Filmkorn

English translation: Film grain

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

German term or phrase:	Filmkorn
English translation:	Film grain
Entered by:	Nick Smith, BA (Hons.), Dipl. Uebers. (FH Koeln)

16:15 Jul 22, 2001

German to English translations [Non-PRO]
Tech/Engineering

German term or phrase: Filmkorn

text about a DVD encoder - dealing with converting family films into miniDV format - sentence is "Aus den Filmkorn werden Bytes" - is it grain/grainy film??
Any ideas?

Nick Smith, BA (Hons.), Dipl. Uebers. (FH Koeln) KudoZ activity Questions: 283 (4 open) (2 without valid answers) Answers: 34 United Kingdom
Local time: 20:13

film grain

Explanation:
Per Tillmann, FWB Hörfunk und Fernsehen, Filmkorn - film grain

Some examples (from more than 2,000):
While the picture is bright and colors are nicely saturated, there are a fair amount of visible compression artifacts. Look at the theater seats in the beginning of the film for the first of several examples. Occasionally some film grain is evident. The DVD isn’t unwatchable by any means, but the compression artifacts can be distracting.
www.dvdmon.com/indexnew.cfm?varArea=videoreview&keyReviewID...

The image is fairly sharp and steady with good color saturation and nice contrast. Black levels aren’t as deep as one would find on the latest Hollywood blockbusters but this is a fault of the source materials and not the DVD transfer process. Film grain is held to a minimum as well and there are only a handful of blemishes that mar the image. This is really as fine a transfer as one could reasonably expect for this type of film barring a full-scale restoration.
www.dvdreview.com/fullreviews/the_legend_of_drunken_master....

There a very few imperfections like film grain or dirt. DVD has made it possible to enjoy older movies without the distraction ...
www.dvdce.com/reviews/rosemarysbaby.htm

The most annoying drawback of this DVD version deals with the inherent problem DVD players have with grainy movies. Many scenes in "Eyes Wide Shut" are intended to be very grainy, but it appears that the level of grain has been reduced for the transfer to DVD. Overall, the image is far more solid than I recall from theatrical exhibition (and, yes, I'm accounting for the fact that any 35MM film projected onto a 60-foot movie screen will render more grain than that same 35MM image compressed onto a small TV screen). There are some moments when the level of grain is as noticeable as it should be, but compression glitches interfere with the natural flow of the grain movement. Check out the fleshtones during chapters 4, 19 and 20 – you can see how the DVD "hiccups" when it comes to reproducing coarse film grain: the grain appears solarized and looks distractingly splotchy.
www.mediascreen.com/ef/eyes_wide_shut_dvd_two.htm

The DVD has no signs of compression artefacts, film grain or of any other encoding problems. ...
www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/reviews/review.asp?Index=1335&User=6... -

HTH

Selected response from:

Ulrike Lieder (X)
Local time: 12:13

Grading comment

Thanks very much
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

na +4

film grain

Ulrike Lieder (X)

grainy film versus film grain

Dan McCrosky (X)

Answers

45 mins peer agreement (net): +4

film grain

Ulrike Lieder (X)
Local time: 12:13
Native speaker of: German
PRO pts in pair: 3525

Grading comment

Thanks very much

7 hrs

grainy film versus film grain

Explanation:
Ulrike is absolutely right with her answer. I believe that's where the points should go.

grainy film versus film grain

You mentioned "grainy film". This is just a little background on film grain in general and the difference between "film grain" and "grainy film". All old-fashioned silver-halide based films (B&W and color) have "film grain", be it fine, medium, or coarse. The degree of coarseness of this grain varies with the light sensitivity and processing of the film. The more light sensitivity (referred to as "high-speed" film) or the rougher the processing, the larger the resulting clumps of silver (B&W film) or color dye (color film). If the grain is coarse, people refer to it as "grainy film" and prints made from it as "grainy prints". Some photos and movie films are made intentionally grainy (see Ulrike's reference to "Eyes Wide Shut") for the effect or mood.

In general, only high-speed films, prints made from high-speed films, or grainy movie film cause problems for DVD (or any other digital form, a scanner for example) copying because with fine-grained originals, the film grain is smaller than the pixels anyway. With digital copies of fine-grained originals, if we see anything, we see the pixels not the film grain.

With coarse-grained or highly enlarged originals, the grain of the film might approach or maybe even exceed pixel size. Then the splotchy, blotchy digital copy (example DVD) appearance mentioned in Ulrike's reference results because smooth transitions between light and dark or between various colored areas of the picture are no longer possible. In some parts of the picture, the coarseness of the pixels makes the coarseness of the original grain even worse, resulting in a sort of solarized, posterized, or comic-strip effect.

"Grainy film" and digital copies thereof might be desirable for some artistic works, but normally not for the reproduction of vacation films or photos. For this reason, the ability to handle the relative graininess of the original is considered a positive feature of DVD production devices.

HTH

Dan

Dan McCrosky (X)
Local time: 21:13
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 1541

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