Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Downgradable Television...

Sep 25, 2015 11:56PM PDT

K. This is a strange one, I know but....

We love a lot of odd and unusual movies and television shows from the 80's and 90's but...

Not only have not all of them been "upgraded" (remastered) to HD, but... never will be....

Other day? I was was watching the fuzzy and artifact-laden remains of an older TV show that we love beyond all reason and... it occurred to me....

Back during the changeover from black and white to color- folks were (and still are) able to watch their old shows without their having been upgraded... Back then? It was just a matter of the television in question just not registering any colors....

So...

If the difference between HD and that old, fuzzy "standard" is just the number of pixels per inch that show... Why isn't there a setting on TV's that can disable those extra pixels when you're watching a standard definition file from back before HD?

I mean, back then, when those were playing... that picture was rock-solid, not, HD, of course, but... still, it looked OKAY back then....

So... Is this really, what we have to pick from? Forever say "goodbye" to all that we loved back when we were kids,


I don't believe that.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
Continued...
Sep 26, 2015 12:04AM PDT

Sorry, but, apparently, editing a post on this forum is a bit more involved than I'm used to and... well, seems that hitting "preview" sends it out...

Anyway... Point is that, I just don't thing that we are the only people to encounter this problem and, well- if it's just a matter of disregarding those "extra" pixels than... there has to be a manufacturer out there that has the proper software that will "downgrade" at the touch of a button as a result...

So...

What are they, where are they, and, (most importantly..) how much do they cost?

- Collapse -
There are many many video editors that will downgrade video.
Sep 26, 2015 7:40AM PDT
- Collapse -
Answer
Well we are using LCD TVS now
Oct 7, 2015 5:46AM PDT

and not like the tubes of yesterday. Standard def is 480P which is 640 x 480. Todays TVs' are backward compatible Hi def is 1080p and all these new Ultra's and whatever they are called are around like 2160P. The problem is the TV's are designed to provide quality at the higher resolutions they can't do the same at the lower resolutions.