Little House in 4k HDR10 - Not a good idea
Posted by l00ky_here@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 204 comments
I put on Little House for the first time since upgrading to an 4k HDR10.
We weren't supposed to be able to see this. I am being pulled away from the illusion of life in the 1800's when Im able to see the exact shade and definition of a full face of makeup on EVERYONE.
All the sets are obvious sets, you can see the fake distress and paint marks that give the old-timey look.
Im switching to low def for this.
The worst was seeing the defined frosted coral lipstick and eyeliner on Caroline Ingalls, and the pancake makeup not quite reaching to the edges of the collars on closeup of everyone.
Why this show is so crispy when other newer shows are still in SD I have no idea, but its ruined for me.
AngstyAF5020@reddit
I have never thought 4K was all that good of an idea. I need TV to have a little more illusion please. I don't need to see everybody's pores.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
This, the close upstairs on faces made it so obvious the heavy make up, but even just regular shots you can make out that Mary had a really fuzzy side of the face, and wore mascara.
pantstoaknifefight2@reddit
Public service announcement: make sure your new TV is not set to anything named "motion smoothing" or anything similar. It's what makes everything look like it's a soap opera. It's the default setting and you want to turn it off for everything except hand drawn animation (it'll make old school cartoons like The Lord of the Rings or Fantastic Planet look less janky.
Source: Variety https://share.google/Ajc59s1vPkX4GPZta
SpeciosaLife@reddit
It’s horrible. Not only does it make film look like video, it makes it impossible to suspend belief. Even the best actors look like they are performing on stage in a high school play.
Picmover@reddit
Took me forever to get it turned off on my in-laws tv. Somehow they found where it was in the settings and turned it back on.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
Yeah, Not only that but for some older films it causes this weird skin effect that makes everyone look mottled. I can't explain it other than that. I tried watching "IAJ and the Last Crusade" when I first got it and was horrified. I had to go in a tweak it all. Fortunately, there is "cinema mode" that gives you the "look the film is supposed to be in" that weird bottling happens on tan people, not picking but like Indy or Charles Ingalls. Tan.
ndGall@reddit
Why did you capitalize “-ana?”
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
because I was tired and was thinking that it was Indi Ana Jones....
ndGall@reddit
😆
rosievee@reddit
We call it the "telenovela setting"!
Ok_Hamster9190@reddit
This right here! It’s all in the settings. You’ll get the best of newer releases and sports/live stuff w 4K while still having the movie magic you need for older programs or any show that’s on a set.
mamaspike74@reddit
Heck yeah, Fantastic Planet!
diggergig@reddit
Motion smoothing us an absolute abomination. I never knew of it and saw Murder She Wrote using it. Just awful
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
Ohh, no I do not have any special settings on my t.V, i've knocked them all out.I've got everything set for off or super low
i__hate__you__people@reddit
I felt the same way watching the Wizard of Oz. Everything was clearly a set. The water in Munchkinland is clearly fake. The makeup is obvious. Some things were not filmed in a way where upscaling to 4kHDR is a good idea.
mutnik@reddit
I think they're great for sports and sci-fi but horrible for everything else
DeadBy2050@reddit
r/4kbluray would likely disagree.
Milly1974@reddit
Stupid James Cameron scrubbing the film grain out of his home releases since Aliens Director Cut laserdisc box set. At least we finally got True Lies on Blu-ray!
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
My parents might have that laser disk. I know they got theirs when they saw it at a home show around '83. They have all the "main? 80's classic blockbusters. And, yes, the rare Star Wars one too. Can't remember which but I read there is a version of a movie or a movie no one csn find outside of a laserdisk and I know they have it.
Milly1974@reddit
Those would be the pre-special edition theatrical versions. They came out on laserdisc and VHS. Shortly after Jedi came out on home releases Lucas started adding or "improving" special effects in the theater rereleases and newer home video.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
Yup. I grew up watching the original versions of Jedi and whatever other ones were.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
You mean darker films?
ballsack-vinaigrette@reddit
ST:TNG definitely shows a few warts in higher definition too. It's my favorite show ever but sometimes the remaster gives a little too much detail.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
Remember when Family Guy upgraded and the news anchor lady became a hag?
Canaduck1@reddit
Nature documentaries.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
Yes, I can get behind that.
