Telecine
Encyclopedia
Telecine is transferring motion picture film
into video
and is performed in a color suite
. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in the post-production
process.
Telecine enables a motion picture, captured originally on film stock
, to be viewed with standard video equipment, such as television set
s, video cassette recorders (VCR) or computers. This allows film producer
s, television producer
s and film distributor
s working in the film industry
to release their products
on video and allows producers to use video production
equipment to complete their filmmaking
projects. Within the film industry
, it is also referred to as a TK, as TC is already used to designate time code
.
programming. By turning to film-originated material, they would have access to the wealth of films made for the cinema in addition to recorded television program
ming on film that could be aired at different times. However, the difference in frame rates between film (generally 24 frames/s) and television (30 or 25 frames/s) meant that simply playing a film into a television camera would result in flickering when the film frame was changed in mid-field of the TV frame.
Originally the kinescope
was used to record the image from a television display to film, synchronized to the TV scan rate. This could then be re-played directly into a video camera for re-display. Non-live programming could also be filmed using the same cameras, edited mechanically as normal, and then played back for TV. As the film was run at the same speed as the television, the flickering was eliminated. Various displays, including projectors for these "video rate films", slide projector
s and film cameras were often combined into a "film chain
", allowing the broadcaster to cue up various forms of media and switch between them by moving a mirror or prism. Color was supported by using a multi-tube video camera, prisms, and filters to separate the original color signal and feed the red, green and blue to individual tubes.
However, this still left film shot at cinema frame rate
s as a problem. The obvious solution is to simply speed up the film to match the television frame rates, but this, at least in the case of NTSC
, is rather obvious to the eye and ear. This problem is not difficult to fix, however; the solution being to periodically play a selected frame twice. For NTSC, the difference in frame rates can be corrected by showing every fourth frame of film twice, although this does require the sound to be handled separately to avoid "skipping" effects. A more convincing technique is to use "2:3 pulldown", discussed below, which turns every second frame of the film into three fields of video, which results in a much smoother display. PAL
uses a similar system, "2:2 pulldown".
In recent decades, telecine has primarily been a film-to-videotape process, as opposed to film-to-air. Changes since the 1950s have primarily been in terms of equipment and physical formats; the basic concept remains the same. Home movie
s are video tapes of films that used this technique, and it is not uncommon to find telecined DVDs where the source was originally recorded to videotape. The same is not true for modern DVDs of cinematic films, which are generally recorded in their original frame rate — in these cases the DVD player itself applies telecining as required to match the capabilities of the television receiver.
of the mechanical film motion and the electronic video signal. Every time the video (tele) part of the telecine samples the light electronically, the film (cine) part of the telecine must have a frame in perfect registration and ready to photograph. This is relatively easy when the film is photographed at the same frame rate
as the video camera will sample, but when this is not true, a sophisticated procedure is required to change frame rate.
To avoid the synchronization issues, higher end establishments now use a scanning system rather than just a telecine system. This allows them to scan a distinct frame of digital video for each frame of film, providing higher quality than a telecine system would be able to achieve. Normally, best results are then achieved by using a smoothing (interpolating algorithm) rather than a frame duplication algorithm (such as 3:2 pulldown, etc.) to adjust for speed differences between the film and video frame rate.
Similar issues occur when using vertical synchronization to prevent screen tearing, which is a different problem encountered when frame rates mismatch.
or SECAM
video standards, film destined for television are photographed at 25 frames per second. The PAL video standard broadcasts at 25 frames per second, so the transfer from film to video is simple; for every film frame, one video frame is captured.
Theatrical features originally photographed at 24 frame/s are shown at 25 frame/s. While this is usually not noticed in the picture (but may be more noticeable during action speed, especially if footage was filmed undercranked), the 4% increase in playback speed causes a slightly noticeable increase in audio pitch
by about one semitone
, which is sometimes corrected using a pitch shifter
, though pitch shifting is a recent innovation and supersedes an alternative method of telecine for 25 frame/s formats.
2:2 pulldown is also used to transfer shows and films, photographed at 30 frames per second, like Friends
and Oklahoma! (1955), to NTSC
video, which has 60 Hz scanning rate.
Although the 4% speed increase has been standard since the early days of PAL and SECAM television, recently a new technique has gained popularity, and the resulting speed and pitch of the telecined presentation are identical to that of the original film.
This pulldown method is sometimes used in order to convert 24 frame/s material to 25 frame/s. Usually, this involves a film to PAL transfer without the aforementioned 4% speedup. For film at 24 frame/s, there are 24 frames of film for every 25 frames of PAL video.
In order to accommodate this mismatch in frame rate, 24 frames of film have to be distributed over 50 PAL fields. This can be accomplished by inserting a pulldown field every 12 frames, thus effectively spreading 12 frames of film over 25 fields (or “12.5 frames”) of PAL video. The method used is 2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:3 (Euro) pulldown (see below).
This method was born out of a frustration with the faster, higher pitched soundtracks that traditionally accompanied films transferred for PAL and SECAM audiences. A few motion pictures are beginning to be telecined this way. It is particularly suited for films where the soundtrack is of special importance.
frequency, video is broadcast at 29.97 frame/s. For the film's motion to be accurately rendered on the video signal, a telecine must use a technique called the 2:3 pulldown, also known as 3:2 pulldown, to convert from 24 to 29.97 frame/s.
The term “pulldown” comes from the mechanical process of “pulling” (physically moving) the film downward within the film portion of the transport mechanism, to advance it from one frame to the next at a repetitive rate (nominally 24 frames/s). This is accomplished in two steps. The first step is to slow down the film motion by 1/1000. This speed change is unnoticeable to the viewer, and makes the film travel at 23.976 frames/s (or 7.2 seconds longer in a 2-hour film).
The second step of the 2:3 pulldown is distributing cinema frames into video fields. At 23.976 frame/s, there are four frames of film for every five frames of 60 Hz video:
These four frames are “stretched” into five by exploiting the interlaced nature of 60 Hz video. For every frame, there are actually two incomplete images or fields, one for the odd-numbered lines of the image, and one for the even-numbered lines. There are, therefore, ten fields for every four film frames, which are called A, B, C, and D. The telecine alternately places A frame across two fields, B frame across three fields, C frame across two fields and D frame across three fields. This can be written as A-A-B-B-B-C-C-D-D-D or 2-3-2-3 or simply 2-3. The cycle repeats itself completely after four film frames have been exposed:
A 3:2 pattern is identical to the one shown above except that it is shifted by one frame. For instance, a cycle that starts with film frame B yields a 3:2 pattern: B-B-B-C-C-D-D-D-A-A or 3-2-3-2 or simply 3-2. In other words, there is no difference between the 2-3 and 3-2 patterns. In fact, the "3-2" notation is misleading because according to SMPTE standards for every four-frame film sequence the first frame is scanned twice, not three times.
The above method is a "classic" 2:3, which was used before frame buffers allowed for holding more than one frame. The preferred method for doing a 2:3 creates only one dirty frame in every five (i.e. 3:3:2:2 or 2:3:3:2 or 2:2:3:3); while this method has a slight bit more judder, it allows for easier upconversion (the dirty frame can be dropped without losing information) and a better overall compression when encoding. The 2:3:3:2 pattern is supported by the Panasonic DVX-100B
video camera under the name "Advanced Pulldown".
formats (the standard for Standard 8mm film was 16fps, and for Super 8mm film 18fps) as well as silent film
(which in 35mm format usually was 16fps, 12fps, or even lower).
Also, other patterns have been described that refer to the progressive
frame rate conversion required to display 24 frame/s video (e.g., from a DVD player) on a progressive display (e.g., LCD or plasma):
PAL material in which 2:3 pulldown has been applied, suffers from a similar lack of smoothness, though this effect is not usually called “telecine judder”. Effectively, every 12th film frame is displayed for the duration of three PAL fields (60 milliseconds), whereas the other 11 frames are each displayed for the duration of two PAL fields (40 milliseconds). This causes a slight “hiccup” in the video about twice a second. Increasingly being referred to as Euro pulldown as it largely affects European territories.
s, line doubler
s, and personal video recorders are designed to detect and remove 2-3 pulldown from telecined video sources, thereby reconstructing the original 24 frame/s film frames. This technique is known as “reverse” or “inverse” telecine. Benefits of reverse telecine include high-quality non-interlaced display on compatible display devices and the elimination of redundant data for compression purposes.
