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I frankly have NOT been impressed with the image quality of some shows originated on 24P HD video. IMHO, HD video just doesn't have the same ability as color negative film to hold highlight detail and subtle nuances in colors and fleshtones. I'll miss the "film look" on "Touched By an Angel", just as I did on "Diagnosis Murder" (which was not "saved" by their switch to 24P video production).

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

I make no illusions about the continued viability of Touched By An Angel as a going entertainment concern, and I do not insinuate that switching to HDCam will "save" the show if viewer interest wanes (which is what happened to Diagnosis Murder). That is strictly a cost saving ploy on the part of the producers, while still providing the network with an acceptable HD source.

Adam: 35mm theatrical prints of made-for-television material is a common occurence. HBO likes to present a lot of their stuff in cinemas during season premiere parites. They had a blow out at the Zeigfeld last year for Sex And The City, and they have run quite a few of their made-for-cable movies in theatres in the same fashion.

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"HDTV/Film Investigation

By Henry W. Mahler
CBS will be employing the 1125-line, 60-field HDTV format for the FCC-approved advanced television transmission system. Although a great deal of source material for this programming already exists on 35mm film, some episodic television series are currently filmed using 16mm. In addition, Super 16, with its wider aspect ratio and increased image area, has been advanced as a suitable acquisition format for HDTV. To determine the capability of 16mm film for HDTV transfer, CBS analyzed, measured, and performed tests to compare the performance of both 16mm formats to 35mm and an HDTV television camera. Objective measurement data and subjective observations are presented in this paper.

A contribution from Henry W. Mahler (paper no. 97-8), CBS Engineering, New York, NY 10019. Copyright © 1997 by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, Inc."

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If Super-16 can be used for successful feature films on a big theatre screen (e.g., "Monsoon Wedding"), it certainly should be able to provide excellent image quality on a much smaller HD monitor in the home.

Irregardless, I personally find the tonality and color rendering of color negative film to be preferable, even when viewed on television.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

This reminds me of the I Love Lucy show way way back. The studio wanted to shoot on video, as were most of the shows back there shot. However, Dezi Arnez demanded film and the studio said no way. So he paid for the film out of his own pocket in exchange for the rights for re-broadcast after original airing. The studio saw no harm in this, and alas... a new medium was born... syndication!

Of course they forgot they were looking at live first-generation NTSC pictures at 700 lines resolution (Ikegami cameras with Fujinon lenses). And they were looking at those pictures on an $8500 Sony match monitor that used Conrac-standard phosphors in its CRT and was flat to 10MHz even in the corners. By the time those pictures get home, they've been rolled off in the transmitter to a max of 330 lines or so. And probably viewed on an uncalibrated, relatively cheap display that uses who knows what for color decoding and phosphors, with black levels that are anything but retained. So I can understand how folks who work so hard to make film images for TV would feel a bit cheated when they see their work at home. One left-handed benefit of HD production is that there will be less of a difference between what is seen in dailies and what is seen at home.

Many of the early video shows (unless they were kinescoped onto film)are lost:

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/story/fact2.shtml

I haven't seen one yet, but I would venture to say that HD transfers of "I Love Lucy" are going to look darn good.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Many years ago my theater ran a print in our big house of a new TV show. I can't remember what it was called, but it had Lance Henrickson (sp?) who was "Bishop" in Aliens. It was a Fox show. The print was 1.33 (I think, I have a hard time remembering), but we had 1.33 masking in the big house available to us and we definitely used that. The show didn't last long, but it was very dark. Details you could only see on film! We showed the pilot episode one night before it aired on the boob tube.