HighOnGoofballs@reddit
Documentaries disagree
utilitycoder@reddit
Exactly why I rarely wear my glasses watching TV or in life. Everything has a nice soft focus filter.
el_smurfo@reddit
I just recently got a 4k TV for the first time and none of us in the house really seems to notice a difference.
LaDmEa@reddit
Very little actual 4k content. Streaming services are mostly low bit rate 4k or 1080p upscales. There are some movies shot on film that are slowly making their way to 4k but there's such a small selection it's not worth it, unless you are into HDR colors(I can only see 4-5 million colors so it's pointless for me).
4k tv channels also need the content to be native 4k. Still lower bitrates than blu ray.
DeadBy2050@reddit
Likely, you haven't seen a decent setup. Common mistakes when setting up a 4k TV are having the brightness, contrast, and sharpening set up too high. Also, having any type of motion smoothing is usually terrible for anything besides sports.
When you're at a movie theater watching a film, it's higher than 4k resolution. Most people would agree that watching a film in a decent movie theater is better than watching it on 1080p or old-school 480i.
Sure, if you're sitting too far back or have vision issues, then there may not be much benefit to 4k or 1080p.
LaDmEa@reddit
eh. Most films 2005-2019ish were 1080p DI masters. But something like 250-500mbps. A handful of films showcased the technology but it really didn't become common until the 2020s. My avenger's end game is a 4k upscale of 1080p master and that was like the biggest movie of 2019.
MaximumJones@reddit
Especially when you see your favorite actors our age and think "Oh, WOW, they really did age as bad as I did."
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
Glasses for our tv's
TheJokersChild@reddit
Diminishing returns. For sports? Yeah, maybe you need more detail than you get with 1080. But for Masked Singer? Nah.
And now they're trying to bring 4K to broadcast TV...with DRM. And new boxes, just like when we went digital the first time in 2009.
regeya@reddit
On the other hand 4K HDR is why they put so much effort and money into a show like Alien: Earth. And honestly, most movies I'd rather watch at home because even on my low-end 4K TV, it looks better.
Canaduck1@reddit
Depends on the theatre. Around here, most of the Cinneplexes are "UltraAVX" which is 4K.
Badrear@reddit
I first noticed this with Criminal Minds. Lots of closeups that don’t look great with a really clear picture.
ChuckYeagerWV@reddit
Unless it's Sergio Leone directing.
Tydirium7@reddit
Well if you really want to break immersion, drive to Walnut Grove, Minnesota and realize there are no mountains in the background and there is not even a hill for the little one to roll down.
TheSwedishEagle@reddit
No quail either
Tydirium7@reddit
That reminds me of the pheasant hunting scene feom Young Guns. Chinese ring neck pheasants were not yet introduced in north america for that time period.
crashdowninit@reddit
I think that hill is supposed to be in Kansas. The pilot episode they moved from “the big woods” to the prairie in Kansas. They were eventually forced off after building a home and life as the land was turned back over to the indigenous by the government. They relocated to walnut grove. I’ve wondered if the name of the show isn’t about the Kansas episode as it’s true prairie land.
Tydirium7@reddit
They were also in de Smet SD. Lots of cool places.
tunaman808@reddit
Or that 2007 Fox drama Drive, where various people in desperate need of money are conned into driving in a Cannonball Run style race across the US.
The race starts in Florida, and any time you see someone in a car, there are all those ugly tan Southern California mountains in the background... in "Florida", where the highest point is 345 feet above sea level. Georgia, in contrast, is not especially known for tall mountains, but has a high point of 4,784 feet.
chrisgee@reddit
someone noticed if you watch Knight Rider in HD you can see in some scenes that the car has duct tape on the hood. we were never meant to see this level of detail!
TheSwedishEagle@reddit
KITT went through a lot.
chessguy112@reddit
LOL - watching Knight Rider in 2020s was hard enough, I don't need this level of imperfection!
el_smurfo@reddit
probably from cameras taped to it in other scenes?
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
Yup. Sounds about right, or places where Michael is dashing over the hood and ots where it would get scratched?
carmachu@reddit
4k HDR10 is great for things made in it. It’s terrible for old content that wasnt made for it.
AlternativeSir1423@reddit
Can someone explain to me why this happens? When an old TV show is digitized, don't you start from the old low-res source? If some data isn't in the source material, how can it be in the hi-res copy? For example, if analog TV and signals blurred makeup on the actress's faces, that makeup should still appear blurred in the hi-res copy, right? Why would there be new details to make makeup obvious?
tunaman808@reddit
If it was filmed on video, yes.
