Degrees of Freedom vs. Hollywood Control Freaks

[Steve Schear]

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