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Path: utzoo!watmath!sunybcs!acsgjjp
From: acsgjjp@sunybcs.UUCP (Jim Poltrone)
Newsgroups: net.tv.drwho
Subject: Re: The old stories
Message-ID: <2795@sunybcs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 30-Jan-86 13:42:08 EST
Article-I.D.: sunybcs.2795
Posted: Thu Jan 30 13:42:08 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Feb-86 06:34:05 EST
References: <338@spock.UUCP> <525@rdin.UUCP>
Organization: SUNY/Buffalo Computer Science
Lines: 38
Keywords: format, incompatability, quality

>> ... they exist on a format that cannot be shown on television.
> 
> What kind of format are they in that can't be shown on television? Are
> they holographic or something?  So far as I know, if it's on film, it
> can be shown on television.  

I don't believe it's the format at all.  Rather, it is the QUALITY (or
resolution) of the images themselves.  At a recent convention, I saw episode 
1 of Invasion [of the Dinosaurs], which, if it was color, was very pale.  
Also, the images weren't sharp.  It was very hard to watch.

Television stations (and other professional installations) use 1/2" video-
tape (or is it 3/4"?) to record programs.  Anything on Beta, VHS, or even
U-matic (an old format not used in homes) lacks sufficient resolution to be 
converted successfully.  These can't be shown directly, without a conversion 
step.  It can be converted, but as in all successive-generation copies, the 
quality diminishes somewhat.  I would imagine that converting to a larger
format would result in "gaps" in the final result.  In simpler terms, the
larger format contains all the information in the smaller format, but it
could appear on every other line in the larger format, leaving every other 
line blank.  The images are no longer as crisp as they should be.
Therefore, it is "unsuitable for broadcast".

> If you can manage that conversion, you can manage any other!  

Possibly, as this is the most difficult conversion of all.  Computer enhance-
ment would have to be used.  And I doubt the BBC has these facilities, or
is willing to devote the time and money to do so.
-- 
  ____  ^  ____ 
 |_  _|/ \|_  _|              Jim Poltrone (a/k/a Poltr1,
   \ \/   \/ /              the Last of the Raster Blasters)
    \/  ^  \/   
    /  / \  \         uucp:     [decvax,watmath,rocksvax]!sunybcs!acsgjjp
   /  /___\  \        ARPAnet:  acsgjjp%buffalo@CSNET-RELAY
  /___________\       csnet:    acsgjjp@BUFFALO
  _/ /_   _\ \_       BITNET:   ACSGJJP@SUNYBCS, ACSGJJP@SUNYABVA
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