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Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

post #1 of 33
2/25/09 at 1:03pm
Thread Starter 
I was looking at the CBS/Paramount syndication site and it lists old shows and their HD status (whether they've been transferred to HD yet). It seems like a growing percentage of (mostly very popular) shows have been transferred thus far. Here's a short list:

Andy Griffith Show
Becker (episodes 24 and up)
Beverly Hillbillies (seasons 2 & 3 only)
Bonanza (only a few episodes so far)
Cheers
Diagnosis Murder (seasons 7-9 only)
Dynasty (seasons 2 & 3 so far)
Enterprise
Frasier (only season 10 & 11)
Girlfriends (seasons 3 and up)
Gomer Pyle
Gunsmoke (partial)
Happy Days (partial)
Hawaii 5-0 (about half the series so far)
Hogan's Heroes
I Love Lucy
Jag (seasons 5 up)
Laverne & Shirley
Love, American Style (season one only)
The Love Boat (seasons 1-5)
Mannix (seasons 1-6)
Mission Impossible
Mork & Mindy (after half the series)
The Odd Couple
Perry Mason (partial)
Petticoat Junction (partial)
Rawhide (seasons 1-3)
Twin Peaks
The Untouchables (seasons 1-2)
Wild, Wild West (seasons 2-4)


The list above of shows that have been transferred to HD for broadcast purposes is growing every time I log onto that site. So...don't you think it's about time that all their hard work went into producing these shows on BluRay?
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post #2 of 33
2/25/09 at 1:24pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Universal HD has been broadcasting Hogan's Heroes in HD. However, the image is zoomed and cropped to eliminate the side pillarbox bars. Does anyone know if this is how the show was transferred to HD video, or if this cropping is just being done by the network? If it's inherent in the transfer, I would have zero interest in purchasing such a product.

That is my fear with any old TV show -- that it will not be presented in its OAR.
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post #3 of 33
2/25/09 at 1:26pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

As much as I'd like to see some, I doubt that the market is close to mature enough at this point, and probably won't be for a year or two.
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post #4 of 33
2/25/09 at 1:28pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Quote:
Cheers

I'm all for the TV on BD industy growing quickly, but I just finshed acquiring that series on DVD
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post #5 of 33
2/25/09 at 1:47pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott Merryfield
Universal HD has been broadcasting Hogan's Heroes in HD. However, the image is zoomed and cropped to eliminate the side pillarbox bars. Does anyone know if this is how the show was transferred to HD video, or if this cropping is just being done by the network? If it's inherent in the transfer, I would have zero interest in purchasing such a product.

That is my fear with any old TV show -- that it will not be presented in its OAR.

Here's what the Paramount site says about the Hogan's transfers:

"This series has been transferred into HD and has the following masters:

Network 4x3 HD

Network 16x9 HD

Syndication 4x3 HD

Syndication 16x9 HD"

In other words, there are both cropped versions and OAR versions of Hogan's. (I think that network vs. syndication versions refer to shorter, edited versions vs. original longer edited versions).

Anyway, so far in the world of tv-on-dvd, very few series releases have suffered from cropped versions on the dvds. So...I do hope that the OARs will make it to BR in all cases. At any rate, we can see from this chart that Hogan's is available in a HD/OAR version.
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post #6 of 33
2/25/09 at 3:02pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ethan Riley
Anyway, so far in the world of tv-on-dvd, very few series releases have suffered from cropped versions on the dvds. So...I do hope that the OARs will make it to BR in all cases.
Okay, but what's the OAR for Babylon 5?
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post #7 of 33
2/25/09 at 3:10pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott Merryfield
Universal HD has been broadcasting Hogan's Heroes in HD. However, the image is zoomed and cropped to eliminate the side pillarbox bars. Does anyone know if this is how the show was transferred to HD video, or if this cropping is just being done by the network? If it's inherent in the transfer, I would have zero interest in purchasing such a product.

That is my fear with any old TV show -- that it will not be presented in its OAR.

Yes I DVR'd a bunch of them and saw the same disturbing thing.
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post #8 of 33
2/25/09 at 3:50pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Enterprise was in HD from the beginning, so what needs transferring?
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post #9 of 33
2/25/09 at 5:32pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

The Twilight Zone was also remastered in HD except for the six episodes shot on video like Night of the Meek.
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post #10 of 33
2/28/09 at 10:35am

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Oh, man. I'm with you there Ethan. There's a ton of classic TV shows that I'd love to see get a BD release. Off of that list I'd pick-up: Cheers, Enterprise, Diagnosis Murder and Twin Peaks.
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post #11 of 33
2/28/09 at 11:52pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

If they're just going to do the same thing to the music and closing logos as they did to the shows on DVD, count me out.

However, I will definitely repurchase many shows if the sins committed on DVD are rectified on BD (Editing, suspect transfer quality)
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post #12 of 33
3/1/09 at 9:19am

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

re: Cheers
Quote:
Originally Posted by WillG
I'm all for the TV on BD industy growing quickly, but I just finshed acquiring that series on DVD
Me too, but the seasons I might be interested in would be 10 and 11.

Season 10: As long as they got the rights to put back the music they replaced (or just plain cut).

Season 11: As long as they cleaned up the final (3 part) episode. The transfer on some of the scenes was pretty bad and blurry.
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post #13 of 33
3/1/09 at 12:02pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Twin Peaks couldn't come soon enough, if you'd ask me. Still, there's only rumors about the BD release.
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post #14 of 33
3/1/09 at 2:04pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

It's not just the OAR, it's also the actual original resolution.

