June 12, 2007
When hi-def becomes too much like the movies
The picture may look great with high definition Blu-ray and HD-DVD players coupled with big HD screens, but where are all those extra features they promised us on the discs, enabled by the new technology?
In an extreme example, I rented Battle of the Bulge, a 1965 World War Two film out on Blu-ray, at the weekend and loved the image quality.
But the disc started without even a menu screen and stopped halfway through with a still image labeled Intermission.
I half expected an ice cream lady with a tray and a torch to appear and shout “Albatross! Stormy Petrel on a Stick!”
Sony’s HD offerings seem to be suffering the same problem as its PlayStation 3, which has a dearth of blockbuster games – there is not enough of an installed base yet to encourage developers and the studios to spend any extra money on added features.
That will change, Stan Glasgow, Sony Electronic’s US president told me yesterday. Programmers were still working out Blu-ray but some interactivity using Java would be appearing on a forthcoming Disney disc.
High-definition television can already offer better image quality than watching a movie in a cinema but Sony is planning to add a ‘24p’ feature to its sets that will reproduce the original 24 frames-per-second cinema experience for those that want it.
Older films, intermissions and all, may convert better to Blu-ray than newer ones. Those shot in 70-millimetre, like Battle of the Bulge, should look better than those shot in the current 35mm standard, with Blu-ray capable of highlighting the higher quality and greater detail in this older stock.
