Downton Abbey Season Five Blu-Ray Defect?

Strangest thing I've ever seen: episode 8 of this set plays back with frequent abrupt cuts in and out of various scenes, often so jarring that they're comical. I can't imagine this is a deliberate technique. Has anyone else noticed this?

 

I watched Episode 8 last night and didn't see any cuts. I'll check again, though. Any examples?

 

Sounds like a problem

with the disc.

 

No problems here. The final episodes all played fine - but I've yet to check the earlier episodes that aired on PBS. Picture and sound are magnificent compared to the supposed HD on PBS.

Harry

 

My biggest problem with PBS broadcast of this is the crushed blacks. How are the blacks on the Blu?

 

No crushed blacks on DirecTV, but KOCE sometimes seems to have massive amounts of compression, causing a very soft picture. Not crushed per se, just soft. How's your monitor calibrated?

 

Perfectly. Pioneer Kuro.
I guess that might be difference between Direct and Comcast. No issue with softness of image but blacks terrible on this particular program only.

 

It's always possible that the local station bumped a knob somewhere. I would check color bars and look at the PLUGE pulse:

 

Again monitor calibrated perfectly. This program only. SF Bay Area.

 

Past seasons have had crushed blacks even on the BD. Not as bad as the broadcast, but the issue is still there. This show could do so much better. Of course, next season is the last, so I guess it's too late to change that.

 

Bump the blacks up a skosh and see how it looks. I'd have to see the video on a scope to know for sure if the blacks are really crushed, vs. just being way down. Again, I acknowledged it's very possible for any TV station to bump the knob as the signal goes out to air -- but everything they show would be similarly crushed, including bumpers, graphics, promos, and other shows.

 

Yes - I watch that show on a different mode with brightness level raised to compensate. It's odd because all the other PBS shows look fine

 

Again: this is a problem with the show itself. Read reviews for previous seasons' BD release. It's inherent in the material because they cheap out on cinematography and/or video mastering.

 

I dunno. I've been a mastering engineer for 35 years and the look of Downton doesn't bother me, nor has it looked dark. But I've only watched digital files or satellite broadcasts. I suspect our tastes and expectations are different, or our monitors are different.

 

Blu-ray.com review quotes:

I watched seasons three and four on BD and agree, the blacks are crushed at times, mostly in the downstairs scenes. Other movies/shows look just fine on my set. ITV just cheaps out on or doesn't give a crap about proper lighting or video mastering.

 

They're using the term wrong. I just hate it when fans make up technical terms when correct words and phrases for the same problem have existed for decades. The correct term is "crushed blacks." On the opposite end, we have "clipped whites."

I watched the newest episode of Downton Abbey last night, and I thought it was one of the best-looking shows ever. About the only thing that bothered me is that I can see the 25fps -> 29.97fps motion artifacts, but it's so subtle I think 99% of the viewing audience will never notice it. The downstairs scenes are deliberately darker, but the reviewers have to consider that the details may be getting crushed because the filmmakers may have deliberately wanted them to be crushed.

I'd have to see scope photos to verify what they're talking about. This is the highest-rated show they have (worldwide), and believe me, they're not cheaping out on it. If I had the Blu-ray, I could check it and see what the story is.

 

Just watched the latest episode. It's a shame to me that this show isn't shot on film. It would help give it the period texture it needs. I have to reduce my contrast in half and bump up the brightness a few notches to try and approximate a film look but it's a tough go. I'm baffled as to why it looks so cheaply shot when it's such a massive hit.

 

I just got a new TV so am paying great attention to this stuff. The flesh tones looked purplish from my cable provider, and I kept trying to color-adjust it to look normal, but couldn't. Because the DVR-ing cut off ten minutes early, I watched the last ten minutes on the PBS app on Roku. I was amazed at how much truer the color was, via Roku. And the "dark" scenes looked a bit brighter. There's clearly a problem with the transmission here.

 

One limitation might be that PBS -HD is one of the 720p channels, as opposed to the Blu-ray's 1080p. Also, many PBS stations steal a little bandwidth from their main HD channel to run the three subchannels. The purpleish hues in the flesh tones and overall muted colors, I believe, are a stylistic choice by the powers that be to give the show that "period" look.

Harry

 

I believe you are right insofar as the deliberate choice of that coloration -- I still see it to some extent via Roku, but it seems less extreme than from the local PBS transmission.