Reverse telecine is crucial when acquiring film material into a digital non-linear editing system
such as Lightworks
, Sony Vegas
Pro, Avid
, or Final Cut Pro
, since these machines produce negative cut lists which refer to specific frames in the original film material. When video from a telecine is ingested into these systems, the operator usually has available a “telecine trace,” in the form of a text file, which gives the correspondence between the video material and film original. Alternatively, the video transfer may include telecine sequence markers “burned in” to the video image along with other identifying information such as time code.
It is also possible, but more difficult, to perform reverse telecine without prior knowledge of where each field of video lies in the 2-3 pulldown pattern. This is the task faced by most consumer equipment such as line doublers and personal video recorders. Ideally, only a single field needs to be identified, the rest following the pattern in lock-step. However, the 2-3 pulldown pattern does not necessarily remain consistent throughout an entire program. Edits performed on film material after it undergoes 2-3 pulldown can introduce “jumps” in the pattern if care is not taken to preserve the original frame sequence (this often happens during the editing of television shows and commercials in NTSC format). Most reverse telecine algorithms attempt to follow the 2-3 pattern using image analysis techniques, e.g. by searching for repeated fields.
Algorithms that perform 2-3 pulldown removal also usually perform the task of deinterlacing
. It is possible to algorithmically determine whether video contains a 2-3 pulldown pattern or not, and selectively do either reverse telecine (in the case of film-sourced video) or deinterlacing (in the case of native video sources).
, Rank Precision Industries
was experimenting with the flying-spot scanner (FSS), which inverted the cathode ray tube
(CRT) concept of scanning using a television screen. The CRT emits a pixel-sized electron beam which is converted to a photon beam through the phosphors coating the envelope. This dot of light is then focused by a lens onto the film's emulsion, and finally collected by a pickup device. In 1950 the first Rank flying spot monochrome telecine was installed at the BBC's Lime Grove Studios
. The advantage of the FSS is that colour analysis is done after scanning, so there can be no registration errors as can be produced by vidicon tubes where scanning is done after colour separation — it also allows simpler dichroics to be used.
In a flying spot scanner
(FSS) or cathode-ray tube (CRT) telecine, a pixel-sized light beam is projected through exposed and developed motion picture film (either negative
or positive) and collected by a special type of photo-electric cell known as a photomultiplier
which converts the light into an electrical signal. The beam of light “scans” across the film image from left to right to record the horizontal frame information. Vertical scanning of the frame is then accomplished by moving the film past the CRT beam. In a colour telecine the light from the CRT passes through the film and is separated by dichroic
mirrors and filters into red, green and blue bands. Photomultiplier
tubes or avalanche photodiode
s convert the light into separate red, green and blue electrical signals for further electronic processing. This can be accomplished in “real time”, 24 frames per second (or in some cases faster). Rank Precision-Cintel
introduced the “Mark” series of FSS telecines. During this time advances were also made in CRTs, with increased light output producing a better signal-to-noise ratio
and so allowing negative film to be used.
The problem with flying-spot scanners was the difference in frequencies between television field rates and film frame rates. This was solved first by the Mk. I Polygonal Prism system, which was optically sychronised to the television frame rate by the rotating prism and could be run at any frame rate. This was replaced by the Mk. II Twin Lens, and then around 1975, by the Mk. III Hopping Patch (jump scan). The Mk. III series progressed from the original “jump scan” interlace scan to the Mk. IIIB which used a progressive scan and included a digital scan converter (Digiscan) to output interlaced video. The Mk. IIIC was the most popular of the series and used a next generation Digiscan plus other improvements.
The "Mark" series was then replaced by the Ursa (1989), the first in their line of telecines capable of producing digital data in 4:2:2 color space. The Ursa Gold (1993) stepped this up to 4:4:4 and then the Ursa Diamond (1997), which incorporated many third-party improvements on the Ursa system. Cintel's C-Reality and ITK's Millennium flying-spot scanner are able to do both HD and Data.
The Robert Bosch GmbH
, Fernseh
Div., which later became BTS inc.
- Philips
Digital Video Systems, Thomson
's Grass Valley
and now is DFT Digital Film Technology introduced the world's first CCD telecine (1979), the FDL-60. The FDL-60 designed and made in Darmstadt
West Germany
, was the first all solid state
telecine.
Rank Cintel
(ADS telecine 1982) and Marconi Company
(1985) both made CCD Telecines for a short time. The Marconi B3410 sold 84 units over a three year period, and a former Marconi technician still maintains them.
In a charge-coupled device
Line Array CCD telecine, a “white” light is shone through the exposed film image into a prism, which separates out the image into the three primary colors, red, green and blue. Each beam of colored light is then projected at a different CCD, one for each color. The CCD converts the light into electrical impulses which the telecine electronics modulate
into a video signal which can then be recorded onto video tape or broadcast.
Philips-BTS eventually evolved the FDL 60 into the FDL 90 (1989)/ Quadra (1993). In 1996 Philips, working with Kodak, introduced the Spirit DataCine
(SDC 2000), which was capable of scanning the film image at HDTV resolutions and approaching 2K (1920 Luminance and 960 Chrominace RGB) × 1556 RGB. With the data option the Spirit DataCine can be used as a motion picture film scanner
outputting 2K DPX
data file
s as 2048 × 1556 RGB. In 2000 Philips introduced the Shadow Telecine (STE), a low cost version of the Spirit with no Kodak parts. The Spirit DataCine, Cintel
's C-Reality and ITK's Millennium opened the door to the technology of digital intermediate
s, wherein telecine tools were not just used for video outputs, but could now be used for high-resolution data that would later be recorded back out to film. The DFT Digital Film Technology, formerly Grass Valley
Spirit 4k\2k\HD (2004) replaced the Spirit 1 Datacine and uses both 2K and 4k line array CCDs. (Note: the SDC-2000 did not use a color prisms and/or dichroic mirrors.) DFT revealed its new scanner at the 2009 NAB Show
, SCANITY http://www.dft-film.com/scanners/scanity.php. The SCANITY uses Time Delay Integration (TDI) sensor technology for extremely fast and sensitive film scans. High speed scanning 15 frame/s @ 4K; 25 frame/s @ 2K; 44 frame/s @ 1K.
transfer market. The Sniper Pro series uses a 3CCD
700-line professional video camera
set up in an optical printer fashion for both 8mm and 16mm, with the camera utilizing a high resolution macro lens to image directly off the emulsion side of the film. Used in conjunction with special software, this allowed the system to scan each stationary frame into a PC and build a standard video file, frame by frame. The low cost and minimal hardware requirements have made the Sniper series a favorite in the industry, with PC Magazine running favorable side by side tests on the Sniper Pro against the venerable Rank Turbo. In 2008, the Sniper-HD series was released in both 8mm and 16mm and has proven a boon to archive and transfer houses working on a limited budget with HD and SD delivery requirements. The Sniper-HD scans frame by frame for true, progressive output in SD (in the DV codec) as well as HD (in the Motion JPEG HD codec). A single Sniper-HD will output both PAL or NTSC in equal quality, since the original scans are in progressive HD. Because each frame of film is maintained as a separate image, any playback speed from 6fps to 30fps can be reproduced in both progressive or interlaced pulldown patterns. As an alternative archiving choice, the software will also output true progressive frames in a numbered image sequence in a folder. These images can then be imported into any edit software, now or decades from now, to reconstitute the original frame accurate film file.
Pennylane Video in the Uk exclusively uses Movie Stuff Technology to transfer Cine Film to Dvd for the General Public.
Using the continuous film motion found in the "big iron" machines, an array of multiple red, green and blue LEDs is pulsed at just the moment a frame of film is precisely positioned in front of the optics of a high-resolution, three-CCD, triggerable industrial process control camera. The LED array pulse triggers the camera and sends the single, non-interlaced image of the film frame to a digital frame store, where the electronic picture is clocked out at the applicable TV frame rate for PAL (or NTSC.)
