Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Three Stooges in HD

This is topic Three Stooges in HD in forum The Afterlife at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Joe Tommassello (Member # 4632) on 10-23-2010, 09:10 AM:

It appears IFC has HD transfers of the Three Stooges. They are having a little marathon till 2PM today (Saturday). I refrained from buying the full set on sail at Amazon a couple of months ago because I am waiting for a blu-ray release.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 10-23-2010, 11:17 AM:

Just checked it out. Although on IFC-HD, These do not appear to be HD transfers, but rather upconverted SD transfers. It becomes rather obvious when projecting HD onto a 10' screen. Many of the so-called HD cable channels are not running from true HD sources. TCM-HD, after being on the air for over a year, is just now starting to occasionally run actual HD.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 10-23-2010, 03:59 PM:

Sorta like "reprocessed for stereo" isn't it. Great way to kill a good idea. (like 3D). Louis

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 10-23-2010, 05:32 PM:

Even on 35mm, these films aren't exactly the paragon of technical quality. They were cheaply made from the start. I'm not sure how much they would gain from being shown in HD, unless someone took the questionable step of cleaning up flaws that existed in the originals.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 10-23-2010, 06:32 PM:

Cheaply made, yes, but I have seen a number of early 1950's 35mm printings, and the picture quality was excellent. Unfortunately, most of the Stooges shorts were re-printed in the 1970's, and the quality is all over the place on those.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 10-23-2010, 07:32 PM:

I don't believe we have ever seen transfers direct from the OCN's.

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 10-25-2010, 11:14 AM:

I think the IFC copies of these shorts are the same ones that AMC is using. There are alot of fade-outs that are not in the original shorts... for commercials, that IFC is not using.

Watching these films on AMC is painful.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 10-25-2010, 04:35 PM:

Watching ANYTHING on AMC is painful!

[puke]

Posted by Jack Theakston (Member # 4484) on 10-31-2010, 02:39 AM:

Sony transferred all the recent re-masterings in HD, which is standard for the majors. I don't know why they're distributing up-conversions of old masters unless they feel that distributing the HD files might compromise a future BD set (which has been rumored).

And Mitchell is quite correct. While the Stooges weren't exactly "A-Unit" material, the technicians that shot those films knew just what they were doing, as evidenced by the excellent standard-def down-converts of the shorts on DVD. Some of the gray tones achieved in those original prints are incredible.