Old Movies Vs Newer On Youtube

Well one thing is the video quality is auto adjusted for bandwidth size....so if you are getting throttled by your provider, that could play a role...There also could be a problem with your browser not being the latest and greatest...video card, screen size....

https://support.google.com/youtube#topic=4355266

I've tried adjusting the settings but nothing seems to change a video with poor definition and the contrast between a clear 30s video and a distorted 80s video seems set in concrete.

Not all 80s videos on Youtube are fuzzy and I don't think it's my bandwidth as this will be apparent when sampling good and bad ones consecutively.

Maybe if you could post links to videos that you speak of, we could have a comparison from different users to see if everybody experiences the same quality issues...this would eliminate the possibility that it is an issue with your equipment or provider....or perhaps you are choosing poor representations of the films....maybe we could achieve some clarity one way or the other....?

This is a 1939 film in pretty good definition - sorry about not being able to post live links - for some reason Safari doesn't work on here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMJBpvdT44I&index=4&list=PLRfr02WrsIWdGzgrN-t23mgWoyT2yGEJ3

This is a 1982 film which has poor definition compared to the 1939 version above, at least it does on my setup, so Id be interested in hearing what you're seeing. It's not the worst example I've seen because it's actually understandable but I have seen others which are pretty much unwatchable because of the poor definition - (Just when I want them I can't find them.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh5_m8KXBd0&list=PLOX1g1HkvIdvenu0pU1CQqkGTOM7x7Uxq&index=9

This was a low budget B movie($55k est) released on VHS 1982....It was shot mostly at Carrie Snodgresses house...Transferred to DVD 2009....So no surprise the video quality is poor...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084825/

The Hound of the Baskervilles 1939 was shot by 20th century Fox on 8 reels of 35mm film....and you might guess a much larger budget....and much better video and sound quality...

http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=5096

So it has nothing to do with your computer or provider or video settings....

So, this is another episode of "Outer Limits": "There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits."

My favorite was the "Energy man" on the "The Galaxy Being" episode. It appears to be pure radiant electromagnetic energy contained within the shape of a humanoid, but the eyes were not white light, also the mouth. I never bothered calculating how much power would be radiated by such a being, but one could assume standard physics, and with a "perfect energy being", an emissivity of unity, j=εσT⁴, I place it now at 147 MW_thermal for a being of 2 m² (slightly larger than average male human). I suppose this much power would be sufficient to evaporate any human being within the critical radius, not to mention one hell of a sunburn much farther out.

Closing Narration (Wikipedia): "The planet Earth is a speck of dust, remote and alone in the void. There are powers in the universe inscrutable and profound. Fear cannot save us. Rage cannot help us. We must see the stranger in a new light - the light of understanding. And to achieve this, we must begin to understand ourselves, and each other."

I suppose we are not ready to take on the entire universe, except in robotic space travel at this point, it simply is a hostile "work environment." I had a dream that included the "energy man" as I always referred to him. We traveled through space together, no sound except my heart beating faster and faster as stars whizzed past, he standing behind a control podium of sorts. I awoke to find myself still in bed, but the "energy man" was standing at my door with his "hand" on the door knob (should have melted), with the door ajar. I blinked my eyes, he was gone, the door still standing ajar. If that does not give you the willies, then you have no imagination. I still to this day feel as though this was real, not entirely or necessarily a dream. I am sure this puts me in the "demented loser" category, but I am too old to care what people think. Science always moves in a forward direction, just as does time. I cannot reproduce this event, therefore this is not science.

You mean to tell me YouTube has been around that long? Damn.

I think that there have been a few solar flares since the 1980's, and these may have some effect on magnetic media (8 tracks, videotape), while developed film, no effect at all other than possibly helping to preserve it from the tape worms.

What you say about the difference between VHS tape and 30s type film is a very good point and I think it may be the reason for the very noticeable contrast between the generally sharp 30s uploads and some but not all of the 80s uploads.

Generally speaking, 30s movies tend to be much sharper and I think you've given a plausible reason for that.

Then moving to digital in the 90s and later they do seem to improve again so I think you've nailed it.

It is also a matter of taste.

That's true.

I didn't realize there were movies from the 30s available on youtube. I'll have to check that out!