This approach captures each frame of film as a clean frame, yet enables the film speed to be varied in real time—without flicker—from three to twenty-five Frames Per Second (PAL) or six to thirty FPS for NTSC units. The output can be progressive (non-interlaced) or interlaced. The LED array's light output and color balance can be altered to correct for fading film, while midrange and black levels and color balances can be adjusted electronically, providing the capabilities of "big iron" equipment. The high-quality, real-time output requires no post-processing in computers and can be recorded directly to tape, disc or editing system, along with two-channels of magnetic sound from striped film. Analog and Serial Digital In ports for video and audio offered flexibility to a range of users, including home movie transfer houses and archives.
In 2006, The Pulsed LED/Triggered camera/Adjustable color balances concept was extended to 16mm and 35mm in the company's flashtransfer standard definition system for 16 and 35mm film. A camera with larger CCD chips is used, also capturing each frame of film and then passing it to a framestore for output in real-time as PAL or as NTSC video via analog or SDI. Audio from optical or magnetic striped film was embedded in the SDI signal or output via analog ports.
MWA Nova introduced flashscanHD, a faster than real time high definition 8mm/Super8 product at IBC 2008. The SD system's sprockets have been replaced by a laser-based perf detection and image stabilization system. That enables the new unit to transfer film in HD at more than three times faster than real-time speeds, while maintaining a stable picture. A half-hour of real-time film is captured into a computer in ten minutes, with one frame of film transferred to one frame of HD video. The captured video is slowed down to natural speed in any professional non-linear editor. Software controls the transport, built in color correction for white, midrange and blacks can be triggered at specific frames. A panel similar to a color correction system panel is available to aid operators.
Expanding on that concept, the company created a 16/35 system— flashtransfer Vario—using a 1920 × 1080 three-chip sensor. The first unit was delivered in 16mm to the United States' biggest archive in late July of 2010. This flexible, 16mm/35mm system can be had with either or both gauges on one machine. Archives such as the British Film Institute, and a small middle school in Foley, Alabama have jumped on the system.
The laser system has also been adapted to eliminating sound synchronization problems with magnetic sound film, and won an award at NAB 2011.
The company expects to have a new product with even higher resolution for smaller gauge film announced in Q3 of 2011.
s; high-resolution telecines, such as those mentioned above, can be regarded as film scanners that operate in real time.
As digital intermediate
post-production becomes more common, the need to combine the traditional telecine functions of input devices, standards converters, and colour grading systems is becoming less important as the post-production chain changes to tapeless and filmless operation.
However, the parts of the workflow associated with telecines still remain, and are being pushed to the end, rather than the beginning, of the post-production chain, in the form of real-time digital grading systems and digital intermediate mastering systems, increasingly running in software on commodity computer systems. These are sometimes called virtual telecine
systems.
For most "24 frames/s" cameras, the virtual 2:3 pulldown process is happening inside the camera. Although the camera is capturing a progressive frame at the CCD, just like a film camera, it is then imposing an interlacing on the image to record it to tape so that it can be played back on any standard television. Not every camera handles "24 frames/s" this way, but the majority of them do.
Cameras that record 25 frames/s (PAL) or 29.97 frames/s (NTSC) do not need to employ 2:3 pulldown, because every progressive frame occupies exactly two video fields. In the video industry, this type of encoding is called Progressive Segmented Frame (PsF)
. PsF is conceptually identical to 2:2 pulldown, only there is no film original to transfer from.
and high definition standards provide several methods for encoding film material. Fifty field/s formats such as 576i50 and 1080i50 can accommodate film content using a 4% speed-up like PAL. 59.94 field/s interlaced formats such as 480i60 and 1080i60 use the same 2:3 pulldown technique as NTSC. In 59.94 frame/s progressive formats such as 480p60 and 720p60, entire frames (rather than fields) are repeated in a 2:3 pattern, accomplishing the frame rate conversion without interlacing and its associated artifacts. Other formats such as 1080p24 can decode film material at its native rate of 24 or 23.976 frame/s.
All of these coding methods are in use to some extent. In PAL countries, 25 frame/s formats remain the norm. In NTSC countries, most digital broadcasts of 24 frame/s progressive material, both standard and high definition, continue to use interlaced formats with 2:3 pulldown, even though ATSC
allows native 24 and 23.976 frame/s progressive formats which offer the greatest image quality and coding efficiency, and are widely used in motion picture and high definition video production. Nowadays, most HDTV vendors sell LCD televisions in NTSC/ATSC countries capable of 120 Hz or 240 Hz refresh rate
s and plasma sets capable of 48, 72, or 96 Hz refresh. When combined with a 1080p24-capable source (such as most Blu-ray Disc players), some of these sets are able to display film-based content using a pulldown scheme of whole multiples of 24, thereby avoiding the problems associated with 2:3 pulldown or the 4% speed-up used in PAL countries. For example, a 1080p 120 Hz set which accepts a 1080p24 input can achieve 5:5 pulldown by simply repeating each frame five times and thus not exhibit picture artifacts associated with telecine judder.
s, telecined material may be either hard telecined, or soft telecined. In the hard-telecined case, video is stored on the DVD at the playback framerate (29.97 frame/s for NTSC, 25 frame/s for PAL), using the telecined frames as shown above. In the soft-telecined case, the material is stored on the DVD at the film rate (24 or 23.976 frames/s) in the original progressive format, with special flags inserted into the MPEG-2
video stream that instruct the DVD player to repeat certain fields so as to accomplish the required pulldown during playback.
Progressive scan
DVD players additionally offer output at 480p
by using these flags to duplicate frames rather than fields.
NTSC DVDs are often soft telecined, although lower-quality hard-telecined DVDs exist. In the case of PAL DVDs using 2:2 pulldown, the difference between soft and hard telecine vanishes, and the two may be regarded as equal. In the case of PAL DVDs using 2:3 pulldown, either soft or hard telecining may be applied.
Hardware Products:
Filmstrip
The filmstrip was a common form of still image instructional multimedia, once commonly used by educators in primary and secondary schools , now overtaken by newer and increasingly lower-cost full-motion videocassettes and DVDs...
into video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
and is performed in a color suite
Color suite
Color suite also called a Color bay or a Telecine suite or Color correction bay. Color suite is the control room for color grading video in a post production environment. The video source could be from: a telecine, a Video tape recorder , a motion picture film scanner, virtual telecine or a Direct...
. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in the post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
process.
Telecine enables a motion picture, captured originally on film stock
Film stock
Film stock is photographic film on which filmmaking of motion pictures are shot and reproduced. The equivalent in television production is video tape.-1889–1899:...
, to be viewed with standard video equipment, such as television set
Television set
A television set is a device that combines a tuner, display, and speakers for the purpose of viewing television. Television sets became a popular consumer product after the Second World War, using vacuum tubes and cathode ray tube displays...
s, video cassette recorders (VCR) or computers. This allows film producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
s, television producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
s and film distributor
Film distributor
A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films to the public either theatrically or for home viewing...
s working in the film industry
Film industry
The film industry consists of the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking: i.e. film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, distribution; and actors, film directors and other film crew...
to release their products
Product (business)
In general, the product is defined as a "thing produced by labor or effort" or the "result of an act or a process", and stems from the verb produce, from the Latin prōdūce ' lead or bring forth'. Since 1575, the word "product" has referred to anything produced...
on video and allows producers to use video production
Video production
Video production is videography, the process of capturing moving images on electronic media even streaming media. The term includes methods of production and post-production...
equipment to complete their filmmaking
Filmmaking
Filmmaking is the process of making a film, from an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, directing, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a theatrical release or television program...
projects. Within the film industry
Film industry
The film industry consists of the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking: i.e. film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, distribution; and actors, film directors and other film crew...
, it is also referred to as a TK, as TC is already used to designate time code
Time code
A timecode is a sequence of numeric codes generated at regular intervals by a timing system.- Video and film timecode :...
.
