How do they remaster an old television show like Batman?

[dell]

What I am asking is do they just transfer the information from the old film to a digital format? I would assume at a minimum that they have sophisticated filtering to remove problems (dirt, spots on the film, etc.), for example, the way we can fix red eyes in photos. Or do they go even further?

People are saying that they can see details they never saw before. So does the computer extrapolate and create additional information for each frame to supplement the original information? This seems unlikely, but I really don't know.

[AndyFish]

Great question!

[DocLathropBrown]

Filmstock naturally captures an extraordinaryily high amount of image detail. The thing is that for years and years, playback equipment (CRT TVs, VCRs, DVD Players) were only able to display so much of that picture detail. But HDTV and Blu-ray is able to show off 6x the picture resolution of DVD, and thus a new scan of the original filmstock with create a digital copy with breathtaking image quality.

Some people, in the earlier days of HDTV, assumed it was a cheap gimmick, like the new detail was added in the process, not realizing that HD just reveals more fo the detail that was there when the project was filmed. Sometimes on a show like Batman, you'll see stuff that they may have figured would be hidden by the lower broadcast quality (someone here mentioned Penguin's nose prosthetic now doesn't blend as well), but you'll also see stuff that clearly was intentional but never able to be seen before, such as King Tut's custom phone reciever, which is intricately detailed with Egyptian pinstriping.

The Blu-ray is breathtaking, and it captures what it was like to be there on set and see them film it live!

[batbelfry]

Dell-
Think of it more like this:

Shows like Batman, the original Star Trek and others, were shot on 35 milimeter film, just like movies you'd go see in the theater. They were literally shot and edited like little movies.

Traditionally, the image quality and detail of 35mm movie film far exceeded the image quality of home video formats, whose job it is to try to "reproduce" that filmed image for home viewing. That being the case, VHS (and Betamax), for example, did a mediocre job at reproducing that filmed image, but it was the best we all had at the time. With each advance in video technology, from VHS to DVD, and then from DVD to high definition formats like Blu-ray and HD cable/satellite broadcasting, we get closer and closer to seeing a truer representation of the original filmed image.

So when people watch this new remastering and say that they're "seeing things they've never seen before", it's not a case of things being added or altered, per se, but more that the newest technology is allowing us to actually see the detail of the original filmed elements in a level of clarity we were never previously able to.

The age spots on Commissioner Gordon's hands were always there on the original film masters, just crying out to be seen. We just didn't have home video formats that did a good enough job reproducing the 35mm film elements to let us do it!

All kidding aside, of course, there is usually going to be some sort of modification involved, even if it's just color correction and adjusting levels and white balances, etc, to correct for the age of the materials. But they're not "adding details" or such. We're just getting closer and closer to the original image quality of the source.

[crazedvillain]

My DVD set will arrive next week. I'll sit down for a small marathon showing and with the clear quality, imagine that I'm in the world of 1966 watching the show on primetime ABC, but without commercials or the fear of a pre-emption from LBJ.

[bnkpro]

The Jaws Blu-ray has a great feature on how they treated,repaired and transferred the original film that was in very poor condition if your interested.

[crazedvillain]

Got the DVDs today. Batbelfy, you're right about the age spots on Neil Hamilton's hands, oh my God.