If it was filmed on film, then no. Film is considerably higher-res than HDTV, and even 4K (there's no way to make a 1:1 comparison, but most people consider 35mm film just shy of 8K).
Hogan's Heroes was one of the first shows I watched in HD, despite WTBS running it into the ground for me as a kid. Relatively speaking, it looks pretty amazing.
People (young people, mostly) are often blown away by how good Wham's video for Last Christmas looks. It was filmed on 35mm film, and at some point, someone captured it in 4k and cleaned it up. There's no magic or AI involved. Anything filmed on 35mm (which is many, many, many TV shows) can look like this with enough love:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8gmARGvPlI
You should watch the trailer for Peter Jackson's They Shall Not Grow Old, where he cleaned up a bunch of old WWI film. It's stunning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrabKK9Bhds
el_smurfo@reddit
Lol @ that title screen. How did anyone think George Michael was straight?
tunaman808@reddit
I have no idea. My wife still says she was "crushed" when she found out and I'm like "how could you NOT know he was gay?".
FUN FACT: His bandmate, Andrew Ridgeley, not only isn't gay, but was in a relationship with Keren Woodward (the brunette from Bananarama) for 27 years.
el_smurfo@reddit
Also fun fact. I just learned bananrama was British
AlternativeSir1423@reddit
I learned something new today. Do you know why films were chosen as the recording medium, since it offered no advantages in the final product? Furthermore, video cameras and tapes were available by the 1970s.
tunaman808@reddit
Well, at first - in the 50s and 60s - film was really the only option.
But lots of directors love film and prefer it. Plus, there was always the understanding that film had much more resolution than video, so would last longer and be better for posterity and any future upgrades (discussion about HDTV goes back to the 1970s, and Sony had a working HDTV system in the early 90s: here's a 1080p video of Tokyo from 1992).
The only thing video had going for it was that it was cheap. Video doesn't need to be developed, and videotape can be recorded over.
But that wasn't always the case. Monty Python's Flying Circus was infamous for its jarring transitions because indoor scenes were filmed with PAL video cameras (because they were cheap) and outdoor scenes were filmed on 16mm film (because video cameras were still huge and power hungry).
There were also technical considerations. If a TV show or music video had a lot of motion or atypical lighting, film was usually a better choice than video sometimes because film was the better medium, or sometimes because film cameras were smaller, or had more options\accessories than video cameras.
tunaman808@reddit
ONE MORE THING: Although video was cheaper than film, videotapes weren't cheap. Famously, 97 episodes of Dr. Who are considered lost, because in the 1970s the BBC had a policy of reusing videotapes, and those episodes were recorded over. Over time, copies have slowly been found - famously, in 2013 copies of 9 lost episodes that were sent to a TV station in Hong Kong were found in a storeroom in Nigeria.
This happened in the US, too. NBC only has around 33 episodes of the first DECADE of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (1962-1972) because of a similar tape reuse policy.
Even CNN, which wasn't founded until 1980! They've kept all their archival footage, but recorded over a lot of their own employees. So they still have the actual footage of, say, The War in the Falklands, but they've recorded over all the bits of their employees reporting or discussing it.
TheJokersChild@reddit
Sometimes the original the "low-res source" is 35mm film. A lot of shows were shot on film, so they had that movie-like resolution from the start. You just haven't been able to see it until now. The film gets remastered and color-corrected...
And shown on much better displays. All that 35mm detail was hidden by the limited capability of the lower-resolution TVs we used to watch. Even old shows on videotape have more detail. You wouldn't believe how much red paint they used on edges of the Showcase podiums on The Price Is Right in the early '80s.
jcstrat@reddit
I noticed the his too on some beloved movie I was watching. All of a sudden, it was so obviously a set they were on. And I couldn’t unsee it. Sometimes more resolution isn’t better.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
I believe televisions should come with an eighties mode
cbrworm@reddit
Eighties mode: Display the image in the center of the screen, only using about 500x480 resolution, and make it blurry. The image would still be too big compared to the 19" TVs we had.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
It would scale down to the size of TV you want it set to.
dwkdnvr@reddit
My feeling is that "1080p HDR" would actually be much more useful/beneficial than 4K HDR. The increased DR and tonality of HDR is almost always beneficial, whereas the resolution increase is rarely so. But unfortunately we aren't offered that.
guachi01@reddit
It might look so good if it was shot on film and if the original elements are in good shape. If there were no special effects the footage was never duped to add the effects. So you'd get high quality film footage.
