UK DVD release

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AndyThomas
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UK DVD release

Post by AndyThomas »

Well, my name and a thank you to everyone here is on the credits on the DVD and whilst it isn't obvious, I did have a fair amount of input if only from a consistency point of view in the text etc. I did have the chance to go down to the studio to see what was what, but my priority is my little one at the moment, so... I'm just quite content that the DVD set is out there and I hope it's bringing back good memories for people.
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Crash
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UK DVD release

Post by Crash »

Yes, that's very true. They didn't have to do that. I think they've made a very fair job of the DVD set and I told them as much as well.I do think though that, had it been me in their situation, I would have signed onto the forum here and got suck-in that way rather than dealing with the fans almost at arms length. I honestly think they woulda got more sales that way.
Dream big and bold and daring.
jamesaevans
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UK DVD release

Post by jamesaevans »


(Shane @ Feb. 25 2009,17:01)QUOTEThought I'd do a quick compare and contrast.Star Fleet remastered DVD screen-grab:X Bomber DVD screen-grab:Hi Shane,Thank you for posting these comparison screen captures, I think it shows that Japanese DVDs are sharper and have more details than the UK release.  Any chance you could post a few more, perhaps a couple of scenes in space and a couple of close up shots of the crew inside x-bomber.The opening and closing credits on the UK DVDs are rather poor quality, but the actual episodes themselves are very watchable.  It's disappointing that a couple of years after the Japanese DVDs got releases we have a release in the UK with inferior image quality, but I'm just happy we have an official DVD release at last.   It's shame the Fabulous Films did just work with the company which released the Japanese DVDs and just apply the UK sound track.  They could have also included subtitles for the Japanese sound track which I'm sure would have been interest to see how the two versions of the series compared.  There would have been cost and licensing involved for sure, but I can't believe that it would have cost any more than paying to have the whole series re-mastered.James
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Crash
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UK DVD release

Post by Crash »

Yeah, it woulda probably earned them some more reasonable reviews too.in the age of free HD television people don't expect to pay £30 for a fuzzy standard definition picture.
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Lina Inverse 2k
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UK DVD release

Post by Lina Inverse 2k »

For those who haven’t yet seen the Japanese DVDs. Don’t go praising them too far. They have their own problems. The image may be sharp but there is a bluish tint. The negative has a lot more dirt & has film splice repairs made to it. They most certainly are not remastered.The reason they look so good clarity wise in comparison is that they are in the native NTSC resolution. In the conversion to PAL, resolution is always lost. So even if the Japanese DVDs were used for the picture, they just wouldn’t look as good.
Happosai
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UK DVD release

Post by Happosai »


(Lina Inverse 2k @ Feb. 28 2009,17:24)QUOTEThe reason they look so good clarity wise in comparison is that they are in the native NTSC resolution. In the conversion to PAL, resolution is always lost. So even if the Japanese DVDs were used for the picture, they just wouldn’t look as good.Actually, that's not quite right, as PAL video has a higher vertical resolution (576 lines) than NTSC (480 lines), so frame resolution wise, you actually have the same amount of picture information (vertically framed with black bars) or gain more picture data (via interpolation), not lose it in the conversion process. Also, if the PAL version was taken directly from the original film masters, rather than converted from a NTSC video, then, in theory, the PAL version should be of higher resolution than the NTSC version.However, the difference in frame rates between PAL and NTSC (and film) introduces temporal issues. These could even cause problems matching up the PAL audio to the NTSC video, as one way of compensating for the difference in frame rates between film (24fps) and PAL (25fps) video is to play the film faster.[Happosai]



djdust
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UK DVD release

Post by djdust »


(Happosai @ Mar. 02 2009,13:05)QUOTEHowever, the difference in frame rates between PAL and NTSC (and film) introduces temporal issues. These could even cause problems matching up the PAL audio to the NTSC video, as one way of compensating for the difference in frame rates between film (24fps) and PAL (25fps) video is to play the film faster.Quite right - NTSC is a bit slower than PAL but luckily it's a pretty imperceptible difference - in my initial experiments with sync'ing the UK soundtrack to the Japanese DVDs, I had to stretch (i.e. slow down) the sound...



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Lina Inverse 2k
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UK DVD release

Post by Lina Inverse 2k »

Hi Happosai,You’re quite correct in terms of a framed picture with black bars at 480 lines, resolution will not be lost. The image will actually appear brighter as it’s squashed.However, if the image is up-converted to 576 lines, you are attempting to fill 96 lines with nonexistent data. The image has to be manipulated to fill that gap in someway & its here the resolution takes a hit.I know this as a friend of mine used to convert NTSC to PAL professionally. He mentioned it to me about the process reducing the resolution & softening/blurring the image. It probably explains why the Star Fleet masters have that washed out look to them.Cheers,Graham.
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UK DVD release

Post by Shane »


(jamesaevans @ Feb. 28 2009,11:01)QUOTE[quote=Shane,Feb. 25 2009,17:01]Hi Shane,Thank you for posting these comparison screen captures, I think it shows that Japanese DVDs are sharper and have more details than the UK release.  Any chance you could post a few more, perhaps a couple of scenes in space and a couple of close up shots of the crew inside x-bomber.Yep, my pleasure. Here are four more images taken from the Japanese DVD. These are all from episode 4.[IMG]http://img244.imageshack.us/img244....MG][IMG]http://img244.imageshack.us/img244....MG][IMG]http://img131.imageshack.us/img131....MG][IMG]http://img244.imageshack.us/img244....MG]I still don't own the new Star Fleet set, so if someone wants to post the equivalent Star Fleet grabs for each shot - be my guest.The Japanese DVD does have a bluish tint to it, although I think this is just it's natural look, rather than degradation. however it does suffer from the appearance of dirt and scratches on the film from time to time. It is MUCH more detailed though, and although the film had not been cleaned up for it's Laser Disc release or subsequent DVD release, it still looks very good indeed.Star Fleet probably has the advantage of having made new masters of the X Bomber footage back in the early 80s when the film was in a much better condition. The downside is that the initial conversion degraded the image and gave it a more soft focus, less detailed, washed-out look. Now over time these new masters have become degraded, and so the need for some re-mastering jiggery pokery. Also the word re-mastering can be quite a broad term. Taking old footage and just encoding it into a digital format is classed as remastering by some companies, whereas others actually try to do something positive with the source material, such as sharpening the image and changing color-values. Other companies such as Warner and in particular their treatment of the recent Blade Runner release work a lot harder, and have the resources to seemingly do miracles with old masters. The new version of Blade Runner is what I term a proper re-master, completely restored footage re-mastered with a crystal-clear sound-mix. Star Fleet was never going to get that kind of treatment.In a world of limitless possibilities the Japanese footage would be completely restored frame by frame with a stunning new 5.1 UK-style sound-mix by Paul Bliss.I can dream can't I?



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jack18
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UK DVD release

Post by jack18 »

ahone of my favourite episodes of the seriesAndrew
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