|
Post by Prime Good on Jul 30, 2010 7:54:07 GMT -5
We know the original film elements were destroyed by Hallmark in 1994 or so when the company acquired the rights to the Filmation library. They remastered/cleaned up the film elements on digital support, and this is what you get on the BCI DVDs.
But the DVD support creates a lot of issues with compression. What if they release BD editions of the two Filmation GB series featuring the "usual" digital files without the compression? That would be an improvement, despite the image is and will always be standard definition.
Is that even possible? Have you ever tried to "upscale" the image of the BCI DVDs on your plasma screen anyway?
|
|
|
Post by Devil of the Ghostbusters on Jul 30, 2010 10:49:33 GMT -5
I really don't know a lot on this subject, but here is what I know...
You can only up quality by using the original footage, then its a matter of how its edited. In any case, Dvd quality is just that, no matter how much you adjust its contrast/tint/colors/brightness. Blue-ray is better, but only if the content is at its level. It's like playing a PS1 game on a PS2 Or a Atari 2600 game on a 7800 atari system.
In short, I think both the LA and Animated are at the best they can be at this time. Take a look at Colombia Pictures Ghostbusters on Blu-ray. It revealed that the footage wasn't at the level of blu-ray really. Same would be true for both filmation shows.
|
|
|
Post by Prime Good on Jul 30, 2010 12:06:04 GMT -5
You can only up quality by using the original footage, then its a matter of how its edited. In any case, Dvd quality is just that, no matter how much you adjust its contrast/tint/colors/brightness. Well, a DVD just compresses a digital file and "stores" it. This originates compression of the digitalized image --- not a flaw in the source itself, but a phenomenon related to the DVD format. I was wondering if the digital file of a FGB episode on BD would look without compression, since it's not a DVD support anymore.
|
|
|
Post by Prime Good on Aug 2, 2010 19:09:27 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Devil of the Ghostbusters on Aug 2, 2010 21:39:31 GMT -5
Thanks for keeping us posted. As far as the GB:LA, no. It isn't all that good as far as quality footage to begin with. Note things like light skid marks on footage. Reminds me of the old SNL footage. Based on the look of the footage, we got it the best it can be. As for FGB.....It somewhat does look a bit too smooth. I thought it was fine as well, but I'm no expert since I never seen cartoons predating the dvds. However, they included the Promo Pilot in the box set, which is not remastered in any way. Take a look at this image images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100803023246/filmationghostbusters/images/d/d3/PromoPilotvsEpisodeTheBeastlyBuggy.pngThe Left is a screen cap is the Promo Pilot, on the right is the same scene of transformation in episode "The Beastly Buggy".So I conclude based on what I see that they have done a well job with the DVDs.
|
|
|
Post by nix on Aug 3, 2010 10:27:04 GMT -5
Naturally, the Promo Pilot looks grainy compared to the finished series. With the Pilot, they were simply testing the concept and didn't have very much time to do the cleaning-up process that they do for the finished series. It's like, "okay, here's the finished animation, just so you get some idea of what we're getting at with this thing."
As I recall, the Just for Kids video releases all had the quality of the finished series, even if the tapes didn't have that good of quality.
|
|
|
Post by Prime Good on Aug 3, 2010 12:47:43 GMT -5
Do you spotted any DIRT ON THE PRINT or SPECKLES on either the cartoon and, most of all, the live action series?
|
|
|
Post by Devil of the Ghostbusters on Aug 3, 2010 13:34:06 GMT -5
Do you spotted any DIRT ON THE PRINT or SPECKLES on either the cartoon and, most of all, the live action series? No, I guess not. Sorry but what are you getting at here? Technically, the footage is the best it can be. Is there something wrong? I'm lost here at this point.
