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Visitation special edition

Started by Fardels Bear, Aug 15, 2016, 06:06 am

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Fardels Bear

Finally got round to buying and watching the Visitation special edition dvd.  The TARDIS prop never looked lovelier in this story ;D

Loved the extras on it.  Does anybody know the source of the modern day TARDIS that whisked the cast around the modern day locations in the "Grim Tales" feature?

visitationextras-0002.jpg

Also on a general point about the dvds.  The classic series was made in square box format (sorry about the low tech vocab!), and the picture now fills a widescreen tv.  I have to say that sometimes the picture isn't great with a certain fuzziness noticeable.  Black and white stories are not too bad, but later colour stories aren't great - McCoy stories being the worst.  Is quality lost when they have "stretched" picture from square to widescreen?
"Does he still have that rubbish beard?"

fivefingeredstyre

I*think* the box is an older This Planet Earth job...

With regard to the picture quality, this is a particular bugbear of mine...  >:(

There are a number of ways of displaying a 4:3 (Square) picture in a 16:9 (Widescreen) format. You either squash the top and bottom of the picture so the sides push out till they fill the picture frame - This though makes objects and people appear much shorter and fatter than they actually are...

The second way is to zoom in the picture, again till the sides of the original 4:3 picture reach the sides of the widescreen frame. THe plus side of this is that you keep the objects in the picture at the same proportions as the original; however the downsides are that you loose both the top and bottom of the image (as they are now outside the widescreen frame) and you also lose the picture quality (as you are expanding the original 4:3 image beyond its native resolution). As you say, teh picture quality appears worse in some of the McCoy stories, and I think this is down to the poor quality videotaping that was used at the time, but I might be wrong with that...

The other way to do it is to keep the original picture at its native resolution inside the widescreen frame and have vertical black bars either side of the screen. This is my preferred option as it keeps the original image as it should be seen without messing with it in any way... ;D

rob49152

I think what you're meaning is the 4:3 aspect ratio of old TV. New TV is 16:9 @ 1920x1080 (and 4k (really UHD-1) is also 16:9 but @ 3840x2160). Cinemascope is 21:9

for the 4:3 the video format is 720x512 lines (and with video being interlaced means only 256 lines are on screen in one 'draw pass'. Needing 2 passes to show the complete frame).

Then you can add in either pulldown to turn films 24fps to PALs 24.99fps or 3:2 pulldown NTSCs 29.9fps.

if the program was shot on film they can scan in the prints to get better quality (to an extent). This is how Spearhead from Space was able to be turned into a bluray release. Or the old Star Trek remastered. The big problem there is if the print is a 16mm or 35mm print.

So the newer stories all being done with video camera don't allow any possibility to up-scale nicely.

Side note: Babylon 5 was filmed on 16:9 35mm film. But they lost all access to the original digital assets for the 3D animation. So you'll never see a remastered version. The show is good with a true 16:9 aspect ration, but whenever there is CGI or compositing they have to switch over to a blown up 3:4 720x486 video clip that looks like complete and utter rubbish.

I just splurged and got myself a 65inch OLED 4k monitor with passive 3D. I tried to watch some of the later DW and B5 episodes and it was sooooo painful to watch I had to stop.

galacticprobe

Aug 15, 2016, 06:59 am #3 Last Edit: Aug 15, 2016, 07:01 am by galacticprobe
Quote from: fivefingeredstyre on Aug 15, 2016, 06:45 am
I*think* the box is an older This Planet Earth job...

Well, it could be. It certainly doesn't look like any TY-J box I've ever seen, especially after following Tony's fantastic research and chronology of the TY-J boxes and the changes they'd gone through.

Quote from: fivefingeredstyre on Aug 15, 2016, 06:45 am
The other way to do it is to keep the original picture at its native resolution inside the widescreen frame and have vertical black bars either side of the screen. This is my preferred option as it keeps the original image as it should be seen without messing with it in any way... ;D

I agree with you there, Steve. Most new HDTVs have that setting in their software set-up. I forget the label it uses on mine, but my TV adjust its displayed image based on the resolution of the original recording. When I pop in one of my 'Have Gun-Will Travel' DVDs (series made from 1957-1963), the picture displays with the black "rectangles" on each side, and it looks like it used to on my old TV. And when I put in an HD DVD or a Blu-Ray, it shows the wide screen HD image.

