Old movies in HD on iTunes?

It depends upon the quality and resolution of the original print.

They are true HD releases. Someone will come around with a better explanation but these are the basics.

JackieInCo said:

It depends upon the quality and resolution of the original print.

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That is correct. There are some that are remastered too.

I have purchased several of these. Obviously the old movie prints are not as good as modern ones so the iTunes HD versions of these movies are also not as good as those of recent ones. However, they are much better than the SD versions, which is why I keep buying them. I recently bought It Happened One Night (1934) in HD and it is great. There is no blu-ray version of this movie available.

Bokes said:

I have been searching for some older titles from the 90's.
None are available in the blu ray format, but iTunes is offering many of the titles as HD downloads (4-5gig files)

How is Apple creating the HD files of older titles?
Is it an honest HD transfer with noticeable quality?
Or just a Final Cut Pro up-Rez filtered file?

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Many times an HD version is mastered and released for broadcast on HD TV, independent of any Blu Ray release.

Bokes said:

....How is Apple creating the HD files of older titles?
Is it an honest HD transfer with noticeable quality?
Or just a Final Cut Pro up-Rez filtered file?

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Apple doesn't "create" HD versions. Apple receives the title from the studios. It is 100% up to the studios on what quality is released. Ideally the movie is from a 2K or 4K scan Master that was made from a quality early generation well preserved print.

Basically, anything that was filmed on a 35mm or wider film, gives decent results as BD-HD. Only material, that is not suited for HD conversion is the old videotaped material.
You could eg check Queen's Montreal concert as a prime example.

I purchased some old sci fi like blade runner, innerspace, alien and others like jaws, saving private ryan no complaints here they look smooth and almost like the blu ray version.

priitv8 said:

Basically, anything that was filmed on a 35mm or wider film, gives decent results as BD-HD...

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A little nit picking but 16mm film can also be scanned for HD and can achieve excellent results. Here is a list of a few, many of which have been presented in HD. There is no way to "define" resolution exactly on film since it's a chemical process.

Julien said:

There is no way to "define" resolution exactly on film since it's a chemical process.

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More like a physical property of the film emulsion (ie grain size). On the other hand, that same grain presents a white noise for MPEG-4 compressor, thus the hardest part to compress.

blu ray is just the media
there are software programs the studios use to clean and digitize the original prints and make HD quality digital masters out of them