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RowMan

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Join date
2-Apr-2004
Last activity
5-Feb-2023
Posts
315

Post History

Post
#683290
Topic
Song Of The South - many projects, much info & discussion thread (Released)
Time

jerryshadoe said:

Is this a hoax: http://www.ebay.com/itm/SUPER-RARE-Walt-Disneys-Song-of-the-South-JAPANESE-VHS-NTSC-Free-Shipping-/120988966852?

if not, would it be a good color reference? considering buying this but still unsure

 

It is indeed a legitimate release. I worked in a local video store back in the day that actually rented it as well as the Japanese laserdisc.

The labels and cover in the photos do not look like copies and it has the custom clamshell case used with many Disney Japanese VHS releases.


Does anyone know about this one?

http://youtu.be/01jnFkJBugA

Claims to be a rare NTSC VHS screening copy. The quality looks fairly good (considering it's VHS).

Post
#645178
Topic
STAR WARS: EP V &quot;REVISITED EDITION&quot;<strong>ADYWAN</strong> - <strong>12GB 1080p MP4 VERSION AVAILABLE NOW</strong>
Time

I think the intent was that when we first see just the bridge entering the shot, we are to assume it's just another Star Destroyer, but the entire sequence reveals it's actually the Executor.

Shot 1: What we think is a Star Destroyer bridge moves right to left obscuring the other Star Destroyers in the shot. (A possible hint at the scale of what's to come.)

Shot 2: A giant shadow moves in the same direction (right to left) covering a single Star Destroyer.

Shot 3: A closer shot of the same Star Destroyer being covered by the right to left moving shadow.

Shot 4: The camera looks up from behind the now fully shadowed Star Destroyer from the previous shots to reveal what created the shadow over it. At this point we are seeing just a portion of the Executor which shows its scale.

Shot 5: A wide shot to reveal the entire Executor with the shadowed Star Destroyer from the previous shots still beneath it.

This build up to reveal the Executor was always clear to me since 1980.

Post
#621292
Topic
Song Of The South - many projects, much info &amp; discussion thread (Released)
Time

Got the DVD from Amazon China today. It's a disappointment (which I kind of expected).

Bo Ying, the company producing this disc, made a SOTS DVD a few years ago that looked like they just used the Chinese laserdisc as a source. They added their logo to the video which made the overall quality even worse.

The new DVD from Bo Ying looks a tad better. The colors and picture itself are now brighter than their previous release.

It is a factory pressed DVD (not a burned copy), but the video quality is substandard. By seeing the picture quality and video dropouts, it was clear to me that this was made from a PAL VHS tape version of the film converted to NTSC. To make matters worse, there is a blue animated logo that appears EVERY 4 minutes and 45 seconds. It starts at the top right and moves across the screen to the left and stays on the screen for 20 seconds at a time. The previous release had only a static logo that appeared occasionally.

There are a few good things about the disc. There are optional dubbed languages in Chinese and Mandarin as well as subtitles for those languages. There are surprisingly good English subtitles, too. They duplicate the natural "dialect" of all of the characters. Other than these things, the DVD is bare boned with no special features.

I doubt that this is authorized by Disney as there is no mention of the Disney company anywhere on the cover, the disc, or in the DVD content itself. In fact, the very beginning of the opening credits are cut to avoid "Distributed by Buena Vista" and even "Walt Disney Presents".

Don't be fooled by the quality of the screenshot. NTSC versions made by OT.com members are still MUCH better.

Post
#618000
Topic
Song Of The South - many projects, much info &amp; discussion thread (Released)
Time

  

Just got the Song of the South DVD from Classic Reels. It's the one sold at the the Uncle Remus Museum in Eatonton, GA.

Although the disc presentation and cover are very nice, the movie is a low quality PAL to NTSC conversion running 90 min 26 sec. The NTSC versions of the feature made by OT.com users look much better.

Bonus Features:

Radio interviews with Walt Disney and the cast (First seen on the "Coal Black" DVD version.)

1972 re-release trailer (Menu says "60's trailer")

Behind-the-scenes footage (9 min. From a Disney website. Now can be seen on YouTube.)

Tales of Uncle Remus records from 1947

Audio excerpt from a 1947 Amos and Andy Show featuring James Baskett as his character Gabby Gibson promoting Song Of The South

Also, it contains a Spanish audio track which is not listed on the DVD menu or the cover. You have to select it by pressing the AUDIO or LANGUAGE button on your player's remote.

I'm currently trying to figure out how to obtain this DVD from China.

Looks like it just popped up on Amazon China in October of last year. It may be crap, but we'll see.

