Quality of big label DVD'S W/tv episodes

[nitestalker49]

Has anyone noticed that big labels like Star Trek is able to come out with a DVD with 10 decent quality hour long episodes on one DVD, including DVD extra's. They are not dual layer either. Does anyone have a clue how they do this?
When i try something similar things get pixelated or whatever you would call it. basically major loss in quality.

[spiderman2k1]

One reason they have the master film to make there copies from. Plus they use better stuff then we use. Yes even better then CCE. And I think CCE is great. Plus high end work station to render the picture.

[pyrohydra]

I don't know which Star Trek DVDs you have, but the ones I've seen (released in the US) have 4 episodes on a single dual-layer disc. Perhaps you've bought bootlegs?

[spiderman2k1]

I was sleepping a little. !0 eps they must be bootleg's. Real DVD no more then four top's on a dual layer.

[andkiich]

I've noticed the opposite on a lot of episodic DVDs, especially Highlander. For some reason, they are extremely grainy. The episodes they play on TV generally look better than the DVD's I've purchased.

[spiderman2k1]

"andkiich" Some EPS DVD are crappy. I think the reason is they shot on 16mm film. ALso 4:3 take up more data then a 16:9 DVD. TV show DVD are a hit or miss. SOme are good others are just crap.

[flaninacupboard]

star trek isn't an hour per episode.....

[Gazorgan]

Looking through my collection:

Sexand the City, 6 eps/DVD, about 6 GB per disk (some extras and a 250 MB menu). Episodes are 30 minutes runtime.

Soprano's, 4 eps/DVD (5 in one case), about 9 GB per disk. Episodes are 60 minute runtimes (varies from 54 to 61).

In the first case I can shrink them to 1 DVDR. In the second case I use 2 DVDR's per DVD (it's faster and cheaper then transcoding to 1/2 D1). Quality is excellant in both cases.

I ahve Fawlty Towers on DVD, and the qualtiy is sadly lacking (Film source, and OLD!). I have seen some very poor episode DVD's, especially anything from the 60's and 70's.

[flaninacupboard]

fawlty towers was shot on video indoors and film outdoors. it'll be transcoded to NTSC so look a bit funky. mine look good, but my laserdiscs look better :P

[TBoneit]

The Three's company dvd first 6 episodes has 6 shows @ 6Gb on the disk. That would be 6, 1/2 hour shows - commercials time of course.

I never knew that about fawlty towers, I'll have to take a closer look today. They're running them on BBC america at 2PM Easter time zone. I of course PVR them and watch later form Dishnetwork. 3 different PVRs and they slightly different video output quality. Probably the differences in the digital to analog circuits as they are three different henerations of PVR.

Just watched an april episode of The District and I'd swear I saw a mouse/rat running across the floor behind the action.

Cheers

[BJ_M]

i watched 1 eps. of the the district and saw a boom mic for about 4 minutes in one scene ...

most episode tv shows are shot on 35mm , not 16mm btw

[flaninacupboard]

yeah, a while back i adjusted my main TV's overscan to 0 for my DVD's. seemed like a good idea at the time. i ended up seeing booms, lanterns, cables on the floor, bits of production staff, tops of scenery, all sorts. not impressed....

[BJ_M]

i think the 'The Matrix' is one of the worse for props and everything else showing -- it was pretty bad ..

'Unfaithful' is also pretty bad in some early film screenings -- but i hear they cleaned it up for the the dvd and in later film prints .. you can see boom mic shadows (and the mic) and a lot of scenery errors ..

[flaninacupboard]

one of my favourites is monty pythons' life of brian, shadows of the camera on the ground as brian runs through the streets

[BJ_M]

i can forgive a monty python anything though -- Life of Brian for example was shot on a budget of 4 million , paid for completly by George Harrison

6 people played 30 charactors ...

[flaninacupboard]

and i imagine 3.8 million of that budget went on the impromptu space/alien scene.....

Plus the actors would have taken a big cut, on the criterion LD there's an interview where john cleese is showing off his new hair implants

[bprobinson]

Hey guys! I just wanted to tell you that I have all seasons, all episodes of both Three's Company, and Mama's Family. Write me if you want to discuss how I got them. <link removed>

You are in breach of the forum rules and are being issued with a formal warning. This is not a trading forum and Mama's Family is not even released on dvd (legally)
/ Moderator BJ_M