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Home & Away in HD (merged)
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what do you think of the new HDTV look then ?
I don't think I'll be able to keep watching this show, it makes me feel sick. You can thank the Australian government for that !
I don't think I'll be able to keep watching this show, it makes me feel sick. You can thank the Australian government for that !
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They tried it for a short time with Emmerdale but removed it after complaints.
How can we get five to remove this awful effect?
Is it added as a post production effect in the UK or have the Aussies done it?
The effect makes it difficult to watch as the action appears very jerky.
Who do I complain to?
you can't complain coz there's no filmic effect involved. It's now filmed in HD. That's progress. See my previous post.
A few facts :
Although high definition has taken off as the television acquisition medium in Europe, Australia has become the first PAL country to start HD transmission. The Australian government has mandated that each network transmit twenty hours of original programming per week. Seven Resources in Sydney took a practical look at their future and put in careful steps for the countdown to on-air in July this year.
Including internationally distributed shows like Home and Away, the network had to address a complete range of program genre from traditional drama, documentaries and news to the classic gameshow Wheel of Fortune to the Big Arvo, a children's Disney show. But for a network where few if any of the shows had used film, the decision to adopt 25p progressive created some interesting issues when making the transition. "The dreaded 'flickering' effect worried us at the beginning," said John Holmes, Executive Producer Home and Away, " but in practice your eye very quickly ignores it."
Seven chose Sony HDW-750 camcorders and HDC-950 studio cameras and Sony Australia provided some training on the basic camera set up and menus. However, Seven Resource's General Manager Tim McDonald wanted to provide comprehensive training for senior management, production and technical crews and so employed a local HD experienced cinematographer Ben Allan and HD consultant Janet West to provide the practical training aspects necessary to fit the technology into available budgets, sets, and schedules. "When deciding on how to adopt 25p HD for a particular show, it is important to consider the 'signature' or style of each show," said Janet West, MD The Skills Zone, noting that adopting HD 25p does not automatically give the show a filmic look. " You can't just pop in an HDCAM cassette, press record and expect perfect results first time. If the show is shot in a style with fast pans and rapid handheld movements, then the images might not be the best. Film isn't shot that way so neither can HD 25p."
Initial tests were recorded with the factory set up. "Making too many camera, set and make-up changes on day one for an established show doesn't make sense," said Ben Allan ASC "You must allocate adequate time to properly experiment with all the options." Seven resources allocated Monday afternoons for regular practical training sessions.
"Depth of field was a problem initially," explained Holmes, "we found we had to raise the light levels as there was just not enough information in the viewfinder to ensure good focus."
Home and Away took a two-stage approach to the transition. Initially, they started using the HD cameras in studio but delivered a PAL output for standard definition editing and 625 transmission. The practice sessions gave the operators a chance to get used to panning at a film camera frame rate, the viewfinders, and evaluate make-up, costumes and set design. The show has many young actors who have to cope with the inevitable acne, so close-up tests were done on each actor and subsequent make-up modifications made. On location tests with the camcorders has provided some stunning results in HD with the detail of the beautiful Australian beaches, the sunsets and night scenes.
"Sets used for years on standard definition television need attention under the critical eye of high definition," explains West. "Set's stored outside can accumulate dust and leave handling fingerprints particularly in close-up of louvered windows." Painters touching up a damaged flat must ensure that the paint chosen is properly blended into the area. Staples used to fix decorations must be removed. "In standard definition, the show got away with a rough matte painting outside the window but in HD we needed to add some natural foliage to ensure a realistic look."
Two shows that are cut live and require no editing will be shot in 1080i 50. Wheel of Fortune in Australia has animal figures on the wheel and the spinning wheel did not work in 25p. The children's Disney show Big Arvo, a mix of studio with 50i Disney clips will also be done in 1080i 50. High definition has excelled on Big Arvo as the host close-ups, set colours and the detail in the props brings the show to life for young children.
Seven have adopted 576p known locally as the Orange Solution, unlike ABC - Australian Broadcasting Corporation who are transmitting in 1080i, 576 allows the network to capture at 25p, standards convert to 576p at 25fps and edit this on their conventional Digital Betacam decks. Another conversion then creates the format for transmission. The only equipment, which cannot be used in the Orange process, is that which decreases the vertical resolution such as some digital video effects devices. "For material distributed in a 25 frames per second format, Seven will be transmitting with a horizontal resolution of 720 pixels, vertical resolution of 576 lines and a temporal resolution of 25fps," explains John Lock Seven Resource's Chief Engineer. "Every second frame in the 576p50 transmission will be a repeat of the preceding frame. This allows us to use the additional spectrum for other program and data transmission."
