Wizard of Oz in HD?

[Tom Snyder]

WB wil be showing the Wizard of Oz on Sunday, Dec 19th... The feed will be in HD, but TitanTV isn't showing it as HD here on WB18-D....

Any insiders know anyhting?

[John L]

Kind of odd to show a 1938 movie in HD.  But if the film was originally produced in Widescreen back in 1938, then why not air it in full wide screen???

Though it won't be in true HD, it will be shown in wide screen using the capabilities of HD.

ABC-TV aired the Julie Andrews/Christopher Plummer Musical "Sound of Music" and it aired in wide screen on WISN-TV using the HD capabilities.

-John L.

[foxeng]

Originally posted by John L
Kind of odd to show a 1938 movie in HD.  But if the film was originally produced in Widescreen back in 1938, then why not air it in full wide screen???

Though it won't be in true HD, it will be shown in wide screen using the capabilities of HD.

ABC-TV aired the Julie Andrews/Christopher Plummer Musical "Sound of Music" and it aired in wide screen on WISN-TV using the HD capabilities.

-John L.

The 35mm film stock has more resolution than HD can provide. If it is transfered on a HD Telecine, then it will be HD. The question is will they show in the original 4:3 AR or do a zoom/stretch to 16:9 like HDNet has done with Charlie's Angels and Hogan's Heroes.

[mcq]

I kinda figured that "any" movie done on film is by definition Hi-def" ?! I would also assume that any feature movie (that played in a movie house) would be widescreen.

I recorded N'tnl Lampoon's Christmas vacation hoping that I would be seeing it in wide screen.

It's kinda frustrating when you have a 4x3 Hi Def TV and you get the top AND side bars........

[StarvingForHDTV]

Originally posted by mcq
It's kinda frustrating when you have a 4x3 Hi Def TV and you get the top AND side bars........

Ouch!

[John L]

Going back to the original topic of this message.  You are right and I just notice the changes for WVTV-18 and Titan TV listing what shows WVTV airs in HD.

I'm sure Jimboy could fill us in here.  I would assume he has it set that when the WB Network feed sends a HD signal it will trigger a switch at WVTV to broadcast it in HD.

I don't know, I'd love a tour of a TV station just to see how the HDTV stuff gets transmitted.

-John L.

[foxeng]

Originally posted by mcq
I kinda figured that "any" movie done on film is by definition Hi-def" ?! I would also assume that any feature movie (that played in a movie house) would be widescreen.

Not seventy years ago. Anamorphic lens were not invented until the late 40's and really came into major use in the 50's. Darryl Zanuck was instramental in the development of that so as to have some thing that the new toy called TV didn't have since the movie companies feared that TV would close down the movie theaters. "Why should I go and pay to see a movie when I can turn on my new black and white 13 inch TV and see a movie or program for free?"

Wizard of Oz came out in 1939. Same year as Gone With the Wind.

[John L]

Originally posted by foxeng
Wizard of Oz came out in 1939. Same year as Gone With the Wind.

Ok so I was off a year.  I haven't seen "Gone With the Wind" on TV in a longtime.  It was on TV at least twice, but that was like 10 to 15 years ago.  I believe that when "Gone With the Wind" appeared on the big screen, initially it had a "X" rating, allowing only adults to see the film.  If you see the movie you would consider it as a PG rating.  

-John L.

[Bebop]

Blame Edison for the 4:3 format.

Watch PBS' Digital TV: A Cringely Crash Course_". If anyone wanted to know more.

[techboy]

For the first 30 years of television, everybody watched a TV picture on the bottom of a round bottle ( picture tube ).  Round bottles is all anybody knew how to blow.  So I guess we should be happy that TV's original aspect ratio wasn't 4x4.  Wizard of Oz was shot (filmed) on 3 seperate black and white film strips using 3 seperate camera mechanisms.  Each camera had a colored filter in the light path.  There was no tri-color negative film stock back then.  That's very fortunate for us, because otherwise the beautiful colors of this masterpiece would have long since faded away.  In fact, if Hollywood studios hadn't struck color seperation archive prints, most early color films would not have survived.