Help! my HD-DAR is dead
 

I have a Dilemma

I can usually tell what a TV show or Film is shot on, ie SP DIGIBETA, film,HD etc. Infact i thought i was pretty dman good at it, (for the record i can still tell Sp from a mile away).


But ive just realised my HD-DAR is so far off its not funny!

I just watched this film "Cypher" by the director of Cube, it was at a friends on a broken tv that blew out the whites so bad it made it look like DV. I thought it may have even been DIGI Beta transferred to film as the thing looked very low budget from the sets.

So, I took the disc home to my house to watch on my old Commodore 1024 monitor because my TV is screwed and its a damn good monitor and it was free!

On a decent monitor i knew i could make a better judgment. So i played the film and at first I thought HD,defintatley, its sharp it looks matte. Then im like no! It's film, i dont know why i changed my mind. Then i saw some bright white in the kitchen scene at the start where hsi wife is against a white background and im like definately HD 100%.


So with my decision made i began listening to the commentry, I wanted them to talk about this great new methodology. Nothing, hmm, maybe theyre not technical guys......
After i few minutes the guy mentions the Digital Intermediate process then, something about the neg. THe NEG?!

Im like im sure its HD, and then im like ive got no f'ing idea anymore which way is up. As i had just bought Once Upon A Time In Mexico,(HD) the other week i knew about the sharpness etc, and im like damn this HD is so good, (still love it, and id use it over film because im a video guy-thats what my Diploma says)

So in a panic i decided to setup a test to see wtf was going down.
I hooked up 2 DVD players to the same inputs.
I pulled out OUATIM, and then played it, it looked fantastic!
Im like it looks nicer than film, so warm and sharp

Next i played "CYPHER" and on comparison i could see how much more detail was in the 35mm, it almost looked 3d compared to the HD. I was pretty shcoked because im a massive fan of HD, and it didnt look bad, just not as good.

Its strange becasueeven in this test the HD is starting to look like film and film is starting to look 1024i video. It looked so fresh compared to it, felt like i had just dived into a beautful fresh pool.

Id played them back and forth back and forth, and im like still going insance because the HD looks more filmy, they got that 24p down awesome!

Then i thought its not in the motion anymore, that pretty good, it must be in the colors and detail, highlights etc.

So in short, i thought i could but i obviously dont know .
I seem to like HD better than film and film looks like video?! im very confused please help.

How do I tell HD from film without side by side comparison?


-yes its a long post but its my 100th so if u dont like it go edit your film on a damn moviola-

Re: Help! my HD-DAR is dead
 

<<<-- Originally posted by Ben Gurvich : How do I tell HD from film without side by side comparison? -->>>

Watch the movie in a theatre on the big screen? Maybe get a better TV/monitor? Or have a look at the tech specs in imdb? ;-)

But seriously, when you watch a DVD you're viewing anamorphic video at 720x480 (NTSC) that has been heavily compressed so it may be hard to make the sort of judgements you want.