More classic shows in HD?

[stevezodiac]

Is Hogan's Heros the only classic show that's been remastered in HD? It is so much better looking, I don't mind some cropping.

 

[TexasTom]

Many classic shows have been remastered into HD -- but not many of those shows are getting wide distribution.

One that is available is "Star Trek" (original series), which is available in high definition on Blu Ray disc -- the first two seasons are already out, and the third season is about to be released.

Also remastered into high definition, and previously available: "Quantum Leap" (ran on Universal HD a few years ago), and "Charlie's Angels" (ran on HDNet several years ago).

Per information available at a CBS website, a large number of shows have been remastered into HD, but aren't apparently being made available in that format anywhere. A short sampling of these titles include "I Love Lucy", "Gomer Pyle", "Laverne & Shirley", "The Odd Couple", "The Wild Wild West" (except for the first season), "The Twilight Zone", and "Mission Impossible". As an aside, that website shows that the animated version of "Star Trek" from the mid-seventies has been remastered into HD, and one of those episodes (a sequel to "Trouble with the Tribbles") is actually included on the second season "Star Trek" Blu Ray set in full high definition.

 

[mrfish67]

I would add Flipper to this list, too. It used to be on the Voom Network channel "Family Room" prior to the demise of the Voom channels.

As I recall, it was in widescreen, too, which was surprising for a 1960s TV series.

 

[TexasTom]

I would add Flipper to this list, too. It used to be on the Voom Network channel "Family Room" prior to the demise of the Voom channels.

As I recall, it was in widescreen, too, which was surprising for a 1960s TV series.

It was probably cropped to fill a widescreen aspect ratio.

Oh, and another show to add to the list of old programs converted to HD -- also courtesy of Voom. Their animation channel reportedly carried "Roger Ramjet" in HD at some point in time. That's a show that I remember as an army brat in Germany in the seventies -- we got "Roger Ramjet" on a snowy, black and white Armed Forced TV channel from a nearby base. Having it run in HD on Voom would be about as far from that viewing experience as it's possible to be...

 

[Rob Jason]

Oh, and another show to add to the list of old programs converted to HD -- also courtesy of Voom. Their animation channel reportedly carried "Roger Ramjet" in HD at some point in time. That's a show that I remember as an army brat in Germany in the seventies -- we got "Roger Ramjet" on a snowy, black and white Armed Forced TV channel from a nearby base. Having it run in HD on Voom would be about as far from that viewing experience as it's possible to be...

Roger Ramjet....I remember that from local TV cartoon shows - on WHEN channel 5 in Syracuse. I always thought it was taken off the air because he would pop a power pill...And that that was the last thing broadcasters would want kids to do -- in the 60s -- "pop a pill" to change yourself.

And is anything added to re-mastering a classic show in HD? Isn't that sort of like colorizing a classic B & W movie? What about context -- seeing a show as it was originally viewed?

 

[TexasTom]

And is anything added to re-mastering a classic show in HD? Isn't that sort of like colorizing a classic B & W movie? What about context -- seeing a show as it was originally viewed?

Remastering a show that was shot on film into HD isn't at all comparable to colorizing a B&W movie -- colorization adds something that wasn't originally there, whereas remastering into HD simply allows the viewer to appreciate more of the detail that was originally in the image but couldn't be displayed by older TV technology.

And, really -- what exactly does it mean to see a show as it was originally viewed? Prior to the eighties, the overwhelming majority of color TVs sold in the US limited the luminance (B&W) component of the video signal to an approximately 3 MHz Bandwidth, and the chrominance (color) component to 0.5 MHz -- and the broadcast bandwidth of these signals was only slightly better (4.2 MHz and 1.5 MHz, respectively). So does that mean that all DVD releases of these shows should be filtered to simulate the bandwitch of a thirty or forty year old color TV? After all, the luminance bandwidth of DVDs is 6.75 MHz and the chorminance bandwidth is 3.37 MHz -- much greater than anything that could have been displayed in the home when these shows were originally broadcast.

So, does being faithful to the original intent mean that we should be stuck with a blurry picture today? That's just ridiculous -- and taking these shows up to HD resolutions is just one more step beyond going from the original limited bandwidth of NTSC broadcasts to the somewhat greater bandwidth of standard definition component video (which is what DVDs are).