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Strange Speed Problem with the Dutch Force Awakens DVD

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Okay, so it seems I’m the first person to notice this.
I bought the Force Awakens Blu-Ray+DVD Steelbook from the dutch website bol.com.
The copy of the film on Blu-Ray is perfectly fine, but there is a strange issue with the DVD version.
I don’t know whether this issue is also present in other versions of the DVD, but I haven’t seen any posts about it yet.

The film is sped up more than 4%, changing the runtime from 2:18:06 to 2:12:26.
The movements are faster and all sounds are higher pitched. This is most noticable in the music.
I tested the dvd on several different players, and the speed issue is definitely on the disc.

I made a short video showing the difference.
https://youtu.be/ax0dm43jhP0

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There you go:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/576i#PAL_speed-up

Dutch DVD = PAL territory = 4% faster = Riddle solved

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The riddle isn’t really what the technical reason for the faster playback is, but rather why they haven’t converted the film to PAL properly. Most dvd’s here are at the correct speed. And I have never before seen a Star Wars DVD with this issue. It gives the film an artificial look, and makes it feel unnaturally rushed. It disrupts the whole rhythm of the film.

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No, it’s the conversion: normal film speed is 24 fps and PAL is 25. It’s much simpler to just speed everything up by 4%. There is no other “proper” conversion that exists except for digitally altering the pitch of the soundtrack but that’s more the exception and not the rule.

I think you’ve just now noticed it. I’m in PAL land and I have a hard time watching DVDs because of this. Thankfully Blurays don’t have this problem.

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b122251 said:

The riddle isn’t really what the technical reason for the faster playback is, but rather why they haven’t converted the film to PAL properly. Most dvd’s here are at the correct speed. And I have never before seen a Star Wars DVD with this issue. It gives the film an artificial look, and makes it feel unnaturally rushed. It disrupts the whole rhythm of the film.

Yeah as Mavimao says above, you’ve just never noticed it before.

All my PAL Star Wars DVDs (and VHS tapes when I had them) are sped up 4%, with higher pitched audio. To be honest it wasn’t something I ever noticed until I started switching over to Blu-Rays, now I don’t really enjoy it. Probably for a lot of European people who are in their thirties now, 1997 was the first time they’d ever heard/seen SW played at the correct speed.

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