History of telecine
With the advent of popular broadcast television, producers realized they needed more than live televisionLive television
Live television refers to a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Video tape did not exist until 1957...
programming. By turning to film-originated material, they would have access to the wealth of films made for the cinema in addition to recorded television program
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
ming on film that could be aired at different times. However, the difference in frame rates between film (generally 24 frames/s) and television (30 or 25 frames/s) meant that simply playing a film into a television camera would result in flickering when the film frame was changed in mid-field of the TV frame.
Originally the kinescope
Kinescope
Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program made by filming the picture from a video monitor...
was used to record the image from a television display to film, synchronized to the TV scan rate. This could then be re-played directly into a video camera for re-display. Non-live programming could also be filmed using the same cameras, edited mechanically as normal, and then played back for TV. As the film was run at the same speed as the television, the flickering was eliminated. Various displays, including projectors for these "video rate films", slide projector
Slide projector
A slide projector is an opto-mechanical device to view photographic slides. Slide projectors were common in the 1950s to the 1970s as a form of entertainment; family members and friends would gather to view slide shows...
s and film cameras were often combined into a "film chain
Film chain
A film chain or film island is a television - Professional video camera with one or more projectors aligned into the photographic lens of the camera. With two or more projectors a system of front-surface mirrors that can pop-up are used in a multiplexer. These mirrors switch different projectors...
", allowing the broadcaster to cue up various forms of media and switch between them by moving a mirror or prism. Color was supported by using a multi-tube video camera, prisms, and filters to separate the original color signal and feed the red, green and blue to individual tubes.
However, this still left film shot at cinema frame rate
Frame rate
Frame rate is the frequency at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. The term applies equally well to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems...
s as a problem. The obvious solution is to simply speed up the film to match the television frame rates, but this, at least in the case of NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
, is rather obvious to the eye and ear. This problem is not difficult to fix, however; the solution being to periodically play a selected frame twice. For NTSC, the difference in frame rates can be corrected by showing every fourth frame of film twice, although this does require the sound to be handled separately to avoid "skipping" effects. A more convincing technique is to use "2:3 pulldown", discussed below, which turns every second frame of the film into three fields of video, which results in a much smoother display. PAL
PAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
uses a similar system, "2:2 pulldown".
In recent decades, telecine has primarily been a film-to-videotape process, as opposed to film-to-air. Changes since the 1950s have primarily been in terms of equipment and physical formats; the basic concept remains the same. Home movie
Home movie
Home movie may mean:*Home movies, referring to private or amateur motion picture photographic products shot and printed in any video or film format....
s are video tapes of films that used this technique, and it is not uncommon to find telecined DVDs where the source was originally recorded to videotape. The same is not true for modern DVDs of cinematic films, which are generally recorded in their original frame rate — in these cases the DVD player itself applies telecining as required to match the capabilities of the television receiver.
Frame rate differences
The most complex part of telecine is the synchronizationSynchronization
Synchronization is timekeeping which requires the coordination of events to operate a system in unison. The familiar conductor of an orchestra serves to keep the orchestra in time....
of the mechanical film motion and the electronic video signal. Every time the video (tele) part of the telecine samples the light electronically, the film (cine) part of the telecine must have a frame in perfect registration and ready to photograph. This is relatively easy when the film is photographed at the same frame rate
Frame rate
Frame rate is the frequency at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. The term applies equally well to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems...
as the video camera will sample, but when this is not true, a sophisticated procedure is required to change frame rate.
To avoid the synchronization issues, higher end establishments now use a scanning system rather than just a telecine system. This allows them to scan a distinct frame of digital video for each frame of film, providing higher quality than a telecine system would be able to achieve. Normally, best results are then achieved by using a smoothing (interpolating algorithm) rather than a frame duplication algorithm (such as 3:2 pulldown, etc.) to adjust for speed differences between the film and video frame rate.
Similar issues occur when using vertical synchronization to prevent screen tearing, which is a different problem encountered when frame rates mismatch.
2:2 pulldown
In countries that use the PALPAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
or SECAM
SECAM
SECAM, also written SÉCAM , is an analog color television system first used in France....
video standards, film destined for television are photographed at 25 frames per second. The PAL video standard broadcasts at 25 frames per second, so the transfer from film to video is simple; for every film frame, one video frame is captured.
Theatrical features originally photographed at 24 frame/s are shown at 25 frame/s. While this is usually not noticed in the picture (but may be more noticeable during action speed, especially if footage was filmed undercranked), the 4% increase in playback speed causes a slightly noticeable increase in audio pitch
Pitch (music)
Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...
by about one semitone
Semitone
A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically....
, which is sometimes corrected using a pitch shifter
Audio timescale-pitch modification
Time stretching is the process of changing the speed or duration of an audio signal without affecting its pitch.Pitch scaling or pitch shifting is the opposite: the process of changing the pitch without affecting the speed...
, though pitch shifting is a recent innovation and supersedes an alternative method of telecine for 25 frame/s formats.
2:2 pulldown is also used to transfer shows and films, photographed at 30 frames per second, like Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
and Oklahoma! (1955), to NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
video, which has 60 Hz scanning rate.
Although the 4% speed increase has been standard since the early days of PAL and SECAM television, recently a new technique has gained popularity, and the resulting speed and pitch of the telecined presentation are identical to that of the original film.
This pulldown method is sometimes used in order to convert 24 frame/s material to 25 frame/s. Usually, this involves a film to PAL transfer without the aforementioned 4% speedup. For film at 24 frame/s, there are 24 frames of film for every 25 frames of PAL video.
In order to accommodate this mismatch in frame rate, 24 frames of film have to be distributed over 50 PAL fields. This can be accomplished by inserting a pulldown field every 12 frames, thus effectively spreading 12 frames of film over 25 fields (or “12.5 frames”) of PAL video. The method used is 2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:3 (Euro) pulldown (see below).
This method was born out of a frustration with the faster, higher pitched soundtracks that traditionally accompanied films transferred for PAL and SECAM audiences. A few motion pictures are beginning to be telecined this way. It is particularly suited for films where the soundtrack is of special importance.
2:3 pulldown
In the United States and other countries where television uses the 60Hz vertical scanningNTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
frequency, video is broadcast at 29.97 frame/s. For the film's motion to be accurately rendered on the video signal, a telecine must use a technique called the 2:3 pulldown, also known as 3:2 pulldown, to convert from 24 to 29.97 frame/s.
The term “pulldown” comes from the mechanical process of “pulling” (physically moving) the film downward within the film portion of the transport mechanism, to advance it from one frame to the next at a repetitive rate (nominally 24 frames/s). This is accomplished in two steps. The first step is to slow down the film motion by 1/1000. This speed change is unnoticeable to the viewer, and makes the film travel at 23.976 frames/s (or 7.2 seconds longer in a 2-hour film).
The second step of the 2:3 pulldown is distributing cinema frames into video fields. At 23.976 frame/s, there are four frames of film for every five frames of 60 Hz video:
These four frames are “stretched” into five by exploiting the interlaced nature of 60 Hz video. For every frame, there are actually two incomplete images or fields, one for the odd-numbered lines of the image, and one for the even-numbered lines. There are, therefore, ten fields for every four film frames, which are called A, B, C, and D. The telecine alternately places A frame across two fields, B frame across three fields, C frame across two fields and D frame across three fields. This can be written as A-A-B-B-B-C-C-D-D-D or 2-3-2-3 or simply 2-3. The cycle repeats itself completely after four film frames have been exposed:
A 3:2 pattern is identical to the one shown above except that it is shifted by one frame. For instance, a cycle that starts with film frame B yields a 3:2 pattern: B-B-B-C-C-D-D-D-A-A or 3-2-3-2 or simply 3-2. In other words, there is no difference between the 2-3 and 3-2 patterns. In fact, the "3-2" notation is misleading because according to SMPTE standards for every four-frame film sequence the first frame is scanned twice, not three times.
