h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I didn't know you could remove blur as such.

Perhaps they went back to the original pre-blur film?

All I know is the effects look great on VHS, very disappointing on DVD.

<BB<

Thunderbirds springs to mind. That's fun to watch, but you do approach it in a different frame of mind.

In as many cases as possible, I think they are using original footage. Maybe sometimes, that material used is the pre-theatre-replication stage?

Finding out that the Martians weren't really flying will be very traumatic for me!

I'm old enough to remember when all TVs were black & white. When colour started coming in, I couldn't imagine why people would want to spend more to have one. Of course we did get one when the b&w broke & enjoyed having it, especially nature programmes.

If the story is good enough it doesn't matter if b&w, I see no special benefit in HD. I'd rather be able to hear the speech better, instead of having to put subtitles on or look up the synopsis to be sure of what's going on in a drama.

Industry needs a steady stream of new bells and whistles to keep selling their products.

[Sorry about the mixed metaphors -- bells and whistles might not float all that well in a stream]

"Industry needs a steady stream of new bells and whistles to keep selling their products."

I tend to agree that this is true with many products, including cameras and phones, where there are now virtually no qualitative improvements; just new gimmicky features. However with TV's, yes there needs to be new models to keep the manufacturers in a profitable business, but another goal with TV's, I believe, is to get to the stage, where the image is indistinguishable from looking out of a window onto a real scene.

With 8k TV's now being produced in some countries, I have heard anecdotally, that the 8K technology, in combination with high contrast HDR, gets pretty close to being this good.

Once TV's routinely replace one entire wall of your room, with an image so high resolution that you are fooled into thinking the room opens directly out onto whatever view you are watching, then I think the end-game will have been reached and TV technology will have peaked.

Then the adverts will come on and spoil the illusion

I already think that I'm looking at reality when I sit watching a movie in a theater. If I want the panoramic view, I know where to go -- i.e., a theater. If I want nothing between me and reality, it's out there if I just go out the door. If I want to be sheltered, I have my home. All the possibilities are already on tap, at a price ranging from nominal to free.