You did it! You transferred your entire film library using full-frame sensors and pin-registered image stabilization. No gate swim found here!
Your images are rock solid; and unlike your professional colleagues who jumped in early, you waited for an all-digital pipeline. Bully for you!
But wait, just as in 1936 when people still referred to The Great War, your all-digital film scans are not yet referred to as standard def. They’re simply called…well…def, because it’s the only def, stored on Digital Betacam, D2, or even better: component D1.
“As there’s only one def, you can’t feel bad about not having chosen another def.”
That all changed on the last Thursday in March, 1995, as Larry Pressler (R-SD) introduces Senate Bill 652; the first overhaul of telecommunications law in 60 years. It triggers sweeping changes:
- Rapid expansion in the number of broadcast networks,
- Accommodates modern wireless communication including cell phones, and
- Elevates a promising young industry called the internet.
A New Def
It also paves the road for a second def – a new def known as high def. Overnight, our pristine, all-digital film scans were forever tainted with a pejorative qualifier. And when President Clinton signed it into law on February 8, 1996: our investment became merely standard: standard def.
You now had to explain to your stakeholders why rescanning your entire library was urgent:
- Fewer broadcasters wanted to license your inferior, standard def content.
- Simply blowing it up didn’t work, although many tried.
- Consumers balked at the 300% quality reduction when viewed on their new high def TVs.
- The difference was more than noticeable; it was palpable.
The difference was more than noticeable; it was palpable.
However, you’re a forward-thinking survivor, so you scour the earth for grants, content partners, and budget surpluses, mustering the resources to rescan your content in this best of all possible formats: high definition! Just saying it aloud conjures images of sparkling, sun-soaked waters with unprecedented, crisp details.
Gone are fuzzy wide shots and close ups that appear to have been shot through gauze. It’s 1996 and you’ve made it. Your footage is future proofed thanks to high def.
Yet Another Def
But what’s all this now?
What do they mean by ultra high def?
This time they’ve added a qualifier reducing your coveted high def to merely high def.
You resume the trick of scaling your footage. Surely no one can tell the difference; but it’s actually worse. The new, ultra high def requires scaling HD’s sole megapixel more than 800% to fill UHD’s 8.3 megapixel raster.
So, here you sit today with a library lovingly scanned at merely high def, feeling so 1996. After twenty years of pining to get it done, you’re twenty years behind. It’s déjà vu all over again:
- More explaining to stakeholders,
- More grant applications, and
- More hard drive capacity than you thought existed in a hundred-mile radius.
2020 marks widespread adoption of ATSC 3.0, the broadcast standard bringing ultra high def to American households. Of course, services like Netflix and Amazon have been streaming UHD since 2013. What took you so long? After all, the road to 33-Megapixel, Super Hi-Vision UHD-2 was paved years ago in 2017. You’re already behind.
The moral of this story? Talk with the professionals at AV Conservation to future proof your investment. In a world where history repeats itself, their industry-first, UHD-2 Guarantee means you’ll never feel behind again.