One of the feelings I got from him was that he's been doing this so long, killing is a mere annoyance to him now. Something so routine and bothersome that he doesn't even attend to it himself anymore. He's thoroughly terrifying in that sense. He's like a combination of Avon's ruthlessness and Stringer's patience and intelligence combined with an added sense of callousness.
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HBO is airing a marathon of The Wire remastered in HD (one season per day, Dec 26-30)
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One of the feelings I got from him was that he's been doing this so long, killing is a mere annoyance to him now. Something so routine and bothersome that he doesn't even attend to it himself anymore. He's thoroughly terrifying in that sense. He's like a combination of Avon's ruthlessness and Stringer's patience and intelligence combined with an added sense of callousness.
PS3GamerKyle
Member
Prop Joe Makes A Call
Awesome scene.
Prop Joe was the man. Hearing about how he coached many of the kids in S4 made it even more sad when he died in real life a few months ago
Awesome scene.
Prop Joe was the man. Hearing about how he coached many of the kids in S4 made it even more sad when he died in real life a few months ago
HIGH DEF JEFF
Banned
I'm curious to see what this remaster will look like.
The show has been broadcast in HD already. Since it was shot on film the resolution is there to be tinkered with, even though it looked fine via the HBO HD channels in 4:3. They must be doing something to the framing...which doesn't sound like a good idea.
The show has been broadcast in HD already. Since it was shot on film the resolution is there to be tinkered with, even though it looked fine via the HBO HD channels in 4:3. They must be doing something to the framing...which doesn't sound like a good idea.
It's not that bad.
It's nonsense. S1-S4 is god tier television. S5 is... I don't know what that is.
BloodMoney
Banned
Damn, just started re-watching on hbogo... Will postpone viewin till the remaster is released.
-Pyromaniac-
Member
What the fuck you know about what I need on my mind motherfucker.
My name is on the street?!
My name is on the street?!
Bad by The Wire standards, but still better than most shows
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
Wee-Bey gif in 1080p will be a thing, guys.
Nah. Colvin, Cutty, Gus are also there.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
Nah, I'm pretty sure they were upscaled. There isn't an HD version to use. It was all SD.
Again, the links are upthread. It was shot on film, but it's only ever been broadcast in standard def. There isn't a version of the show that exists anywhere that's more than 480p natively, so far. If it was broadcast on an HD channel, it was an upscaled version - those links have one of the DPs on the show talking about it, as well as Simon saying he saw an early upscaled version for british television and he thought it looked shitty.
If HBO & Simon wanted to go back to the camera negatives and do a new scan, then yeah, you could have a 1080p version of the show. If there's 35mm material to work with. If all there is are the original masters that were used for broadcast on HBO, the same ones used for the DVD set and the same ones upscaled & cropped for Amazon Prime, then all we're going to get is a line-doubled version that takes 1/6th of the image off the top and bottom of the frame.
It's not even bad by The Wire standards. I don't even know what that means, honestly, being as it's all part of the same whole. It's not bad, period. It's fucking great television.
Again, I can't think of a single episode of the show that I would qualify as even nearing MEDIOCRE, much less bad, much less a WHOLE SEASON nearing that qualification.
POWERSPHERE
Banned
4:3 HAYTCHDEE!
MrGreencastle
Member
Shieeeeeeeeeeeeeet
would buy bluray for this.
Night Hunter
Banned
Doing a rerun right now and to be honest, I don't really need a HD remastered version of this. If it turns out good and they release a Blu Ray I might (okay, I will) buy it, otherwise 4:3 SD is all I need, baby.
With that said, don't half ass this. Because when it comes to The Wire you either step up or you step the fuck off.
With that said, don't half ass this. Because when it comes to The Wire you either step up or you step the fuck off.
blainethemono
Member
This is interesting, I just found this thread on Reddit - PSA: Amazon Prime video has the series in 16:9 format
Not sure how legit this is and I can't really easily do a comparison myself right now. Never actually watched it on Amazon.
Not sure how legit this is and I can't really easily do a comparison myself right now. Never actually watched it on Amazon.