The above method is a "classic" 2:3, which was used before frame buffers allowed for holding more than one frame. The preferred method for doing a 2:3 creates only one dirty frame in every five (i.e. 3:3:2:2 or 2:3:3:2 or 2:2:3:3); while this method has a slight bit more judder, it allows for easier upconversion (the dirty frame can be dropped without losing information) and a better overall compression when encoding. The 2:3:3:2 pattern is supported by the Panasonic DVX-100B
Panasonic AG-DVX100
The Panasonic AG-DVX100 was the first affordable digital progressive scan camcorder.The camera is popular among television studios and is popular with independent film makers because of its many film-emulating features and has a large following. Currently the latest and last revision is the DVX102B...
video camera under the name "Advanced Pulldown".
Other pulldown patterns
Similar techniques must be used for films shot at “silent speeds” of less than 24 frame/s, which includes home movieHome movie
Home movie may mean:*Home movies, referring to private or amateur motion picture photographic products shot and printed in any video or film format....
formats (the standard for Standard 8mm film was 16fps, and for Super 8mm film 18fps) as well as silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
(which in 35mm format usually was 16fps, 12fps, or even lower).
- 16 frame/s (actually 15.985) to NTSC 30 frame/s (actually 29.97): pulldown should be 3:4:4:4
- 16 frame/s to PAL 25: pulldown should be 3:3:3:3:3:3:3:4 (a better choice would be to run the film at 16.67 frame/s, simplifying pulldown to 3:2)
- 18 frame/s (actually 17.982) to NTSC 30: pulldown should be 3:3:4
- 20 frame/s (actually 19.980) to NTSC 30: pulldown should be 3:3
- 27.5 frame/s to NTSC 30: pulldown should be 3:2:2:2:2
- 27.5 frame/s to PAL 25: pulldown should be 1:2:2:2:2
Also, other patterns have been described that refer to the progressive
Progressive scan
Progressive scanning is a way of displaying, storing, or transmitting moving images in which all the lines of each frame are drawn in sequence...
frame rate conversion required to display 24 frame/s video (e.g., from a DVD player) on a progressive display (e.g., LCD or plasma):
- 24 frame/s to 96 frame/s (4x frame repetition): pulldown is 4:4
- 24 frame/s to 120 frame/s (5x frame repetition): pulldown is 5:5
- 24 frame/s to 120 frame/s (3:2 pulldown followed by 2x deinterlacing): pulldown is 6:4
Telecine judder
The “2:3 pulldown” telecine process creates a slight error in the video signal compared to the original film frames that can be seen in the above image. This is one reason why films viewed on typical NTSC home equipment may not appear as smooth as when viewed in a cinema. The phenomenon is particularly apparent during slow, steady camera movements which appear slightly jerky when telecined. This process is commonly referred to as telecine judder. Reversing the 2-3 pulldown telecine is discussed below.PAL material in which 2:3 pulldown has been applied, suffers from a similar lack of smoothness, though this effect is not usually called “telecine judder”. Effectively, every 12th film frame is displayed for the duration of three PAL fields (60 milliseconds), whereas the other 11 frames are each displayed for the duration of two PAL fields (40 milliseconds). This causes a slight “hiccup” in the video about twice a second. Increasingly being referred to as Euro pulldown as it largely affects European territories.
Reverse telecine (a.k.a. inverse telecine (IVTC), reverse pulldown)
Some DVD playerDVD player
A DVD player is a device that plays discs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. These devices were invented in 1997 and continue to thrive...
s, line doubler
Line doubler
A line doubler is a device used to deinterlace video signals prior to display.The main function of a line doubler is to take an interlaced video source which consists of a two-field frame and create a progressive scan output. This can produce a brighter, smoother, higher-resolution picture...
s, and personal video recorders are designed to detect and remove 2-3 pulldown from telecined video sources, thereby reconstructing the original 24 frame/s film frames. This technique is known as “reverse” or “inverse” telecine. Benefits of reverse telecine include high-quality non-interlaced display on compatible display devices and the elimination of redundant data for compression purposes.
Reverse telecine is crucial when acquiring film material into a digital non-linear editing system
Non-linear editing system
In video, a non-linear editing system is a video editing or audio editing digital audio workstation system which can perform random access non-destructive editing on the source material...
such as Lightworks
Lightworks
Lightworks is an Oscar and Emmy award winning professional NLE system for editing and mastering of movies in 2K and 4K as well as television productions in PAL, NTSC and HD...
, Sony Vegas
Sony Vegas
Sony Vegas is a professional video editing software package for non-linear editing systems originally published by Sonic Foundry, now owned and run by Sony Creative Software. Originally developed as an audio editor, it eventually developed into an NLE for video and audio from version 2.0...
Pro, Avid
AVID
AVID stands for:* Advancement Via Individual Determination, a college-readiness system designed to increase the number of students who enroll in four-year colleges in the U.S....
, or Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro is a non-linear video editing software developed by Macromedia Inc. and then Apple Inc. The most recent version, Final Cut Pro X, runs on Mac personal computers powered by Mac OS X version 10.6.7 or later and using Intel processors...
, since these machines produce negative cut lists which refer to specific frames in the original film material. When video from a telecine is ingested into these systems, the operator usually has available a “telecine trace,” in the form of a text file, which gives the correspondence between the video material and film original. Alternatively, the video transfer may include telecine sequence markers “burned in” to the video image along with other identifying information such as time code.
It is also possible, but more difficult, to perform reverse telecine without prior knowledge of where each field of video lies in the 2-3 pulldown pattern. This is the task faced by most consumer equipment such as line doublers and personal video recorders. Ideally, only a single field needs to be identified, the rest following the pattern in lock-step. However, the 2-3 pulldown pattern does not necessarily remain consistent throughout an entire program. Edits performed on film material after it undergoes 2-3 pulldown can introduce “jumps” in the pattern if care is not taken to preserve the original frame sequence (this often happens during the editing of television shows and commercials in NTSC format). Most reverse telecine algorithms attempt to follow the 2-3 pattern using image analysis techniques, e.g. by searching for repeated fields.
Algorithms that perform 2-3 pulldown removal also usually perform the task of deinterlacing
Deinterlacing
Deinterlacing is the process of converting interlaced video, such as common analog television signals or 1080i format HDTV signals, into a non-interlaced form....
. It is possible to algorithmically determine whether video contains a 2-3 pulldown pattern or not, and selectively do either reverse telecine (in the case of film-sourced video) or deinterlacing (in the case of native video sources).
Flying spot scanner
In the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Rank Precision Industries
Cintel
Cintel International Ltd is a British company, based in Ware, Hertfordshire,SG12 0AE, which specialises in the design and manufacture of professional post-production equipment, for transcribing film into video or data formats...
was experimenting with the flying-spot scanner (FSS), which inverted the cathode ray tube
Cathode ray tube
The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
(CRT) concept of scanning using a television screen. The CRT emits a pixel-sized electron beam which is converted to a photon beam through the phosphors coating the envelope. This dot of light is then focused by a lens onto the film's emulsion, and finally collected by a pickup device. In 1950 the first Rank flying spot monochrome telecine was installed at the BBC's Lime Grove Studios
Lime Grove Studios
Lime Grove Studios was a film studio complex built by the Gaumont Film Company in 1915 situated in a street named Lime Grove, inShepherd's Bush, west London, north of Hammersmith and described by Gaumont as "the finest studio in Great Britain and the first building ever put up in this country...
. The advantage of the FSS is that colour analysis is done after scanning, so there can be no registration errors as can be produced by vidicon tubes where scanning is done after colour separation — it also allows simpler dichroics to be used.
In a flying spot scanner
Flying spot scanner
A flying-spot scanner uses a scanning source of a spot of light, such as a high-resolution, high-light-output, low-persistence Cathode Ray Tube , to scan an image, usually from motion picture film or a slide...