If the show wasn't shot on film but on NTSC format video media (e.g. tape), there's no logic whatsoever to transfer it to BD. It would only make it more expensive to buy, because your BD player can do the same job of upconverting for free.


Cees
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post #15 of 33
3/1/09 at 3:09pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

But it was shot on 35mm, so it should look better than the dvds already out. Of course they'd have to maintain the proper aspect ratio, but I trust Paramount with that.
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post #16 of 33
3/1/09 at 3:25pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Brian,

You're referring to Twins Peaks?

BTW, my post was not meant in direct reply to yours immediately above it, but a remark about older TV shows in general and the wisdom of wanting those on BD.


Cees
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post #17 of 33
3/1/09 at 3:32pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Oh, yes, I was referring to Twin Peaks. Sorry for the confusion .
But you're right, older shows shot on video wouldn't benefit from a BD release. Or maybe they'd take advantage of the fact that more episodes could fit on one disc? Otherwise it wouldn't make sense to me.
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post #18 of 33
3/1/09 at 5:14pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

There's a Walt Disney Presents TV episode in HD on the Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray if anyone is interesting in seeing how classic TV shows will look.

I always wondered, were TV shows shot on film shot at 24fps or 30fps?
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post #19 of 33
3/1/09 at 6:21pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie O.
I always wondered, were TV shows shot on film shot at 24fps or 30fps?
24 FPS. Or at least Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica (the original) were.
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post #20 of 33
3/1/09 at 7:25pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Borst
Or maybe they'd take advantage of the fact that more episodes could fit on one disc? Otherwise it wouldn't make sense to me.
I don't see studios doing that for quite a while, if ever, because it would be confusing to market to the average consumer.

J6P: "Hey, look - Perfect Strangers on Blu-ray High Definition!"

Best Buy employee: "Yep - the whole first season on one disc!"

Overhearing HTF enthusiast: "That's because they're in SD."

J6P: "But it's on Blu-ray."

HTF: "The disc is Blu-ray, but it's on there in standard definition."

BBE: "It is?"

HTF: "Look at the specs on the back."

J6P: ".....but it's on Blu-ray."

BBE: "Only $29.95."

J6P: "I'll take it! Can't wait to see how good it looks."

HTF: "It won't look better than DVD."

BBE: "Dude, it's Blu-ray."

J6P: "Yeah. Blu-ray. That means High Def. Mind your own business."

HTF: *sigh* "Whatever."
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post #21 of 33
3/1/09 at 8:02pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brandon Conway
I don't see studios doing that for quite a while, if ever, because it would be confusing to market to the average consumer.
One British studio already did it with Life on Mars. (Though there will also be the added quality from using a better codec than MPEG-2.)
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post #22 of 33
3/2/09 at 7:38am

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

^^ Yeah. I was thinking that even though it's SD, the MP4 codec should make it look better, right?

Kinda like MP3 @ 128k vs. AAC @ 128k and someone thinking: "They're both the same data rate, so they'll both sound the same"
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post #23 of 33
3/2/09 at 8:41am

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie O.
I always wondered, were TV shows shot on film shot at 24fps or 30fps?
Unless for some strange special reason, film destined for television is shot in the standard 24 frames per second. Unfortunately, a lot of shows from the 80s and 90s were transferred to tape before editing, so they would need to go find all the film and do new edits to bump those up to HD.

I'm curious if there's ever been an experiment of cranking up a camera to 30 fps and transferring that to video to see what it looks like?
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post #24 of 33
3/2/09 at 12:13pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brandon Conway
I don't see studios doing that for quite a while, if ever, because it would be confusing to market to the average consumer.

Eventually, it will happen, because not all shows were shot on film.
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post #25 of 33
3/2/09 at 1:37pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Derek Miner
I'm curious if there's ever been an experiment of cranking up a camera to 30 fps and transferring that to video to see what it looks like?

Some filmed segments on The Kids In The Hall were shot 30fps. Pretty much looks like 24fps to me.
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post #26 of 33
3/2/09 at 1:57pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cees Alons
It's not just the OAR, it's also the actual original resolution.

If the show wasn't shot on film but on NTSC format video media (e.g. tape), there's no logic whatsoever to transfer it to BD. It would only make it more expensive to buy, because your BD player can do the same job of upconverting for free.


Cees

Right. No sense whatsoever to releasing DARK SHADOWS or ALL IN THE FAMILY in HD, since they only have video resolution (or in DS' case, sometimes only Kinescopes survive, which is even worse).
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post #27 of 33
3/2/09 at 2:22pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cees Alons
there's no logic whatsoever to transfer it to BD. It would only make it more expensive to buy, because your BD player can do the same job of upconverting for free.
Do all BD players have the same SD upconverting capabilities (as far as quality goes)? If not, then there's some logic.
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post #28 of 33
3/2/09 at 3:24pm

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Perhaps, but my logic included the notion "for free".


Cees
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post #29 of 33
3/3/09 at 2:26am

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Zimmer
Right. No sense whatsoever to releasing DARK SHADOWS or ALL IN THE FAMILY in HD, since they only have video resolution (or in DS' case, sometimes only Kinescopes survive, which is even worse).

Yes there is. At 480i resolution and with the more efficient codecs, a BD can fit far more episodes on one disc than a DVD can. Saving physical space on one's shelf is a plus, especially with the former show which has over 1,000 episodes.
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post #30 of 33
3/3/09 at 9:05am

Re: Older TV Shows in HD!!! It's time...

Having bought them all, I'm not going to repurchase them to save a little shelf space. I question whether anyone who didn't buy them originally would do so now because it's a bit less shelf space. Maybe they would, but enough to cover the expense of shifting them to BD?
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