"Material is shot in the 25psf (25 frames per second, segmented field) mode," explains Lock, noting many consider the 25 frames per second material aesthetically superior to 50 fields per second material. "This mode delivers a full 1080 lines of resolution, rather than the 540 lines of the 1080 interlace mode."
"We have now completed only two full blocks 10 episodes of Home and Away in HD 25p," says Holmes "and I am pleased to say that most of our initial concerns have faded quickly."
As experience grows the crews will adjust the speed at which they shoot the dramas and initial problems are being worked on including moving to DAT recording to eliminate some of the cabling weight issue.
"The best thing I can say is that the pictures have much more 'life' - especially the studio material, said Holmes. "Adapting to the new format has certainly had less impact than first thought."
Sorry I missed your earlier post. Perhaps the mods could merge our threads?
I guess I'll just have to get used to the new look, even though it makes me feel ill to watch it.
I'm not sure i'll be able to get used it. Imagine if they'd done that to Neighbours ? you woudn't hear the end of it.
I found this article last week by chance, so i knew it was going to happen sooner or later but I never thought it would happen so fast.
Imagine that, H&A looking worse than Hollyoaks !
I'm pretty pissed off about it.
So you've never watched H&A, since it started in the 80's when you' d already stopped watching.
And you hate the film effect they're not using.
Did i get this right ?
Sorry to have to point it out, msf, but you obviously haven't read Neil Wilkes thread at the top of this section about copyright.
indeed I hadn't , here's the link :
http://www.theskillszone.co.uk/HDTV/articles/310703_1.asp
There are a lot of interesting articles about HDTV on that site
Thanks for the notice.
I meant I've seen the filimising effect on other programmes and I hate it.
Everybody hates it, apart from Phil Redmon.
did the announcer mention it ? I missed that.
What did he say ?
But can regular TV sets diplay 720 lines though ?
First there was digital TV which was supposed to give better picture quality but of course it turned out to be bollocks.
And now that so-called HDTV.
what's wrong with TV/government people ?
The BBc have decided to do the same thing in "He Knew He Was Right".
I had to stop watching in the end. with my eyes hunting to focus.
If they want it on film shoot it on film,
No, normal TV's can't display 720p broadcasts, you need to purchase a new TV set to benefit from it. But that's the case in the US and Japan. I can't see 576p would give much greater picture to make it worthwhile for the TV companies buying new equipment.
When digital TV started over here all they pushed was a grater amount of channels with interactive features and some channels broadcasting in widescreen. When digital TV started in the US, Japan and Australia they pushed HDTV at the same time. If HDTV is to come over here people will have to switch their digital equipment again. There will be bigger interest in HDTV in the UK when the HD-DVD standard is finalised sometime in the next few years and equipment starts selling in other parts of the world.
Complaints about dogs, presentations, widescreen and new filming techniques.
Its progress! I think the new look HAA looks fantastic! It doesnt change anything! other than the image is a lot sharper and higher quality. I know it takes some getting used to, but its all good!
And someone mentioned about 'thank god its not Neighbours'..... well it soon will be! Sooner or later this filming will be used on every show in every country.
I mean, you dont still see shows filmed in Black and White- do you?
you don't know what you're talking about.
Television was better in the 80's : Knight Rider, McMyver...
As far as the picture quality is concerned it's terrible on Sky digital
and HDTV is just another way to make you spend hard earned cash.
HDTV won't be the new standard TV in Europe any time soon, thank goodness. And Neighbours won't be filmed in HDTV either as they depend too much on the BBC broadcast.
HAA's new look doesn't look fantastic and it doesn't look sharper, quite the opposite in fact. The producers would never have gone HD if they 'd had a choice.
And yes i still see shows filmed in black and white such as Dangerman....And there's nothing wrong with PAL
dogs are a pain in the arse, and they're useless. I don't care about their interactive crap, how about showing some decent content instead ?
Oh yes, and if HDTV looked like THAT in the US it would NEVER have taken off as you can't fool them as easily.
Anyway you talk rubbish
I am yet to see the picture of HAA, it's on in a minute so I'll check it out. But all I can say is that it's filmed poorly. This is not HDTV at it's best. From reading that article above the filming resolution used on HAA in my opinion isn't true High Definition. If you see some of the US TV show's broadcast in HD you'll see the improvement in quality.
Amen to that! I hate the interactive logo's popping up all the time. If Sky Movie's had it popping up in the middle of film's they'd be an uproar.
Like I said above, show's filmed in HDTV in America look a hell of a lot better than HAA.
Also if you viewed HAA or any other HDTV recorded show in it's natural format you'd see an improvement. Other than the picture's resolution being down sized it would appear better if it was viewed in progressive scan format rather than UK TV's interlaced format broadcast.