Don't expect the classics, more like TCM leftovers.

There's some very good Sherlock Holmes classics from the 30s and 40s on there.

we're not in Kansas anymore Toto

We're not? Dang, I missed a sign back there.

I second your findings on old photography QUALITY. My grandfathers 1930's 8mm Kodak home movies are very sharp with excellent color and resolution when filmed under the right conditions. The setup of a projector for viewing each five minute movie is a real pain however. To digitize the full quality of these 8mm movies requires a stop capture technique which may not be too common. Stop capture is like it sounds stopping each frame to capture/digitize the individual frames as other wise continuous advancement will blur the quality with tween frame captures.

Slow and fine grained sounds like a good theory and so does the commercialization aspect affecting the quality.

There is always a shortage of real cinematographers of the art. There is a surplus of "photographers", mostly just someone with the price of equipment, others are just monkeys pressing buttons. Just as there are any number of people on America's streets and highways that are deluded into thinking they can drive. Or cook for that matter, or make music, or make love. Most of them wouldn't make good fence posts.

: )

That's possible too.

Could be source material. Film has much higher resolution than HD DVDs or SD tapes.

Film has higher resolution is also what I am seeing.

Yes, it's a good point.

For a real treat, check out sci-fi silent film: Metropolis (1927) Restored Film - on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGgon2YeISw

Wow, that is incredible clarity - such a great link - thank you.

I also like the Japanese anime version of that movie - very nicely done - this is a short trailer of the beautifully crafted ending.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UNj-VK43iQ

Very nice. I'll have to watch that version. Thank you.

Early movies were usually shot on 35 mm film and later on 70 mm probably for the wide screen. I would think that anything digitally transcribed from the original film would be of good quality.

Agreed.

Good, yes, great no. Even 4k resolution is lower than film. I saw a 2k transfer of an original Forbidden Planet print at a theater and it was so much better than the usual scratchy dirty reprints, but it still wasn't as good as the best film. 4k projectors are now being installed and I imagine we'll see 8k before long. Few movies are shot today with film, but 4k and 8k digital copies will be pristine for a long time. But be glad we had film back in the day. I'd hate to think of Gone With The Wind shot in VHS!

As movies evolved, the quality of the film and equipment evolved for the better. The same is true for video tape. It evolved from crude to great. According to Wikipedia,"While live recording has migrated to solid state (Panasonic P2, Sony SR MASTER or XDCAM-EX), optical disc (Sony's XDCAM) and hard disks, the high cost of solid state and the limited shelf life of hard-disk drives make them less desirable for archival use, for which tape is still used. News and production camera crews in 2013 still have cameras that use tape formats, even in HD."

Saying," I'd hate to think of Gone With The Wind shot in VHS!" is like saying " I'd hate to think of Gone With The Wind shot in 8mm or even 16mm!" But those formats were great for amateurs.

History shows us that things will only get better in the future.

I recently saw the first (3) Star Wars movies, even though I was impressed when they first came out 30 years ago...

After viewing them again the second time around recently... my impression is waning.

I think it is time to move into the digital world. For $40 you can buy a Amazon Fire stick that has incredible features in HD. Many other boxes are available, also apple TV.

These have a HDMI output that works with your flat screen TV.

Unless you have a Super video output on your computer, the definition will never get even close to HD.

Many old movies were on celluloid, really dangerous stuff, akin to gun cotton I am told.

"Good" old movies have been scanned into a digital format and then digitally "cleaned", they look like new.

"B" movies generally will not be treated so well, if at all.....

Early analog video films, will degrade, but do not generally pose a fire risk. Films of the 70/80s usually.....

Some really good old B/W movies have not only been digitised and cleaned, but have had colour added!!! I cannot think of a name at this moment, but it can be done relatively easily.....See here:-

List_of_black-and-white_films_that_have_been_colorized

It reminds me of a china plate I had made in Hong Kong many years ago, with a copy of a B/W picture of my parents printed on to it!!

They had coloured everything correctly (I had told them), but I had forgotten my mother's jewelry and they had turned my mother's silver necklace, into a gold one!!!!! Beautifully!!!

But that was done by hand at that time......

I think we have Ted Turner to thank for a lot of that