cinemabon
11-24-2009, 06:45 AM
Evolution
Home theater has evolved into something so radically different from what I first envisioned nearly four decades ago, when as an eager young bachelor flung from the nest. Back then, we (collective) thought of managing our own theater, which I did. However, I immediately realized that having twelve cans of thirty-five millimeter film as a storage device was not only cumbersome but impractical. One could only rent from a distributor at a cost that prohibited such extravagance as a hobby. Although in the 1970’s, this was the case for so many men like me who loved film and had means. Next came reel to reel tape. Transfers of 35mm film to tape were haphazard to say the least. The person had to point a camera at an image and scan over the image on a special screening table such as a flatbed or Steenbeck editor. The process destroyed the original image by degradation and loss of aspect ratio. However, we gained an advantage of having the film on a single 12 inch reel and available for multiple uses. The colors were terrible. Networks had the same problem. It behooved the person who made the transfer to determine what portion of the frame was most important. The films that suffered the most were those shot after 1951, since the vast majority was shot in aspect ratios radically different from television. Even older films shot in 1:1.33 standard had to trim the top and bottom to fit TV. Often, Fred Astair’s feet met the chopping block.
The miracle arrived in the late seventies with the advent of a cartridge taping system. However, one format (Sony’s Betamax) offered the better picture but odd recording times. The lesser format, Panasonic’s VHS, offered even recording times, which depended on the speed of your recording. If you recorded at top speed, SP or Standard Play, it nearly rivaled its cousin. Of course, no one recorded at those speeds. Most people recorded at the slowest possible rate to jam as many programs as they could on one tape, or six hours in SLP or Standard Long Play. No one ever used the EP or extended play mode, and it was soon eliminated from later models. The problems with tape remained the same as they were for reel to reel. Video as a transfer source medium for film did not improve for twenty years.
That left the projection system. Television seemed stuck in a rut. We only had cathode ray tubes to generate a picture. America seemed hopelessly mired in its NTSC broadcast code established in the 1940’s! It took Japan and its national broadcasting service to increase the lines of transmission in the late 1980’s. Hope sprang eternal for us fans who longed for detail, accurate colors that did not bleed, whites and blacks separated by sharp contrast, and proper light values that duplicated film. Projection systems simply magnified the problems of video and made them bigger on the wall. Even now, the best DLP systems are only in theaters. The home versions fall short by a long shot.
A quiet revolution has taken place in the past three years. The result is profound and mostly due to the courage of a few individuals in America. Japan and even Europe decided not to wait for our stupid divided government to increase their transmission standards and did so over a decade ago. However, about three years ago, America started to broadcast their television signals in high definition. Something occurred when that happed which congress, in its backward looking ways did not predict. American’s were willing to pay for a better picture. Not only did they kick CRT’s out the door (long overdue), they flocked to buy new flat screen televisions. Overnight, the flat screen replaced standard TV’s in nearly every household, until today they are the norm – and this has happened despite a certain party dragging its collective feet (“Oh, it’ll never work!”).
The LCD stands alone as the standard now. It has easily brushed its competition aside and reigns supreme. With backlighting shrinking to LED’s, the panels are flatter, sharper, with higher contrast ratios than anyone thought possible even two years ago. The result is what I first strived for when I left home on that journey to find a way to bring film to my living room – detail, contrast, and true color. When we opened our large flat panel LED LCD television and started to look at games, old DVD’s, and even tapes, the result was immediate and profound. The picture quality is so sharp, so clear, and so accurate that it represents a great advancement in the reproduction of that home theater experience. All at once, movies have true blacks, not grays when the scene goes to black. Letters do not bleed into black areas. Reds do not “glow” when they stand alone. I could not and cannot still believe the vast improvement I see whenever we turn this flat monstrosity on and such an amazing picture appears on that panel (54 inches). I never thought it would be possible or affordable… but now it is.
Even more incredible, since we stayed with Playstation (we have over a hundred PS2 games) and purchased a PS3 last year, the “blue-ray” DVD’s are so clear and so sharp that it almost seems three dimensional (which I understand has begun in-roads into the broadcast market starting next year). Replacing four hundred DVD’s with blue ray versions will take a very long time. However, even from the first, I can see a remarkable difference. Unfortunately, these boxed gift versions of ET, or Spiderman, or Titanic, or Lord of the Rings, will not be duplicated on the blue ray versions if and when they become available – mores the pity. If you do not own one of these televisions, then I suggest you run, stampede if necessary, to your nearest Best Buy (no one else can compete) and haggle… and you heard me, haggle that man/woman agent to give you the best deal. Once you start to watch, tell me the truth… am I da man or what!
