I can understand how movies can be released at higher resolutions a short time after original release, like a couple years. But I’ve seen some movies get released a whole decade later in *MUCH* higher quality than the original release. Like, how does something released in the 90’s or 2000’s get a 4k UltraHD release now?
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Because it was originally shot on film which doesn’t really have a resolution, per se. [This is a really good explanation.](https://youtu.be/rVpABCxiDaU)
>I’ve seen some movies get released a whole decade later in *MUCH* higher quality than the original release.
* Here it seems you are forgetting that the actual “original release” for movies is in a proper theater.
* Movie theaters have been using higher quality projection and sound reproduction than you could get at home *for decades*.
* What’s happening is that the quality of home viewing for movies is slowly catching up with movie theaters (at least in terms of visual quality).
* So the original, high quality capture of the film is simply being converted to a higher quality home format that it previously was.
* Yes this even includes movies shot on 35mm or 70 mm file from *decades* ago.
They just re-scan the physical tapes with each frame on them with a scanner that scans at a 4K resolution.
Movies used to be shot on film. This was because film grains were much smaller and allowed for much better quality pictures then the pixels in a digital camera. It is only very recently that movies have started shooting digital. So most movies that have every been made have been captured in equal or better quality then modern 4K resolution movies. To release these in 4K you just need to scan the original rolls of film and do some light touch up.
They were filmed in a better resolution than was affordable to distribute widely at the time. The original still exists and can be duplicated with today’s technology now.
So, film stock, what old movie cameras used, was actually very high definition in how it recorded the action. We just didn’t have the technology at the time to display it in the full resolution. So if an old movie’s original film reels are still intact, they can be scanned by a computer and all of that high definition resolution can now be used.
Because they were recorded on film and film doesn’t really have a resolution. Film is analog. You can always go back to the original film to get a high resolution version.
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