QuickTime Movie question

[Daniyar]

I received recently a digitized Soviet colour movie, released in 1980, from a Russian film archive. Although its size is good enough -- two files of about 80 Gbytes overall for 3 hours-long movie -- the movie's aspect ratio is ordinary 720x576. Perhaps, they digitized a Betacam videotape, according to the copy's title. They also mentioned HD in the copy's title. But, 720x576 is not HD, of course.

Did they swindle me? Or 720x576 is good for a digital copy of Betacam? If I convert the files into 16x9 aspect ratio, for instance, then the movie's visual quality won't improve? I think the movie is on 35 mm film print. But, the Russians, perhaps, gave me a mediocre copy from Betacam TV version of the movie.


Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : QuickTime
Codec ID : qt 2016.09 (qt )
File size : 37.6 GiB
Duration : 1 h 24 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 63.7 Mb/s
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Writing library : Apple QuickTime

Video
ID : 1
Format : ProRes
Format version : Version 0
Format profile : 422 HQ
Codec ID : apch
Duration : 1 h 24 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 61.4 Mb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Clean aperture width : 703 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Clean aperture height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Clean aperture display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Standard : PAL
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:2
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan type, store method : Interleaved fields
Scan order : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 5.921
Stream size : 36.3 GiB (96%)
Writing library : apd0
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

Audio
ID : 4
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : in24
Duration : 1 h 24 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 2 304 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Stream size : 1.36 GiB (4%)

[jagabo]

That is the usual frame size for capturing from standard definition analog video tape. It's exactly what you want.

[Cornucopia]

Depends on the quality and availability of the original film print. If still in good quality, and still available, a 16mm or 35mm film print could go back to the source and be (re-) digitized in HD and possibly achieve a higher quality than what you currently have (which is standard SD). We don't know the intended aspect ratio of the original.

But that's a lot of IFs...


Scott

[Quint]

Perhaps, they digitized a Betacam videotape, according to the copy's title. They also mentioned HD in the copy's title. But, 720x576 is not HD, of course.

ProRes422HQ is an exchange standard (in PAL countries). If the title says, it's a copy of a DigiBeta, why not? But obviously they "lied" with the "HD" in the title.

720x576 is good for a digital copy of Betacam?

Yes. It is the original PAL DigiBeta resolution.

If I convert the files into 16x9 aspect ratio, for instance, then the movie's visual quality won't improve?

There is nothing to improve. You might convert to a format that can be handled by standard players, but you have to know, what is the final purpose.

[Daniyar]

Depends on the quality and availability of the original film print. If still in good quality, and still available, a 16mm or 35mm film print could go back to the source and be (re-) digitized in HD and possibly achieve a higher quality than what you currently have (which is standard SD). We don't know the intended aspect ratio of the original.

But that's a lot of IFs...


Scott

Thank you. It was one of the major Soviet movies of the 1980s. Briefly: an honest district Communist governor in the Caucasus tries to bring order and prosperity to his region.

I think it was filmed in Kodak or Agfa, some high-quality Western film print. Because, the Soviets usually indicated their native, mediocre quality Svema or Tasma film prints at the end of movies. But, if the Soviets used Western films, they didn't advertise the foreign producers.

The moviemakers were awarded with the Lenin Prize in 1986 -- a kind of the Best Picture Oscar. Although, there is a faint possibility that the Russian film archive lost or destroyed the movie's negative. Sometimes the Russians -- intentionally or by accident -- have lost negatives of culturally and historically important movies. But, its TV-version is DEFINITTELY intact in a Russian TV-archive, not digitized. The Russian film archive provided me with its Betacam digitized copy. Maybe, it was cheaper for the Russians to digitize Betacam than to digitize 16 mm or 35 mm negative. Anyway, this archive provides ordinary customers with 720x576 copies, even if the original is a 70 mm negative.

I can supply you with a link, where I posted the compressed version of the movie in a youtube-like quality. The publication itself is an achievement: I am the first on Internet to post this nearly forgotten masterpiece in Russian. Its Georgian-language poor-quality version has been already posted in a Russian social network.

[Daniyar]

Perhaps, they digitized a Betacam videotape, according to the copy's title. They also mentioned HD in the copy's title. But, 720x576 is not HD, of course.

ProRes422HQ is an exchange standard (in PAL countries). If the title says, it's a copy of a DigiBeta, why not? But obviously they "lied" with the "HD" in the title.

720x576 is good for a digital copy of Betacam?

Yes. It is the original PAL DigiBeta resolution.

If I convert the files into 16x9 aspect ratio, for instance, then the movie's visual quality won't improve?

There is nothing to improve. You might convert to a format that can be handled by standard players, but you have to know, what is the final purpose.

Thank you. The movie is fine on a home TV-set. But, if to play it back on bigger screens in a lecture hall or restaurant? Worth to try?

[Alwyn]

If I convert the files into 16x9 aspect ratio, for instance, then the movie's visual quality won't improve?

Be careful; to convert to 16:9 you're going to have to either crop away some of the top and bottom or if you don't crop, distort it by stretching it to fit the wider screen ratio.

As it is, even though the actual pixel ratio is 720x576, it is encoded as 4:3, meaning the effective pixel ratio (or display aspect ratio) is 768x576.

You could post that YT link so we can assess whether it "looks right" at the current 720x576, 4:3.

[jagabo]

Yes, if the original negatives or even prints are available, digitizing those could give much better, true HD results. But that would be much more expensive than starting with an SD video tape.

[Daniyar]

If I convert the files into 16x9 aspect ratio, for instance, then the movie's visual quality won't improve?

Be careful; to convert to 16:9 you're going to have to either crop away some of the top and bottom or if you don't crop, distort it by stretching it to fit the wider screen ratio.

As it is, even though the actual pixel ratio is 720x576, it is encoded as 4:3, meaning the effective pixel ratio (or display aspect ratio) is 768x576.

You could post that YT link so we can assess whether it "looks right" at the current 720x576, 4:3.

This link contains the movie in a compressed form with an accompanying article in Russian.

[Quint]

The movie is clear 4:3. If you convert it somehow to 16:9 you have to crop parts up and down and the result will be that you have even less resolution...
A real good SD, that uses every pixel of the 720*576, can also be beamed for a smaller audience, yes. Watch yourself and decide.

[Alwyn]

Yes, that looks like a 4:3 movie to me. The frame is exactly 4:3 (1.33:1) and the heads look correctly proportioned. I would not suggest cropping or stretching it to 16:9.

if to play it back on bigger screens in a lecture hall or restaurant? Worth to try?

The quality of the Mega site's MP4 looks quite good to me, so if your copy is ~38GB for the 1hr 24min, yours will be very good. Depending on the upscaling, it should also look good on a big screen, left as-is. This of course requires the player to just fill to the top and bottom and not stretch the sides out. There should be black bars down the sides (pillarboxing). A dry run in the venue to check it would be a big help.

No doubt others will have an opinion/guidance on what to so to it to improve the quality on the big screen.