Seinfeld Now in Real HD on TBS

I never, ever thought it would happen, but according to Engadget HD and the AVSForum, the long-awaited SD to HD conversion for Seinfeld has been finished.

As Elaine would say, “GET OUT!”

No, it’s true. And I’m not talking about the fake stretch-o-vision HD stuff that TBS loves to show us.

Sony has spent mega dollars to go back to the show’s original film and convert it all to a 16:9, high-definition format.

Now, before I get grief from experts out there who will tell us that the show was filmed in a 4:3 ratio and therefore impossible to covert to HD, that is partially true and also partially not. Some scenes were shpt with a wider lens and just cropped to 4:3 for old televisions, while others were filmed in your normal 4:3 ratio.

But Sony has apparently gone through each episode and every scene to painstakingly crop everything to fit in the 16:9 format. That means many scenes will have stuff cut off at the bottom and top that you may have been able to see on the DVD or television repeats.

Here are some samples of what I mean from the AVSForum.

4:3

16:9

As you can clearly see, the second photo has whacked off a bunch from the bottom. I’m sure it just depends on what is important to show in every scene, but it may end up being more of a bottom chop than a top.

Either way, it doesn’t bother me much. The sets on Seinfeld aren’t really why you watch the show.

I haven’t watched an episode yet myself, but I have two being recorded this afternoon and will check it out later on. It’s on TBS HD and hopefully you get that station by now.

What do you guys think? Are you as excited as I am about this news?

[EngadgetHD, AVSForum]