The importance of HDTV recordings!

[spoRv]

Now, in 2017, 4K (or, better UHD) is available via UHD-BD and web download - and few satellite broadcasting; Blu-ray is the king of HD, with very good alternatives as web download.

So, why one could be worried about recording a program from an HD channel, and subsequentely store it on hard disk for years?

Well, there are many reasons, and I'm going to list the most important:

availability

There are still some contents not available in HD; few movies, but also TV-series, documentaries, concerts; maybe they will be, in the future, released, but, are you 100% sure? I'm not... think that many contents are still available only on laserdisc, or, worse, VHS!

version

Often there are the so-called "TV version"; they usually have toned down dialog, sometimes made just for that purpose; sometime there are scenes cuts completely due to nudity, violence etc.; but in few cases, there are additional scenes (or even single shots) not present in any other version, or the shots are replaced with different ones, using properly alternative shots, or reciclying deleted scenes.
In rare cases, it's possible to get the Theatrical Cut, when the only HD version is the Director's Cut (or the contrary may be true)!

color grading

Some folks are even aware that there is, for many movies, more than one color grading available; is not my due to say you which one is the "right" one, but isn't always true it's the one found on released media; it happens that TV and BD use different masters, with different colors, so it may worth to preserve both (or more of them), don't you think?

aspect ratio

People in the past wanted their TV sets "filled" with image (at the time, the "square" 4/3, or 1.33:1), hence the invention of the dreadful pan&scan... while, during the years, many viewers have learned to watch movies in their original aspect ratio, there is still a large percentage that want their HDTV (now 16/9, or 1.78:1) filled as well...
There are two ways to do this, pan&scan, and open matte. While the former is to avoid, the latter is IMHO a nice alternative to watch a movie - you may have a more immersive visual experience, if it's well done. The third way is to mix pan&scan and open matte - this usually happens very often with movie which has special effects, that are done at (or around) the original aspect ratio; so, you would get a cropped image when there are special effects in the scene (very often, but not always), and an open matte for the rest of the movie.
There is also another possibility, where the open matte seems pan&scan, while it's "just" heavily cropped, and the difference with a mere p&s version is difficult to discern - usually the image lose a lot on one or both sides, but gain a tiny bit on top, bottom, or both.
Also, sometimes the open matte version doesn't only "gain" image on top and bottom, but also on one or both sides, due to different framing; in that case, you can "earn" something around 20% vertically (in case of a 2.35:1), but also a further 3/5% horizontally... that's 1/4th more image and, despite the OAR philosophy, which I endorse and reccomend to follow, it's always nice to see your preferred movie, the one you have watched several times, in a new way, that leads you to watch it almost as a new movie...

audio track

For historical reason, it could be nice to retain that strange, censored dialog tracks which many of us saw on TV for the first time; also, for old movies sometimes the old audio track is "recycled", and this is a good thing, because the old mix is available, while the recent media may contain only a new, different mix; there are also rare cases where some songs found on modern media are changed, due to rights, or other reasons; in very rare cases - still not encountered yet, but may happen - it's possible to find a multichannel version on TV, while a stereo or mono on BD...

So, when a given content you feel particularly interesting is broadcasted on your favourite HDTV channel, take the chance to record it - you can always delete it if it doesn't satisfy one or more of the previous points; and, if you got your hard disk full of old HDTV recordings, think about this before delete them; you can throw away a small, but important, piece of video history...

There may be other reasons, but at the moment I can't think of them... can you? If so, please reply!

Note: the same could be valid for SDTV broadcasting, even if it's more probable to have the same content, with same aspect ratio, colors, audio tracks etc. available, thanks to the huge title numbers of DVDs, Laserdiscs, VHS tapes.

Note 2: before deciding to delete forever an HDTV recording, please take few minutes to talk about it to your nerd friend, write on your favourite forum, or take a look at the following lists:
http://blog.sporv.com/open-matte-master-list
http://blog.sporv.com/workprints-master-list (contains also TV versions)
and consider also the option to give it to one of your friend, or upload/torrent it before delete it.

[spoRv]

Just want to remark (again!) how much an HDTV recording could be important, in term of preservations or restorations.