Cinemabon, author of “The Distant Voices” and “The Voices Arrive” published through iUniverse.com
Home theater has evolved into something so radically different from what I first envisioned nearly four decades ago, when as an eager young bachelor flung from the nest. Back then, we (collective) thought of managing our own theater, which I did. However, I immediately realized that having twelve cans of thirty-five millimeter film as a storage device was not only cumbersome but impractical. One could only rent from a distributor at a cost that prohibited such extravagance as a hobby. Although in the 1970’s, this was the case for so many men like me who loved film and had means. Next came reel to reel tape. Transfers of 35mm film to tape were haphazard to say the least. The person had to point a camera at an image and scan over the image on a special screening table such as a flatbed or Steenbeck editor. The process destroyed the original image by degradation and loss of aspect ratio. However, we gained an advantage of having the film on a single 12 inch reel and available for multiple uses. The colors were terrible. Networks had the same problem. It behooved the person who made the transfer to determine what portion of the frame was most important. The films that suffered the most were those shot after 1951, since the vast majority was shot in aspect ratios radically different from television. Even older films shot in 1:1.33 standard had to trim the top and bottom to fit TV. Often, Fred Astair’s feet met the chopping block.
The miracle arrived in the late seventies with the advent of a cartridge taping system. However, one format (Sony’s Betamax) offered the better picture but odd recording times. The lesser format, Panasonic’s VHS, offered even recording times, which depended on the speed of your recording. If you recorded at top speed, SP or Standard Play, it nearly rivaled its cousin. Of course, no one recorded at those speeds. Most people recorded at the slowest possible rate to jam as many programs as they could on one tape, or six hours in SLP or Standard Long Play. No one ever used the EP or extended play mode, and it was soon eliminated from later models. The problems with tape remained the same as they were for reel to reel. Video as a transfer source medium for film did not improve for twenty years.
That left the projection system. Television seemed stuck in a rut. We only had cathode ray tubes to generate a picture. America seemed hopelessly mired in its NTSC broadcast code established in the 1940’s! It took Japan and its national broadcasting service to increase the lines of transmission in the late 1980’s. Hope sprang eternal for us fans who longed for detail, accurate colors that did not bleed, whites and blacks separated by sharp contrast, and proper light values that duplicated film. Projection systems simply magnified the problems of video and made them bigger on the wall. Even now, the best DLP systems are only in theaters. The home versions fall short by a long shot.
A quiet revolution has taken place in the past three years. The result is profound and mostly due to the courage of a few individuals in America. Japan and even Europe decided not to wait for our stupid divided government to increase their transmission standards and did so over a decade ago. However, about three years ago, America started to broadcast their television signals in high definition. Something occurred when that happed which congress, in its backward looking ways did not predict. American’s were willing to pay for a better picture. Not only did they kick CRT’s out the door (long overdue), they flocked to buy new flat screen televisions. Overnight, the flat screen replaced standard TV’s in nearly every household, until today they are the norm – and this has happened despite a certain party dragging its collective feet (“Oh, it’ll never work!”).
The LCD stands alone as the standard now. It has easily brushed its competition aside and reigns supreme. With backlighting shrinking to LED’s, the panels are flatter, sharper, with higher contrast ratios than anyone thought possible even two years ago. The result is what I first strived for when I left home on that journey to find a way to bring film to my living room – detail, contrast, and true color. When we opened our large flat panel LED LCD television and started to look at games, old DVD’s, and even tapes, the result was immediate and profound. The picture quality is so sharp, so clear, and so accurate that it represents a great advancement in the reproduction of that home theater experience. All at once, movies have true blacks, not grays when the scene goes to black. Letters do not bleed into black areas. Reds do not “glow” when they stand alone. I could not and cannot still believe the vast improvement I see whenever we turn this flat monstrosity on and such an amazing picture appears on that panel (54 inches). I never thought it would be possible or affordable… but now it is.
Even more incredible, since we stayed with Playstation (we have over a hundred PS2 games) and purchased a PS3 last year, the “blue-ray” DVD’s are so clear and so sharp that it almost seems three dimensional (which I understand has begun in-roads into the broadcast market starting next year). Replacing four hundred DVD’s with blue ray versions will take a very long time. However, even from the first, I can see a remarkable difference. Unfortunately, these boxed gift versions of ET, or Spiderman, or Titanic, or Lord of the Rings, will not be duplicated on the blue ray versions if and when they become available – mores the pity. If you do not own one of these televisions, then I suggest you run, stampede if necessary, to your nearest Best Buy (no one else can compete) and haggle… and you heard me, haggle that man/woman agent to give you the best deal. Once you start to watch, tell me the truth… am I da man or what!
Cinemabon, author of “The Distant Voices” and “The Voices Arrive” published through iUniverse.com