Top of the Pops 1979 (HD)

[Jeff Leach]

Most fellow members will probably seen that thankfully the BBC have fortunately pressed ahead and will be

continuing the re-runs of Top of the Pops into 1979 starting on Friday January 3rd

Kicking off the year with The Story of 1979 amd Hits of 1979

Now of course the channel is in HD - we'll get to see the shows in their full crisp glory

(bar the one's presented by JS (8)

(hopefully the DLT situation will be resolved one way on another or there's another 10 gone)

So I thought I'd kick the discussion thread off early...

[iwest]

Dec 18, 2013 0:42:02 GMT Jeff Leach said:

Now of course the channel is in HD - we'll get to see the shows in their full crisp glory

It's good that the repeats are continuing into 1979 obviously, but I wouldn't get your hopes up about HD making much of a difference. All the episodes were recorded in standard definition to video tape, so HD isn't going to reveal any extra detail. The process of upscaling them to 1080i for BBC Four HD might mean a slight improvement in quality in theory, but nothing like the improvement there would have been if they'd been shot on film and remastered in HD.

Having said that I'll probably have to make a test recording of an episode from both BBC Four and BBC Four HD and compare them to see if it's worth my while archiving the HD broadcasts instead of the SD ones from now on. But I suspect it will just be a waste of disk space...

[John Green]

I'm out of my depth here,but aren't there problems with the aspect ratio in which these are broadcast?

[Peter Stirling]

Dec 18, 2013 1:21:17 GMT John Green said:

I'm out of my depth here,but aren't there problems with the aspect ratio in which these are broadcast?

Purists will want them broadcast in their original ratio which means having black bands on the sides of your screen,heathens like me hate those black bands and will want to fill up the whole screen as I believe those bands make the show look distant and remote.
Usually you can just switch your own TV to widescreen everything, however the TV stations have the power to switch the signal so that it only shows up in old ratio whatever you do to your own TV.....as you have probably seen on some archive clip shows? t his I find very distracting on something showing various old clips as the screen changes from one ratio to another and those grotty bands come up.

[John Green]

Dec 18, 2013 8:34:39 GMT Peter Stirling said:

Dec 18, 2013 1:21:17 GMT John Green said:

I'm out of my depth here,but aren't there problems with the aspect ratio in which these are broadcast?

Purists will want them broadcast in their original ratio which means having black bands on the sides of your screen,heathens like me hate those black bands and will want to fill up the whole screen as I believe those bands make the show look distant and remote.
Usually you can just switch your own TV to widescreen everything, however the TV stations have the power to switch the signal so that it only shows up in old ratio whatever you do to your own TV.....as you have probably seen on some archive clip shows? t his I find very distracting on something showing various old clips as the screen changes from one ratio to another and those grotty bands come up.

Thanks,Peter.
And yes,I read "grotty bands" as a bit of music criticism at first!

[Rob Moss]

Dec 18, 2013 8:34:39 GMT Peter Stirling said:

Dec 18, 2013 1:21:17 GMT John Green said:

I'm out of my depth here,but aren't there problems with the aspect ratio in which these are broadcast?

Purists will want them broadcast in their original ratio which means having black bands on the sides of your screen,heathens like me hate those black bands and will want to fill up the whole screen as I believe those bands make the show look distant and remote.

Peter, I'm shocked!

Surely having the black bands on either side is better than either losing the top and bottom of the picture, or watching everything in "stretch-o-vision"..?

[Deleted]

Dec 18, 2013 11:01:27 GMT Rob Moss said:

Surely having the black bands on either side is better than either losing the top and bottom of the picture, or watching everything in "stretch-o-vision"..?

I thought at the time it got popular that widescreen was a con. You wouldn't get more picture, you'd get less of it only bigger. But then, the same principle applies to so much of what gets called the modern world.

[Rob Moss]

Dec 18, 2013 11:19:42 GMT @sheldi said:

Dec 18, 2013 11:01:27 GMT Rob Moss said:

Surely having the black bands on either side is better than either losing the top and bottom of the picture, or watching everything in "stretch-o-vision"..?

I thought at the time it got popular that widescreen was a con. You wouldn't get more picture, you'd get less of it only bigger. But then, the same principle applies to so much of what gets called the modern world.

Depends if you're talking about old 4:3 programmes on a widescreen set. Obviously with a 16:9 originated programme you get more picture, no question. With a 4:3 programme on a 16:9 picture you can either lose a chunk, stretch the lot, or frame it with black bars. Personally, I favour the latter.

[Deleted]

Whenever I'm wandering around a superstore such as Curry's that's displaying a bank of windscreen TVs, they always seem to have them all showing a 4:3 image stretched to 16:9, with people's faces the shape of lemons. I always think to myself "is this actually selling the product to anyone?!". Looks dreadful!

[Sal Mohammed]

I have to agree with Laurence, I'd rather watch Pans People looking slim and fit rather than short and fat. Sure there will be black bars on either side of the screen but it's in the correct aspect ratio.
As for cropping the image to 16:9 from an 4:3 original, I always feel like something is missing. What's worse than having the top of someone's head cropped off.

[Peter Stirling]

LOL This idea of having chubby Pan's People on Widescreen and missing the top and bottom of the picture is a bit of an exaggeration -but I suppose it depends on what TV you have?

I watched a delightful 321 Christmas edition the other day with Bernie Winters and the bloke from the New Avengers- I could see all the credits perfectly, as well as the advert que box in the corner, having black bars at the side would have made it ghostly and dank.

But I do understand people are very passionate and polorised about this issue ?

[Dale Rumbold]

I have no idea why anyone would want to see the picture in anything other than its original resolution : as to black bars at the side, I don't notice them after a few seconds, as I prefer to look at what IS on the screen rather than what isn't!

[jerryg]

just slightly off topic here ,but why the heck are the bbc not doing anything to celebrate what would have been 50 years of totp in jan,i know theres been scandal from one of the djs this year ,but totp was about the music of the day ,and of course the various dance troupes ,Not about the presenters who were given a quick 10 seconds to introduce the next act ,i think its thouroughly disgusting that the 50th year since the show started is going to be ignored by the bbc.

[peterfitzpatrick]

Not a chance in hell will there be a 50th celebration or mention. Lowest common denominator press has taken care of that.

[Marty Schultz]

I can't watch anything not in the original ratio. I watch 4:3 pillar boxed and cinema ratios in letterbox. Though I don't go as far as some and watch old television on CRT.