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The "Mad Men" in 4K on HBO Max Debacle

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Re: The "Mad Men" in 4K on HBO Max Debacle

#141

Post by mjg59 »

dbg31415 wrote: post #111

I don't get why they bother changing the aspect ratio in the first place. What audience is saying, "I want a weird one-off version of the show in HD, please"? Most of these shows were shot for 4:3. Directors framed for 4:3, lit for 4:3, blocked scenes for 4:3, and even built their special effects around 4:3. Stretching that work into widescreen feels a bit like deciding to colorize Citizen Kane, Dr. Strangelove, or T…

You're not wrong, it's just not relevant to this case - Mad Men was originally broadcast in 16:9

Re: The "Mad Men" in 4K on HBO Max Debacle

#142

Post by rurp »

Plankaluel wrote: post #64

I think this is just another case of "over-optimization to make shareholders happy in the end ruins everything". I.e., the normal enshittification problem. Pretty sure all of that does make financial sense: - Being able to write 4k will bring people in to re-watching/watching the show for the first time. - Redoing the CGI, etc., would have cost a lot of money. - Very few people will cancel their subscription or stop…

HBO became an incredibly valuable brand because of a well deserved reputation for quality. Any one great show or highly visible screwup will only move that needle so much, but they do compound over time. I still remember the leaked audio from some years ago when the new HBO ownership explicitly said they wanted to take a more quantity over quality approach. This latest case certainly reinforces my mental model that HBO isn't what it used to be and probably isn't worth combing back to any time soon, given that there are better streaming options out there.

Re: The "Mad Men" in 4K on HBO Max Debacle

#143

Post by 5555624 »

sgt wrote: post #90
b112 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was recent (last few years) work done to fix all of this. https://www.modeemi.fi/~leopold/Babylon5/DVD/DVDTransfer.htm... I have these versions, and it's world better than everything beforehand. It's also a good opportunity for a re-watch!

A very well written show. It's crazy to think a lot of people don't even get to watch this, because it's so hard to find. I couldn't find it anywhere (except for DVD's) so I had to resort to torrents.

It's streaming, for free, on Tubi

Re: The "Mad Men" in 4K on HBO Max Debacle

#144

Post by easterncalculus »

conradfr wrote: post #61
crtasm wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That option wasn't added until some time later.

I wish Netflix did it for Seinfeld.

The fact you can't see the pothole in the pothole episode still cracks me up. Ironically the kind of plotline you'd see in a Seinfeld episode. https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/seinfeld-netflix-...

Re: The "Mad Men" in 4K on HBO Max Debacle

#145

Post by firmretention »

haunter wrote: post #12
walthamstow wrote: post #2

Damn, that's terrible. Reminds me of The Simpsons being cropped into 16:9 for Disney and obscuring the joke that all the Duff brews come from one pipe.

You can switch to the original 4:3 though Edit: and I'm getting flagged lol The Simpsons > Details > Remastered aspect ratio > Off https://i.imgur.com/pQohgQp.jpeg

And thank god for that, because the 4:3 remasters are quite good, and IMO the best way to watch the old episodes on big screens. They've just remastered enough to make them more crisp and less pixelated but not so much that they look like a flash cartoon like the previous 16:9 TV "remasters".

Re: The "Mad Men" in 4K on HBO Max Debacle

#146

Post by kroaton »

alexpotato wrote: post #14

A side story on the techniques for restoration: I'm guessing about 10-15 years ago I was watching a documentary on the re-release of Ken Burns Civil War. They were highlighting the digital tools they were using to restore and enhance the original film capture for new streaming services etc. They showed one of the restorers using a fascinating tool where one window was a video feed of the original film's "first pass"…

I used to work at a film restoration studio about 10 years ago, and back then PF Clean from PixelFarm was more or less the industry standard. That might have been the software you saw.

Re: The "Mad Men" in 4K on HBO Max Debacle

#147

Post by russdill »

liampulles wrote: post #29

Fun fact: The X-Files production team foresaw the coming of 16:9 home entertainment, so they made some effort (increasing with later seasons) to try and "protect" a 16:9 frame, which allowed for an unusually good 16:9 Blu-ray restoration. [ https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/7499/look-inside-the-files... ] I learned this from the older X-files DVDs, which have some unusually good special features.

Friends....did not.

Re: The "Mad Men" in 4K on HBO Max Debacle

#148

Post by mapontosevenths »

stogot wrote: post #80
ErroneousBosh wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The documentary is no longer available (or, possibly, only available in the US), but the tool you're describing is pretty common in digital video editing. In DaVinci Resolve the dustbuster tool will look a few frames ahead and behind of the one where you want to paint out a mark, and make its best guess based on that. I've used it to paint out tape dropouts on VHS transfers with remarkable success.

Do you do VHS transfers professionally or your own personal VhS? Stacks of VHS sittin in a corner that I need to decide what to do with

My advice is to pay someone else to do the transfer, but get someone good. Most services online don't bother with a real TBC because a professional TBC is expensive, and not worth investing in for the average consumer. However, it is an absolute necessity if you want any kind of quality.

Failing that, you can get a retrotink 4k and any old HDMI capture card to do a "good enough" job for most folks. It has a sort of poor-mans TBC that will work as long as the tapes aren't too bad. You're still looking at a grand for the retrotink, but you can then use it for retro video games if you're into that.

Re: The "Mad Men" in 4K on HBO Max Debacle

#150

Post by actionfromafar »

jjmarr wrote: post #127
gwbas1c wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some movies were shot in 4:3 (ish) and cropped in the theater. Titanic is an example. (For the pedantic, yes there is a name for this technique, and yes the ratios aren't exactly 4:3.)

The term is "open matte" and is the ideal way of watching movies on folding phones. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_matte

Open matte is a filming technique.

The second half of your sentence is misguided.

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