James Martin Posted September 29, 2012 Report Share Posted September 29, 2012 I hope those of you who know television better than myself can answer this. Until this week, the household telly has been an SD CRT. Any television I've watched our favourite show on has been SD, or it's been an SD transmission I've watched. Now... since Seven switched Home & Away to HD filming nearly a decade ago, the programme appears - when viewed in SD - to have been recorded on film (yes, I know it's video, but it's had "that effect") but having had an HD television installed this week, I've fired up 5HD and suddenly found the new glorious, hi-def Summer Bay to suddenly appear like it's been recorded on videotape once more, a la 1988-2003. Indeed, it's had the "that looks really odd" factor the summer repeats had, because I'm so used to the "filmic" look. Have the HD versions, when viewed on HD televisions, appeared like this all along all this time, and the film effect that many berated at the time of its introduction, was/is actually nothing more than some sort of downscaling/downgrading artefact? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perry Posted September 29, 2012 Report Share Posted September 29, 2012 I'm not sure what itsbroadcast is in the UK but I thought Channel 7 stopped broadcasting in HD with the introduction of the digital channel 7mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cadyctslover Posted September 29, 2012 Report Share Posted September 29, 2012 Network 7 stopped broadcasting the show in Australia in HD because the channel 7HD was removed as Perry says. However, they continue to film the show in High Definition. In my experience the way the show looks does depend on whether you have an SD/HDTV. I remember when we had SDTV that HighDef shows had a weird filmic look, which made shadows look particularly grainy and false. On an HDTV H&A has looked the same for me for about 5 years, but especially since the end of the 2009 season where the production values were further improved, being far brighter and sunnier on screen. It looks especially good on 5HD, but unfortunately we haven't got Sky+HD this year . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Martin Posted September 29, 2012 Report Share Posted September 29, 2012 It is still broadcast in HD in the UK. I can't vouch for other markets though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexx Posted September 29, 2012 Report Share Posted September 29, 2012 I think it entirely depends on whether you have a TV that is 100 + Hz or less. The less Hz the more 'juddery' the motion is. H&A is filmed in 24 frames per second, which is the same as film - on SD TV it looks like film because those TV's cant match the technology. It used to be filmed in either 30 or 60 frames per second (the video tape look). If you have a HDtv that is 200 Hz, then you will be getting a very smooth 'real life' motion going on - similar to 30/60 frames per second. But it should look like that for a lot of HD TV shows/movies/blu rays too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Martin Posted October 1, 2012 Report Share Posted October 1, 2012 Thanks for that response. Personally, I like the filmic look. I always think it makes it look "bigger budget" than it actually is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexx Posted October 1, 2012 Report Share Posted October 1, 2012 I think Home and Away suits that 'look', but it can put up a sort of invisible barrier, when compared to the traditional video tape (30/60 framers per second) look. Watching Home and Away The Early years really highlights that difference in motion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Martin Posted October 10, 2012 Report Share Posted October 10, 2012 It didn't suit that look in the 80s and 90s, but certainly 2004-onwards when it's been more "drama" than "soap" in format, it has suited it. I think it gives the show a more "upmarket" and "refined" look about it. I can't put my finger on why. A short-lived late-night soap in the UK called Night & Day utilised it (although it would have been shot in SD) and it looked great. What doesn't help is that SD looks great on CRTs, but not that good on flatscreen displays. Watching X Factor on Sunday night and switching over from ITV1 HD to ITV2 for Xtra Factor really showed it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted October 10, 2012 Report Share Posted October 10, 2012 Was it not just a late-night soap becuase no one watched it when they originally put it on in the evening and they wanted to get through the episodes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Martin Posted October 10, 2012 Report Share Posted October 10, 2012 Was it not just a late-night soap becuase no one watched it when they originally put it on in the evening and they wanted to get through the episodes? Yes and no. It was originally the "official" replacement for Home & Away on ITV, but Crossroads' revival took the slots (and tried way too hard to be a British H&A but that's for another time) and Night & Day played out in two formats: 3X30min shows at 5pm in the week, and then 1X60min "remix" type show on a Thursday night. ITV billed this as an "uncut" version but infact it had a lot of material edited out and a few adult scenes inserted instead, hence the "remix" tag. These were basically things like shots of a female character getting her foot from under a table and rubbing the crotch of the lad opposite with said foot. Love to know what was used to stop the actors getting excited. The teatime version tanked though as it was just WAY too complex and highbrow for daytime - and indeed way too highbrow and complex for ITV1 period at a time when they were really starting to dumb down their output. So only the "remix" stayed, but it got moved from the original slot of 10:40pm to 12:30am by the time the show finished production. STV, Grampian and Ulster went one better and stuck it out at about 1am on a Friday night into Saturday morning. It would have been perfect for Channel 4, or the present-day incarnation of ITV2 (this was still in a very-much analogue age, remember.) Had ITV stuck with it, it would have been a huge success. Along with Crossroads (which, for reasons best kept to ITV, they thought would be good to put up at 5:30pm... against Neighbours!) they were too desperate to find a daytime hit to replace Home & Away with and wouldn't settle for anything that didn't match our favourite show's figures... and they still, 12 years after losing the show, haven't found anything as big as H&A. I always wonder what fate would have befallen it had the figures nosedived like they have on C5 in the last few years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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