SD to HD Questions

[The Sumerian]

Ok, so imagine that a film like Star Wars was going to be put to a format like HD DVD or BluRay. For a film that huge they'd probably remaster it in an HD telecine scanner for best picture quality. OR if there already is an HD master from the last remastering job they use that. So, I don't really have any confusion on movie film on HD.

But suppose hypotheyically, someone was creating a new documentary that was going to be presented in HD. Any original matrial shot be documenterer would be shot in HD, but if they wanted to use reference material like a news broadcast they'd go to the source. A live news broadcast from the 70's would be stored on Betacam SP or it's equivelant. I'm not really sure what tape format, but I know they were using tape and it was Standard Def. If you wanted to include standard def material in an HD project how do convert this material to HD?

Is it an accessible method, software, hardware?

Is it the type of thing that labs offer as a service?

Who does it?

I ask, because I wanted to some standard def material on tapes converted to HD. Not from the seveties, but Standard def none the less. I know it must be possible, as I've seen documentaries in HD that feature SD material. I just don't know anything about how it's done.

[guns1inger]

There are methods of upscaling that can be used. Software methods are very slow and require a lot of computing power to get reasonable results. I suspect that studios would use hardware upscalers and record the results in HD for further use.

If you want to look at software solutions, RedGiant Software have one, as there is the low budget VideoEnhancer. But make sure you have a quad core machine if you want results within a day.

[edDV]

What format is the material?

Example: Recent Digital Betacam players play SD Betacam SP and can upscale to 720p/59.94 or 1080i/29.97 on the fly (BKMW104/1 option).

This is used every day for the 6PM news.

If you were producing an HD documentary for HBO, PBS or Discovery HD, you would use more sophisticated upscale technology. Among the more affordable software techniques is Cineform fractal upscale.

There are post houses that specialize in hand crafted SDTV upscale for HD or movies.



http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/DisplayModel?m=10014&p=16&sp=112&id=74780

[2Bdecided]

Deinterlace.
Resize.
Re-interlace if necesary.

Easy!

It will look OK or awful depending on the source, and the choice/quality of the deinterlacing and resizing algorithms.

Most decent video editing packages will let you deinterlace and resize the video on the time line, though not using optimal methods.

Cheers,
David.

[edDV]

Deinterlace.
Resize.
Re-interlace if necesary.

Easy!

It will look OK or awful depending on the source, and the choice/quality of the deinterlacing and resizing algorithms.

Most decent video editing packages will let you deinterlace and resize the video on the time line, though not using optimal methods.

Cheers,
David.

Most techniques will lower motion sample update from 50Hz to 25Hz causing motion to appear jerky. This will be particularly bad for handheld DV camcorder material.

If you plan to do this, use a heavy tripod and obey 24p/25p pan and zoom rules as taught in film schools.