Wembley DVD - Complete Cock Up

Well that reply on Brian's forum is interesting!
I know David and I know exactly what he emailed to Brian because he's kept me in the loop and the website has completely MISSED OUT a more technical email from David explaining exactly what he thinks the issue is, and this was DAYS before the reply frm the Technical Guy came back!

I've asked David for the "missing email", and here it is:

Dear Brian,
                 Thank you very much for replying.
Further investigation has actually revealed what the (main) issue is. It's an NTSC DVD :(
I can't believe (and it's not just me) that 'someone' (is it Universal who have messed it up?) has taken a wonderful interlaced PAL video recording at 25 frames per second, done restoration work on it, and then converted it to NTSC for release (at 29.97 frames per second)!
It's this NTSC conversion that is the issue and not only do the colours not quite look right, it's lost the wonderful 'fluid' look that PAL recordings have and when the camera pans, the picture jerks - and this latter problem is typical of NTSC playback on non-NTSC televisions because of frame alterations (you've had to interpolate an extra 5 frames per second to make 30 fps from a 25fps signal) and also due to the 'pulldown' in conversion!
Sure, modern TV's can handle NTSC better than old Cathode Ray Tubes, because many of the decent ones have menu options to change from 50hz to 60hz (our electric supply is 50hz, hence 25fps for video, and USA is 60hz, hence 30fps for video), but how many people who own a digital TV set actually knows about these options, never mind what they are for and what to do with them!
There are also plenty of people, like myself, who simply cannot afford to buy a new digital TV set until such time as our CRT's break down and we are forced to!

I'm sorry for being so technical Brian, but it just seems bonkers to me that you (and I mean you, Roger and the rest of the team at QPL), spend so much time getting everything right, even down to overdubbing the odd note/vocal that's not quite right, and someone somewhere ruins it by converting it to a substandard, and yes, I do mean substandard, video format!

Seriously, 3/4 of the world use the PAL DVD format (even countries like France whose native TV system is SECAM) while only 1/4 use NTSC.
I can only assume that because you are now signed to Universal, an American company, that they are being "tight" and only releasing product in THEIR native TV System for worldwide use, rather than producing a PAL copy and an NTSC copy.
Effectively, Universal are providing a product that isn't fully compatible with a large proportion of the worlds current domestic TV equipment!
We shouldn't have to pay for something that, for many people, jerks on movement and may also be in black and white (for those with older TV sets from the 1990's), when it's such an easy job to provide the concerts in their original format for the majority proportion of the world who do actually use it!

I hope you understand my concerns and at least pass them on to your technical department and also Universal themselves.

As for the content of the product: Yes, superb. I've wanted to see the Friday night concert since a few songs appeared on the 2003 DVD release (which WAS PAL, by the way!), and I'm absolutely overjoyed at seeing it full. You (the band) were certainly more relaxed that night and it's a joy to watch :)

Best Wishes,
David

Queenman!! wrote:
What is exactly bullshit???? Where do QP go wrong in their explanation

brians wig wrote:
but it just seems bonkers to me that you (and I mean you, Roger and the rest of the team at QPL), spend so much time getting everything right, even down to overdubbing the odd note/vocal that's not quite right, and someone somewhere ruins it by converting it to a substandard, and yes, I do mean substandard, video format!

You couldn't have said it better my friend... That's exactly what I would like to say to them!
I cannot believe that none of them didn't notice these changes in the picture quality of the video when they saw it and didn't bother to ask the "specialists" in Universal some basic details for this release and to respect the rest viewers of the world that use PAL system format...
And ok, you are human and you didn't notice it.. I believe you must take the time to check if this information is accurate and try your best to correct the mistake... You don't just say "I don't understand what you are saying and I 'll pass you over to someone else..."
For me, this means that you don't have respect for someone that gives his money to buy your product in which you place QUALITY in top of everything else.

brians wig wrote: >> Sure, modern TV's can handle NTSC better than old Cathode Ray Tubes, because many of the decent ones have menu options to change from 50hz to 60hz (our electric supply is 50hz, hence 25fps for video, and USA is 60hz, hence 30fps for video), but how many people who own a digital TV set actually knows about these options, never mind what they are for and what to do with them!

There are also plenty of people, like myself, who simply cannot afford to buy a new digital TV set until such time as our CRT's break down and we are forced to! <<

Please, I have a PAL-B/G/H CRT TV which is like 20 years old and it can handle 60 Hz fine without any kind of jerkiness. Not to mention, my DVD player can, if I so wish, convert the video to 50 Hz PAL on the fly, or keep it 60 Hz but convert the color encoding to PAL so I can enjoy it in full color but at the same time with the characteristics it's supposed to have. So this thing that you need a modern TV to watch a NTSC video, is just plain wrong.

Sure if you have some TV that can't really display a 60 Hz picture, but I don't think I've seen many, except for TV's even older than mine. But mine is like 20 years old, and it can handle 60 Hz just fine. ;)