At 12:25 PM 6/6/2002 -0700, Morlock Elloi wrote:
The official (legal) resolutions for optical media are:
720 X 576 (480 NTSC). Used by most DVD. ...
Physical number of lines is far from being the only measure of quality.
Compression has a huge impact, and so do other digital artifacts.
For instance, just take a look at the opening scenes (earth rising on the moon horizon) in Kubrick's 2001 on laserdisc and DVD. In DVD, the dark blue-black background consists of funny rectangles.
There are also a lot of motion artefacts which give a certain "feel" do DVD image - but then, that may become fashionable, as valve amplifiers are again now or listening to dolby-recorded tapes without dolby players - some just like that boost in the high end.
No doubt some transfers from film are better than others. Often these discrepancies are more a function of the budget, skill and care of the technician, the available working print and particular equipment and software used, than the target medium. However, all other things being equal, I agree with Tim: DVD is a superior medium to consumer video tape and Laser disk. steve