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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2013 11:45:55 GMT
Cheers for that, Laurence. I guess it 'hangs' on whether a large enough audience - beyond ourselves with our specialist interest - start demanding it, for it to be a commercial proposition. I don't know about you, but, sadly, I don't feel there has ever been ENOUGH of an interest from Joe Public in their cultural history (let alone the QUALITY of their cultural history) for this to happen. Unless - or until - of course, the software can be more cheaply developed for us to restore our own product from our own keypads. I think you hit the nail on the head there. Ultimately, we're talking about something that in the bigger picture is of minor interest. Joe Public couldn't give a toss about it's TV heritage - just keep churning out ever more episodes of Kyle, X Factor, Eggheads, Corrie and the large amounts of repetitive spam TV that permanently clogs up TV schedules. Sadly, I too think the future is largely gonna be on a DIY basis. Until a few days ago - he had his account terminated - there was a YouTube poster who was remastering b+w episodes of The Avengers and Steptoe and Son from the official DVD's. He actually bothered to take the time and trouble to do what the official releases didn't - cleaned up the pictures, removing scratches and blobs where possible, regraded the pictures and stabilised them. Even in basic YouTube quality, the results spoke for themselves - I watched some 1962 Avengers and Steptoe and they looked fantastic - how they SHOULD had looked on DVD. I only wish I knew what software and techniques he was using to get the impressive results he did. Using certain plug ins on my PC it was almost like watching them fresh off VT. I do use a vidfire type technique on my own videos - it's great, but still can't quite restore and remaster for optimum quality. Then look at the many Doctor Who fans who spend hours colourising, animating and remastering stuff unofficially... so, sadly, DIY is probably the only way we're gonna get to see any upgrades from what is currently available. |
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Post by Sue Butcher on Feb 8, 2013 11:56:02 GMT
"Steptoe" desperately needs restoring. The poor image didn't stop it being funny, but I could have done without the eyestrain.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2013 12:30:38 GMT
"Steptoe" desperately needs restoring. The poor image didn't stop it being funny, but I could have done without the eyestrain. You ain't kidding. The b+w era needs a thorough audio and visual clean up, stabilising and vidfire. The colour era off air b+w recordings I'm sure could be fixed up a bit better these days - I know and accept the options are a bit more limited being lower resolution recordings, but technology has moved on a lot since we first saw those in the 90's. I still can't believe to this day that the BBC allowed them to be released on DVD looking and sounding like they do. Cultural vandalism since given a little time, care and money would had made an enormous difference. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2013 12:37:43 GMT
I totally agree with everyone's comments here. People generally don't care about "culture", hence the state not only of current TV but the general situation with funding for the arts. I also agree that DIY restorations will be the way forward in future for archive TV shows, once software is both more affordable and commonly available. There have been various fan restorations (cleaned up / VidFired) of vintage series circulating for a long time and these prove beyond any doubt that so much can be done with "ropey" old telerecordings! The b/w Steptoes are a classic example of something that should be drastically upgraded at the first opportunity.
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Post by Neil Megson on Feb 8, 2013 12:42:09 GMT
An experimental version of Richard Russell's colour recovery software is freely available from his own site : colourrecovery.wikispaces.com/Software+versionsConditions apply, quote, " Note that the public release versions are made available for experimentation and evaluation purposes only. Their use for commercial applications (e.g. DVD production, broadcast or entering of material into the archive) is prohibited." I remember that there was a very long thread about this some time ago on these boards, the conclusion being that without access to pristine source material, there is no point in trying to colour recover material (e.g. from DVD) yourself as any results will be meaningless. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2013 13:14:51 GMT
I remember that there was a very long thread about this some time ago on these boards, the conclusion being that without access to pristine source material, there is no point in trying to colour recover material (e.g. from DVD) yourself as any results will be meaningless. Not to mention that the wavering colour information is usually filtered out on transmission or release. But yes... one needs a high definition transfer to work from to get any kind of watchable result. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2013 14:26:26 GMT
Yes, colour recovery is an exact science and it really needs to be done on a professional basis by those with sufficient technical expertise currently to get worthwhile results. I was really making the point about DIY restorations being the thing of the future with regard more to VidFire and general clean-up, which is already happening very effectively.
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Post by Tony Walshaw on Feb 21, 2013 21:35:03 GMT
Cheers for that, Laurence. I guess it 'hangs' on whether a large enough audience - beyond ourselves with our specialist interest - start demanding it, for it to be a commercial proposition. I don't know about you, but, sadly, I don't feel there has ever been ENOUGH of an interest from Joe Public in their cultural history (let alone the QUALITY of their cultural history) for this to happen. Unless - or until - of course, the software can be more cheaply developed for us to restore our own product from our own keypads. I think you hit the nail on the head there. Ultimately, we're talking about something that in the bigger picture is of minor interest. Joe Public couldn't give a toss about it's TV heritage - just keep churning out ever more episodes of Kyle, X Factor, Eggheads, Corrie and the large amounts of repetitive spam TV that permanently clogs up TV schedules. I totally agree with everyone's comments here. People generally don't care about "culture", hence the state not only of current TV but the general situation with funding for the arts. The general public keep up with current popular culture, and also have a fondness for what they remember, particularly if they enjoyed it at the time. More people have a deeper interest in culture than is obvious, but not to the extent where they have the time and money to spend on old TV. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2013 9:52:38 GMT
"Old TV" is part of the popular culture we're talking about though. If you draw a distinction between that and other forms, then it's no wonder the archives are in the state they are. I'm not convinced in the slightest though that people ultimately care about their heritage. Very o/t for this thread, mind! Might be good to start a new one in the general TV section if anybody wants to go down this road again!  |
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Post by Tony Walshaw on Mar 3, 2013 22:31:41 GMT
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