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Post by Udvarnoky on Mar 13, 2004 23:31:32 GMT -5
First of all....you have Bill Corbett's e-mail address?! MAN, that's cool!
Moving on...
I really don't see how e-mailing Corbett could possibly affect this situation. He was a performer and writer for the show, and had nothing to do with the technical aspects (unless he was uncredited). And assuming he did have something to do with the technical aspect of the show, he would have to know well the brightness/contrast of every episode, and somehow remember them five years later. Now, I'm sure Mr. Corbett is a bright guy, but being able to remember the brightness of a particular episode doesn't seem likely. And anyway, he was laid off along with all of the other crew members when the show was canceled, so he wouldn't have access to BBI's masters, would he?
Anyway, my statement wasn't meant to have you e-mail crew members about the darkness issue, (though if you do, Barb is probably your best bet as she is still part of BBI and probably does have access to the tapes) but rather to point out that this questionable situation isn't really enough to have Rhino replace discs.
EDIT: Oh yeah, you mentioned something about the possibility of the theater segments being darker but not the host segments. I was referring to the possibility of the entire episode being darker. It could have been an intentional choice.
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Post by otrfan on Mar 14, 2004 2:58:12 GMT -5
So what about the rest of you, is the (Merlin) DVD so dark you can't see the seats? This is a brand new pic of "Merlin's..." on dvd with the brightness turned ALL the way up and the contrast turned ALL the way up and you STILL can barely make out M&TB.
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Post by mightyjack on Mar 14, 2004 3:52:22 GMT -5
That's uncalled for. Seriously.
Okay, I'm a Kurosawa fan. And lets say Rhino gets the rights to his flicks and puts out a set.
Only the synopsis for "Yojimbo" is on the back of the "Seven Samurai" disc. And there are scenes where you can hardly see whats going on in the movie. You turn up the contrast etc, but that only gives you a washed out, yet still muddy looking picture.
Also, there's a few seconds at the end of the move that are missing. It's no big deal to the story, just a Samurai riding off into the sunset. Never-the-less it feels as if a masterpiece has been defaced.
What would you think of a company that did that? Would you question their professionalism? Their quality control? (Yes mistakes happen, but isn't there a proof-reader who goes over every inch of typography? My experience with the music industry and the work that goes into every inch of the product, says that this should be true with the makers of DVDs as well. Just as someone took my glass master CD and put it through a mix so that the sound is clean and balanced... I would imagine the TV & Motion picture industry applies those same standards? There has to be someone at Rhino who works on the masters BBI sends them.).
Criterion doesn't make these kind of mistakes. They put out a quality product and give maxamum effort to make sure their customers get the best for their money. They give that kind of attention even for a B Movie like "Fiend Without A Face".
You make sure that the print is intact and is of good quality. You make sure the packaging is accurate. The fact that Rhino makes these mistakes on a steady basis doesn't say a lot about them as a serious and responsible business.
I thank them for releasing the DVDs. But being gratefull doesn't mean I should look the other way when they do shoddy work.
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TomServo69
Moderator Emeritus
Gone but not Forgotten
Nothing ever changes........
Posts: 5,467
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Post by TomServo69 on Mar 14, 2004 4:18:55 GMT -5
Yeah, I tend to agree. All the mistakes that they make on seemingly every one of the MST3K releases is kind of ridiculous. I mean, they expect us to go out, pay 40-50 dollars each for these box sets and get poor quality? It sort of shows how little they care about us, not only as fans, but as consumers. They should pay a little more attention to the products because, hey, if they do this bad on one thing, who's to say they wouldn't do it with other things. And that alienates the consumer. Us fans should speak up and address these problems. That's why they have websites and mailing addresses.
Agree? Disagree? Suggestions?
Servo
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Post by Ator on Mar 14, 2004 4:24:17 GMT -5
I definitely agree. I'll send them a stern, but fair, e-mail.
