Phantom Menace dvd EE observation (1 Viewer)

[Dave Mack]

I know, Scott.

 

[Dave Mack]

Yes, Oscar. And the sound is Compressed to h*ll...!
Hey, I just thought of something. When Lucas tweaks episode 4 again for DVD, is he gonna dub in a line about "midichlorians" when Luke asks Ben about The Force???
D

 

[Derek Miner]

Now, I'm sure that Fox is using a 3/4" tape master for Broadcast

I'd be willing to bet they're using 1/2" Digital Betacam tapes.

 

[Dave Mack]

Quite possibly, Derek. I just meant that they most likely aren't using some P+S DVD. I've now watched over 2 hours and the lack of EE is tremendous. Wow. They really missed the boat on the DVD picture-wise with this film.
D

 

[Derek Miner]

I'd like to clarify some issues here as I work with broadcast masters on a daily basis.

I only distinguished between 3/4" tape and Digital Betacam because that's a huge difference. Some 3/4" tapes barely look beter than VHS.

since it IS fullscreen, the transfer operator, supervisor didn't feel the need to add any. Or it is some Mpeg2, digital phenomenon thing...

Digital tapes use constant, rather than variable, compression. Digital Betacam has a (constant) bitrate of 50 Mbps compared to the approximate (variable) 10 Mbps of DVD.

There's also a pretty decent chance that the broadcast master of Episode I is sourced from the same "transfer" as the DVD. The common practice today would be to create a high definition archive version, which is then downconverted to NTSC letterbox, NTSC pan and scan, NTSC 16x9, etc.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

and perhaps since it IS fullscreen, the transfer operator, supervisor didn't feel the need to add any.

Yes Yes Yes!!!

 

[Dave Mack]

Well, technical quibbles aside, My point is that the scenes on the DVD in question which "appear" to exhibit halos, or EE or WHATEVER you want to call them, did NOT seem to have this problem on the broadcast. That's all! Enough said! Pic looked GREAT, (Albeit P+S) on Fox.
So, what was the problem then re: said phenomena on DVD...?
Something to chew on...
D