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September 2025 Update, my restoration efforts for the six episodes of Nightmare Café have resumed.
I have access to these versions of the episodes:
- KGET VERSIONS (480i)
All six episodes with commercials bumpers and end credits. I call these the KGET versions because the pilot episode bears station identification from that NBC affiliate. The quality on these is about 5 out of 10. As far as I can tell, the KGET versions were uploaded to YouTube when files were only 10 minutes maximum, combined into full hour long files, then put onto DVD. They have ok detail, washed out color, and a fair amount of “tiling” and/or “digital artifacts”. Lighter scenes look better with ok detail, while darker scenes lose much of their detail with lots of noticable artifacts. - WDAF VERSIONS (480i)
All six episodes with commercials sloppily edited out. I call these the WDAF versions because the pilot episode bears WDAF station identification from that NBC affiliate. The A/V quality of these is around a 4 or 5 out of 10. Again, lighter scenes have more details than darker ones. The colors and the black areas on these are very washed out, with black mostly appearing as charcoal grey. As far as I can tell, the WDAF versions were recorded from a VHS to a standalone DVD recorder, then that disc was duped by the same or another standalone DVD recorder. (In episode 5 “Sanctuary for a Child”, the original disc skipped during the process and the message “Disc error minor-- Clean me” appears. (This message is present, even on digital rips, so a dirty disc cannot be the culprit.) - WKEF Broadcasts (480i)
I have 2 and a half episodes (Half of episode 4, episodes 5 and 6 mostly complete… only missing their end credits.) These are recorded in SLP mode but have only been run through a VCR around half a dozen times each. They’re also around a 5 out of 10. Okay picture and sound, but the details are muddy and the colors are a bit washed out. - SciFi Channel Versions (480i)
I have an SLP mode tape which is missing the pilot episode of the series (overall quality 5 out of 10). I also found 2 LP mode tapes containing the full series but the Pilot is damaged throughout and the overall quality is around 4 out of 10 because of red and blue flecks present throughout most episodes. The Sci-fi Series Collection versions are trimmed down from 45 minutes to 42 and have a scifi channel logo present in the lower left corner. Details are muddy, but the colors are richer. These versions have not only had scenes excised, but it also seems they’ve had frames lifted out from time to time, much like modern reruns do, as scenes from these versions (when placed side by side with KGET and WDAF versions in an editing timeline) run just a bit shorter than the NBC broadcast, even though no dialogue is missing. - Dark Network Versions MKVs (PAL standard?)
These were gifted to me by a member of the preservation community. These also recently showed up on the Internet Archive. I’d rate them around a 5 in quality also. They have amazing color and detail, but the screen has been cropped on all four sides. They are the full versions of the episodes, in a sense that no scenes were excised to fit a shorter runtime… But the conversion from NTSC to PAL has turned all the voices to “helium mode” and the change in frame rates has caused all panning shots to become “choppy.” I’ve tried using a video editor to “inflate” the video back to around 30 fps. But the audio still isn’t quite right and when I tried going through the pilot and editing it at each and every camera angle change, inflating each cut to the same length as the NBC version then synchronizing the NBC audio up to it… All the lip sync and foley was “off.” Also, when I tried to convert them to 480p, the detail was all lost amongst the intensity of the vivid color information.
*Chiller Network Versions
I recently obtained downloads of YouTube videos containing all 6 episodes from a Chiller Network broadcast. The bumpers feature crows and tree branches (if anyone knows approximately when those bumpers were used, I would love to give these an approximate age). These episodes run about 43 minutes total with credits and all. Entire scenes are either truncated or cut entirely, but the edits are much cleaner and more thoughtful than the Sci-fi Series Collection versions. The details are muddy and the picture has plenty of digital artifacts. The chiller logo is always present near the lower right corner. There are also some banner ads for other Chiller Network broadcasts in the lower left/lower third.
This post regards my current work in progress on my Nightmare Café restoration project. I recently found a JVC VCR able to output S-Video. With that, I redigitized my WKEF tapes and my Sci-fi Channel tapes using a standalone Toshiba DVD recorder. Currently, I’m trying to use Shotcut to layer the WDAF versions over the KGET versions once again with a layer made up of bits and pieces of the Sci-fi Channel and Chiller Network broadcasts sandwiched between the 2. In the Preview window of Shotcut the first draft I made this week of the Pilot episode was “hit and miss”. I’m currently tweaking it and plan to do the entire series, if it works out.