Batman (Adam West version), for example, looks fantastic on Blu-ray for this reason. It's glorious.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
I bet "I Live Lucy" looks good.
guachi01@reddit
It actually looks terrible at times because they used AI on the restoration and many scenes are over sharpened.
It should look amazing. The cinematographer for the series was an all-time great.
Check out the background characters in this scene.
https://youtu.be/Mlh7YC6KAZ8?si=uafM-J_4JFtQfw-P
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
Oh God! At first I couldnt tell what you were talking about, until that "woman" at the table was rendered.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
You know, I noticed that the show just got a bit better as the seasons went by, I was watching the almost last episodes. In earlier ones, I saw artifacts indicating it was shot on film, so that was better.
TheJokersChild@reddit
Yeah, the grain. I remember running M*A*S*H on TVLand and their transfers looked glorious - 35mm remasters worthy of a Criterion release. The original box set used different ones.
ecdc05@reddit
The best part about Batman (1966) in 4K is seeing Cesar Romer's mustache under the white makeup that he refused to shave off.
I agree about film. MASH looks great in 1080p and I wish they'd release it in 4K or at least on blu-ray. But I can also find some charm in the obviousness of the backlots and sets, the makeup, etc.
theantnest@reddit
For anyone else confused, like I was, OP is talking about the 80s TV show, Little House on the Prairie. I had to google who tf Caroline Ingalls was to figure it out.
Little House is the name of the book series it was based on apparently.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
Really? Im sorry, I forget that Reddit isnt just populated by Americans and not everyone could follow the reference. My bad!
theantnest@reddit
The show was on during the daytime in Australia. It was a show stay at home mums watched, more boomer than gen X for us.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
Well, it was on in the 70's and 80's at night here.
tomNJUSA@reddit
Thanks for the heads up!
On another note, how hot was Caroline Ingalls?! I had a thing for Laura as a kid, but watching it with my kids, damn, she was hot!
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
Im kind of thecwrong person to ask, 51f here :)
Limp_Dare_6351@reddit
Former home theater enthusiast here.
50" TVs from several feet away are best for most content aside from really intense sci-fi\fantasy movies. I really don't like to see makeup and people's pores. Maybe I'll have to get a bigger TV as I age. All the boomers seem to get 65"+. I'm not ready for all that. But now I'm oddly curious about Little House.
OCSC_Fan@reddit
There's a similar challenge in the music industry. Some artists who recorded in analog took advantage of the distortion and when the recording was digitally remastered it lost that flavor.
psiprez@reddit
Remember how bad everyone looked when HD and LCD/LED lighting became a thing?
Newscasters and red carpet walkers especially, since that was live. Everyone had makeup fail daily, and looked like they aged 20 years.
ToddBradley@reddit
Yeah, the entire field of makeup for TV had to change when we switched from SD to HD, just as it changed with the advent of color film.
NotLucasDavenport@reddit
And they went through that phase of powders that were supposed to blur or soften and instead it looked like everyone was doing coke on the red carpet.
chessguy112@reddit
4K is a money-grab in my opinion. HD 1080 is all I need. Too much more detail and I'll feel like I'm watching through a microscope of detail.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
I was happy with my regular HD TV, but when it died the only ones available under normal circumstances are these hi-def. You know, I have 25mbs internet, I worried it wouldn't be good enough. But I put it on 1080p and its just as good.
apost8n8@reddit
Oh man, classic horror films are ruined with enhanced video. Shitty video is part of the vibe.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
Imagine watching a grindhouse film in 4k?
xcityfolk@reddit
On the other hand, watching CHiPs in 4k make you acutely aware of how many actresses weren't wearing bras and had very thin shirts on. As a 10 year old boy, if I had CHiPs in 4k, I would have appreciated it even more.
Shu3PO@reddit
CHiPs? More like NiPs, amirite?
pagit@reddit
Try watching Charlie’s Angels in 4k
xcityfolk@reddit
OK, I have some free time today...
pagit@reddit
They weren’t just fighting crime—they were fighting support!
pantstoaknifefight2@reddit
Eric Estrada voice over: Attention all units, NiPs will be back in a minute.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
OK, so we need the sub r/4ktv to talk about the shows and movies where we either saw good or not so good things.
jjdlg@reddit
https://i.redd.it/qx8uzhspwnvf1.gif
Western-Bad-667@reddit
LHOTP was pretty rough in terms of sets. There was a great scene where Pa was “plowing” and they’d obviously gone down to the garden centre and bought bags of topsoil that were dumped on the ground to try and make it look less like California desert …. Good times
NotEasilyConfused@reddit
As someone who grew up on a farm in Minnesota, the scenery in that show took me out every single time.
