World War II in HD on the History Channel--a Premiere

[Lord Vader]

Show: World War II HD
Date (or entire series): Beginning Nov. 15, 2009 for 5 nights
Recording Issue:
Identified Carriers:
Channel(s): The History Channel
Other Details: With never-before-seen footage; a miniseries premiere here

More info here (http://www.history.com/content/wwii-in-hd/?vid=HIS_Marketing_Horizon_20091105-WWII_FoxNews).

[DCSholtis]

Have my DVR set up for this.

[davemayo]

Thanks so much for the heads up. I will love this series.

One problem: My HR20-100 says that all 70 episodes are first run. It seemed to handle it ok when scheduling them to record the series, but I'm going to keep a close eye on it.

[hbkbiggestfan]

Thanks for the heads up here as well! Looking forward to this.

[Lord Vader]

Opening night was simply stunning! Every American ought to be required to watch this series so we NEVER forget just what was at stake in that war.

It was the largest war ever fought on this planet, the greatest battle of good versus evil ever waged. We owe it to those who served in the war to always remember their sacrifices and how they truly WERE the greatest generation.

We are what we are today because of who they were then, and for that, we owe a gratitude that we can never quantify.

[armophob]

Gonna record all of them and then veg out Saturday with them.

[Jimmy 440]

Excellent so far.

[davemayo]

Thanks so much for the heads up. I will love this series.

One problem: My HR20-100 says that all 70 episodes are first run. It seemed to handle it ok when scheduling them to record the series, but I'm going to keep a close eye on it.

I had to play around with the scheduled recordings because it was trying to record some episodes twice and others not at all. The first one being listed in the guide as a double episode was a problem for my STB.

[inflames72]

Opening night was simply stunning! Every American ought to be required to watch this series so we NEVER forget just what was at stake in that war.

It was the largest war ever fought on this planet, the greatest battle of good versus evil ever waged. We owe it to those who served in the war to always remember their sacrifices and how they truly WERE the greatest generation.

We are what we are today because of who they were then, and for that, we owe a gratitude that we can never quantify.

no question, I had no idea that Africa had some major battles, and for some reason, I thought Guadalcanal was Vietnam, shows how much I know, until now. Awesome, awesome series.

[Jimmy 440]

Africa had some pretty nasty battles.We got our butts kicked at Kasserine Pass,our real 1st engagement.The Brits had some heavy battles with the Afrika Corps at El Alamein.

[djlong]

This should be Required Viewing in high school history classes.

[Cholly]

I've made it a point to record the entire series on TiVo. At first, I thought it was a rebroadcast of Ken Burns' "The War", but I quickly realized that it would have been on PBS>

[paulman182]

This should be Required Viewing in high school history classes.

Uh oh, I was thinking about watching it until I saw this comment...

[djlong]

Why is that? It's not political at all - except for a couple of mentions of what America's mood was at a couple of points. I just think it's important that people know what happened. This is SO much more effective than words on a page.

[TBlazer07]

The series reruns in it's entirety this Saturday beginning at 10AM (Eastern).

[paulman182]

Why is that? It's not political at all - except for a couple of mentions of what America's mood was at a couple of points. I just think it's important that people know what happened. This is SO much more effective than words on a page.

I was kidding around a little, inferring that the show is as boring as our required viewing in high school. I've got them set to record.

One thing that does bother me on the few minutes I saw last night...yeah, it's fullscreen 16:9. Doesn't that mean they zoomed and cropped the original 4:3 footage, which eliminates some of the image, just to fill the screen?

[DogLover]

I was kidding around a little, inferring that the show is as boring as our required viewing in high school. I've got them set to record.

One thing that does bother me on the few minutes I saw last night...yeah, it's fullscreen 16:9. Doesn't that mean they zoomed and cropped the original 4:3 footage, which eliminates some of the image, just to fill the screen?

I would imagine that much of this was shot on film, which could have several aspect ratios, most of which we would consider widescreen.

[narrod]

no question, I had no idea that Africa had some major battles, and for some reason, I thought Guadalcanal was Vietnam, shows how much I know, until now. Awesome, awesome series.

Your kidding, right? How old are you?

[jeffshoaf]

no question, I had no idea that Africa had some major battles, and for some reason, I thought Guadalcanal was Vietnam, shows how much I know, until now. Awesome, awesome series.

What? Did you never see the Rat Patrol? :nono: They had a major battle in Africa in every episode!

[lwilli201]

I would imagine that much of this was shot on film, which could have several aspect ratios, most of which we would consider widescreen.

Combat photographers used 16mm movie cameras. Any thing any bigger would have been to cumbersome. I believe all filming was in B&W until after the Normandy invasion when some filming was in Color. I think there was a TV series with WWII color combat films.

[DogLover]

So what ratio would 16mm film shoot?

[Nick]

Standard 4:3 AR

[lwilli201]

So what ratio would 16mm film shoot?

Very good question, and a little more complicated than I thought. :eek2:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16_mm_film

[Nick]

Not complicated at all...

As I said previously, a standard 16mm frame has an aspect ration of 4:3 (1.33 to 1)

(Wiki: "The picture area of regular 16 mm has an aspect ratio (of) 1.33.")

[armophob]

Combat photographers used 16mm movie cameras. Any thing any bigger would have been to cumbersome. I believe all filming was in B&W until after the Normandy invasion when some filming was in Color. I think there was a TV series with WWII color combat films.

Does this mean this series has been Ted Turner style colorized? Not that I am prejudiced to it, just interested if the images I will be watching were black and white to start.

[lwilli201]

Not complicated at all...

As I said previously, a standard 16mm frame has an aspect ration of 4:3 (1.33 to 1)

(Wiki: "The picture area of regular 16 mm has an aspect ratio (of) 1.33.")

The Super 16mm film is 1.67 to 1, Ultra 16 mm is 1.85 to 1, but the format in question is undoubtedly 1.33.

[RaceTripper]

The Blu-ray and DVD are available for pre-order from Amazon. The Blu-ray is less than $23 on two disks.

[davemayo]

Does this mean this series has been Ted Turner style colorized? Not that I am prejudiced to it, just interested if the images I will be watching were black and white to start.

No, this was filmed in color originally. This footage was supposedly only found recently.

[davemayo]

The Blu-ray and DVD are available for pre-order from Amazon. The Blu-ray is less than $23 on two disks.

I plan on getting this (if not myself, then from Santa :D).