eli5 : Why are some TV shows from 20+ years ago available to stream in HD and widescreen when SD was normal at the time?
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SD was the norm for *broadcasting*, a lot of tapes were still in a better format.
So if they have a copy of the originals they can just reconvert it to digital from there to get a better version.
Older shows were shot on film. The film they used can be re-scanned into about 4K quality. The original scans to digital were only 480p because that was the best quality at the time (DVD).
Now, before the full switch to digital cameras and digital storage cards, some shows were shot on tape. These sadly cannot be natively upscaled. This is why Seinfeld can be in 4K, but The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is limited to 480p.
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