Few more examples:

• sometimes (often?) the masters used for HDTV are the old ones; this could be a treasure, as they could old different color grading, aspect ratio, versions etc. not found everywhere else in HD
  
• I noted that in few occasions, different broadcasters have different aspect ratios - not the only usual OAR/open matte versions, but sometime also in-between - where for example OAR is 2.35:1 and open matte is 1.78:1, sometimes it's possible to find out a 2.00:1 version; not very useful indeed if the open matte is available, but great if the open matte is the new master - with revised color grading - and the more-opened-than-OAR is the old master...
  
• quite often 1.85:1 is opened to 1.78:1 full - losing nothing at the sides: this means that all the movie (SFX included) is open matte; small gain, I must admit, but better than nothing!
  
• don't be scared by TV logo! With two (or more) recordings, it will be possible to delete it completely, and get a clean version.
  
• some TV stations are known for their high quality transmissions; sometimes difference with BD is almost unnoticeable - in few instances HDTV is even better, due to lack of noise reduction, edge enhancement etc. apart obvious difference in color grading and/or aspect ratio and/or cut where applicable
  
• don't discard 720p as high quality source - I've discovered myself that it could be of higher quality than 1080i - resolution isn't everything!
  
• eventual extended editions could have scenes never released on BD, or, if it's the case, often the BD has only a simple 2.0 track, where HDTV has 5.1 multichannel track - sometimes even dual audio, with an additional language!
  
• in rare cases BD may lack a shot, or just few frames, where HDTV may have those intact; this could be the only way to get the shot (or frames) with HD quality.
  

[spoRv]

Even if nobody seems to care about the importance of HDTV sources (and WEBdl, even if still less important), I want to point out further things...

- some channels are known to modify colors, but others retain the original color grading found on the theaters - at least, according to some evidences like camrips, actual film frames, production photos etc.
- in few instances, HDTV may have the same aspect ration of the BD, but with a bigger frame - so, it could have more details on one or more sides
- open matte seems to be the norm for some titles, while for others there are very rare versions broadcasted by few (if not just one) channels
- there is a proof that at least one 1.33:1 version of a movie was broadcasted anamorphically squeezed in the vertical direction (probably by mistake); the actual 1280x720 should be unstretched, to obtain the right aspect ratio, to 1280x960 - or 960x720; more, it seems the original broadcasting was 1080i, hence 1440x1080
- in some occasion is possible to find out correctly transmitted 1.33:1 in 1080i or 720p
- there are still quite a lot of titles never released on BD (or WEBdl) and available on HDTV

[Jetrell Fo]

I like HDTV rips myself. There are some cool differences.

[Beber]

I noticed that they screwed up the framing in at least this scene of Hot Shots! Part Deux on Blu-ray, as if they wanted to make the scene less sexy. They zoomed in so that we now barely see her legs. That sucks! And it kind of ruins the joke of the match lighting the way it's framed now.

From top to bottom, Blu-ray, HDTV 1080i 6Ter, HDTV 720p, 1080i RTL9:

[spoRv]

I noticed that they screwed up the framing in at least this scene of Hot Shots! Part Deux on Blu-ray, as if they wanted to make the scene less sexy. They zoomed in so that we now barely see her legs. That sucks! And it kind of ruins the joke of the match lighting the way it's framed now.

This worth a restoration!

[Beber]

I noticed that they screwed up the framing in at least this scene of Hot Shots! Part Deux on Blu-ray, as if they wanted to make the scene less sexy. They zoomed in so that we now barely see her legs. That sucks! And it kind of ruins the joke of the match lighting the way it's framed now.

This worth a restoration!

She's so hot that I must concur!

[deleted user]

I noticed that they screwed up the framing in at least this scene of Hot Shots! Part Deux on Blu-ray, as if they wanted to make the scene less sexy. They zoomed in so that we now barely see her legs. That sucks! And it kind of ruins the joke of the match lighting the way it's framed now.

This worth a restoration!

For the same reason it's worth doing a Fullscreen combined preservation of Terminator 3 with the AutoOverlay tool. Titties in the intro.

[Beber]

I noticed that they screwed up the framing in at least this scene of Hot Shots! Part Deux on Blu-ray, as if they wanted to make the scene less sexy. They zoomed in so that we now barely see her legs. That sucks! And it kind of ruins the joke of the match lighting the way it's framed now.

This worth a restoration!

For the same reason it's worth doing a Fullscreen combined preservation of Terminator 3 with the AutoOverlay tool. Titties in the intro.

Well, not exactly. The legs were always there. Even the DVD had it right:



The tits in T3 were cropped out in 2.40:1 originally.

[deleted user]

Okay, not the same reason then. Let's call it a related or similar reason.