HDTV page update

Hi all,

I've updated my "UFO in HDTV" page, which now
shows examples of:

- widescreen framing, when it works fine
- the bad transfer for THE CAT WITH TEN LIVES
- the lack of sepia-tint on THE LONG SLEEP flashbacks

Also, all of the original comparisons have been
enlarged a bit:

http://ufoseries.com/hdtv

Marc

Marc Martin wrote:

Hey, cool, thanks. It's neat to see the difference.

I have HDTV (only 1080i though) but most shows are still SD and my TV is
set to stretch to width. So people look wider, which is fine by me since
my own middle-age middle doesn't look so bad in comparison.

Unfortunately I do eventually have to go out into the big blue room and
confront the reality that I now look like I'm 8 months along. That
reminds me, gotta buy more vertically striped shirts and pants.

Paul

>> Also, all of the original comparisons have been
>> enlarged a bit:
>>
>> http://ufoseries.com/hdtv
>
> Hey, cool, thanks. It's neat to see the difference.

I should note that in watching the HDTV versions, I have
noted the following:

-- some of the footage looks crystal clear, while
other parts are grainy. I'm suspecting that
for the "stock footage" shots, there is extra
grain here because the duped footage had extra
grain to start with. (note that for the DVD's,
they electronically replaced the stock footage
with the original footage to improve the quality).

-- I find myself noticing little details that I
never noticed before... the labeling on
a piece of electronics, or an "extra" actor
in the background that I'd never noticed before.

-- The special effects are less convincing... you
can now see the models wobbling on their strings,
and the models are more obviously... models! Of
course, with the increased resolution you can
better appreciate the modelwork.

-- The 16:9 framing works most of the time. It's
only during extreme closeups that I find it
distracting.

-- I don't think the color correction is as good or
as consistent as it was with the DVDs. Probably
most people wouldn't notice this unless you
were presented with side-by-side comparisons.
Or they'd be too impressed by the increased
resolution to notice that some other aspect
of the picture isn't quite as good.

Marc

Hi Marc,


Thanks for the comparison frame captures and opening sequence :-)

Imho the difference in definition is obvious, particularly with text
such as the teleprinter, although overall the video clip seems rather
dark compared to the DVD. The pseudo surround is - er -
interesting; I burst out laughing when at the end, as the
interceptors fire missiles in quick succession, the sound alternates
from left to right..!! ;-D

The BBC team responsible for restoring the DVDs completely re-built
the opening sequence shot-by-shot using as far as possible the
original footage taken from the episodes, because the original title
sequence used several generation copies, therefore suffered from loss
of quality (info source "Complete UFO"). I felt the shots in the
HD opening sequence taken from episodes didn't look as sharp as those
that obviously don't appear in an episode, such as the
teleprinter and so on, so when I re-read this, I wondered if this
might be why? :-/



> -- The 16:9 framing works most of the time. It's
> only during extreme closeups that I find it
> distracting.

I think I have to agree with you and others on the 16:9 - shame that
they've done this to it :-(

 
> -- I don't think the color correction is as good or
> as consistent as it was with the DVDs. Probably
> most people wouldn't notice this unless you
> were presented with side-by-side comparisons.
> Or they'd be too impressed by the increased
> resolution to notice that some other aspect
> of the picture isn't quite as good.

> The BBC team responsible for restoring the DVDs completely re-built
> the opening sequence shot-by-shot using as far as possible the
> original footage taken from the episodes, because the original title
> sequence used several generation copies, therefore suffered from loss
> of quality (info source "Complete UFO"). I felt the shots in the
> HD opening sequence taken from episodes didn't look as sharp as those
> that obviously don't appear in an episode, such as the
> teleprinter and so on, so when I re-read this, I wondered if this
> might be why? :-/

Could be. Rebuilding the opening sequence goes above & beyond what
would normally be done during a film transfer, so it probably wasn't
done for the HDTV version. Likewise, on the DVD's the stock footage
shots were electronically replaced with the original footage from the
earlier episodes to improve quality. I doubt that this was done for
the HDTV versions, as the stock footage shots are more grainy.

> Re. "TLS" and the lack of sepia, do you think they deliberately
> changed this to B&W, because sepia is such an "old-fashioned" effect,

I wonder if the colourist even knew that it was *supposed* to be
sepia? It could simply be an error... working with the original
negatives means that the colourist has to recreate some of the
effects that are done when making prints (like turning down the
brightness in the day-for-night shots)

> One again, many thanks Marc for all your efforts :-) Would love to
> see a clip from an episode, don't know if you were planning on doing
> one? :-)

I wasn't, but since you asked, here's one: :-)

http://ufoseries.com/hdtv/sheep.wmv

In this clip, it's easier to spot Ed's eyeliner and crooked teeth,
plus the various members of the film crew are more noticeable, plus
you can read the "Rum" label on Ed's mini-bar... also you can see
that the 16:9 framing works just fine in some scenes, while during
the closeups it would be better to see the full frame.

Marc