Sherlock Jr Review

[bigshot]

In his review of the upcoming bluray of Sherlock Jr, Casey Broadwater unfairly criticizes the transfer of The Three Ages because it is presented in 1080i, not 1080p. In the early days of film, movies were shot at non-standard frame rates. The bluray format is capable of presenting standard frame rates (24, 25, 30 fps) without interlacing, but if a video producer masters at a non standard rate (say a variable speed from 17 to 20fps), the only way to play that back on bluray is to interlace it up to 24 fps.

The fact that the transfer of Three Ages is interlaced is a GOOD thing. It shows that the transfer engineers were paying attention to presenting the film at the proper speed.

Also, combing artifacts are a result of improper handling of fields in interlaced video, it isn't inherent in all interlaced video. At speed, properly interlaced video is perfectly smooth and all of the frames and fields are being displayed.

The reviewer might want to do a little research into the particular challenges of transferring silent film if he wants to do a good job of reviewing silent releases.