When Bad DVD's Happen to Great Films

I agree with your assessment that the Criterion has better color timing.

 

Hi Robert,
I forgot to add...On the TZ DVD's...IIRC, Panasonic only mastered the early releases. Image took over after the first 9? Starting with Volume 28 they added a cool feature...Isolated Music Soundtrack! Really neato!

 

Rudy, I agree. My video system is not as good as my audio system, so maybe I am missing the improvements, but mostly the reissues just add more extras. Until I retire (assuming I make it to retirement) I barely have time to watch the movies. I can only think of 6 or 8 DVD's that I actually watched some of the extras.

 

I very much enjoyed this article, and it reminded me of a recent engineer's comment about SACD. Something like 'It took them at least 10 years to get CD's right and I expect it will be about the same for SACD'. By the way, did you catch the difference in the amount of information there is in a motion picture versus what can be crammed onto a DVD? That's the kind of news that sends me to my local theatre to see a new movie rather than wait to 'own' it on DVD. I agree with Ken that we should hope, but not necessarily expect, that the studios will do the best they can with the existing technology and improve the quality as the technology and abilities of the engineers to exploit it advances. Owning a lot of poorly done discs is the price we pay to 'be the first one on the block' to have it, and there's no one to blame but ourselves in my opinion. I've got a library of several hundred laserdiscs that are a huge improvement over VHS but not as good as a typical DVD. What I learned from this experience was to get most of my movies from netflix, and if I saw something that was extraordinary I could buy it later. I don't think The Godfather set looks all that bad, by the way, and I'm not going to buy the new one. Don't get fooled again.

 

It says in the NYT article that a DVD can hold 17 gigs. Is that so? I had thought it was only half that. Jeff

 

A dual-layered (9gB) double-sided disc could conceivably hold that much info. Manufacturing a disc like that hasn't been easy though. Frankly, I prefer that the information be spread over two discs.

 

I see, double sided insofar as you need to flip it like a pancake. Jeff

 

Thanks, Chris ... interesting article ... I am just beginning to acquire DVDs ... I probably have 20 or so (including the new Looney Tunes DVD) ... haven't bought a DVD player yet but probably will before the 1st of the year ... I found the following very interesting:

Ain't technology grand ... has anyone seen or can anyone comment on Lowry's restored versions of "Casablanca" and/or "North By Northwest"?

 

This was an interesting article, and then you have the flip side........when a clown like John Landis goes to the transfer guys and tells them to DEGRADE the image on "Animal House" because it looked "too good".

Does anyone here doubt that a year from now, they will quietly reissue "Animal House" yet again, this time from the "Undegraded" Master, add some interviews, etc, and call it the "New Remastered Special Edition"?

I dont.

 

Although Michael has admitted that the UAV DVD of the first Over The Hill Gang movie is almost unwatchable, and I agree and Over The Hill Rides Again has a little bit better picture quality. What we need are DVDs of these movies taken from elements that Aaron Spelling should have, if he still has them.

 

I'm also beyond 500 DVDs. I just love this format. Even bought a portable DVD player for the car so I can enjoy a fine movie during down time.