Call me Crazy, but something is VERY different here!

[CJBojangles]

I just caught my first glimpse of TPiR Season 35. Maybe I'm behind on something here, but the quality of the video is different. SOMETHING about how the show is being filmed is different. And I'm not crazy!

The studio isn't as bright, perhaps. OR, they might be using lenses that show focus on everything in the picture (Not just Bob and what's in the foreground - and I forget what this technique is called).

The show looked like this (Perhaps I could say it looks "More Live"?) during the Gameshow Marathon episodes as well.

Someone, anyone, tell me I'm not crazy! TPiR is looking more crisp than ever, and if anyone knows why, please fill me in!

[chnlsrfr4]

I believe they put some new cameras in the studio that are digital. Perhaps HD capable. I'm not entirely sure though.

[penny_ante]

you're right. i noticed last week as crazy contestants ran the stage, cameras sometimes appear on the air. they're new and black, instead of the dull grey they used to be. there seems to be an HD logo prominently displayed on them, too.

new camera (sans logo--obscured by bob's head)

see, it's a sleek black and very different.


old camera full frame

this one's the familiar dull grey.

i watch tpir on a very old television, or on very low res videotape, also on an old tv, so i can't tell for sure if there's any increase in picture quality. . . . i have noticed a difference in how certain games are shot, with new angles and whatnot. i don't know if that's due to different hardware capabilities or just directorial shifts.

[asd2001]

In the season premiere's intro, when they showed the shot of the audience right before Barker said "Welcome...", I was able to see Rich on camera.  This happened again on the intro for the 9/20 episode, but Rich was even more visible.  I'm tempted to say that it happened yet again on 9/26 episode, but I've already watched and erased that one, so I cannot verify.

BTW, at the moment that Rich is shown on camera, he is waving his hands up and down, and bowing his head up and down as well.  I can understand the motion with his hands (I'm guessing it's done to make sure that the audience is enthusiastic), but why does he need to move his head like that?

[Axl]

asd2001 wrote:
BTW, at the moment that Rich is shown on camera, he is waving his hands up and down, and bowing his head up and down as well.  I can understand the motion with his hands (I'm guessing it's done to make sure that the audience is enthusiastic), but why does he need to move his head like that?

I presumed that he was jokingly doing the "we're not worthy" bow to Bob.


By the way, the new cameras are HD-ready and started being used late in the last season.  TPIR still isn't being recorded in HD, but the cameramen may be having slight difficulty getting used to framing their old SD shots in an HD viewfinder.

[Patchy]

Sigh Shots are not HD or SD.

They are either Widescreen 16:9 or 4:3, trust me ive seen HD aired in 4:3, and SD in Widescreen is nearly universal in the UK.

Least here in the UK we have had a good nearly 10 years of filming shows in widescreen and now by 2010 all BBC shows will be HD.

[SteveGavazzi]

Patchy, given that Axl works in television, I feel quite safe in saying that he knows what he's talking about.

[Axl]

Thanks Steve, but he makes a fair point.  I was referring to the change in aspect ratio, which does not technically have to correspond to the picture's definition.


That said, 16:9 is the only aspect ratio used in the US (and by contemporary international standards) for HDTV, so I felt it was a reasonable shorthand so people would know what I was talking about.  Apparently, that vexes Patrick for some reason... (shrug)

[Patchy]

Hey I didnt relise you knew my name but thats cool

But im just a little pendantic, and considering UK and Aussie's PiR has been and is in Widescreen right now, the US show is lagging behind there.

I know FOX somtimes broadcasts a show in Widescreen but in Standard Def, ive read this has caused alot of problems with people there assocatied wide aspected ratios with HD.