Amythecoffeequeen@reddit
I agree! It’s more like watching a play from the front row. I need a little less focus so the show itself fells more “real.”
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
That was such a weird thing the first time I saw it. It was so odd watching a show that should look "flat" suddenly look like a stage performance, just like a soap opera
HomesteadGranny1959@reddit
The original Star Trek should also not be watched in 4K. Lots of makeup & applied “alien” pieces that just jump out at you with crisp edges & somewhat lumpy makeup.
weirdsandy@reddit
I've always hated new tv. it doesn't let me get lost in the story. I'm too busy wondering if it's supposed to look that bad.
teachthisdognewtrick@reddit
What was the source material on? If the 4K conversion came from film, it is going to capture every detail that washed out in ntsc and being transmitted over the air.
WishieWashie12@reddit
Anniversary showing of Grease. The wrinkles and the bags in high definition on the big screen. No way anyone could think they were in high school.
breakerfall@reddit
Did they actually remaster(?) Little House since the original broadcasts?
LaDmEa@reddit
universal sells the complete series on blu ray new at gruv.com
Mugwumps_has_spoken@reddit
I haven't watched LHOP on ours, but I do watch old Twilight Zone, Munsters, Addams Family etc. Those shows are just weird in HD.
I still can't wrap my head around the concept that we can see so much detail that we never saw in the old B&W versions.
Why can I now visibly see the pores on their face.
When we first hooked up our 4K HD TV the very first thing that we turned on happened to be "Transformers: The Last Knight" and it was the scene where Cade Yeager arrives at the Castle in England. So the viewer see the rich vibrant countryside. Yet the colors were more rich and vibrant than real life. I found myself looking between the TV and our own front yard. Yeah, not quite the same lush landscape. But the image was too hyper realistic.
el_smurfo@reddit
Most TVs need to be calibrated to turn down the brightness and contrast that pops in a store demo. You can find many 5 minute videos on Youtube that help you with each setting.
Mugwumps_has_spoken@reddit
This TV did not have any store demo mode turned on. In fact it wasn't purchased in a box store.
el_smurfo@reddit
And yet contrast and brightness were likely 100% out of the box.
tunaman808@reddit
Because those shows were made with film, not video. You couldn't see that much detail on an old NTSC television, but they can convert the old film episodes to HD or 4K and you can. Not so much for TV shows that used video tape.
christok21@reddit
ClockSpiritual6596@reddit
Need pics of the contrast please.
SavageRabbitX@reddit
The Lynch version of Dune has this problem as well
DabBoofer@reddit
That show was designed to play on low quality screens. Also it looks so crisp because it was shot on actual film instead of tape. Look at Star Trek TNG l, it still looks amazing because 35 year old film still has clearer picture than a magnetic tape does. Also it was filmed on high grain film which gives it that clarity. But little house was designed to be looked at through a flawed window. Like how makeup during the black and white era was crazy colors because it looked right in b and w.
Shaved_taint@reddit
It could be your TV's interpolation. All these new 4k HD TV's have setting enabled by default that adds frames to smooth out the video. What it ends up doing it making things look too real and ruins movies and films. It makes movies have a soap opera effect. I'd recommend turning it off and revisiting. Depending on the brand it will be called anything from "Cinemotion" to "smooth gradation". I absolutely hate it and what it does to movies and TV shows (good for sports and documentaries though)
tubular1845@reddit
Interpolation has nothing to do with image quality, which is what they're complaining about
Shaved_taint@reddit
It effects the playback and makes everything look weird or just too realistic because of the additional frames. Go watch Batman with it enabled and it and you'll see how obvious it makes the make up on Jack Nicholson's face. It absolutely could be the effect that is ruining his viewing
tubular1845@reddit
Interpolation isn't what makes the makeup stand out, the resolution is
NastyNessie@reddit
I would argue that motion clarity makes it easier for the eye to track details because it’s improving the continuity of those details moving.
In other words, it makes it much easier to focus on the details, including the ones you don’t want to draw attention to.
