[rollei_list] Re: OT - HDTV, was Turbines
- From: Bernard <bernard_cousineau@xxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 09:46:35 -0500
> That sounds apocraphal to me. The early NHK-Sony HDTV
> system was pretty good. Ran demos of it against 35mm film
> with a couple of variations. It did look just about as good
> as the film where the original material was film. The live
> cameras of the time had a lot of problems which have since
> been dealt with but, at the time, it was pretty easy to spot
> material from them. Also, Sony did not have a video tape
> recorder capable of the bandwidth necessary for the full
> 1050 line system. Again, this is no problem now.
Motion picture post-production is typically done at 2K (roughly twice HDTV's
resolution) or 4K if the budget is available. 6K telecines are starting to
become available, but they are not yet mainstream. This is the case even if the
final product is a standard-def DVD.
> Motion picture film has not gotten that much better but
> HDTV has. Unfortunately, the current digital systems allow a
> compromise between bandwidth and attendant picture quality,
> and the number of channels which can be carried on a cable
> or satellite system. I say unfortunately because the
> business heads of the various broadcast/cable companies have
> chosen to transmit poor quality video as HD. Much of what
> you see is very highly compressed digitally and shows
> typical motion artifacts and other artifacts. DirecTV in
> particular, has chosen to compress its video to the point
> where it looks like EP VHS to me. Since we originate HD at
> Fox (720P) I have a pretty good idea of what the format is
> capable of when done right. It is all too often done wrong
> and that will eventually kill HD for cable or satellite use
> if there isn't a great deal of better material made
> available.
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
Other related posts:
