HD High Definition --Can you enhance archived film?

Question

I have a question about High Definition tv...

Can you enhance old footage and archive film into HD? My friend and I were arguing about it and one said that you could not truly convert film into HD without CGI or photoshop. The argument came while watching "When We Left Earth" on the discovery channell. The images are in wide screen (if it is not HD they make it full screen usually), and they said they did not use CGI or photoshop but enhanced it to HD (some say HD standards). Does that mean this is really HD and can be done to any video? or are the enhancements just enhancements that look better and they put it in wide screen and say it meets HD standards?

Answer 1

Anything that was filmed in 35mm or larger film can be made into HDTV without any special processing--just a high-resolution film scanner.  35mm film resolution exceeds that of HDTV.

Even old movies can be made into HD as well as TV shows that were filmed (as most were).  I have an HD-DVD of "Casablanca" which is spectacular;  also, HDNET broadcasts the old TV program "Hogan's Heroes" in HDTV and it looks great.  "Casablanca" retains the original movie's aspect ratio, while "Hogan's Heroes" appears to be cropped top and bottom to fit the widescreen.

Only very old movies, such as silent films with graininess and scratches, need any special enhancement.

Answer 2

Well, yes and no. Let's use for instance....old movies that are being released on Blu-Ray, Let's say movies like The Terminator. These films were not originally filmed with High Definition Cameras, but through editing, movie studios can upgrade the picture and make it look amazing! So although it was never shot in HD, they're able to edit it and increase the video quality. That being said, they're not going to look anywhere near the quality of films that WERE shot in HD. So actually, I guess your answer is yes....they can be "made into HD" I'm assuming you could to any video with the proper equipment and software.