Film or Video

[Steve52]

Are all HD tv shows shot with video camera, or are some shot on film and converted to HD video? If some are shot on film and then coverted to HD, how do you know when watching a show which system was used or can you?

[Menehune]

It's probably safe to say that most HD TV shows (football, talkshows, etc) are shot on HD video cameras. I think the only things still being shot on film are blockbuster movies, but even some HD video cameras are being used for big pictures.

If it's live, it's video, if it's being released in six to twelve months, it's probably film. Film has additional costs-the film stock, developing, storage and conversion to digital tape format. Unless the show is an important documentary or archival project, the budget probably does not include the costs for film shooting. The afordability of HD (and near-HD) video cameras are also allowing more HD content to be shot on video tape instead of film.

Some people can see the grains of the film and tell the source was film. You can also look at the contrast in the scene and sometimes tell if the scene was lit for film or for CCDs. Film is generally more sensative then CCDs so the blacks are "crushed" when compared to an equivalent scene shot with a video camera.

Trivia fact: a talk show several years ago bought a ENG type camera to replace their aging studio cameras. The ENG camera was smaller, cheaper and higher quality than the studio camera it replaced. The studio hid the small camera in a larger studio camera sized box since none of the competitors or their executives believed the small camera could look so good.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Menehune

It's probably safe to say that most HD TV shows (football, talkshows, etc) are shot on HD video cameras.

I agree with your examples, I disagree with your conclusion Most TV is shot on film, or at least at film framerates. Thinks like documentaries, sports, talkshows are generally video. But most of the drama type stuff (24, Lost, CSI*, etc) is film source (you can see the grain on 24). Sitcoms, I'm not sure of, seems like probably film sourced for most.

Remember there are two issues here, the recording medium (being celluloid or hard disc or magnetic tape) and the frame rate (24 fps vs 30/60fps). Film has traditionally referred to 24fps on celluloid, and video was 30 fps (60 Hz) on magnetic tape. But the important distinction was the framerate not the medium. And that stands today.

Today, with digital video (which can come from a variety of places) framerate is still the important distinction between film and video, ie 24fps and 30/60fps.

Some people can see the grains of the film and tell the source was film. You can also look at the contrast in the scene and sometimes tell if the scene was lit for film or for CCDs. Film is generally more sensative then CCDs so the blacks are "crushed" when compared to an equivalent scene shot with a video camera.

Also if you've seen enough it's rather easy to spot film (24fps) vs video (30/60fps) by the smoothness of the video.

Originally Posted by Steve52

If some are shot on film and then coverted to HD, how do you know when watching a show which system was used or can you?

Grain is really the only reliable way to tell something is shot on Celluloid or Tape/Disk. But as for 24fps (ie film) vs 30/60fps (video) there are a couple ways to tell. As mentioned above, grain is a givaway that it's 24fps (almost nobody shoots 30/60fps on celluloid save Imax). Another is the smoothness of the video. For example I can usually spot video content because it looks a bit different than film (hard to explain the difference).

Another way is if you've got a video card with PureVideo, some of them can automatically detect film and will tell you what the content is in the decoder properties (it'll say Film or Video). Also if you're using VMR9, fraps will display the framerate while playing, film will be 24, video will be higher.

[Steve52]

I ask this question to see if maybe it had something to do with a problem I am having with one TV show in particular. I have been recording the CBS show "Two and a Half Men" in HD for about a year now, and I have frequent frame freezes/flicker durning this show. Well CBS is 1080i and I use onboard 6150 video on my clients. Some say that the 6150 is too weak for 1080i, but I have never been able to prove that any problem I was having was related to the 6150 chip. I really don't have a problem on most other CBS stuff. In fact the super bowl was on CBS, and even though the quality was not great due to the weather, I had no frame freezes or flicher at all. Does anyone know if there is any reason that this show would likely give the 6150 chip a problem. I have also noticed that some stuff I have recorded from one of the other local digital channels (not one of the major channels I don't remember which) that was on the digital channel but in SD had major frame freezes lasting two or three seconds. This is the worst I have ever seen and much worse than "Two and a Half Men".