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Date Posted: 14:05:56 12/02/05 Fri
Author: Ames
Subject: Re: High Definition
In reply to: Dickbd 's message, "High Definition" on 13:15:30 12/02/05 Fri

First, it's important to realize that DVDs do not have as much resolution as broadcast HDTV. DVDs have the equivalent of about 720 x 480 resolution, compared to 1280 x 720 for 720p HDTV, or 1920 x 1080 for 1080i HDTV (although few HDTVs actually achieve that). However, DVDs look pretty good on HDTV, mainly because they have much better horizontal resolution than regular broadcast TV (SDTV), and that scales up pretty nicely by interpolation on a HDTV.

Unfortunately the early years of Buffy were filmed on 16mm film with quality barely adequate for SDTV. The first 2 seasons especially don't look very good on DVD even on a good regular TV. It was Season 4 of Buffy, and Season 1 of Angel, before they began filming in wide aspect ratio 16:9 with high-quality equipment. A decision was made early on by Joss Whedon that Buffy would always be framed for 4:3 aspect ratio, and the DVDs were cut that way in North America. However, they are available in the full wide screen version in other regions from Season 4 of Buffy on. The Angel DVDs went to wide screen in North America only in Season 2. They are anamorphic wide screen, meaning that the full DVD resolution is used for the 16:9 aspect ratio frame, and the DVD player scales it to the TV aspect ratio. That means that you would get a very good picture from these DVDs on a wide-screen HDTV.

One annoyance for North American DVD viewers is that the musical episode Once More With Feeling was filmed in wide screen and is presented that way on the DVD - but it isn't anamorphic! That means that part of the 480 lines of resolution is wasted on those black bars above and below the picture.

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