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"Is it possible to upgrade old movies to high definition (HD) quality?"

Old films can be converted to HD through a process called film scanning and restoration, involving scanning the original film reels frame by frame at high resolutions, such as 2K or 4K.

The resolution of 35mm film, commonly used for old movies, is equivalent to around 20 megapixels or greater.

The lesser-used 65mm film has roughly double the potential resolution of 35mm film, which could be converted into a 30-40 megapixel image.

The scanned footage is cleaned up and restored using digital tools to remove defects, such as dirt, scratches, and tears.

Film restoration and conversion to HD can be expensive and time-consuming, but it allows old films to be preserved and presented in a modern format.

Some film studios and archives specialize in film restoration and conversion to HD, such as the Criterion Collection and the Academy Film Archive.

Both analog and digital technologies are used in the restoration process, and the resulting HD transfers can be distributed on Blu-ray discs, streaming platforms, and other digital formats.

35mm film can be considered equivalent to around 1620 megapixels, depending on the quality of the film.

If you blow up an image from film to 100x the size, the lines will look the same, just blurrier.

Old movies can be upscaled to 4K using software such as AVCLabs Video Enhancer AI, but the file size needs to be small enough for the software to process.

Lack of HD video decades ago doesn't mean film from decades ago wouldn't benefit from an HD transfer, as HD collects more data and details, making clearer copies of old films possible.

Even older movies can be remastered as HDR (High Dynamic Range) using software like DaVinci Resolve, and film shot in large format can be scanned at 8K for restoration.

If 70mm celluloid film is converted into digital, it would be equivalent to around 13K resolution.

Old movies look better in 4K, as film has more detail to pull from, and most 4K versions of old movies are newer restorations where the original film was re-scanned in 4K and then digitally restored.

The process of encoding old movies has some extra features, such as removing defects and noise, to improve the overall quality of the restored film.

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