(FSS) or cathode-ray tube (CRT) telecine, a pixel-sized light beam is projected through exposed and developed motion picture film (either negative
Negative (photography)
In photography, a negative may refer to three different things, although they are all related.-A negative:Film for 35 mm cameras comes in long narrow strips of chemical-coated plastic or cellulose acetate. As each image is captured by the camera onto the film strip, the film strip advances so that...
or positive) and collected by a special type of photo-electric cell known as a photomultiplier
Photomultiplier
Photomultiplier tubes , members of the class of vacuum tubes, and more specifically phototubes, are extremely sensitive detectors of light in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum...
which converts the light into an electrical signal. The beam of light “scans” across the film image from left to right to record the horizontal frame information. Vertical scanning of the frame is then accomplished by moving the film past the CRT beam. In a colour telecine the light from the CRT passes through the film and is separated by dichroic
Dichroism
Dichroism has two related but distinct meanings in optics. A dichroic material is either one which causes visible light to be split up into distinct beams of different wavelengths , or one in which light rays having different polarizations are absorbed by different amounts.The original meaning of...
mirrors and filters into red, green and blue bands. Photomultiplier
Photomultiplier
Photomultiplier tubes , members of the class of vacuum tubes, and more specifically phototubes, are extremely sensitive detectors of light in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum...
tubes or avalanche photodiode
Avalanche photodiode
An avalanche photodiode is a highly sensitive semiconductor electronic device that exploits the photoelectric effect to convert light to electricity. APDs can be thought of as photodetectors that provide a built-in first stage of gain through avalanche multiplication. From a functional standpoint,...
s convert the light into separate red, green and blue electrical signals for further electronic processing. This can be accomplished in “real time”, 24 frames per second (or in some cases faster). Rank Precision-Cintel
Cintel
Cintel International Ltd is a British company, based in Ware, Hertfordshire,SG12 0AE, which specialises in the design and manufacture of professional post-production equipment, for transcribing film into video or data formats...
introduced the “Mark” series of FSS telecines. During this time advances were also made in CRTs, with increased light output producing a better signal-to-noise ratio
Signal-to-noise ratio
Signal-to-noise ratio is a measure used in science and engineering that compares the level of a desired signal to the level of background noise. It is defined as the ratio of signal power to the noise power. A ratio higher than 1:1 indicates more signal than noise...
and so allowing negative film to be used.
The problem with flying-spot scanners was the difference in frequencies between television field rates and film frame rates. This was solved first by the Mk. I Polygonal Prism system, which was optically sychronised to the television frame rate by the rotating prism and could be run at any frame rate. This was replaced by the Mk. II Twin Lens, and then around 1975, by the Mk. III Hopping Patch (jump scan). The Mk. III series progressed from the original “jump scan” interlace scan to the Mk. IIIB which used a progressive scan and included a digital scan converter (Digiscan) to output interlaced video. The Mk. IIIC was the most popular of the series and used a next generation Digiscan plus other improvements.
The "Mark" series was then replaced by the Ursa (1989), the first in their line of telecines capable of producing digital data in 4:2:2 color space. The Ursa Gold (1993) stepped this up to 4:4:4 and then the Ursa Diamond (1997), which incorporated many third-party improvements on the Ursa system. Cintel's C-Reality and ITK's Millennium flying-spot scanner are able to do both HD and Data.
Line array CCD
Robert Bosch GmbH
Robert Bosch GmbH is a multinational engineering and electronics company headquartered in Gerlingen, near Stuttgart, Germany. It is the world's largest supplier of automotive components...
, Fernseh
Fernseh
The Fernseh AG television company was registered in Berlin on July 3, 1929 by John Logie Baird, Robert Bosch and other partners with an initial capital of 100,000 Reichsmark....
Div., which later became BTS inc.
Broadcast Television Systems Inc.
Broadcast Television Systems was a joint venture between Robert Bosch GmbH's Fernseh Division and Philips Broadcast in Breda, Netherlands formed in 1986.- History :...
- Philips
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
Digital Video Systems, Thomson
Thomson SA
Technicolor SA , formerly Thomson SA and Thomson Multimedia, is a French international provider of solutions for the creation, management, post-production, delivery and access of video, for the Communication, Media and Entertainment industries. Technicolor’s headquarters are located in Issy les...
's Grass Valley
Grass Valley (company)
Grass Valley, previously known as Grass Valley Group, is a privately held company based in California, USA. Grass Valley produces technology for the video and broadcast industry. On January 29, 2009, Thomson announced its intention to sell the Grass Valley business unit...
and now is DFT Digital Film Technology introduced the world's first CCD telecine (1979), the FDL-60. The FDL-60 designed and made in Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
West Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, was the first all solid state
Solid state (electronics)
Solid-state electronics are those circuits or devices built entirely from solid materials and in which the electrons, or other charge carriers, are confined entirely within the solid material...
telecine.
Rank Cintel
Cintel
Cintel International Ltd is a British company, based in Ware, Hertfordshire,SG12 0AE, which specialises in the design and manufacture of professional post-production equipment, for transcribing film into video or data formats...
(ADS telecine 1982) and Marconi Company
Marconi Company
The Marconi Company Ltd. was founded by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 as The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company...
(1985) both made CCD Telecines for a short time. The Marconi B3410 sold 84 units over a three year period, and a former Marconi technician still maintains them.
In a charge-coupled device
Charge-coupled device
A charge-coupled device is a device for the movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device to an area where the charge can be manipulated, for example conversion into a digital value. This is achieved by "shifting" the signals between stages within the device one at a time...
Line Array CCD telecine, a “white” light is shone through the exposed film image into a prism, which separates out the image into the three primary colors, red, green and blue. Each beam of colored light is then projected at a different CCD, one for each color. The CCD converts the light into electrical impulses which the telecine electronics modulate
Modulation
In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a high-frequency periodic waveform, called the carrier signal, with a modulating signal which typically contains information to be transmitted...
into a video signal which can then be recorded onto video tape or broadcast.
Philips-BTS eventually evolved the FDL 60 into the FDL 90 (1989)/ Quadra (1993). In 1996 Philips, working with Kodak, introduced the Spirit DataCine
Spirit DataCine
Spirit DataCine is a telecine and/or a motion picture film scanner. This device is able to transfer 16mm and 35mm motion picture film to NTSC or PAL standards or one of many High-definition television standards. With the data transfer option a Spirit DataCine can output DPX data files. The Spirit...
(SDC 2000), which was capable of scanning the film image at HDTV resolutions and approaching 2K (1920 Luminance and 960 Chrominace RGB) × 1556 RGB. With the data option the Spirit DataCine can be used as a motion picture film scanner
Motion picture film scanner
A motion picture film scanner is a device used in digital filmmaking to scan original film for storage as high-resolution digital intermediate files.A film scanner scans original film stock: negative or positive print or reversal/IP...
outputting 2K DPX
DPX
Digital Picture Exchange is a common file format for digital intermediate and visual effects work and is an ANSI/SMPTE standard...
data file
Data file
A data file is a computer file which stores data to use by a computer application or system. It generally does not refer to files that contain instructions or code to be executed , or to files which define the operation or structure of an application or system ; but specifically to information...
s as 2048 × 1556 RGB. In 2000 Philips introduced the Shadow Telecine (STE), a low cost version of the Spirit with no Kodak parts. The Spirit DataCine, Cintel
Cintel
Cintel International Ltd is a British company, based in Ware, Hertfordshire,SG12 0AE, which specialises in the design and manufacture of professional post-production equipment, for transcribing film into video or data formats...
's C-Reality and ITK's Millennium opened the door to the technology of digital intermediate
Digital intermediate
Digital intermediate is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. It often replaces or augments the photochemical timing process and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie...
s, wherein telecine tools were not just used for video outputs, but could now be used for high-resolution data that would later be recorded back out to film. The DFT Digital Film Technology, formerly Grass Valley
Grass Valley (company)
Grass Valley, previously known as Grass Valley Group, is a privately held company based in California, USA. Grass Valley produces technology for the video and broadcast industry. On January 29, 2009, Thomson announced its intention to sell the Grass Valley business unit...
Spirit 4k\2k\HD (2004) replaced the Spirit 1 Datacine and uses both 2K and 4k line array CCDs. (Note: the SDC-2000 did not use a color prisms and/or dichroic mirrors.) DFT revealed its new scanner at the 2009 NAB Show
National Association of Broadcasters
The National Association of Broadcasters is a trade association, workers union, and lobby group representing the interests of for-profit, over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States...
