How is the quality on your DVD's???

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How is the quality on your DVD's???

Post by krfan1 » Wed Sep 29, 2004 1:47 pm

I ask this because while the quality is better than the Columbia House tapes (at least 'TDR'), it doesn't seem "GREAT!!" or "WOW" like I keep seeing on the Net.

Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that I was able to purchase one season of KR for the price of ONE CH tape.

Do you think they coud've spent more time cleaning up the episodes? Through most of an episode, it has some snow on the reel, but then it will go picture perfect for a little bit, then back to some snow? Is this happening on all DVDs or just mine? If someone wants, my DVD software can do screencaptures, so if someone wanted me to snap a frame from a particular scene in an episode, I can.

If you don't think that they could've cleaned up the video any better, do you think KR was released since the film was degrading and they had to do it now or never???

Please, discuss! I have been really curious about this.

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Post by R.J.1984 » Wed Sep 29, 2004 5:01 pm

My Dvd's don't have any problem with snowy pictures. As for the movie - I actually think that they did a great job. I especially love the actress who played Shaun McCormick. Damn - she sure is sexy.(Wolf Howl and wistle).

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Post by Lost Knight » Wed Sep 29, 2004 6:49 pm

krfan1- I know exactly what you mean. I've noticed this too, on some episodes in certain shots there are pops and quirks, or "snow" on the screen. Though ever so slight, if you're looking for these things, you will see them. The quality of the DVDs is, however, very good despite these minor flaws. In the "Knight Of the Phoenix" movie especially, I notice there will be one crystal clear shot, then it will cut to the next shot that looks like crap, and back to the clear shot for a few scenes. I think I remember this during the scenes in the mansion. Also, other split-second shots show vertical lines across the screen (one of the last scenes where Maggie visits Michael in the hospital).

I've thought the exact same question as you have, my guess would be that possibly a deadline had to be met and to further tweak every shot in every episode would have taken too much time. The only other series I've bought on DVD is Quantum Leap season 1, which has the same "flaws" on it, also released by Universal.

Apparently this is as good as it gets and is the standard effort for 80s TV shows. Newer shows on DVD like The Apprentice season 1, for example, will probably be even clearer because I'm assuming it (and all other newer shows) would have to be shot on better film nowadays and are excellent quality to begin with.

As for Knight Rider 2000, the quality is terrible! I have the original broadcast of the movie on VHS, which obviously is blurry because of the quality of the tape and its age, but I distinctly remember watching it on television during its premier in 1991 and it was crystal clear. Years later on the USA Network, and I think Sci-Fi as well, the movie was shown with a new grainy look; the same seen on the DVD. Other minor changes that I've noticed in comparison to the orginal NBC broadcast are the font for the credits being red & white, compared to the DVD's font being all white. The only better thing about KR 2000 on DVD is that the commercials have been removed and are seamlessly edited to blend into the next scene.

Why this grainy look was applied to all copies of the film after its original NBC broadcast is anyone's guess, maybe someone knows the reason behind it? Anyway, my advice is not to nitpick the episodes while watching and enjoy them as is, like I said the quality is still great.

If I were to rate the quality of the DVDs on a scale of 1-10 (10 being best), it would be: Knight Rider series- 8.5/10, Knight Rider 2000- 5/10.
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Post by Skav » Wed Sep 29, 2004 7:14 pm

You will occasionally see some dirt specs in some shots due the print being old...this is evident on a lot of films that are remastered on dvd too. It's a natural thing, but I wouldn't go so far as to say those shots are snowy...except for the stock footage that en episode uses from something else.

The quality, for the most part, is crystal clear and sharp.

You could try cleaning your laser lens as this can pick up dirt and cause poor visual and sound playback.
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Post by krfan1 » Wed Sep 29, 2004 8:27 pm

It's not dirt. This evident on all DVD players it has been in. I will get a screencap or two tonight.

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Post by knightshade » Wed Sep 29, 2004 8:46 pm

Yeah, there are episodes and scenes that have some bad 'snowly-like' quality. Topez Connection is particularly bad, but still soooooooo much better than my VHS tapes. I would guess that there was only so much they could do to clean them up and in some cases, just couldn't make the picture better without introducing artifacts (but that's just a guess on my part).

All in all, I'm very impressed for a 20 year old show -- I think overall the quality is really great -- just some places where it didn't come out as well.

