downconverting the quality to vhs, dvd , superbit and hd-dvd thought I'd take a shot at the dead format

[capone]

Originally Posted by kevinbr100

film, motion picture or still the resolution is still higher than the high definition cameras we have today, telecine go read the link that the other guy posted. now that they have higher definition video cameras they can go back and recapture old films. its kinda like you have a photograph, u bought a scanner back in 1997 its max resolution it could scan the photograph at was 320x240. you buy a new scanner in 2008 which max resolution is 2048x2048. so you go back and rescan your old photos and get a much higher resolution digital copy of them.

Although a understand your explination to the Blu-Ray quality issue by using the analogy 'the scanning of an old photo' it doesn't quite make 100% to me. I think what the question is is if the recorded image/film is on old cameras how can this be improved on. If I could add to your analogy....

What if that photo was take with a 1.2 mega pixel camera....how can you convert that into a 4.3 mega pixel picuture just by scanning it in on a high quality scanner......crap in crap out ....

[papaholmz]

Originally Posted by capone

What if that photo was take with a 1.2 mega pixel camera....how can you convert that into a 4.3 mega pixel picuture just by scanning it in on a high quality scanner......crap in crap out ....

You can't draw a comparison to Film using megapixels. Film will always be better than the highest megapixel rating. So when the video was originally captured all those years ago, it was better than any digital format can capture these days.

Analog film has much higher resolution than any digital or hi-def format. The only downside of analog is that noise can be introduced very easily.

-papaholmz

[Chevypower]

GRRRRRRRRR Film IS NOT ANALOG!!!! It is optical. Analog is a representation of something by electronic data. And by the way, i think Nikon's coming MX format digital SLR cameras with over 40 megapixels will certainly be better than 35mm film. I would even be surprised if their FX format which will have about 25 megapixels soon, if it wasn't better than 35mm OPTICAL film.

Anyway, the point is correct, 35mm is better than the 2 megapixels from high definition video, and certainly much better than the almost-VGA-quality, standard definition. We should be able to get at least Super-High Definition (4K) quality transfers from 35mm.

[papaholmz]

Originally Posted by Chevypower

GRRRRRRRRR Film IS NOT ANALOG!!!! It is optical. Analog is a representation of something by electronic data. And by the way, i think Nikon's coming MX format digital SLR cameras with over 40 megapixels will certainly be better than 35mm film. I would even be surprised if their FX format which will have about 25 megapixels soon, if it wasn't better than 35mm OPTICAL film.

Anyway, the point is correct, 35mm is better than the 2 megapixels from high definition video, and certainly much better than the almost-VGA-quality, standard definition. We should be able to get at least Super-High Definition (4K) quality transfers from 35mm.

My apologies. If you replace every time I used analog with optical, my point still holds true, I just used the wrong word.

-papaholmz

[Clark Kent]

One day digital cameras will pass 35mm film in resolution but that day hasn't come yet. Right now even the best HD cameras can't match accurately shot film in terms of detail.

[Kirsty_Mc]

Originally Posted by balkyboo

Hi I'm a newbee but I have a question. How is one able to make blu-ray discs of old movies with the same High Def quality as a modern movie. They didn't have high Def cameras back then. For instance, a movie such as "The Godfather" which was filmed in the 1970s is available on a blu-ray disc.

... Light blue touchpaper and stand well back!!!

... Anyway... Here goes... Most movies are shot on 35mm film, which is still higher resolution that BD... so if it's been shot on 35mm or higher and been well looked after you can (within reason) get a HD transfer from a movie going back to the dawn of the talkies and beyond.

... Here endeth the lesson.

Black Bars anyone???

[Anthony P]

What if that photo was take with a 1.2 mega pixel camera....how can you convert that into a 4.3 mega pixel picuture just by scanning it in on a high quality scanner......crap in crap out ....

but that is the problem (and the wrong way of thinking of it). In (for example) the 70's when the Godfather was filmed, there were no digital cameras and it was on film. Film can capture more detail then even BD can hold, it would also depend what film is used (70mm can hold more detail then 35mm). At some point they took that film and scanned it for DVD, the film is still there and now it was used to make the BD.

If you want to use your example film might be like having an 10 MP camera that is used to take a 10MP photo, then the person sends out an email but down converted them to 1.2 MP so he can fit more pics, One of the people responds back "my 8x10 print looks like crap" and the guy responds "I will send you a 4.3 MP file, that is the biggest I can send and it should be OK for an 8x10". Then you respond "how can you convert that into a 4.3 mega pixel picuture......crap in crap out".

Now if it was not film but VHS/betacam or a digital camera, then you would be mostly right, but even then the studio could have better devices to interpolate those extra pixels then the scaler you have at home.

[JasonR]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

One day digital cameras will pass 35mm film in resolution but that day hasn't come yet. Right now even the best HD cameras can't match accurately shot film in terms of detail.

http://www.red.com/cameras