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Post by Ator on Mar 14, 2004 4:45:23 GMT -5
Alright, i've sent the e-mail. Here it is: Hello,
I recently purchased the Volume 5 DVD collection of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Being the MST3K that I am, I immediately popped Disc 2, Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders, into my computer's DVD-ROM drive. Before even closing the tray, I noticed something on the disc: "B&W/ 92mins". The movie featured in this particular episode is in color! No problem, I thought to myself, little mistakes are bound to happen. I decided to take a look at the back cover of the collection. The names listed in the starring part are for episode #1009 "Hamlet"! The correct episode number is #1003. Another little mistake. OK, so I pop in the DVD, and I am impressed (as usual) with the excellent picture and sound quality. So, I then watch the interview, which was also informative, very funny, and a great length.
Now, the biggest problem. When I watch the feature, the picture is really dark! So dark, that when the screen is black during the movie, I can't even see the seats! It also gets difficult at times (since the movie itself is dark to begin with) that I have to turn up the brightness and contrast so I can see clearly, but this causes the picture quality to drop. I'm not too sure how the DVD transfer works, and if the picture was like this on the original master copy, but if this could be fixed, that would be fantastic.
One more thing: you have the price listed on the DVD/Video main screen that the collection is $19.99! Clicking on the link shows that the price is actually $59.99. This should obviously be fixed because $19.99 is extremely low, and will probably lead future customers away.
I've been buying your VHS and DVD releases of MST3K ever since it started, and have been very satisfied. However, while these small slip-ups seem trivial, they will still upset some of the more irritable MSTies, which probably already have and will continue contacting you.
Thank you for your time, and whip that quality-control manager into shape!
Sincerely, Christian Tarr MST3K Fan Club member #74776
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Post by mightyjack on Mar 14, 2004 13:35:48 GMT -5
Ator, nice letter. You make your point without going ballistic on them; writing in a calm, intellegent and respectful manner keeps a person from getting defensive and they are more apt to respond in kind.
Good job.
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Post by Ator on Mar 14, 2004 17:59:30 GMT -5
LOL, well it was a tad harsh. It still got the point across, and will probably get more done than mine will in this world today.
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Post by nightfalcawk on Mar 14, 2004 18:05:34 GMT -5
LOL, more people need to write hate mail to Rhino. Maybe if we threatend them, we might get more releases.
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Post by GizmonicInstitute on Mar 14, 2004 20:43:41 GMT -5
LOL, more people need to write hate mail to Rhino. Maybe if we threatend them, we might get more releases. Or they'll stop releasing episodes,either one...
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Post by Udvarnoky on Mar 15, 2004 17:14:07 GMT -5
I've bought tons of DVDs from other professional companies, and I have yet to have a stupid transfer If you've never seen a bad transfer, you can't have seen many DVDs.
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Post by nightfalcawk on Mar 15, 2004 18:33:55 GMT -5
I wish I had edonkey. Lucky guys.
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Post by nightfalcawk on Mar 15, 2004 20:19:58 GMT -5
You know, Rhino makes too many mistakes. I've bought tons of DVDs from other professional companies, and I have yet to have a stupid transfer, and the cases have all the right information. Rhino seems to screw up every DVD case, and now, they're screwing up transfers. If we dont let them know that they're dumb, who will? Whoa there, simmer down a bit. You're up here - l l l l \l/ Go down here.
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Post by Udvarnoky on Mar 16, 2004 11:09:28 GMT -5
I take that back. I had a copy of Saving Private Ryan, which was a bad copy, however, I took it back, got a new one, and it works fine. Transfer-wise, even cult films like The Evil Dead all look fine to me. Even the tansfer for the uncut Manos. So you've never had a transfer with obtrusive amounts off digital grain, edge enhancement, pixellation, video noise, shaky definition, unnatural softness, incorrect 3:2 pulldown flags, shimmering, aliasing, unstable blacks, or bad compression? There are a lot of bad things that can happen in a digital transfer, and darkness isn't one of them. I refuse to believe that out of your 200 DVDs, every single one of them sports a perfect transfer (and I'm not talking about the source material, either).
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Post by nightfalcawk on Mar 16, 2004 15:43:24 GMT -5
So you've never had a transfer with obtrusive amounts off digital grain, edge enhancement, pixellation, video noise, shaky definition, unnatural softness, incorrect 3:2 pulldown flags, shimmering, aliasing, unstable blacks, or bad compression? There are a lot of bad things that can happen in a digital transfer, and darkness isn't one of them. I refuse to believe that out of your 200 DVDs, every single one of them sports a perfect transfer (and I'm not talking about the source material, either). What did you just say?
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