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Old Film to DVD Transfers Examined

Posted by Zonk on from the high-quality-maltese-falcons dept.

Richard W.M. Jones writes "Slate is running an interesting article on the process involved in Warner Brothers remastering films, the quality of the films being compared to the Criterion Collection discs. Going back to the original technicolor negatives, preserved in temperature-controlled rooms, the transfer begins with a 4,000 line scan, followed by digital alignment of each color." From the article: "In some ways, these DVDs have finer color and detail than even the original film prints. In the old days, it was difficult to align those three strips perfectly. The task became still harder years later, when the films were reissued, because the negatives had stretched or shrunk over time. If you need all three strips to get the right color, and you can't line the strips up precisely, then the colors and the sharpness are going to be a bit off."

5 of 306 comments (clear)

  1. Color alignment? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    And here I've been thinking all those movies were 3-d! Apparently it was just a red/blue misalignment.

  2. Re:Would love to see ... by dcarey · · Score: 4, Funny

    Your family shot your home movies in three strip Technicolor?

    Are you Cecil B. DeMille III or something?
    Nope sorry just us Barrymores here ...

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    -- (Score:i , Imaginary)

  3. Re:But you CAN transfer film to DVD at home by tobiasly · · Score: 5, Funny
    Just project the 8mm/16mm film images onto a bright-white screen that has a lot of reflectivity to it, physically place a camcorder directly above the project - or slightly above and slightly behind - to minimize the "trapezoid" effect, record the projection with the camcorder, then use one of the many analog-to-digital bridges out there to transfer it to your PC.

    If there is any audio, you can capture the audio either through the camcorder or through the PC's sound card and then synchronize.

    That's way too much work. Just pay some neighborhood kids to re-enact those old films of your children going up and record it digitally this time.

    In fact, I hear that's what George Lucas did with his old home movies. You can even add in some hilarious CGI sidekicks!

  4. Turns out John Wane looked better in the fuzzy. by bigmike_f · · Score: 3, Funny

    Turns out John Wane and other early movie stars looked better in the fuzzy colors. Something to do with their alien ability to bend light. Okay so that last statement was a bit much.

  5. Re:Would love to see ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    > My daughter, when she was 10, could look at a movie on television and tell me whether or not it was shot in Technicolor.

    Yeah... It says so at the beginning of the movie...