I don’t know if there’s an official term but maybe it would be something like perceptual clarity.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
I really only noticed the makeup when it was a still scene.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
I remember when I first saw that soap opera.Look back in with ten years ago.I hated it and I couldn't understand how come it was looking that way.Now, I know, and I never have it set
hamlet_d@reddit
That's true, but I would imagine that with the common 24 or 30fps refresh rate you have without interpolation it might be tougher to spot.
Ceorl_Lounge@reddit
Exactly. It looks good with that loop they have in the showroom, but ruins movies.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
You mean the best possible scenarios to see on it?
Ceorl_Lounge@reddit
Yeah I mean those settings move units, they just don't have a lot to do with what I want at home.
RevolCisum@reddit
It literally gives me a weird feeling in my stomach to see my comfort shows in that setting. It happened on our new 80" TV and it made me feel disoriented. It completely changed the "feel" of the show in a bad way and freaked me out a little too.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
Feeling like physically disorienting, or bad feeling because you are basically breaking the 4th wall watching it that way?
el_smurfo@reddit
Someone gave me a curved 4k tv and that in combo with the motion smoothing will literally make you nauseous.
WakeyWakeeWakie@reddit
Is the soap opera effect that smooth panning effect that happens? Because I hate that.
Shaved_taint@reddit
Yep, I've made it my life's work to turn that off on friends and families TV's.
Dirty_Goat@reddit
Doing the lords work, and I thank thee. Sometimes it shocks me that my friends/family don’t even notice when it is enabled. Like, how can you not see it instantly?
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
Is it possible they never saw the originals on a regular tv?
ballsack-vinaigrette@reddit
Heaven will always need A/V guys; good planning!
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
Is it possible they havent seen what it looked like before?
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
Its the refresh rate I believe too.
Any_Perception6527@reddit
Whenever I buy or set up a new tv for me or anyone else, the first thing I do is go to settings and turn off EVERY artificial enhancement.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
SameI don't have it on any special settings.I basically turn them off.I think I have maybe very low for a couple of them, but none of that, you know, adding or making it smoother or anything like that
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
I have it set for a 30 Frames per second
Survive1014@reddit
My wife is re-watching this show right now. Its making me want to gouge my eyes out.
pinballrocker@reddit
I'm surprised people still watch these old shows. I loved them when I was a kid, but the stories, acting, sets, etc. along with the film and sound quality is just so bad and dated. The farthest back I can go is maybe Freaks and Geeks and the Young Ones.
WordleFan88@reddit
I do the same thing with pretty much every show from before about 2005. Colombo, especially
AtleastIthinkIsee@reddit
Yeah, but how crisp are Michael Landon's dimples?
Sometimes you gotta give a little to get a little.
Adorableviolet@reddit
But can Mary see in 4k? ha
Ethelfleda@reddit
Funny fact, ATeam in 4K still holds up. Although now I can read the graffiti on the walls
lopix@reddit
720 is the MAX, truly, that you want to watch anything in. Unless you have a pore fetish. Or you are watching some amazing space documentary.
But any TV show or movie, eight-billion resolution is NOT your friend.
IntelligentTurnover2@reddit
This happened to me with the original Star Trek and it’s worse! Couldn’t take it seriously!
el_smurfo@reddit
It was pretty bad even on a 13" TV. I always laughed when the prop guys were a bit wobbly opening and closing the "automatic" doors.
CatfishWasHere@reddit
Same. Star Trek is meant to be watched on a TV with rabbit ears and a bit of static on the screen. Bonus points for a weather map in the bottom corner showing the incoming storms.
DonnaFinNoble@reddit
I just realized that they're in Minnesota but it's clearly the desert and that doesn't track.
tunaman808@reddit
What, you don't think all the huge mountains surrounding Walnut Grove were accurate?
el_smurfo@reddit
Living in SoCal, any aerial scene from MASH always took me right out of the show. "Hey, I've hiked there".
dudaman@reddit
I hate that this never registered with me. :(
Seayarn@reddit
Yes, sometimes I am grateful for my newly poor eyesight. Thanks, stroke!
crashdowninit@reddit
Been on a Little house binge with my daughter since early summer. Streaming on Prime. Watching on 4K HDR tv. The picture looks good, some of the details like being able to see Marys caked on makeup, and seeing braces on Laura and Nellie’s bottom teeth are a bit distracting, but I don’t have all the motion/judder settings dialed up. I use more of a movie setting from RTings to keep shows from looking like they should. I would say the picture looks more like a great 720p-decent 1080p than 4k.
