Super 8 Sound Inc. - Desktop Video Group

Super 8 Video
How Good Is Super 8 on TV?
Super 8 image quality — assuming use of the finest resolution
fil m available in the Super 8 format, Kodachrome 40, and
assuming camera lenses of the highest optical quality available
— can achieve 100 lines per mm resolution. The Super
8 frame is 4.2mm high by 5.7mm wide, giving a horizontal
resolution in excess of 500 lines, which is comparable to the
finest 2" quad videotape equipment and to broadcast-standard
resolution. By comparison, the 3/4" videocassette
( U-matic) recorder has a horizontal resolution of only 240
li nes, and the home video format of the future — Videodisc —
is expected to have only 300 lines resolution.
There is of course a distinctive change in the video image
quality whenever the original medium is film, rather than
video camera or video tape. Characteristic differences between
film and video in their dynamic contrast range, and
associated color shifts, produce the familiar "film" look, as
compared to the "live video camera" look. But this look
of film is the same whether the original film is 16mm or
Super 8. With a crisp Super 8 original, with image enhancement
as is generally used for 16mm film transfers, and with
electronic color correction, it is extremely difficult to distinguish
Super 8 from 16mm in off-the-monitor tests reported
in the SMPTE Journal.
Super 8 Television Film Apertures and Safe Areas
Kodak Supermatic
Film Videoplayers
The Kodak Super 8 Film Videoplayer replaces an entire conventional
telecine film chain — including telecine projector,
optical imaging system, and color video camera — at a price
about one-tenth the lowest-cost 16mm film chain. It does
this with a device known as a flying-spot-scanner.
The Videoplayer moves Super 8 film continuously (no intermittent
motion) past an aerial image of a small TV screen.
The screen has no picture on it, just a gray raster-scanning
pattern. The image of the screen is the same size as a Super
8 picture frame, and falls directly on the film. If the image
could be seen in micro second intervals, it would appear to
be a small spot (the image of the spot where the electron
beam falls on the TV tube phosphor), raster scanning back
and forth across the Super 8 frame. Three photomultiplier
detector tubes (Red, Green, Blue) on the other side of the
fil m measure the color of the spot from moment to moment
and convert the result into a full NTSC standard composite
color signal. There is no color camera.
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Super 8 Sound, Inc.
95 Harvey Street. Cambridge. Mass. 02140
S8S# VP1, S8SR, K V1910
The Kodak Videoplayer is an enormous engineering breakthrough
that expands the options of a Super 8 film producer
to include video distribution of his films as well as normal
projection. Super8 Sound was selected by Kodak to be in
the first group of dealers for the Kodak Videoplayer, and
we are franchsied to sell the Videoplayer nationwide. A
combination of a Super8 Sound film production system and
a Kodak Videoplayer is the lowest cost independent video
production system with color, editability, and extreme location
portability.
Kodak Film Videoplayer VP-1
The VP-1 accepts Super 8 film, color or black/white, sound
or silent, on standard Super 8 reels or automatic-loading
Supermatic cassettes (400 ft. maximum — 20 minutes). It
operates at 24fps or 18fps, and converts the Super 8 picture
fil m into a standard color television signal that can be displayed
on an ordinary color television receiver or a color
monitor. Sound is derived from the magnetic edge stripe of
a single-system film, or from Super 8 fullcoat magnetic film
being played back in synchronism on a double-system sync
recorder (Super8 Sound Recorder).
Kodak Videoplayer controls include still frame capability,
framing adjustment for still and running frame, a vertical
steadiness adjustment, blue/red tint control, and focus.
RF signal outputs are channels 2 or 3. A switch is provided
to select between the Videoplayer or the VHF antenna of
an ordinary color TV set. Video signal output is a fully interlaced
(525 lines) NTSC composite video, with a separate
audio. These signals are suitable for display on a color TV
monitor, or recording on a video-tape recorder.
Kodak Film Videoplayer VP-X
The VP-X has the same specifications as the VP-1 except that
it has no RF-modulated output, and it is equipped to accept
external synchronization for use in broadcast situations, or
where a large video system is run on system-wide "station
sync". The external sync inputs include burst flag, composite
blanking, vertical drive, composite sync, horizontal drive, and
color sub-carrier (BNC connectors). The outputs are composite
video 1V peak-to-peak across 75 ohms (BNC connector),
and a 600-ohm unbalanced audio signal (RCA phono jack).
Signal/rms noise ratio is greater than 37dB. Horizontal
resolution is 240 lines — color. No time-base correction is
required.