🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <530@bilver.UUCP> bill@bilver.UUCP (Bill Vermillion) writes:

>In article <1990Mar15.090214.9871@spectre.ccsf.caltech.edu> gbrown@tybalt.caltech.edu (Glenn C. Brown) writes:

...stuff deleted...

>>  I'd be perfectly happy to settle for the telivision picture tubes of today!
>>It's the signal that's so horrendous!  I mean:  If you've ever seen the
>>output of a laser disc player, it's awesome!  It shows what your picture tube
>>can do.  It's the low signal to noise ratio of the broadcast signals that we
>>receive that's horrendous!

>The output of a laser player isn't awesome.  It's good, but you can surely see
>the limits of NTCS video if you watch it on anything bigger than a 21" set.  I
>have had a laser player for several years now.  The early discs are poor
>compared to today's technology, but we are pretty much at the limits.  I
>assume you are a recent disc convert.  S/N is only one problem.   Have you
>ever noticed how the color is in little dots at the transition points, how the
>resolution isn't as good as a clean 16mm print, let alone 35?

Just as a point of reference laser disc has always been a superior to
tape.  The fundamental reason for this is the digital nature of LDs.
Keep in mind that a good VHS resolution from a decade ago was 190
lines of horizontal resolution, improvments in signal conditioning and
processing that apply to the analog tape formats will apply just as
well to the analog portion of a LD signal once it has run through a
DAC (digital to analog converter).

Photo rag tests have shown that lenses for film are capable of up to
100 lines per millimeter resolution (the test I recall said a Lietz
50mm f/2.0 could get 102 l/mm in the center of the frame).  On the
basis of that I'd say 35mm is capable of in the range of 20000 lines
resolution across a frame from edge to edge.  16mm is probably half of
that.  The real limit in film is the films ability to resolve,
probably in reality half of the above numbers, 10000 lines fo 35mm and
5000 lines for 16mm.  So I'd say we still have an order of magnitude
to go yet.  But give me a clean signal and I can live with a lot less
resolution.  S/N is where video can really beat out film, especially
if its digital.

I'd vote for a clean break from the current NTSC standard in the new
HDTV standard.  Give me anywhere from 500 to 1000 lines horizontal
resolution and I could be happy with that until I'm old and gray...

Just another opinion...

--
Albion H. Bowers  bowers@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov  ames!elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov!bowers
         NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA
                  Aerodynamics: The ONLY way to fly!

                     Live to ski, ski to live...