WB issuing 1080i transfers for 1080P - Technology Forum - Home Theater, Computer, Televisions, Personal Electronics and more!

Augustes · 08-09-2006, 05:02 AM

The Fugitive was a 1080i master, not 1080P. Not all of Warner's masters are like this, but this one just happened to be. (Full Metal Jacket was too). The master was converted to 1080P but the de-interlacer was not capable of inverse telecine, so you are seeing the artifacts. Hopefully Warner (and any other studio with 1080i masters, and YES there are quite a few of them!) will either do new masters down the road or get a de-interlacer that will do 1080i to 1080P properly before they keep doing HD DVD like this. Thankfully this seems to be the minority so far[...]They were simply "bobbed" to 1080P for the HD DVDs. This will be the case with some titles depending on what the source master is. Again, this will probably be pretty rare, but it will happen. I know that new masters are being struck for some titles that would have ended up the same way, so there is hope that the majority of older titles will get the proper treatment down the line, instead of just pushing them out. I know this is the case for at least 1 title that has been announced so far.

Nero · 08-09-2006, 05:03 AM

They won't be the only ones.

And as some others have said, this affects BOTH sides of the HD war. For once, we can fight together against something.

Nimbus · 08-09-2006, 05:03 AM

Considering that the original source material for both titles was progressive, there is no excuse for making such a poor decision when creating the HD DVD. I would have preferred that they leave the disc at 1080i, and let my TV handle the deinterlacing (since it is apparent that my TV can do something that Warner's equipment can't).

redford · 08-09-2006, 05:03 AM

Is this really a big deal - so only two of the HD DVD titles are sub-optimal?

How many of the other format's first titles are going to be Mpg2 on 20 or 25 Gig, which I would also consider sub-optima

Augustes · 08-09-2006, 05:03 AM

It is a big deal. The whole point of us upgrading is to get the best image quality possible. Considering that Warner is handpicking their titles right now its surprising they would pick transfers that are not up to the quality needed for the new HD formats. This is something that really concerns me and I'm hoping we can get an exact list of titles that are using a 1080i transfer so that we can skip those for now.

Nero · 08-09-2006, 05:03 AM

If you consider that Warner has released eleven titles so far, yes, 18 percent is a big deal.

And that is not all. If you're interested in catalogue films (let's say films dating from 2000 or before), then that's 40 percent of titles affected.

It all depends on how Warner responds to this problem. They have those transfers (and maybe the encodings too) ready to use. Will they ditch them and order new ones at additional expense? Or will they run with what they have?

As DFNYC said, this is beyond the format war. I'm not any happier by having a choice of either bit-deprived MPEG2 Sony titles or jagged-to-hell Warner titles.

Especially when it's Full Metal Jacket we're talking about.

Nimbus · 08-09-2006, 05:04 AM

I don't understand how the first comment relates to the second. Just because a film is older doesn't mean it inherently has to have an older, interlaced-only transfer. I don't recall seeing any of these comments directed towards Blazing Saddles, for instance, and I didn't spot any of the artifacts described in those threads when I watched that.

redford · 08-09-2006, 05:04 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam Tyner
I don't understand how the first comment relates to the second. Just because a film is older doesn't mean it inherently has to have an older, interlaced-only transfer. I don't recall seeing any of these comments directed towards Blazing Saddles, for instance, and I didn't spot any of the artifacts described in those threads when I watched that.

Because HD transfers were done in 1080i till recently. That's good enough for broadcast HD and D-VHS. Now all transfers are done in 1080p.

WRT Blazing Saddles, probably it's a new transfer (has it ever been shown in HD?).

It's a bit like the early days of CD, when an album from five years ago sounded worse than another from 1960.

Augustes · 08-09-2006, 05:04 AM

Food for thought: theatrical and DVD release years of Warner titles:

Blazing Saddles: 1974/2004
Fugitive, The: 1993/2001
Full Metal Jacket: 1987/2001
Goodfellas: 1990/2004
Last Samurai, The: 2003/2004
Million Dollar Baby: 2004/2005
Phantom of the Opera, The: 2004/2005
Rumor Has It: 2005/2006
Swordfish: 2001/2001
Training Day: 2001/2002
Unforgiven: 1992/2002

Nero · 08-09-2006, 05:04 AM

I'm confused. Wasn't there a new transfer done of The Fugitive for the SE? That wasn't 2001 was it?