|
|
|
Post by Prime Good on Aug 3, 2010 15:11:57 GMT -5
Do you spotted any DIRT ON THE PRINT or SPECKLES on either the cartoon and, most of all, the live action series? No, I guess not. Sorry but what are you getting at here? Technically, the footage is the best it can be. Is there something wrong? I'm lost here at this point. No man, I'm 100% pleased --- despite the BCI DVD sets I purchased from Amazon.com are R1, and I can't read them anywhere (I don't even opened the sets since they are part of my FGB collection, so they are still sealed). It just sucks that some professional DVD reviewers slightly complained about the DVDs in terms of picture quality, since the image was fully REMASTERED (by Hallmark) and there is no dirt to be seen. Just discussing. Anyway, they look a bit vintage, and that's a bliss. Talking about time travelling...
|
|
|
Post by GhostBuggy on Aug 4, 2010 1:52:36 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Prime Good on Aug 5, 2010 12:12:09 GMT -5
And lastly, I think it was an absolute sin that the original masters were destroyed! WHY on EARTH destroy art? Need room? Sell it! Give it away! But DO NOT throw it away! I think having the original film elements intact would not automatically translate into a better DVD presentation or even BD release. I think they filmed the original 1975 series on very cheap film stock to begin with. And you can't bump the cartoon's quality THAT far. I think the DVDs we got are the best presentation for this. Hallmark did one hell of a remastering. We should be proud.
|
|
|
Post by nix on Aug 5, 2010 14:02:01 GMT -5
I agree that the DVDs of FGB75 and FGB86 both look very good to me, with their clarity and their vintage look, and I am just happy to have them - and complete! I also agree that any way of upgrading them further, can't be done as well (if at all) as it could have been with the original masters of the episodes. And lastly, I think it was an absolute sin that the original masters were destroyed! WHY on EARTH destroy art? Need room? Sell it! Give it away! But DO NOT throw it away! I think SydMorrison would agree with me on this one, since a inger/songwriter/guitarist that we both love, Syd Barrett, made TV appearances with Pink Floyd - but the BBC taped over them after they aired, to record new shows over them. Now these great musical performances and footage are lost forever. So terrible! Dear old Auntie Beeb did the same thing with the old Doctor Who stories, too.
|
|
|
Post by GhostBuggy on Aug 5, 2010 20:20:49 GMT -5
I think having the original film elements intact would not automatically translate into a better DVD presentation or even BD release. I think they filmed the original 1975 series on very cheap film stock to begin with. And you can't bump the cartoon's quality THAT far. I think the DVDs we got are the best presentation for this. Hallmark did one hell of a remastering. We should be proud. I agree the DVDs are great, and you may be right that it couldn't look much better...I do wish they saved the originals, but at least they made nice copies for us to keep for all time However, the BBC destroying stuff is unforgivable, because they didn't make another copy for anyone at all. It's all looooooooong gone forever - not available in any form Sorry to hear that about Doctor Who, as well. But at least all GB stuff survives! (And all Tom Baker Doctor Who, right?)
|
|
|
Post by Prime Good on Aug 6, 2010 3:22:35 GMT -5
Hey Go-ers. I asked BCI Guy (a man who was working for BCI ECLIPSE in the past years and supervised the editions) at the He-Man.org forum what he thinks about the remastering of the FGB series, and that's his nice response: "I think they did a solid job. I'd guess that the Ghostbusters cartoon was probably in better shape than He-Man, so it probably didn't need as much cleaning. Like has been stated in a previous thread the digital remastering of the library wasn't by any means a frame-by-frame restoration, it was done through Digital Noise Reduction that got rid of a lot of flaws (and unfortunately softened some detail in the process, as its an automated process). Its not the ideal way to do it, but I think the end results were worth it - and they were never going to spend the money to do a restoration.
There is a bit of dirt and debris and some occasional ghosting, but for a budget 80s cartoon, they look awfully good."
|
|
|
Post by nix on Aug 7, 2010 15:51:09 GMT -5
Ha-ha, "occasional ghosting."
|
|