Malcolm in the Middle on Sky1 in HD widescreen?

Just a question, how does MITM air all seasons in HD Widescreen on SKY1? They don't do that in the US.

How did sky1 put all seasons of Malcolm on tv in HD widescreen? was it upscaled? how did they do it with out cutting out the credits or the inscreen credits at the bottom such as: "Directed by:Ken Kwapis"? Someone from uk plz answer!
 
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tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
Unlike the US, UK TV networks air Malcolm in the Middle unedited (uncut) in full. They don't cut out extra scenes for adverts.

They are able to air all episodes in widescreen because the series was recorded in widescreen but cropped to 4:3 for many broadcast stations. However they don't air all episodes in HD. From what I know 6/7 are in HD. I'm not sure about earlier.

(deweyinthemiddle please don't make multiple threads about the same thing!)
 
I have compared Widescreen gallery stills with stills from Nick at Nite and it turns out that Sky1 isn't upscaling Malcolm! It's using the original widescreen film!:D I can tell by seeing where the 4:3 scene still cuts off at a half lamp in the boy's room on the right side, but in the Sky1 stills, the lamp is completely shown in the scene, plus part of the wall! They could use the widescreen film for a Blu-ray release.
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
Don't confuse "widescreen" and "upscaling" you can have standard definition and still be widescreen.

Malcolm was shot on film, in widescreen. However when you shoot on film you then convert "scan" the film for broadcasting. Currently Malcolm has only ever been broadcast in HD for seasons 6 and 7. We can assume then that seasons 1-5 where "scanned" at standard def widescreen. Broadcasters then have a choice to show it widescreen or crop it for 4:3.

Sky1 take the standard def widescreen season 1-5 and upscale for their HD channel.

Assuming they still have the original film (which I'd be shocked if they didn't) Fox could re-scan seasons 1-5 into HD. However scanning film costs a lot of money and time.
 
Oh OK, but I'm pretty sure that Season 5 was in HD as well, but anyway there was an article about Malcolm technically being in HD being shot with a Panavision camera, but you're right, it was scanned and compressed for broadcast and most channels did air the cropped versions. Although, technically, I'm pretty sure that if Fox re-scanned the Film they could make it 720p/1080i. the original film was scanned, converted, and compressed for broadcast, but was the original film in 720p probably was right?
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
Yes, as I said, they could re-scan the film. But that costs a load of money and time.

The film they used could be scanned at greater than 1080p resolution.
 
Wow Really? i had no idea! But, they probably wont re-scan it but thanks for your comments, one more thing. Are the Widecreen episodes better quality the US syndicated episodes? Cause it sure does seem like it when i watch a malcolm that has been recorded off sky1.
 
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