Elfforkusu
Member
Then feel free to be shocked by the picture quality of seasons 1 and 2 this September. And maybe 3, I honestly can't remember if that one was the jarring "wtf, it's not in HD anymore?" one or if it was 4.
This wasn't shown on HBO, btw. It was some experimental DirecTV-only channel.
Anyway, the first 2/3 seasons were indeed broadcast in 720 or 1080. Trust me! No, I didn't count pixels. No, it wasn't 480p.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
That is interesting. There's no info lost from the top. in that S2 screencap comparison.
However, there seems to also be no image quality improvement, either. Weird.
Sorry man. You appear to be the only person on Earth who ever saw these things on this experimental channel.
NYCmetsfan
Banned
The show was made for 4:3. I tried both and the 16:9 doesn't look good. Its really cramped
Elfforkusu
Member
Apparently!Sorry man. You appear to be the only person on Earth who ever saw these things on this experimental channel.
This would've been like 2010 or so. That DVR is dead and buried now, and all those episodes with it.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
Shit! That sucks man, I'm sorry.
Shalashaska
Member
HIGH DEF JEFF
Banned
Now this quote makes sense:
Insley explained, "When the show started 2001 / 2002 they framed it for 16 x 9 as a way of future-proofing.
blainethemono
Member
That is interesting. There's no info lost from the top. in that S2 screencap comparison.
However, there seems to also be no image quality improvement, either. Weird.
Sorry man. You appear to be the only person on Earth who ever saw these things on this experimental channel.
I'm pretty sure I remember watching an episode or two on that directv channel years ago, but they were really obviously cropped from 4:3 and were probably 480p
Elfforkusu
Member
Seasons 4 and 5 were definitely that way. 480p frankly feels like an exaggeration. It was badp
Interested to see what HBO does with those this fall...
Bobby Roberts
Banned
So, this is what I got.
Capped the DVD in VLC just now:
Capped the Amazon Prime stream in "HD"
It looks like there's a tiny bit lost off the top, a little bit more off the bottom, and a bit more room on the left hand side.
So maybe it's just a matter of them moving the matting around on the original image? Again - the quality doesn't look to actually have been improved appreciably, although I recognize that coming straight off the DVD vs. even a hi-res stream is unfair.
Capped the DVD in VLC just now:
Capped the Amazon Prime stream in "HD"
It looks like there's a tiny bit lost off the top, a little bit more off the bottom, and a bit more room on the left hand side.
So maybe it's just a matter of them moving the matting around on the original image? Again - the quality doesn't look to actually have been improved appreciably, although I recognize that coming straight off the DVD vs. even a hi-res stream is unfair.
Elfforkusu
Member
Definitely not cropped...
But google and you guys are making me have second thoughts. Maybe it was just upscaled 16:9 and I was tricked into thinking it was HD? I don't know anymore! I'm freaking out here!
But google and you guys are making me have second thoughts. Maybe it was just upscaled 16:9 and I was tricked into thinking it was HD? I don't know anymore! I'm freaking out here!
HIGH DEF JEFF
Banned
So, this is what I got.
Capped the DVD in VLC just now:
Capped the Amazon Prime stream in "HD"
When did Amazon get the HBO stuff? 2 months ago?
Maybe these are the remasters and were fed to Amazon. Now HBO is going to air them.
Whatever it winds up being, the 16:9 screenshots look fine and are clearly not zoomed and chopped.
I might subscribe to HBO for a month to see what they are doing with this.
The Wire is my favorite show, in a real geeky I have cast autographs, met them all and am on the DVD extras for Season 3 kind of way.
Did some research. Here's an article about the shows cinematography: http://library.creativecow.net/articles/griffin_nick/hbo_the_wire.php
"When the show started 2001 / 2002 they framed it for 16 x 9 as a way of future-proofing. Then a couple of seasons ago, right before Season 4 began shooting, there was a big discussion about it and after much discussion -- David, Nina, Joe Chappelle, the Producers, the DPs -- and we discussed what should be the style of the show. David made the decision that we would stay with 4x3."
