Enterprise in HD?

[DrP]

For what it's worth, here's how it looks on free to air broadcast TV in Australia. This frame is from a SD PAL capture (I just thought I'd throw in a frame that has the hi-def banner as a dig :-) ).

While there are faults on TV in Australia, generally the colour rendering is accurate. Oh yeah, this has been unpacked from a divx to fit on a 700Mb CD, so its a little blurred.

http://www.users.on.net/alfalfa/enterprise0.bmp

[leo_fischer]

sorry to go OT, but how did you capture the australian DVB? I have been looking for a digital capture card..

[DrP]

leo, that was an analogue capture, but there are a few cards for .au now, check out www.dba.org.au forums

[leo_fischer]

yay finally!!
Thanks

[vhelp]

@ all..

wow.. what a jip !!

I just found out that ST Enterprise that they air in our area here
in NY (I'm sure in others too) are NOT in widescreen !! !! !!

It's in FULLSCREEN and they cover the top and bottom of the video
w/ black bars aka, letterbox.

Ok, how did I come accross that finding ??
Simple. I've done many 16:9 endcodes (via DVD rip) as such:

* I cut the boarders off, as I usually do w/ true 16:9 final encodes.
* I the encoded w/ IN(16:9) and OUT(16:9)

..and the final result was squished people
PLEASE NOTE: I've done this save route before!! And, I've gotten
true 16:9 (not squished people) I guess I found a way to truely
tell if what stations are airing, that is claiming to be a given
format ie, 16:9 (ok, they say, "letterbox" for ST E) that if following
a tipically used process to reproduce a final 16:9 output, you final
result should be true. But, if after following this same process,
you find your video (or people) squished, then someone is falsifying
their statement (to a degree)

UPN (via Satellite) is one of them.

Ok, if you encode to a final 4:3, then you are ok. You encoding a
4:3 project. But, if you are trying to encode for a true 16:9 project
for future 16:9 TV (or perhaps you already have one) then you are in
for trouble w/ these faked letterboxed shows.

I'm shocked. Unless it was just this one show that was faked. I don't
know. I have to do more testing, and try other ST E shows that I still
have ton miniDV tapes. Then again, my process could be wrong for these
TV captures. Well, I'm still shocked

I will play around some more w/ this. I've done DVD rips that were
letterboxed, but with 4:3 ratios. ie, "Event Horizon" is in this
format. And, my final 16:9 is true 16:9, after performing the same
steps I laid out, in my above notes. I cutted the top/bottom bars
and encoded as: IN(16:9) and OUT(16:9) and result equiald true 16:9 !!

Well, on to more testings.

Later guys.
-vhelp

[neo_sapien]

Originally posted by soulfx
I just thought my local cable feed was crap. I've probably spent a whole day and then some trying to figure out the grey looking color issues when I first started capturing Enterprise.

It sorta ruins the whole experience of watching the show. I put up some screen shots. You'll notice the grey color as well as some filtering going on with the noise. On my cable feed UPN (Channel 2) is the noisest channel out of them all.

http://members.cox.net/soul.fxpro/archer.png
http://members.cox.net/soul.fxpro/tpol.png
http://members.cox.net/soul.fxpro/display.png

Needless to say I've sorta stopped capturing the episodes and even stopped watching them. Anymore it just really bugs me if I try to watch something of poor quality that's ment for me to enjoy. I guess all the time I spend to fix and avoid stuff like that makes me sick to see supposed "professionals" not even care.

Here's what I'm doing for my levels:

Levels (21,0.989,255,0,255)

It makes the faces look nice and red and the uniforms look close to nice and blue, but it makes the background look almost intolerably dark. It looks almost exactly like your screenshot, but without the noise reduction. Do you find your script acceptable (not too dark)? And what is your script? Here's my whole Enterprise script, and also my Voyager/TNG/DS9 script:

SetMemoryMax(40)
LoadPlugin("C:\...\DecombLegacy.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\...\MJPEGcorrect.dll")
AVISource("capture.avi")
#--Enterprise Settings
#---------------------------
#--Crop/IVTC/Color Settings
#crop(6,62,708,362)
#Telecide(post=false).Decimate()
#Levels (21,0.989,255,0,255)#--Darker
#Levels (11,0.994,255,0,255)#--Lighter
#----------------------------
#--Resize Settings
#LanczosResize(352,192)#--Lo_Qual_DivX
#LanczosResize(672,362).Addborders(0,3,0,3)#--Hi_Qual_DivX
#LanczosResize(352,176).Addborders(0,32,0,32)#--VCD
#Addborders(6,59,6,59)#4:3--DVD
#LanczosResize(720,480)#16:9--DVD
#LanczosResize(852,480)#16:9--DVD Simulation

#--Voyager Settings
#----------------------------
#--Crop/IVTC/Color Settings
#crop(6,8,712,468)
#Telecide(post=false)
#Decimate()
#Levels (21,0.989,255,0,255)#--Darker
#Levels (11,0.994,255,0,255)#--Lighter
#----------------------------
#--Resize Settings
#LanczosResize(352,256)#--Lo_Qual_DivX
#LanczosResize(352,240)#--VCD
#LanczosResize(640,480)#--Hi_Qual_DivX
#Addborders(4,6,4,6)#4:3--DVD

[soulfx]

I don't really have a set level I go with. I just run about 2% of the video through VirtualDub's Levels Filter to determine where I should adjust the levels. With Enterprise since most of the show happens in low light sometimes you just have to search around the episode to find the brightest and darkest points and take level measurements from there.

