This is topic Star Wars A New Hope - first digital version in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Jerry Chase (Member # 660) on 03-21-2002, 05:20 PM:
We all know that movies can now be downloaded from the internet, and we all know how bad digital can look compared to film. This version of Episode IV seems to combine the worst of both worlds.
Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 03-21-2002, 06:46 PM:
Speaking about putrid digital....
Last night on Enterprise I thought I was losing my eyesight or having a flashback or something. Maybe it was just my little satelite dish but stuff kept simi-pixelating and people faces were movin around weirdly. Half their face would be kinda sliding down and then back up. Maybe it was in transmission, but it was the worst digital tv I've ever seen. Anybody else see this?------------------
Greg Mueller
Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut
http://www.muellersatomics.com/
Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 03-21-2002, 06:53 PM:
YES!! I used to only see this on DirecTV broadcasts, but lately I've seen the same exact thing on UPN and Encore, delivered over analog cable.
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-21-2002, 07:41 PM:
UPN is horribly bad with their digital artifacts. Are they showing new episodes of Enterprise yet? I have been avoiding the show like the plague since it is ALWAYS a rerun... ALWAYS. That show is not going to last very long.
Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 03-21-2002, 07:51 PM:
A new episode of Enterprise aired here last night. I recorded it, haven't watched it yet. Was busy watching, uh, mmm, Survivor. 
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 03-21-2002, 07:51 PM:
LMAO!!!!
Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 03-21-2002, 09:01 PM:
I think the pixellation is a data error somewhere, It happens on DTV satellite TV quite often in rain or wind.
The other thing - the strange faces - is super weird. It must be caused by using too low a data rate in the conversion. A lot of "old" shows in syndication have these artifacts, The Rockford Files is the worst I've seen It's very distracting but watching faces move independent of their heads - kind of a live action "Clutch Cargo" effect - is usually more interesting than the screenplay so all is not lost.
Do you think our patrons will accept the feature freezing and pixellating if there's a server or transmission problem? They seem to accept some pretty bad film presentations without complaint...
Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 03-21-2002, 09:57 PM:
He forgot to put the changeover cues on.
Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 03-21-2002, 10:03 PM:
Dave asked: "Do you think our patrons will accept the feature freezing and pixellating if there's a server or transmission problem? They seem to accept some pretty bad film presentations without complaint..."See my posting about my experience with "hiccups" on a Digital Cinema presentation of "Ice Age" at the AMC Empire Theatre in NYC last night (9:45pm show, March 20, Auditorium 13). This started happening every 15 seconds or so during the trailers, and the audience started murmering and getting upset 
, such that they stopped the show, and had to complete the show with a film print.
------------------
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
Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 03-22-2002, 09:36 AM:
"they stopped the show, and had to complete the show with a film print."HA-HA
------------------
Greg Mueller
Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut
http://www.muellersatomics.com/
Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 03-23-2002, 04:26 AM:
I also saw the problems you are talking about with your sattelite. Some programs and some networks have it worse than others. The basic lowdown is this...You have two kinds of digital compression, mpeg-1 and mpeg-2. The sattellites used mpeg-1 for a while, and then upgraded to mpeg-2. Mpeg-2 has a higher compression rate and in the same space can contain up to four times as much information as mpeg-1.
Ok, now we have that, here is the problem. If a channel you are watching gets compressed past its own limits, you get visual artifacts such as the ones you see where they seem to trail. In effect, you are watching a virtual mpeg-1 stream with an mpeg-2 program. Its like watching a ferrarri pass a pinto. YOu know its a ferrari, but you cant make out if it had a human bieng driving it or not.
The problems will eventually eliminate themselves. Echostar is about to put thier seventh satellite in orbit, and they are merging with direct tv. This will provide enough satelites to provide the proper bandwidth to eliminate this problem.
Sometimes it is the network itself. If they compress it too far for the upstream without notifying the relay satelite what the compression ratio is, it will continue to compress it more. I would blame UPN for most of the problem, as they are run by paramount, a bunch of people well known for producing way too many star trek programs.
Dave