DOES 16MM LOOK BETTER PROJECTED OR ON TV SCREEN?

[Martin1000]

My view is even viewing film from a good quality projector & screen - old 16mm prints look much better on the small screen transfered onto digital format with proper telecine technique (flying spot mkIII cintel etc.) not just because you aren't worrying about the projector shredding the film but since having some film transferred it just looks so much better on a TV. The scratches don;t show up as much & the dirt doesn;t collect in the gate of the projector. It just seems to look that bit sharper on TV as well.

Martin.

[Johnny V]

I think it's horses for courses... 16mm was designed as an amateur format originally and I believe can look great when projected. The problem is that most prints in circlation now are old and battered. A brand new print can look stunning.

Also, a 16mm frame blown up to the size of a TV screen will always appear sharper than a 5 foot-wide projected picture. The same goes for 8mm format pictures too.

[John G]

I always equate 16MM with a Hammond Organ IE In the right hands it can sound/look gorgeous, in the wrong hands it can sound/ look ghastly.

It should look better through a TV system as this is effectively a lower resolution. Things have improved though, early prints for television had to be dull and flat
as the TV sets could not handle the wide contrast range.
The reason why these days you are seeing a lot of vivid colour footage from example WW2 or Peter Sellers/Dirk Bogarde home movies is the fact that telecines can now handle ' Kodachrome ' running at 18fps properly. I am sure producers would have liked to exploit the somewhat magical properties of Kodachrome in the past, but getting it right for TV in those days would have been prohibitive?

[William Martin]

At the moment I still think that a good 16mm print on a good screen, good projector, good lense et.c beats the best tv, but this will soon change, perhaps in the next 10 years.

[Matthew]

"At the moment, I still think that a good 16mm print on a good screen, good projector, good lens etc, beats the best tv, but this will soon change, perhaps in the next 10 years."

Couldn't some TV related improvements of, say, video projector lenses, lead to better quality film projector lenses?

Does anyone know how much research and development is still going on, into better quality, higher resolution film stocks compared to the amount devoted to creating higher definition affordable TV monitors?

Film stocks might see more resolution improvement than TV screens.

[Steven Sigel]

A good 16mm print, projected with a good lens, and an appropriate light source (Xenon) is so much nicer than a TV (or even a projected DVD) that there is very little comparison.

A lousy 16mm print, or a print projected with lousy equipment might not look as good as a projected DVD.

Some issues:

The effective resolution on 16mm is quite a bit higher than Standard Def television, and, IIRC, is roughly comparable to HDTV.

The color response of film (especially IB Technicolor) is much better than a TV. You haven't seen anything until you've seen films like "Gone with the Wind" , "Wizard of OZ" and "Singin' In the Rain" in true Technicolor -- I can only say "Wow!".

IMHO - Anyone who claims that video looks better hasn't really seen a proper 16mm print...

[William Martin]

Matthew said:

"At the moment, I still think that a good 16mm print on a good screen, good projector, good lens etc, beats the best tv, but this will soon change, perhaps in the next 10 years."

Couldn't some TV related improvements of, say, video projector lenses, lead to better quality film projector lenses?

Does anyone know how much research and development is still going on, into better quality, higher resolution film stocks compared to the amount devoted to creating higher definition affordable TV monitors?

Film stocks might see more resolution improvement than TV screens.

yes and for a while better film stock will keep film ahead but eventualy video will get more research money and soom there will be 6000+ line definition video projectors appearing in cinemas, and when digital "movie" cameras become common film research will virtually stop.