Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt L /forum/post/14187801
Can we expect all the HD stuff we love now to diminish in quality over the years to the point it looks as crappy as the Buffy rerun?
Digital Video by the nature of the system will play back exactly the same video image in 30 years from now as the day it was recorded. Analog videotape actually loses quality over time. I've looked at 7 year old BetacamSP
camera tapes and noticed the chroma and sharpness was reduced.
TVOD said
"The quality of HD telecine in the early days also varied alot."
I recently watched the DVD for "My So-Called Life" TV series 1994-1995.
It was shot on 16mm film as 4:3 and transferred to SD video. It looks bad. Low chroma, not that sharp, and some grain.
Part of that is the telecine used in 1994 and part of it is possibly telecined to analog videotape or mastered to analog videotape and not D1, D2, or Digital Betacam.
There is a very nice comparison on the "Transformers Season One" DVD set as an extra "to watch an episode on split-screen, showing the new 35mm film transfer of the camera negative to digital betacam on the left and the original one-inch broadcast master on the right. The most shocking difference is in color--the digital transfer is much darker. The depth of cels and backgrounds is much improved, though."
The quality of a digital recording always is determined by the original analog to digital conversion. Once it is converted the quality does not change. Even if copied digitally and recompressed there is minimal difference within a half dozen digital to digital copies. The video format and compression level determines how much of a loss of course.
While you could use a 1st generation 1995 miniDV consumer camera with composite video input to copy something off of BetaSP tape shot yesterday. If you used a Full size DVCAM VTR with component cables the video components and converter chips are going to make a much better conversion.
Something new like "Dale Jr.---Shifting Gears" on ESPN2 that I saw last month had a look as if it were shot with a Panasonic DVCProHD camera (720P) and it will look exactly like that in 10 or 20 years from now.
DVCProHD is compressed 6:1 to achieve 99.038Mb/s on tape. When it is put on ESPN2 sure the cable companies compress it down to close to ATSC 19.39 Mb/s.
When it is archived on DVCProHD tape and sitting on the library archive shelf it will still be mastered at 99Mb/s on tape.
Audio, METADATA, ECC etc is added to bring the total recorded bit rate to about 175Mb/s.
SMPTE recognizes this tape format as 'D-12' and there are specs in writing.
As far as content for TV being shot on film you are getting even Super16 film transferred on a Spirit Datacine at 2K resolution for HD television. That is medium quality feature film telecine for a Digital Internegative (DI).
A TV show shot on 35mm that has enough value financially for the owner to put out a box set of DVDs or HD media they may go back and retelecine the 35mm camera negative such as "The Twilight Zone", or "I Love Lucy" or "Star Trek: The Original Series"
Star Trek : TOS HD DVD Specs, TrueHD!
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=902094
Even a show that was edited and composited on video that has _ENOUGH_ value could warrant retelecine to HD:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archi.../t-905414.html
Star Trek TNG remastered for HD- tests done
This series started in 1987 and was originally shot on 35mm and mastered to 1" videotape.
The DVDs show a loss of quality from the analog videotape.
When you compare the Star Trek Voyager series which started in 1995 it was mastered to one of the digital videotape formats. The DVDs look a lot better.