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TCM in HD?

Watch a 1940s movie on DVD and then decide whether you would want TCM in HD. In any event, with the exception of a few CinemaScope movies from the 50s and 60s, most of what they offer would be in the 4:3 format, which means you would either have a pillar box screen or "stretch-o-vision" (picture all stretched horizontally, the way several pretend HD channels do it already). You would have to decide whether you would want your movies distorted in that way.
 
TCM has always touted that they show their movies in their original aspect ratio (OAR). I don't see why the HD version of the channel would be different.

As to old movies in HD... remember that film has much higher resolution than HD TV. TNT and TBS have both shown "The Wizard of Oz" in HD and the picture is stunning... even the sepia-tone sections---ESPECIALLY the sepia-tone sections...

I have seen many older B&W movies that have been transcribed to HD from original prints and restored including Dr. Strangelove, Judgment at Nirenberg, Seven Samurai and the picture quality difference is remarkable! HD doesn't mean 16x9 or color. HD means high definition. The shading and depth of the B&W movies transferred to HD format is awesome when done from original prints or negatives (if they still exists) and restored to pristine condition!

I say Bring it on! It would be much more welcome than AMC HD for me since I at least watch TCM!
 
Unfortunately, TCM is just upconverting their programming at the moment. They aren't expected to start showing films in actual HD quality for some time. Could be up to 2 years.
 
I agree with Tony, I just saw Judgment at Nirenberg in HD on one of the Encore channels and was transfixed by a B&W movie! It went from watching it on 'television' as I did when I first viewed it to watching it in the theater!
 
I agree with Tony, I just saw Judgment at Nirenberg in HD on one of the Encore channels, using the 24fps cinema mode on my Samsung plasma, and was transfixed by a B&W movie! It went from watching it on 'television' to watching it in the theater!
 
Max just had "The Longest Day" on in HD and 16x9. Also stunning in B/W. That is a '62 movie though.........

Ed
 
I have The Longest Day on Bluray and it looks absolutely incredible, theater like.....
 
bruin95 said:
Unfortunately, TCM is just upconverting their programming at the moment. They aren't expected to start showing films in actual HD quality for some time. Could be up to 2 years.
Click to expand...
you down convert films dude
 
bruin95 said:
Unfortunately, TCM is just upconverting their programming at the moment. They aren't expected to start showing films in actual HD quality for some time. Could be up to 2 years.
Click to expand...

juan said:
you down convert films dude
Click to expand...

Dude, the original down conversion was to 480I. Then they up convert the 480I to 1080I. That's what he is talking about. Now, when they reconstruct this they will down convert the film to 1080I.
 
bruin95 said:
Unfortunately, TCM is just upconverting their programming at the moment. They aren't expected to start showing films in actual HD quality for some time. Could be up to 2 years.
Click to expand...

Upconverted HD > overcompressed SD but your point is well made. Too may channels rush to broadcast in 'HD' when they don't have a lot of HD content. TCM should have quite a bit of HD content available to them though, shouldn't they?
 
My local TWC just announced this channel, along with 5 other HD channels Dish has yet to get. If it weren't for my 622 and my cheap Turbo Bronze pack, I'd really consider heading to cable.
 
Bobby said:
Dude, the original down conversion was to 480I. Then they up convert the 480I to 1080I. That's what he is talking about. Now, when they reconstruct this they will down convert the film to 1080I.
Click to expand...
you know this how? If they have clean masters (they do) then its no big deal
 
When you have 10s of thousands of movies that need to be redone in 1080I, it becomes a very big deal. That takes time and money, so it's going to take some time to make very movie on TCM-HD, HD....
 
Bobby said:
When you have 10s of thousands of movies that need to be redone in 1080I, it becomes a very big deal. That takes time and money, so it's going to take some time to make very movie on TCM-HD, HD....
Click to expand...
umm umm 35mm film just needs to cleaned up (they have been doing this for years) I guess you were not a big fan of VOOM
 
What part of digitizing don't you understand? TCM isn't showing you film, they are showing you a digitized version of what was on that film. The first digitization was in SD. Now they have to go back and redigitize all of the film into HD.
 
The transfers from film to video (whether HD or SD) take time and money. The "Cleaned up" part is also not as easy or quick as it sounds. If a film is being transfered without restoration (leaving pots, ticks, and scratches on both the audio and video then yes, all the film needs is a bath and a trip through the telecine converter and tada! a converted film. (this is still a relatively expensive and time consuming process)

But most films going through this process are generally "restored" or electronically cleaned up to remove blemishes, scratches, marks, ticks, lines, and age related wash-out or coloring. Take a look at a film like "The Coconuts" (1929) and compare it to "Little Lord Fontleroy" from the 30s. Both these movies show on TCM. The first has been restored and the latter has not. The difference in the quality of the video and especially audio is amazing. Restoring a film to new condition takes for-ever!!! It is an expensive time-consuming process.

The true restoration and clean-up of a film is done electronically and saved to video (not film). The films restored during the 80s and early 90s are strictly SD restorations. The HD restorations have to be done all over again. Voom showed quite a few restored and films electronically cleaned up.

Again this process is not cheap or quick. I just wish that the HD restoration of "The Days the Earth Stood Still" could have been shown on Voom's Monsters before Dish Pulled the plug!

See ya
Tony
 
If it is already been converted to Blu-Ray then the film has gone thru the conversion process. Other than those all the others will still need the work done.
 
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