, SCANITY http://www.dft-film.com/scanners/scanity.php. The SCANITY uses Time Delay Integration (TDI) sensor technology for extremely fast and sensitive film scans. High speed scanning 15 frame/s @ 4K; 25 frame/s @ 2K; 44 frame/s @ 1K.
Frame-by-frame scanning
In 2003, MovieStuff out of Texas introduced the first low cost frame by frame scanning system to the archival and home movieHome movie
Home movie may mean:*Home movies, referring to private or amateur motion picture photographic products shot and printed in any video or film format....
transfer market. The Sniper Pro series uses a 3CCD
3CCD
A three-CCD camera is a camera whose imaging system uses three separate charge-coupled devices , each one taking a separate measurement of the primary colors, red, green, or blue light. Light coming into the lens is split by a trichroic prism assembly, which directs the appropriate wavelength...
700-line professional video camera
Professional video camera
A professional video camera is a high-end device for creating electronic moving images...
set up in an optical printer fashion for both 8mm and 16mm, with the camera utilizing a high resolution macro lens to image directly off the emulsion side of the film. Used in conjunction with special software, this allowed the system to scan each stationary frame into a PC and build a standard video file, frame by frame. The low cost and minimal hardware requirements have made the Sniper series a favorite in the industry, with PC Magazine running favorable side by side tests on the Sniper Pro against the venerable Rank Turbo. In 2008, the Sniper-HD series was released in both 8mm and 16mm and has proven a boon to archive and transfer houses working on a limited budget with HD and SD delivery requirements. The Sniper-HD scans frame by frame for true, progressive output in SD (in the DV codec) as well as HD (in the Motion JPEG HD codec). A single Sniper-HD will output both PAL or NTSC in equal quality, since the original scans are in progressive HD. Because each frame of film is maintained as a separate image, any playback speed from 6fps to 30fps can be reproduced in both progressive or interlaced pulldown patterns. As an alternative archiving choice, the software will also output true progressive frames in a numbered image sequence in a folder. These images can then be imported into any edit software, now or decades from now, to reconstitute the original frame accurate film file.
Pennylane Video in the Uk exclusively uses Movie Stuff Technology to transfer Cine Film to Dvd for the General Public.
Pulsed LED/triggered three CCD camera system
In 2004, MWA Nova, Berlin introduced flashscan, to replace projector-based systems for 8mm and Super8, but with quality near or equal to "big iron" flying spot or line array standard definition telecines that cost much more than the flashscan.Using the continuous film motion found in the "big iron" machines, an array of multiple red, green and blue LEDs is pulsed at just the moment a frame of film is precisely positioned in front of the optics of a high-resolution, three-CCD, triggerable industrial process control camera. The LED array pulse triggers the camera and sends the single, non-interlaced image of the film frame to a digital frame store, where the electronic picture is clocked out at the applicable TV frame rate for PAL (or NTSC.)
This approach captures each frame of film as a clean frame, yet enables the film speed to be varied in real time—without flicker—from three to twenty-five Frames Per Second (PAL) or six to thirty FPS for NTSC units. The output can be progressive (non-interlaced) or interlaced. The LED array's light output and color balance can be altered to correct for fading film, while midrange and black levels and color balances can be adjusted electronically, providing the capabilities of "big iron" equipment. The high-quality, real-time output requires no post-processing in computers and can be recorded directly to tape, disc or editing system, along with two-channels of magnetic sound from striped film. Analog and Serial Digital In ports for video and audio offered flexibility to a range of users, including home movie transfer houses and archives.
In 2006, The Pulsed LED/Triggered camera/Adjustable color balances concept was extended to 16mm and 35mm in the company's flashtransfer standard definition system for 16 and 35mm film. A camera with larger CCD chips is used, also capturing each frame of film and then passing it to a framestore for output in real-time as PAL or as NTSC video via analog or SDI. Audio from optical or magnetic striped film was embedded in the SDI signal or output via analog ports.
MWA Nova introduced flashscanHD, a faster than real time high definition 8mm/Super8 product at IBC 2008. The SD system's sprockets have been replaced by a laser-based perf detection and image stabilization system. That enables the new unit to transfer film in HD at more than three times faster than real-time speeds, while maintaining a stable picture. A half-hour of real-time film is captured into a computer in ten minutes, with one frame of film transferred to one frame of HD video. The captured video is slowed down to natural speed in any professional non-linear editor. Software controls the transport, built in color correction for white, midrange and blacks can be triggered at specific frames. A panel similar to a color correction system panel is available to aid operators.
Expanding on that concept, the company created a 16/35 system— flashtransfer Vario—using a 1920 × 1080 three-chip sensor. The first unit was delivered in 16mm to the United States' biggest archive in late July of 2010. This flexible, 16mm/35mm system can be had with either or both gauges on one machine. Archives such as the British Film Institute, and a small middle school in Foley, Alabama have jumped on the system.
The laser system has also been adapted to eliminating sound synchronization problems with magnetic sound film, and won an award at NAB 2011.
The company expects to have a new product with even higher resolution for smaller gauge film announced in Q3 of 2011.
Digital intermediate systems and virtual telecines
Telecine technology is increasingly merging with that of motion picture film scannerMotion picture film scanner
A motion picture film scanner is a device used in digital filmmaking to scan original film for storage as high-resolution digital intermediate files.A film scanner scans original film stock: negative or positive print or reversal/IP...
s; high-resolution telecines, such as those mentioned above, can be regarded as film scanners that operate in real time.
As digital intermediate
Digital intermediate
Digital intermediate is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. It often replaces or augments the photochemical timing process and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie...
post-production becomes more common, the need to combine the traditional telecine functions of input devices, standards converters, and colour grading systems is becoming less important as the post-production chain changes to tapeless and filmless operation.
However, the parts of the workflow associated with telecines still remain, and are being pushed to the end, rather than the beginning, of the post-production chain, in the form of real-time digital grading systems and digital intermediate mastering systems, increasingly running in software on commodity computer systems. These are sometimes called virtual telecine
Virtual telecine
A virtual telecine is a piece of video equipment that can play back data files in real time. The colorist-video operator controls the virtual telecine like a normal telecine, although without controls like focus and framing. The data files can be from a Spirit DataCine, motion picture film scanner...
systems.
Video cameras that produce telecined video, and "film look"
Some video cameras and consumer camcorders are able to record in progressive "24 frames/s" (actually 23.976 frames/s) or "30 frames/s" (actually 29.97 frames/s) in NTSC, or 25 frames/s (PAL) mode. Such a video has cinema-like motion characteristics and is the major component of so-called "film look" or "movie look".For most "24 frames/s" cameras, the virtual 2:3 pulldown process is happening inside the camera. Although the camera is capturing a progressive frame at the CCD, just like a film camera, it is then imposing an interlacing on the image to record it to tape so that it can be played back on any standard television. Not every camera handles "24 frames/s" this way, but the majority of them do.
Cameras that record 25 frames/s (PAL) or 29.97 frames/s (NTSC) do not need to employ 2:3 pulldown, because every progressive frame occupies exactly two video fields. In the video industry, this type of encoding is called Progressive Segmented Frame (PsF)
Progressive segmented Frame
Progressive segmented Frame is a scheme designed to acquire, store, modify, and distribute progressive-scan video using interlaced equipment and media....
. PsF is conceptually identical to 2:2 pulldown, only there is no film original to transfer from.
Digital television and high definition
Digital televisionDigital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
and high definition standards provide several methods for encoding film material. Fifty field/s formats such as 576i50 and 1080i50 can accommodate film content using a 4% speed-up like PAL. 59.94 field/s interlaced formats such as 480i60 and 1080i60 use the same 2:3 pulldown technique as NTSC. In 59.94 frame/s progressive formats such as 480p60 and 720p60, entire frames (rather than fields) are repeated in a 2:3 pattern, accomplishing the frame rate conversion without interlacing and its associated artifacts. Other formats such as 1080p24 can decode film material at its native rate of 24 or 23.976 frame/s.