[auenf]

sorry, had to dig this thread up for bragging

http://www9.brinkster.com/sportschoo...terprise-1.jpg

if it comes up with an error, just hit refresh, im still working out the best way to get around the remote linking protection.

only question is why do they put up the 'available in HD' message when you are watching the HD version?

btw, i have a few more caps (the cgi looks very nice in HD) but need to clear up some hosting space first.

just a couple more caps (the 3rd one is from the Demo loop that ch9 plays when there isnt HD content avaialable),

http://www9.brinkster.com/sportschook/?9hd-csi-1.jpg
http://www9.brinkster.com/sportschook/?9hd-csi-2.jpg
http://www9.brinkster.com/sportschook/?9hd-loop-1.jpg

Enf...

[edit]
http://www9.brinkster.com/sportschoo...terprise-5.jpg
[/edit]

[vhelp]

Hi auenf

sorry, had to dig this thread up for bragging

Thats ok.

only question is why do they put up the 'available in HD' message when you are watching the HD version?

That's so that people like you and me don't get THE best quality when
we capture it, and to keep up from doing what we do, if at all anything,
it's a form of nag/revenge tackticts or something like that. They
dont' want us to have as good as source quality as theirs. I guess
they feel that we can obtain the same level quality output as their

I had my suspicions, and...
Hey, even after it being HD quality and all, I can STILL see them
"holding back" some on quality !!
Look'et the color. Its not as rich as some of your regular analog
captures, is it - - for these kinds of shows that they don't want you
to have good results with. All about copywrite stuff maybe. Anyways...
These shows ie, Enterprise, ST-NG, Voyager, you NEVER get pure qualiyt,
but rather "tainted" quality.. or "jimmied" quality

Sort of suck that they do this (treat us) to us in this way. Not all of
us are "newbies" you know. We can obviously see a difference. But,
as long as the majority of people "can't" see the difference, they will
continue on w/ this practice !!

Any comments ??

Have a great evening all,
-vhelp

[SeeMoreDigital]

I apologize in advance if this question was answered earlier on.

But how do you know that Enterprise was created as a high-definition source?

Sure I've seen some of the screen shots some of you guys have posted here. Which say..... 'presented in Hi-Def where available' but like I say, what about the source!

Now we, in the UK have SkyDigital who broadcast the first runs of most US shows. Enterprise, Buffy, X-Files etc. And up until last month we subscribers were only be able to view the output in crappy 4:3..... imagine that!

Yep, if we wanted to see such shows in 16:9, we would all have to wait (several months) for BBC to broadcast them!

So may I ask, is there a website somewhere that lists/confirms which shows are genuine Hi-Def sources..... You know. Just so I can cry a bit more about what I'm missing!

[neo_sapien]

Auenf, where do you live? Those are certainly very, very good quality screenshots. Makes me want to beat up a UPN exec for not giving us that quality here in America. You, sir, are a very lucky man.

re: 9hd-enterprise-5.jpg
Honest to God, I never even noticed that there was any writing on that shuttle before. OV-165. Who knew?

[SeeMoreDigital]

neo_sapien

re: 9hd-enterprise-5.jpg
Honest to God, I never even noticed that there was any writing on that shuttle before. OV-165. Who knew?

Writing on the shuttle! What about the writing in the clouds? This has got to say something!

[auenf]

Originally posted by neo_sapien
Auenf, where do you live? Those are certainly very, very good quality screenshots. Makes me want to beat up a UPN exec for not giving us that quality here in America. You, sir, are a very lucky man.

60km from Sydney CBD (australia)

i capped that whole episode, and the intro is definately better quality than the scenes that were shot, i havent had a look at the cgi cut scenes closely yet.

re: 9hd-enterprise-5.jpg
Honest to God, I never even noticed that there was any writing on that shuttle before. OV-165. Who knew?

wait till you see #2 and #4 that i capped (not enough space to upload atm)

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
But how do you know that Enterprise was created as a high-definition source?

Sure I've seen some of the screen shots some of you guys have posted here. Which say..... 'presented in Hi-Def where available' but like I say, what about the source!

the intros (and maybe the cut scenes, ill look at them later) were definately created for 1080i, but the original shot scenes may have been shot at something closer to 720p.

http://us.imdb.com/Technical?0244365

Enf...

[SeeMoreDigital]

auenf,

Thanks very much for the reply. I had no idea that information like this was on the imdb web site.

Cheers

[auenf]

http://nitroware.net/~sportschook/hd...terprise-1.jpg
http://nitroware.net/~sportschook/hd...terprise-2.jpg
http://nitroware.net/~sportschook/hd...terprise-3.jpg
http://nitroware.net/~sportschook/hd...terprise-4.jpg
http://nitroware.net/~sportschook/hd...terprise-5.jpg
http://nitroware.net/~sportschook/hd...terprise-6.jpg

http://nitroware.net/~sportschook/hd/9hd-loop-2.jpg

(yes i know i posted a couple of those before)

look at those pics, and you'll see the intro was definately made for 1080i, the last one is from the loop again

for a AUD$300 card, im not complaining about anything atm (new software in 4 days tho to fix a few bugs).

Enf...

[SeeMoreDigital]

auenf,

Ok enough is enough (or should that be auenf is auenf!) Please stop rubbing our noses in it. I personally can't take it anymore!

Those screen shots are amazing - It's just not fair!

I still would like to know what that white writing to the right of the shuttle is all about on pic 5!

I know, maybe I should emigrate over to Auz and ask you in person. Yeh. How about it.... Good-day neighbour!

[neo_sapien]

More screenshots!

[kl33per]

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
I still would like to know what that white writing to the right of the shuttle is all about on pic 5!

That's always been on the intro to Enterprise, although I'm not sure what it's relevence is.