CajunAsianTexan@reddit
Speaking of, I got Dean Butler’s (Almanzo Wilder) autograph a couple of weeks ago. Heh.
SLevine262@reddit
Don’t watch superhero or other CGI heavy movies either
Ziggity_Zac@reddit
I saw the Wizard of Oz in the Sphere in Las Vegas. While the experience was SUPER cool... I was painfully aware of the abundance of AI use for characters. You could fully tell the AI scenes from the original scenes. Not so much the sets, but the characters/actors were so very obvious.
All that being said, it was an awesome experience and well worth the money.
absolutezero78@reddit
I want back and watch the first few episodes of airwolf on low res. O man how the sets were so obvious and jenky. So things just dont hold up with the test of time.
techdevjp@reddit
The problem isn't really 4k itself. The problem is that for a given viewing distance there are suitable TV sizes and resolutions. Bigger & higher def is not always better, and most of the TVs sold today are much too big for the rooms they go into.
mydarkerside@reddit
Not sure if they’re doing this to Little House, but they’re using AI to enhance older shows to watch on streaming services. The one example I saw was It’s A Different World. You can see the background posters and artwork looked AI generated, because it’s trying to figure out what should be in the artwork.
Old_Distribution_235@reddit
Try adjusting your tv settings: https://www.cnet.com/tech/home-entertainment/how-to-disable-the-annoying-soap-opera-effect-thats-ruining-your-tv/
OntologicalJacques@reddit
This sounds awful in all the right ways. Where can I watch it? 😂
Schmandrea1975@reddit
This is the reason I cannot watch Blu-ray. I can see the set and it takes away from the movie (specifically Batman with Jack Nicholson)
tunaman808@reddit
Blu-Ray? BR is just HD. It's less resolution than when you saw it in the cinema.
MadMacs77@reddit
I remember a story from when HD TV first came out. Someone returned multiple TVs because the image was terrible, then they realized it wasn’t the TV, it was the content not being made for HD yet.
TheJokersChild@reddit
The aspect ratio was wrong for years. Even up to a couple years ago the channel I worked at got commercials in 4:3. Always delightful when something came to us "postage-stamped" with black borders on every side.
GumboMillenium@reddit
Reminds me of when I saw The Hobbit in theatres at the higher frame rate (48fps). The VFX looked great, but the actors and sets looked awful. All I saw was bag wigs and sets. Like a Spanish soap opera
TheJokersChild@reddit
That's exactly what they call it: the soap opera effect. Soap operas are done at 30 frames per second, and film is usually 24. So speeding up the frame rate gives you this weird not-quite-film, not-quite-tape look. You can actually duplicate that experience at home (but why would you want to) by turning on Motion Smoothing on your TV.
SomePeopleCallMeJJ@reddit
To be fair, that illusion was always ruined for me anyway by Michael Landon's aggressively 1970s haircut.
unclejoe1917@reddit
I actually feel that we've crossed a line in TV definition that is beyond necessary. At the point we achieved a reliably crisp color picture, we could have stopped. This super hi-def just makes everything look like of off and sometimes even makes me aware that I'm watching a series of still shots like a flip book.
TheRealBlueJade@reddit
They built a town for the show. It was blown up at the end because the owner of the land wanted the buildings gone.
tunaman808@reddit
Not so much "wanted the buildings gone" as there was a clause in the rental agreement that the production would turn the land back over to the owner in "the same condition it was before filming".
Blowing up the town was just the easiest way to accomplish this.
lunicorn@reddit
The set was at Big Sky Movie Ranch. I’ve seen what was left of the set in the early 90s, before the Northridge quake and later a fire took care of the remaining items.
dethb0y@reddit
Worst shit that ever happened to horror movies was 4K, but i gotta think Old TV might have it even worse.
Thin_Cable4155@reddit
I remember watching Hellraiser on a rented VHS tape that was very used. It was so atmospheric and truly disturbing.
Later I watched it in 1080p on streaming. Even though I was watching on a big screen, everything just felt smaller and lame. So disappointed.
Blue_Henri@reddit
And porn
dethb0y@reddit
yeah porn also suffers greatly in 4k.
I've actually looked side-by-side 360p, 720p, 1080p and 4K and the sweet spot is 720p for almost everything.
PutAdministrative206@reddit
Thank you for sacrificing for us.