All of these coding methods are in use to some extent. In PAL countries, 25 frame/s formats remain the norm. In NTSC countries, most digital broadcasts of 24 frame/s progressive material, both standard and high definition, continue to use interlaced formats with 2:3 pulldown, even though ATSC
ATSC
ATSC standards are a set of standards developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable, and satellite networks....
allows native 24 and 23.976 frame/s progressive formats which offer the greatest image quality and coding efficiency, and are widely used in motion picture and high definition video production. Nowadays, most HDTV vendors sell LCD televisions in NTSC/ATSC countries capable of 120 Hz or 240 Hz refresh rate
Refresh rate
The refresh rate is the number of times in a second that a display hardware draws the data...
s and plasma sets capable of 48, 72, or 96 Hz refresh. When combined with a 1080p24-capable source (such as most Blu-ray Disc players), some of these sets are able to display film-based content using a pulldown scheme of whole multiples of 24, thereby avoiding the problems associated with 2:3 pulldown or the 4% speed-up used in PAL countries. For example, a 1080p 120 Hz set which accepts a 1080p24 input can achieve 5:5 pulldown by simply repeating each frame five times and thus not exhibit picture artifacts associated with telecine judder.
Soft and hard telecine
On DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s, telecined material may be either hard telecined, or soft telecined. In the hard-telecined case, video is stored on the DVD at the playback framerate (29.97 frame/s for NTSC, 25 frame/s for PAL), using the telecined frames as shown above. In the soft-telecined case, the material is stored on the DVD at the film rate (24 or 23.976 frames/s) in the original progressive format, with special flags inserted into the MPEG-2
MPEG-2
MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission...
video stream that instruct the DVD player to repeat certain fields so as to accomplish the required pulldown during playback.
Progressive scan
Progressive scan
Progressive scanning is a way of displaying, storing, or transmitting moving images in which all the lines of each frame are drawn in sequence...
DVD players additionally offer output at 480p
480p
480p is the shorthand name for a video display resolution. The p stands for progressive scan, i.e. non-interlaced. The 480 denotes a vertical resolution of 480 pixel high vertically scanning lines, usually with a horizontal resolution of 640 pixels and 4:3 aspect ratio or a horizontal resolution of...
by using these flags to duplicate frames rather than fields.
NTSC DVDs are often soft telecined, although lower-quality hard-telecined DVDs exist. In the case of PAL DVDs using 2:2 pulldown, the difference between soft and hard telecine vanishes, and the two may be regarded as equal. In the case of PAL DVDs using 2:3 pulldown, either soft or hard telecining may be applied.
See also
- 3D LUT3D LUTIn the film industry, 3D LUTs are used to calculate preview colors for a monitor or digital projector of how an image will be reproduced on the final film print. A 3D LUT is a 3D lattice of output color values. Each axis is one of the 3 input color components and the input color thus defines a...
- CintelCintelCintel International Ltd is a British company, based in Ware, Hertfordshire,SG12 0AE, which specialises in the design and manufacture of professional post-production equipment, for transcribing film into video or data formats...
telecine equipment. - Color motion picture film
- Color suiteColor suiteColor suite also called a Color bay or a Telecine suite or Color correction bay. Color suite is the control room for color grading video in a post production environment. The video source could be from: a telecine, a Video tape recorder , a motion picture film scanner, virtual telecine or a Direct...
- Da Vinci SystemsDa Vinci Systemsda Vinci Systems is a main manufacturer of high-end post-production color grading and film restoration systems for feature films, video production and broadcast post-production facilities...
for color gradingColor gradingColor grading or colour painting, is the process of altering and enhancing the color of a motion picture, video image, or still image either electronically, photo-chemically or digitally. The photo-chemical process is also referred to as color timing and is typically performed at a photographic...
and video editingVideo editingThe term video editing can refer to:* Linear video editing, using video tape* Non-linear editing system , using computers with video editing software* Offline editing* Online editing...
systems. - Pandora InternationalPandora InternationalPandora International is a maker of hardware and software. Pandora International devices are able to color correct video and 16mm and 35mm motion picture film transfered through it'sdevices. Pandora International is based in Greenhithe, Kent, England....
- Digital intermediateDigital intermediateDigital intermediate is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. It often replaces or augments the photochemical timing process and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie...
- Display resolutionDisplay resolutionThe display resolution of a digital television or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resolution is controlled by all different factors in cathode ray tube , flat panel or projection...
- FaroudjaFaroudjaFaroudja Labs was a San Francisco based IP and research company founded by Yves Faroudja.Faroudja specialized in video processing algorithms and products...
, inventors of reverse telecine technologies - Film recorderFilm recorderA Film Recorder is a graphical output device for transferring digital images to photographic film.All film recorders typically work in the same manner. The image is fed from a host computer as a raster stream over a digital interface...
- Film restoration
- Film-outFilm-outFilm-out is the process in the computer graphics, video production and filmmaking disciplines of transferring images or animation from videotape or digital files to a traditional film print...
- Gamma correctionGamma correctionGamma correction, gamma nonlinearity, gamma encoding, or often simply gamma, is the name of a nonlinear operation used to code and decode luminance or tristimulus values in video or still image systems...
- Hard disk recorderHard disk recorderA hard disk recorder is a type of direct to disk recording system that uses a high-capacity hard disk to record digital audio or digital video. Hard disk recording systems represent an alternative to more traditional reel-to-reel tape or cassette multitrack systems, and provide editing...
- HDTV blurHDTV blurHDTV blur is a common term used to describe a number of different artifacts on modern consumer high-definition television sets.The following factors are generally the primary or secondary causes of HDTV blur; in some cases more than one of these factors may be in play at the studio or receiver end...
Factors causing HDTV Blur - Image scannerImage scannerIn computing, an image scanner—often abbreviated to just scanner—is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting, or an object, and converts it to a digital image. Common examples found in offices are variations of the desktop scanner where the document is placed on a glass...
- KeykodeKeykodeKeyKode is an Eastman Kodak Company advancement on edge numbers, which are letters, numbers and symbols placed at regular intervals along the edge of 35 mm and 16 mm film to allow for frame-by-frame specific identification...
- Telecine (piracy)Telecine (piracy)The term telecine refers both to a film-to-tape transferring machine, as well as the process by which film is transferred to tape...
, a pirated copy of a film created with a telecine. - Telerecording (UK)
- TelevisionTelevisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
External links
- XYHD: How a 3:2 Pull Down Cadence works when converting Film to Video
- Photographs of cine film types and reels. Further information on telecine transfer
- TMTV: Technical information on HDDTT film transfers
- IVTC Explained (brief)
- Explanation of telecine methods
- EBU I42 2004: Telecines for broadcasters — Technical information
- The Big Picture — 3:2 Pulldown and Inverse Telecine — In-depth explanation of interlaced and progressive frames, and the telecine process
- Tutorial Regarding Methods of Inverse Telecining
- TIG: The Telecine Internet Group (mailinglist and wiki)
- Frame rate test video files
- Lasergraphics
- Cintel Downloads
Hardware Products:
- CINTEL International Ltd - Manufacturer of CRT and CCD based telecines and scanners
- Used telecine - Re-manufacturer of used CRT and CCD based telecines and scanners
- DEBRIE Technologies - DEBRIE Technologies - French Manufacturer of full range of cinematographic equipment HD telecines from 8 to 35mm
- DFT Digital Film Technology - Manufacturer of CCD based telecines and data scanners, formerly ThomsonGrassValley, previously Philips, BTS, Bosch - New Scanity uses Time Delay Integration (TDI) sensor technology for extremely fast and sensitive film scans
- flashscan8.us -US/Canadian Distributor of MWA Nova 16 & 35mm SD and 8/Super8/9.5mm, 16/35mm HD telecines and other products for archival, production and volume film transfer.
- Lasergraphics - Film scanner manufacturer
- MWA Nova - Manufacturer of 16 & 35mm SD and 8/Super8/9.5mm and 16/35mmHD telecines and scanning systems for archival, production and volume film transfer
- Tobin Cinema Systems Inc. - Tobin Cinema Systems Inc. - Film-Video / DVD Transfer (Telecine) Equipment Specialist\
- Building a Telecine Machine
- OldBoys web site early telecines
- http://www.homemoviedepot.com/ Home Movie Depot. Have fun with your memories