'The Wire' being remastered and rebroadcast in September

Discussion in 'TV & Media' started by jefferiestubes8, Sep 1, 2014.

  1. jefferiestubes8

    jefferiestubes8 Commodore Commodore

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    HBO's "The Wire" has just been remastered and re-airing broadcast in September on HBO.

    Advertisement for HBO's rebroadcast of a remastered version of The Wire in September. Video Length 30 seconds. It is only a graphic and text no actual remastered video in this spot.
    The Wire Remastered Promo

    it was shot on 35mm film. It was originally broadcast as 4:3 SD in 2002 even though HBO has been HD since 1999. This was very short sighted by HBO as CBS had been mastering and broadcasting "CSI" in 2000.
    The first two seasons are available on Amazon Prime in 16:9 standard definition. Here is the comparison of the 4:3 framing and 16:9 framing from Amazon Prime. although
    With catalog series selling on Blu-ray in HD the remastering is a good idea to prolong the property for physical media sales, syndication, streaming, and iTunes downloads.
    HBO Asia Signature HD airs it in 16:9 format so I guess HBO had older HD 16:9 masters maybe from SD upconvert.

    HBO is releasing The Soprano's complete series box set will be released on Blu-ray in November this year. The Blu-ray medium for movies & TV has a short window for HD video on physical media sales before it falls out of fashion in about 5 years.
    HBO plans to make their content available for Apple's next-generation streaming set-top box in Spring of 2015. My guess is that will be 1080p HD with some 4k streaming to follow in 2016.
    You can be sure HBO will be selling The Wire in 2015 on Blu-ray.

    I will guess The Soprano's were mastered to 4k as well as The Wire but I don't have any sources. Sony remastered all of the Breaking Bad series to 4k and you can see my post and source here on TrekBBS. They were all shot on 35mm film and could be just like Star Trek TOS & TNG TV series.
    CBS Home Video though kept the original aspect ratio of Star Trek TOS & TNG's 4:3 framing with pillarboxing.

    With The Wire
    So it looks like they will go with 16:9 framing for the series now...
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2014
  2. the G-man

    the G-man Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I have the entire series on DVD. I watch one season about every six months. It looks fine as it is
     
  3. jefferiestubes8

    jefferiestubes8 Commodore Commodore

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  4. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

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    Happy the series is coming to HD, but they should have left it in 4:3.