How can you tell what is upconverted on VOOM?

[gutter]

I just wanted a clarification on what is up-converted and what is not.

On the VOOM descriptions. is the following True?

Produced and Presented in High Definition = True HD

Presented in High Definition= up-converted from a non-HD source to HD so not True HD but Wide Screen.

I am asking not saying that is correct. Just want to understand and may explain more what we are seeing or not seeing. PBSHD shows a lot of material that is not HD but up-converted from SD or 480P. Is that also true of VOOM?

It may be on here but I have not scene a translation of what VOOM descriptions mean.

Not looking for an argument just a clarification.

 

[gutter]

bump

 

[Sean Mota]

You need to make a distinction with the Upconvert.


Upconvert means that you have taken a 480i source and up the resolution to 1080i or 720p or 480p without any process in between. This, of course, is not True HD. You could see samples of this on TNT-HD, Some Showtime movies and Some Starz-Movies. Now, Starz-HD upconvertion and Showtime seems to be better than TNT-HD. They both take a DVD quality movie and upconvert to 1080i.

True HD comes from three sources:

1 - HD video. (For Example HDnews and a lot of stuff on HDnet)
2 - 35mm Film HD Transfers
3 - 16mm Film HD Transfers.


All three processes are considered True HD. Both 35mm and 16mm Films have higher resolution than 1080i or 720p. Therefore, these HD transfers goes through a process that maintains details and cleans the films to True HD (1080i or 720p). Also, lost in this is the OAR of the film. Every film should be transferd in its OAR. Currently the majority of movies of HD Cinema are not. That may change.

 

[gutter]

Thanks Sean,

I knew most of that already. Want I was looking for was a translation of what the various descriptions mean at the beginning of the movie or on the program description. Such as Presented in High Definition vs produced in High Definition, Originally produced on 35mm film and transfered to 1080I. They don't all necessarily mean original source was HD. Equator is another good example. Just says, presented in HD not produced and presented in had, which I would take to mean shot with HD cameras and presented in HD. Equator still has a lot of simmering in the details and that makes be suspicious of the origination.

 

[Sean Mota]

The various series you see on Equator-HD: Eye Over or elsewhere were all shot (or most of it - I do not want to say all since I haven't seen them all) with HD cameras.

here's the webisite for the elsewhere series: http://www.elsewhere.at/

The "shimmering" or "mosquito noise" you see is a compression artifact and it probably has nothing to do with original. Now I am not saying this as with confidence because there also could be problems in the production of HD content that can cause some problems. I think this problems in equator HD resembles what we saw when our PBS-HD channels started multicasting and therefore the bandwith was lowered for the HD channel. This is my best guess.

As to other, it is hard to say. For example, films HD transfers 35mm get better with the transfer but if the master is in bad condition (temperature, storage, etc), the HD transfer will not hide all how bad the master was. Also, grainy is something that is added to the HD film transfers and whoever is doing this procedure tries to minimize as much as possible. Sometimes a whole 35mm film, you would only see three or four grainy moments. In other 35mm film transfer, you will see a lot. That I attribute more to the condition of the master.

16mm films has less resolution when transfers to HD. We saw this last year with the NFL game of the week. Most of these games introduced a lot of grainy. Some will argue (including the NFL) that 16mm film is as good as 35mm film.

 

[Sean Mota]

Sorry I meant to say one thing. If it comes from 35mm film and the hd transfer was done. Yes it is HD.

 

[gutter]

Sean...thanks. would be nice if VOOM discussed this more in one of their future newsletters too. So we have a better idea of what these terms mean. By the way, the new software is nice. Seems that it uses the orginal mapping as before withthe ability to just add more stations non in the map. The frustrating thing is when you add a station in one direction and turn the rotor to add another and the first one seems like it was deleted.

 

[Sean Mota]

Sean...thanks. would be nice if VOOM discussed this more in one of their future newsletters too. So we have a better idea of what these terms mean. By the way, the new software is nice. Seems that it uses the orginal mapping as before withthe ability to just add more stations non in the map. The frustrating thing is when you add a station in one direction and turn the rotor to add another and the first one seems like it was deleted.

Yes, that's a bug on 6.0. It will be rectified in the next version.