So this setting can be changed somewhere in the HDTV's menu. (I know not reading manuals is a standing joke about guys and their electronics - or anything else for that matter - but this is a time when one really should read the TV's manual to see what the settings are called, how they work, and which is best for viewing both 16:9 and 4:3 recordings.)

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

Fardels Bear

So can I adjust my tv to have the original aspect ratio with the black bars?

I thought the Doctor Who dvds were made with the picture filling the screen.  Other dvds of old BBC dramas have the black bars without me fiddling with anything, but Doctor Who never has. :(
"Does he still have that rubbish beard?"

watcher

That is indeed a "This Planet Earth" GRP box the same as mine :-)

It belongs Jason Whiteley over on the Facebook "Tardis Owners" group.

I was chatting to him about it a month or so ago on the methods he's used to reinforce his etc. Really nice guy  :)
Got some better photo's:

13652293_1016263901822938_1594116047_n.jpg
13652818_1016263965156265_795435396_n.jpg

fivefingeredstyre

Quote from: rob49152 on Aug 15, 2016, 06:51 am
I think what you're meaning is the 4:3 aspect ratio of old TV. New TV is 16:9 @ 1920x1080 (and 4k (really UHD-1) is also 16:9 but @ 3840x2160). Cinemascope is 21:9
You're quite right :D for some reason I thought Fardal was talking about the annoying habit some documentary makers have of intercutting 4:3 footage into a 16:9 frame and zooming in the picture to fill the gaps (hence the comments about the loss of picture quality...) drives me batty, that does...

The other thing that winds me up is when they add the footage at the correct ratio but then replace the black lines on either side with some form of animation or a zoomed-in blurry border, which I always find distracting... But I'll spare you that rant  ;D

QuoteSide note: Babylon 5 was filmed on 16:9 35mm film. But they lost all access to the original digital assets for the 3D animation. So you'll never see a remastered version. The show is good with a true 16:9 aspect ration, but whenever there is CGI or compositing they have to switch over to a blown up 3:4 720x486 video clip that looks like complete and utter rubbish.
I did read that a similar problem exists for the Directors Editon of Star Trek The Motion Picture. Apparently they would have to go back to the beginning to make an HD version as the new effects were all rendered in standard definition. Which is a shame as I really prefer that version of the movie. Hopefully it's just hearsay...

QuoteI just splurged and got myself a 65inch OLED 4k monitor with passive 3D. I tried to watch some of the later DW and B5 episodes and it was sooooo painful to watch I had to stop.
i have a similar problem with my 60" LG telly :(

galacticprobe

Aug 16, 2016, 04:27 am #7 Last Edit: Aug 16, 2016, 04:29 am by galacticprobe
Quote from: Fardels Bear on Aug 15, 2016, 12:05 pm
So can I adjust my tv to have the original aspect ratio with the black bars?

You should be able to. The function should be in your Set-up Menu under "Video". Check your manual; it should tell you how to access it.

Quote from: Fardels Bear on Aug 15, 2016, 12:05 pm
I thought the Doctor Who dvds were made with the picture filling the screen.  Other dvds of old BBC dramas have the black bars without me fiddling with anything, but Doctor Who never has. :(

That I wouldn't know about. If that's the case, you may need to go into your Video Set-up menu and manually select the aspect ratio to 4:3 each time you want to watch one of the older 'Who' DVDs (and of course, switch it back so your TV can detect the aspect ratio of shows and other DVDs and adjust itself, which is how it sounds like you've got it set at the moment).

Others might have better ideas, but this is all I can think of. I hope it's a little helpful.

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

Fardels Bear

Well I had a read of the manual and a fiddle, and ... success! ;D  I am now in the world of 4:3.

I'll have to watch everything all over again - what a shame ;D

Mind you I had a quick look at "Silver Nemesis" and the picture quality is still pretty bad!
"Does he still have that rubbish beard?"