How come old movies released in blu-ray don't look great?

Question

And before you say "it wasn't shot in high-def", all movies are shot on traditional film and then made into reels and the reels are duplicated and sent to movie theaters. The output of those reels are even better than 1080p even in older movies. Therefore if they still have the reel, how come they cant make a truly high def version of an older movie (by older i mean 80's and 90's)

Answer 1

You are right that if the film was in good shape it should be possible to create a great digital master (well above 1080p resolution). I have read that even 35mm film -- never mind some of the 70 mm old movies -- can be scanned at upwards of 2000 pixels vertical resolution. So, Blu-ray CAN provide a great HD version of an old film.

But, as with everything, if the studio doesn't do a good job on the transfer and mastering ... you will see poor quality results. I suggest your experience is an example of a poor mastering job, not a weakness in Blu-ray per se.

Unfortunately few movies -- even the new movie releases -- have 5/5 video quality ratings on review sites, and some are downright poor.

Answer 2

dont know all that much about it but im pretty sure its the camera quality not the resolution. Yes all movie productions can put out higher than 1080p resolution, but does that mean every pixel is perfect?

thats my guess

Answer 3

I think it's just because of the equipment used then vs the equipment used now....nothing to do with actual picture resolution. Also another factor is the equipment used to do a high def transfer for Blu-Ray, the type of encoder used.

Answer 4

All movies are not shot on traditional film.   Many directors are using digital technology now.

The reason you get such varying results when transferring old films to HD is simple:  Quality of the old master tapes, and care taken in the transfer process.  

One of the HD channels awhile back showed a movie from the 60's about John F Kennedy and PT 109....it looked fantastic.   Great color, etc.

And I've seen others that didn't look much better than regular SD television, other than the fact that they were in widescreen.

Answer 5

I was reading somewhere on the internet yesterday that you can only see true blue ray if your tv is larger than 37 inches.  I don't know why, thats what the experts said.

Answer 6

It is all about the transfer. As a image of the film must be capture digitally and if the studio isn't careful it can look terrible.