[rollei_list] Re: OT - HDTV, was Turbines

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bernard" <bernard_cousineau@xxxxxxxx>
To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2005 6:46 AM
Subject: [rollei_list] Re: OT - HDTV, was Turbines


>
> I am always amazed, when I go to an edit suite, to see 
> just how good video can
> be. Even S-VHS can look a lot better than anything you can 
> get from cable or
> satellite at home. If I recall, Fox's preference was to 
> stay with standard def
> and work on getting a better quality signal into people's 
> homes, but they were
> in the minority.
> HDTV is a lot like the megapixel wars for digicams. People 
> assume that higher
> resolution means better quality, which is not necessarily 
> the case. Most
> consumers would assume that 1080i is better than 720p, for 
> instance.
>
> Bernard
>

   I agree. What I see in the network plant is much better 
than what gets on the air, at least in normal broadcast 
transmission. A large part of this is seeing video on good 
monitors with fine pitch tubes.
   Fox has been transmitting standard definition digital to 
our affiliates as a temporary measure until the plant is 
converted to HD. We are now sending out a substantial amount 
of programming in 720P digital. This includes NFL football. 
The Super Bowl will be carried in HD by stations with 
digital capability. We are currntly in the processes of 
converting the plant which requires replacing a very large 
amount of the equipment, essentially everything. This is an 
enormous amount of work. There are construction crews 
working every day. Feeds to some cable systems are still 
converntional although we discontinued our last analogue 
satellite channel some months ago. Most of our material is 
stored on hard disc systems but we have tape as backup and 
for inputting original material. We have a large number of 
specially built JVC S-VHS machines (four channel sound) 
which are secondary backup for network to redundant disc 
servers. The quality is quite amazing. Cable origination is 
partly from disc arrays and partly from digital tape, mostly 
Sony A500 type machines. We are the last of the networks to 
convert to HD and are trying to do it right and to learn 
from the mistakes of others.
   My comment about motion pictures was as to the quality of 
the film, not the transfers, which I agree are much better 
than in the past. The quality of the picture shown in motion 
picture theaters has IMO gone down due to the increased 
number of generations between camera originals and release 
prints and other factors. If you ever have the opportunity 
to seen original release prints of films made in the 1940's 
and 1950's you will be amazed at their sharpness and 
clarity. The same for seeing a work print from current 
stuff. It makes current release prints look like they are 
being viewed through ground glass. Oh, well, just another 
case of business interfering with art.

---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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