DVD -What are they 480i ? 480p ?

[kramden66]

What exactly are dvds ? some look nice when upconverted to 1080 but some don't , the ones that don't are usualy the ones that if you play them on a regular dvd player and zoom 2x the image doesn't look that good , its pixelated where others you can zoom 2x and they look nice , those look well upconverted , an example would be hawaii five-o season one looks bad when zoomed up but seasons 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 etc all look nice , you can even notice on an analog set a slight difference in the video quality on those that fall apart when zoomed and those that don't and your not zooming , so why is this ?
my brother says its probably because the ones that look bad on 2x zoom are interlaced and the ones that aren't are progressive scan , i say its because its not taken from a high def master , thats my guess , so what is the real story here ? you guys would know.

mike

[lnx64]

They are technically 480i, but a properly mastered DVD can flag which frame is complete and which is not, thus progressive scan is easy, if it's film content.

If it's TV show content from old tapes and not film, it won't have those complete flags because it's not film and reverse telecine not easy to do on a cheap player (some can though).

If it's video content though, it just won't have a complete frame unless it's 30fps..

[Eric H]

I
m guessing the first season was mastered from a tape transfer they had lying around, the other seasons were probably remastered from the original negatives or a good 35 mm print.

I really hate that they taped so many shows in the 70's & 80's, now they look like crap when they are on DVD, well actually they looked like crap when they first aired too, they had that Daytime Soap Opera look.

[kramden66]

the fist season is remastered but just not as clean , like it was less resolution causing pixelation when zoomed on.

mike

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by kramden66

the fist season is remastered but just not as clean , like it was less resolution causing pixelation when zoomed on.

mike

The question is, remastered from what? If it wasn't the original Negative or at least a good quality 35mm print then quality will suffer.

Also if they used compression to fit more episodes on fewer discs the result will be the same.

Some companies do a better job of mastering than others, perhaps after the first season they weren't happy with the results and found someone who could do the job better.

[Eric H]

Just took a look at Season one, it does look a little compressed when played on a standard DVD player, it looks a lot better in a Bluray player being upconverted, either way it's still quite a good image if you don't zoom it.

There's some interesting information on Wiki about DVD Bitrates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Video#Data_rate

It's interesting to note that season two has the same number of episodes but one less disc (yet you say it looks better, I haven't looked at it yet.) so i doubt they had to compress it much on season one.

[Eric H]

Never mind, I see there's a featurette on season one that isn't on season two, that would explain the extra disc.

[kramden66]

the first season is from 35mm negatives with the exception of one episode , looks like a positive , seasons 2 , 3 etc are also from 35mm negatives , however still in the dark as to why the first isn't as nice as the second , perhaps the way the films were mastered to the digital format ? again my brother says its because one is interlaced and the other progressive but why would you in 2012 / 2013 still use something that isn't as good ? maybe its what i said and its just not from a hi def master , take the star treks , the first ones on dvd were like that when you zoom up they look bad , also they didn't color correct a lot of them , then when they came out with full season sets they redid them , color corrected and now they don't look bad when zoomed and even when not zoomed they look better , then they put out the sets with the redone special effects , quality was great , then they did the right thing - made bluray sets that you could not only watch with the original effects but could select the original mono soundtracks without the added sounds and all.

by the way the get smart discs are nothing to write home about , they can look bad without zooming , i hope they improved them in later seasons.

mike

[Beachboy]

What is the reason almost every conventional DVD player has the ability to upconvert to 480p (progressive scan) when virtually no SD CRT TV can display 480p? Was it a concession to owners of the first generation HD CRT TV's? I can't imagine anyone with a modern HDTV wanting to use a conventional DVD player with 480p enabled, since "upconverting/HDMI" DVD players are only about $10 more than the cheapie models, and anybody serious about HD viewing is probably going to already have a Blu-Ray player anyway. Just curious.......

[ChrisW6ATV]

I think there were some progressive-scan/480p TV sets just before HD sets became commonly available, and, yes, the 480p feature is intended for those TV sets (or for SD/HD CRT sets). In that era, quality of deinterlacing varied quite a bit from one player to another, and from one display to another (and still can, to some degree). A good modern display can do a much better job than most DVD players, so it is usually just as well to leave the player in 480i mode. "Progressive scan" is still added to players today because it costs about zero to do so, and probably helps to sell them, justified or not.

[cbenham]

Originally Posted by kramden66

the fist season is remastered but just not as clean , like it was less resolution causing pixelation when zoomed on.

mike

What show are youse guys discussin'? Maybe I missed a post about a particular show?

~always out in the cold when I don't pay attention...

[ChrisW6ATV]

Hawaii Five-O, mentioned in the first post.

[earlyfilm]

Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV

Hawaii Five-O, mentioned in the first post.

Which show are you discussing?

Hawaii Five-O 1968-1980 or 2010-2013?

If the latter, these shows would never have been originally recorded in interlaced NTSC.

Jas.

[Eric H]

The originals were filmed on 35mm Film.

[KentTeffeteller]

However, even though shot on 35 mm film is no guarantee they used it. I have seen some TV on DVD which was sourced from bad 1" transfers of worn ratty 16 mm prints.