UFO HDTV frame capture

Hi all,

Just got some of the HD UFO episodes from Family Room HD.
As suspected, the colors are a bit dull compared to the
DVDs -- in that respect, the HDTV versions are closer
to the previous releases. The resolution is obviously
better however, even though the channel is not broadcasting
full HDTV.

Here is a raw frame capture showing an example of the
quality. I've done no aspect ratio correction here --
this is the 1280 x 1080 resolution that is being
broadcast. The cable box would then scale it to
16:9 (1080 x 1920, 720 x 1280, etc.):

http://ufoseries.com/temp/killstraker.png

Marc

Hi all,

I've updated my UFO HDTV page with a comparison showing
differences in image area and resolution:

http://ufoseries.com/hdtv

I'll be adding some more comparisons later...

Marc

Thanks, Marc! Very interesting look. I personally don't like the cropping for 16:9. Is the caption for the lower left screen cap correct?

Jeff

Marc Martin <[hidden email]> wrote:
Hi all,

I've updated my UFO HDTV page with a comparison showing
differences in image area and resolution:

http://ufoseries.com/hdtv

I'll be adding some more comparisons later...

Marc





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Jeffrey Nelson wrote:
> Thanks, Marc! Very interesting look. I personally don't like the cropping
> for 16:9. Is the caption for the lower left screen cap correct?

You mean the part where the DVD close-up is labeled "upscaled to full HDTV"?

I'll explain what this is, and perhaps someone can come up with a better
label? I took a frame capture from the PAL DVD (width = 720 pixels,
height = 576 pixels). Then I upscaled it to a width = 1920 pixels,
height = 1440 pixels using an image editing program. This simulates
what would be seen if someone was watching the UFO DVDs on an HDTV
(with the HDTV zooming in so that the image is in widescreen). To
me, this a fair comparison of the resolution between the DVD and
HDTV version. The HDTV version obviously has more resolution.
Unfortunately, as you will see in future comparisons, the DVDs
are often better in areas other than resolution (contrast,
brightness, color saturation, hue).

Marc

MUST admit, I ve never liked 16x9 that they are
trying to push down our throats
Its ok in the cinema, but not for home TV
when I get a new comp Ill go for a 4x3 screen
(if they re still available ! )

Jeffrey Nelson <[hidden email]> wrote:
Thanks, Marc! Very interesting look. I personally don't like the cropping for 16:9. Is the caption for the lower left screen cap correct?

Jeff

Marc Martin <[hidden email]> wrote:
Hi all,

I've updated my UFO HDTV page with a comparison showing
differences in image area and resolution:

http://ufoseries.com/hdtv

I'll be adding some more comparisons later...

Marc

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]







Tim
Yahoo E Mail
Scanned by Norton









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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Yes, that was what I was referring to. Now I understand. Thanks for the help! : )

Jeff

Marc Martin <[hidden email]> wrote:
Jeffrey Nelson wrote:
> Thanks, Marc! Very interesting look. I personally don't like the cropping
> for 16:9. Is the caption for the lower left screen cap correct?

You mean the part where the DVD close-up is labeled "upscaled to full HDTV"?

I'll explain what this is, and perhaps someone can come up with a better
label? I took a frame capture from the PAL DVD (width = 720 pixels,
height = 576 pixels). Then I upscaled it to a width = 1920 pixels,
height = 1440 pixels using an image editing program. This simulates
what would be seen if someone was watching the UFO DVDs on an HDTV
(with the HDTV zooming in so that the image is in widescreen). To
me, this a fair comparison of the resolution between the DVD and
HDTV version. The HDTV version obviously has more resolution.
Unfortunately, as you will see in future comparisons, the DVDs
are often better in areas other than resolution (contrast,
brightness, color saturation, hue).

Marc





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Widescreen has it's place, and 4:3 has it's place. I prefer whatever is shown, to be shown in it's original aspect ratio. Wanting to watch EVERYTHING in 4:3 is just stone-aged thinking, in a way. : )

Jeff

Tim <[hidden email]> wrote:
MUST admit, I ve never liked 16x9 that they are
trying to push down our throats
Its ok in the cinema, but not for home TV
when I get a new comp Ill go for a 4x3 screen
(if they re still available ! )

Jeffrey Nelson <[hidden email]> wrote:
Thanks, Marc! Very interesting look. I personally don't like the cropping for 16:9. Is the caption for the lower left screen cap correct?

Jeff

Marc Martin <[hidden email]> wrote:
Hi all,

I've updated my UFO HDTV page with a comparison showing
differences in image area and resolution:

http://ufoseries.com/hdtv

I'll be adding some more comparisons later...

Marc

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Tim
Yahoo E Mail
Scanned by Norton


---------------------------------
Get easy, one-click access to your favorites. Make Yahoo! your homepage.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi all,

Here is the UFO opening sequence from "Family Room HD"
converted to Windows Media:

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

You'll probably need to download the entire file
to your computer to get uninterrupted playback.

On the channel, this is 1280 x 1080 interlaced MPEG-2
running at 30 frames/sec with a size of 100 MB.
This WMV version is 1280 x 720, deinterlaced, and
reverse telecined to 24 frames/sec with a size of
20 MB.

The broadcast (and this WMV) has a fairly sizable
black area at the bottom of the picture... I guess
I should have removed that cropped that (sigh)

Marc

I think it looks good.

Steve wrote:
> I think it looks good.

I've just replaced that with a 30MB version, which
eliminates the black borders around the edges.

Never have the Alien's eye looked so bloodshot... :-)

Marc

Wow, so clear and bright.
Thanks Marc;
Steve Christensen

>
> I've just replaced that with a 30MB version, which
> eliminates the black borders around the edges.
>

Steve wrote:
> Wow, so clear and bright.

Not all episodes are so fortunate, however -- the opening sequence
for THE CAT WITH TEN LIVES looks terrible... in fact, the whole
episode looks terrible. There is a lack of consistency in these
transfers... sometimes they look good, sometimes they don't...

I will be posting comparisons later...

Marc

--- In [hidden email], Marc Martin <marc@...> wrote:
> Not all episodes are so fortunate, however -- the opening sequence
> for THE CAT WITH TEN LIVES looks terrible... in fact, the whole
> episode looks terrible. There is a lack of consistency in these
> transfers... sometimes they look good, sometimes they don't...
>
> I will be posting comparisons later...
>
> Marc
>
Thanks for the comparisons Marc. It is very interesting to see. Is
there usually a specific reason that there would be a "lack of
consistency" in the transfers? (i.e. is it man or machine that is to
blame for something like that?)
Lorraine

> Thanks for the comparisons Marc. It is very interesting to see. Is
> there usually a specific reason that there would be a "lack of
> consistency" in the transfers? (i.e. is it man or machine that is to
> blame for something like that?)

Well, I think we can always blame it on "human error". We should
recall that UFO has had a long history on video, and for most
of it there has been inconsistent quality from episode to episode.
The DVD release was the first time we've seen consistently good
quality throughout. These HDTV broadcasts simply bring us back to
where we were before -- some episodes look fine, other not. In
the case of THE CAT WITH TEN LIVES, I can only hope that something
got botched at the channel, because the DVD looks far better...

Marc