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Post by cloudkitt » Wed Sep 29, 2004 10:10 pm

meh, I'm happy. IN comparison to the quality on sci-fi, these DVDs are downright immaculate.
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Post by knightendo » Thu Sep 30, 2004 3:05 pm

i personally think the dvd quality is absolutely superb! topaz connection is amongst my faves of the entire four-season run and has been one of the eps used to convince my housemate louise that the show rocks lol!

i thought the picture quality of this episode and of the entire season was spot-on and stunning compared to the digital television channel bravo's broadcasts. there were some scenes where u can tell its an old show but even these have been improved massively i felt. i don't know about the region one collections but our region 2 boxes have something that goes a bit like this on their bottom sides: even though every care has been taken to ensure the utmost quality of these episodes, the age of the original material may result in some slight quality... um... slippage! can't remember how they worded it. but in all honesty i think it looks like every scene has been painted afresh :D
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Post by Skav » Thu Sep 30, 2004 3:19 pm

agreed.
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Post by finalfadeout » Fri Oct 01, 2004 1:25 am

Knight Rider was definitely cleaned up for this release...and they obviously used the best quality prints available, though the quality is inconsistent throughout the episodes...still it's the best we've seen.

However, they did not do a complete frame-by-frame restoration a la THX. There is a BIG difference between digital reMASTERING and digital RESTORATION. They do this for movies such as the Star Wars trinity (as they like to think of them heh), 2001: A Space Odyssey, Spartacus, and landmark series such as the Golden Girls (kidding!)....but there's not too much stuff out there that gets the whole treatment...if they had, Knight Rider would be gleaming in every shot, there would be no trace of dirt or grain, and it would look basically as it would if it had been filmed today...

I wish they would though, but they did do a great job in any case.

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Post by knightendo » Fri Oct 01, 2004 7:23 am

you'll notice however that tv series don't get fully restored like movies. i suppose when you think about it, there's up to two to three hours in a movie, but well over 18 hours of knight rider. but you're right, they did a fantastic job, and the fact that our beloved series has come off with the best box set by far just shows how tuned in universal are to the fan base this series still has! :)
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Post by Lost Knight » Fri Oct 01, 2004 4:10 pm

See, I was going to comment about the fact that I've never actually heard or read on the box set that the series is "digitally remastered." I guess that explains it. I never knew much about the restoration process aside from digital remastorization being absolutely superb (I own The Shining [original] on DVD among other old movies, and the quality is absolutely amazing, especially compared to cable where it looks like complete crap).

There is a lot of technical stuff involved with that as well as I've read on some other remastered DVDs I own such as Terminator 2: Judgement Day -"Digitally Mastered from a brand-new 1080p, 24sf High-Definition digital telecine transfer for superior video and audio quality." WHATEVER THE HELL THAT MEANS.

Anyway, now I understand why there are inconsistencies from shot to shot, but the show still looks damn good in terms of quality! 8)
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Post by Lost Knight » Fri Oct 01, 2004 4:10 pm

See, I was going to comment about the fact that I've never actually heard or read on the box set that the series is "digitally remastered." I guess that explains it. I never knew much about the restoration process aside from digital remastorization being absolutely superb (I own The Shining [original] on DVD among other old movies, and the quality is absolutely amazing, especially compared to cable where it looks like complete crap).

There is a lot of technical stuff involved with that as well as I've read on some other remastered DVDs I own such as Terminator 2: Judgement Day -"Digitally Mastered from a brand-new 1080p, 24sf High-Definition digital telecine transfer for superior video and audio quality." WHATEVER THE HELL THAT MEANS.

Anyway, now I understand why there are inconsistencies from shot to shot, but the show still looks damn good in terms of quality! 8)
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Post by Lost Knight » Fri Oct 01, 2004 4:11 pm

ah, sorry for the double post
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Post by knightendo » Sat Oct 02, 2004 7:16 am

[quote="Lost Knight"]See, I was going to comment about the fact that I've never actually heard or read on the box set that the series is "digitally remastered." I guess that explains it. I never knew much about the restoration process aside from digital remastorization being absolutely superb (I own The Shining [original] on DVD among other old movies, and the quality is absolutely amazing, especially compared to cable where it looks like complete crap).quote]

when i first got a dvd player a few years ago the very first dvd i bought for it was the 1953 film of The War Of The Worlds. i'd read about how good a job they had done in putting it on the dvd format, but reading the box i noticed that they didn't make a really big deal of it so i wasn't expecting much. having seen it nearly every christmas on bbc2 and having owned it on ex-rental video and then a new video copy, released at the same time as the dvd, i wasn't expecting much more. the new video i had bought had a much better picture quality than on the tv, but when i put the dvd in... WOW! it's amazing what they can do when they remaster a film properly and i recommend it to anyone, it looks so beautiful now!! and like i said they didn't make a big deal of it on the box, but some movies do and are nowhere near as good a transfer as WOTW from Paramount.
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