I begin to see movies from the 80's and not to talk about King Kong from the 30's in HD and Blueray editions as 1080*. How is this possible, this films where not taped with HD-cameras the technoligy wasn't even invented. So how can they be manufactored in 1080*.
Even if they are in 1080* will newer movies still be better in 1080*?

digital enhancements???

Like taking a black and white movie and make it color. That never took off either. CC would remember that.

Fresh transfers can be made from any film, if they still have the film. Sometimes, high-res video masters may also exist that can simply be re-mastered for HD.

That said, it doesn't mean that the studio has actually gone to the trouble to do any of that. Many of the really old B/W films have already been re-mastered as part of film preservation projects, so high res masters do exist. Casablanca is one example.

What resolution the original video/film transfers are in is anyone's guess, and probably varies a lot. The studios are infamous for leaving these details out of any documentation or package blurbs, so there's really no way to know what you're getting until you view it.

Hi

I see a lot of older movies in HD on Monster HD, HD Net, World HD

and even The Thunderbirds TV series from the 60's

On the Voom Network

Many were filmed in 35mm widescreen

And they look dam good too!


JohnnyJT
South Philly

I saw what you all were discussing and I thought I'd post a link to THIS THREAD over at Highdefforum.com. More specifically, look at post(s) #5 & #7 (and the link in post #7). It has some interesting info.

Evidently a 35mm shot easily has enough resolution for HD.

Yes, programs on 35mm film will resolve at least 4K resolution, which is 4096 pixels by 3112 pixels.... this is quite a bit greater than HD at 1920 by 1080. In fact, many older movies were shot with fine grain 50 speed film which resolves more definition than modern movies which generally use 500 speed to allow for lower light situations. If you've ever watched older movies and wondered why it looks like bright light is shining in the actors' faces, it's because it takes a LOT of light to expose 50 speed film inside on a sound stage!

Here is a link to the Sound and Vision Magazine website where they have a full article up about the restoration process of the 1982 film Blade Runner. They go over the whole process that the film goes thru before hitting the shelves on Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. Just like Dalen Quaice said in his post, everything is scanned to 4K.

Thanks [H]itman, I enjoy reading it.