MadameBananas@reddit
I hate 4 k. It has movies look like you are watching an afternoon soap. Its too real looking. If I want reality I'll go outside.
Late-Command3491@reddit
Turn off smoothing.
insomnic@reddit
That the motion smoothing or similar setting doing that... "soap opera effect". You can turn it off you'll get the softer tones again. Usually only good for sports (in my opinion) but some folks like the "realism".
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
You know what it looks like, you're watching a stage play
Agreeable-Fault2273@reddit
For me it was Pulp Fiction. Rewatched it with my kid and the whole time I was focused on the wigs.
dwkdnvr@reddit
Don't tell me this. Impulse-purchased Pulp Fiction 4k on Prime Day..... (despite knowing fully well that it isn't really the type of movie that would benefit from 4k)
ZweitenMal@reddit
Incidentally, I know someone who works for a digital effects studio in NYC. She worked on Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and her entire job was digitally retouching the front edges of all the wigs.
Dramatic-Ad-2449@reddit
I remember when we first got our TV that had high definition. The first Sex and the City movie was on. Looking at the faces close-up, I turned to my husband and said "HD is not our friend." It was brutal.
doctorboredom@reddit
I had this experience while trying to watch eager Smart and Gilligan’s Island. Those shows were designed for tube televisions sitting on the other side of a living room.
geodebug@reddit
Analog film is already more HD than any digital TV in existence so old shows and movies can be upscaled to new formats.
But, as you see, old production techniques were targeting older TV technology so sets, costumes, and makeup didn’t have to be HD friendly. They probably were using heavy make up to enhance the poor quality of yesterday’s limited screen technology.
Much in the way that theater actors wear heavy makeup so that their facial expressions can still be interpreted from the back of the theater.
insomnic@reddit
"Audience won't see it" during production setup is definitely the case for most of these older shows that get remasters. The good remasters clean them up a bit but that's costly.
It's also the "soap opera effect" settings on TVs that are usually on by default... turning those off can soften some of it.
CrustyBatchOfNature@reddit
That is 100% the thing. Many of these "remasters" and just capturing the old masters at new resolution and calling it a day. Wait until they decide to let AI do it all.
stevemm70@reddit
My wife and I were staying at a hotel that had a pretty nice 4K TV. While my wife was taking a shower, I flipped the TV on and was watching one of the Harry Potter movies. My wife came out of the bathroom, paused in front of the TV, and said, "please turn that off ... it's too realistic and it's giving me the creeps."
Wooden-Glove-2384@reddit
You can't go hone again
Not at this age
DeaddyRuxpin@reddit
Well now I want to see it this way.
CardMeHD@reddit
There is no 4K version of Little House on the Prairie, only 1080p, and those remasters have been around for years. Most likely you’re either noticing more issues because of a bigger screen or, more likely, you’re using a lower end TV with a lot of post processing applied. That will create effects like the Soap Opera Effect, posterization, and color banding. Overly smooth skin is very common, it’s like those beauty filters on phone cameras. Try setting your TV to Movie mode or Filmmaker mode if it has it. If you’re watching on Standard or especially Vivid, usually all of those features are turned on by default.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
I'm not getting overly smooth skin. I'm just being able to see the difference in the details.
ronkrasnow@reddit
Turn off motion smoothing ya boomer.
l00ky_here@reddit (OP)
It's not motion smoothing, it's straight up, just high definition being able to see the details
indysbestprodriver@reddit
No 4k tv in my house. I do not like the picture. It just looks fake to me. Too digital, maybe.
pantstoaknifefight2@reddit
See other comments on the advanced setting called motion smoothing.
Source: Variety https://share.google/Ajc59s1vPkX4GPZta
REDDITSHITLORD@reddit
HD news broadcasts feel invasive.
pasdedeuxchump@reddit
Watch Moonlighting. Bruce Willis in lipstick. 🤣
diningroomjesus@reddit
We went from a SD tv straight to a 4k (we somehow missed HD completely)
First thing we watched was Mad Men and I got freaked out about Don Draper manifesting in my living room, it was eerie af
but weirder was watching an upscaled restoration of Terminator. the version we watched over and over as kids was taped off TV in the 80s, the upscaled version was so clear i saw things I had never seen before, like Kyle Reese sneaking into Tech Noir. also Michael Biehn is one sweaty boi
HaplessReader1988@reddit
Picture in picture for the win?
Thrashbear@reddit
There should be a subreddit for this kind of thing, I'd join it.