Post
#550246
Topic
TV Shows on DVD ruined by music replacement or cuts/edits: Restoring them back to original state (a project) (Update: The Andy Griffith Show: Season 3 DONE)
Time

nocomments87 said:

This is great...I almost set my DVR to record "Barney Mends A Broken Heart" from TV Land, since the epilogue is intact there too. Good thing to know you did a restoration on that episode. I did some reading, and there's also a brief dialogue cut on "Barney and the Governor". Makes you wonder what else is cut from season 3, cause I didn't hear any issues on seasons 1-2, and 5-8 (4, as you mentioned, had the missing laugh tracks...I have the Complete Series set, so I assume that has the fixed disc with most of the laugh tracks restored)

Unless they've changed the edit, the epilogue shown on TV Land is not actually the true epilogue. But record it anyway, just in case. PM me if you want details on this issue so we don't bore people here. Also, I've already done a ton of research and the alleged "Barney and the Governor" missing dialogue is incorrect. Someone was getting the dialogue mixed up with a different episode. The official DVD of this episode is in fact complete.

Post
#550201
Topic
TV Shows on DVD ruined by music replacement or cuts/edits: Restoring them back to original state (a project) (Update: The Andy Griffith Show: Season 3 DONE)
Time

nocomments87 said:

Here's one to get the ball rolling.

 

The Andy Griffith Show. Now, for the most part, the DVDs have no issues, but for whatever reason, the episode "The Darlings Are Coming" is only 22:22, which doesn't seem right for a show from the 60's. On top of the official DVD sets, there's also a ton of public domain DVD releases, featuring a handful of episodes, mostly from the third season. One of those episodes is "The Darlings Are Coming". It's interesting to note that the episode on those releases lasts 25:30. So I've decided to rip the episode from one of the public domain DVDs. The DVD had the theme song changed, most likely due to copyright reasons, so I went ahead and changed it back to its original form.

 

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QG2G4OSR

VOB file of the UNCUT "The Darlings Are Coming", 782 MB. No subtitles, and only language option is Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono in English (192 kbps).

 

Not sure if there's anything else cut from The Andy Griffith Show, but this one was one of the more obvious ones. I'll continue to add what I have ready to go, or any works-in-progress.

Wow. Another Andy Griffith Show fan out there who cares that much.

Along with the Darlings episode you mentioned, I have restored Season Three's "Barney Mends A Broken Heart" episode which was missing its epilogue on the official DVD release. It came from a 1993 VHS tape from UAV Corporation which featured an edited form of the episode, but included the epilogue.

In the Season Four official DVDs Paramount's first release omitted laugh tracks on several episodes, but later issued "fixed" discs which was supposed to correct the problem. Unfortunately, the episode  "The Sermon For Today" along with "A Black Day For Mayberry" still lose their laugh tracks at the 18 minute mark of each program. I was able to restore the laugh track from this point with the soundtracks from a Columbia House VHS tape for "Sermon" and a Premiere Promotions VHS tape for "A Black Day".

"We defy the Mafia!"

Post
#458509
Topic
Preserving the...<em>cringe</em>...Star Wars Holiday Special (Released)
Time

Will this latest "restoration" of the Holiday Special include the lost animation that supposedly was made to play just before and/or after the animated segment? Not necessarily edited in the program, just included somewhere.

Also, I think it would be great to include the live action Boba Fett concept suit black and white video footage as the animated Boba in the HS was obviously was designed after it.

Post
#385738
Topic
STAR WARS: EP V &quot;REVISITED EDITION&quot;<strong>ADYWAN</strong> - <strong>12GB 1080p MP4 VERSION AVAILABLE NOW</strong>
Time

Darth Solo said:

My o my, its quite interesting to see how quickly we are embracing the industries new technology.

Is there ANYONE able to send me a copy of ANH:R on betamax tape and a Super HD copy, so i can compair image quality?

 

Gotcha covered on the Betamax (Hi-Fi even). What's your address?  ;)

Post
#363260
Topic
Info: &quot;making of star wars&quot; film reel set - for sale on ebay
Time

I originally used a Magnetic Video VHS rip for my original bonus discs. Later, I upgraded using the CBS/Fox laserdisc rip created by Rikter. The Japanese laserdisc for this doco is just slightly better than the American one since they use the same source. Most likely, it was all shot on 16mm anyway and is really not super-high quality to begin with.

This film on eBay may have the potential of yielding something better than what already has been preserved, but it'll need to be in perfect shape and will probably still take a lot of work.

Quite a while back there was talk about using the American laserdisc rip to erase the subtitles of the Japanese laserdisc rip. I imagine it would be easier today than when it was first briefly discussed.

Post
#324348
Topic
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: The InfoDroid Edit (Released)
Time

InfoDroid,

I am a HUGE fan of the original and really enjoyed its back-and-forth between slapstick to horrific, however I realize I'm in the minority and understand why.

But this edit is just... INCREDIBLE!! It truly does seamlessly remove most of the "undesirable" elements of the original and reign it in towards what most people wanted this sequel to be. This new take on a "beloved" film of mine was an absolute pleasure to watch. I will be distributing this to all of my friends who I have had debates with on how good or bad TOD was. I'm sure they'll enjoy this version as much as I enjoyed the original.

This is a true piece of work and an asset to anyone's Indiana Jones movie collection. BIGGIE THANKS!