That's why some isn't cropped. Also in the article it mentions that the later episodes were shot in Super 35 so the aspect ratio of the film negative is 16x9.
"When the show started 2001 / 2002 they framed it for 16 x 9 as a way of future-proofing. Then a couple of seasons ago, right before Season 4 began shooting, there was a big discussion about it and after much discussion -- David, Nina, Joe Chappelle, the Producers, the DPs -- and we discussed what should be the style of the show. David made the decision that we would stay with 4x3."
That's why some isn't cropped. Also in the article it mentions that the later episodes were shot in Super 35 so the aspect ratio of the film negative is 16x9.
bender
What time is it?
I envy you.
HIGH DEF JEFF
Banned
This post covers that and then some:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=126645728&postcount=17
Bobby Roberts
Banned
Yeah, if they're going back to the original image files and moving the matting - they're basically just upscaling and pan & scanning from scene to scene.
So if that's the case, again, looking at the DVD cap & the amazon cap - they probably just upped the contrast a little, line-doubled, and are reframing shots with new matting for 16x9. They're putting SOME effort into it. But it's not what people really want when it comes to increase visual quality.
I hope I'm wrong and it's a complete re-scan of the 35mm originals, though. I'll all kinds of wrong and happy.
So if that's the case, again, looking at the DVD cap & the amazon cap - they probably just upped the contrast a little, line-doubled, and are reframing shots with new matting for 16x9. They're putting SOME effort into it. But it's not what people really want when it comes to increase visual quality.
I hope I'm wrong and it's a complete re-scan of the 35mm originals, though. I'll all kinds of wrong and happy.
blainethemono
Member
There's also the fact that there is literally no information released about this from anywhere. Other than a promo aired on HBO today that was put up on youtube and tweeted by Arthur Gies, there seems to be no announcement from HBO or anyone else that I can find. Also this is airing on HBO Signature instead of their main channel. I don't even know what to think about this now.
HIGH DEF JEFF
Banned
This is what I don't understand either..
It's definitely on their schedule:
Whatever this thing is, it's barely being promoted.
I sent a tweet to Andy Greenwald and posted a note on the The FB page asking if anyone knows more details.
The wire is still presented in 4:3, not 16:9. They can put it on blu ray and not have it look like a blurry mess because it was shot on film. In general film has a higher resolution than blu ray (film is actually more detailed than "4K" resolution), so they do a digital transfer and boom, HD but still in 4:3. But if the original material was shot in 16:9, but broadcasted in 4:3 then they can use the original to create the new 16:9 version
I want 4:3 in HD. Pillar boxed for 16:9 televisions.
Being shot on film a HD transfer will definitely be possible but I doubt they would have the actual edited episodes on film.
Edit- I see that HBO has been HD since 1999. They may have been sitting on HD masters for the entire time. If that is the case, why hasn't it been broadcast that way before?
Being shot on film a HD transfer will definitely be possible but I doubt they would have the actual edited episodes on film.
Edit- I see that HBO has been HD since 1999. They may have been sitting on HD masters for the entire time. If that is the case, why hasn't it been broadcast that way before?
The HBO schedule shows it being on GO as well on 9/22 at 8:00PM
Prop Joe Makes A Call
Awesome scene.
Prop Joe was the man. Hearing about how he coached many of the kids in S4 made it even more sad when he died in real life a few months ago
RIP Joe.
It's probably been posted but i really liked this video essay on cinematography Style in The Wire. I loved a lot of the 4:3 compositions, more photographic than cinematic i guess but it can be beautiful in that realist grounded sort of way. As great and innovative as. Breaking. Bad was in this department, i prefer this style.
I guess the only thing i can watch HD on without blackbars is the iPad, always loved that it fits perfectly.
kobe(beast)
Member
Thank god, I was gonna rewatch the show today. I guess I will wait
BouncyFrag
Member
DVR amcry. Been meaning to watch this.
IncandescentPrecept
Banned
Loved the show but I'm of the mind that it went downhill when it went too political or post-Barskdale/Bell.
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