Why buy it then if you don't care about the videos? Just listen to the CD.
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I hate widescreen. I love the 4:3 screen. :)
[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]PieterMC wrote: [/QUOTENAME]Why buy it then if you don't care about the videos? Just listen to the CD.[/QUOTE]
Genius, because the dvds are in 5.1, jeez!!!!!!!!! some people lol.
Genius, because the dvds are in 5.1, jeez!!!!!!!!! some people lol.
[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]kdj2hot wrote: [/QUOTENAME][QUOTE][QUOTENAME]PieterMC wrote: [/QUOTENAME]Why buy it then if you don't care about the videos? Just listen to the CD.[/QUOTE]
Genius, because the dvds are in 5.1, jeez!!!!!!!!! some people lol.[/QUOTE]
Yes - really shitty 5.1 with no center channel.
Genius, because the dvds are in 5.1, jeez!!!!!!!!! some people lol.[/QUOTE]
Yes - really shitty 5.1 with no center channel.
[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]PieterMC wrote: [/QUOTENAME]Some of the results looking amazingly bad.
A Kind of Magic and Radio Ga Ga spring to mind.[/QUOTE]
They screwed up AKOM by squeezing down the already letterboxed video instead of cropping it. As for Ga Ga, I think it actually works best the way they did it. A uniform height whilst getting wider in some sections. This reflects the director's desire to have the image become wider at times.
Hard as I've tried and as much as I hate the idea of losing some of the original image to make something artificial widescreen, I can't point to any of the videos which really seem to lose anything important.. the only one I notice being cropped is "Body Language" because some of the arrows are incomplete.
I think the biggest problem is the actual quality of the material itself. The older videos have this 'fuzzy' colored graininess in them from some sort of processing. YMBF is a good example. It looks really bad and yet I know better versions of this stuff must exist somewhere. The karaoke hits videos have much better picture quality, but they have that damn lyric text burnt into them.
It's a good thing the extras make up for the screwed-up videos though. I just hope someday a better version of everything emerges.
I always think of 'Best Of Bowie' when considering the quality of old music videos. ALL of his videos dating back to early BBC stuff from 1969 or so look fantastic on that set.
As for the 4.1 mixes, it looks like Justin Shirley Smith is to blame for this. His explanation of this centers around lead vocal being in the center channel, as if that's the only thing they could put there. He wants the center to be forced to the front right & left, rather than giving consumers the choice of doing that in their receivers if they don't have or don't want a center speaker. Apparently we're stuck with his own twisted listening preference.
The DVD-A releases have plenty of center action because another company was involved (DTS Entertainment) and they wouldn't dare pull the shit that Queen did with the video hits, not making full use of the 5.1.
A Kind of Magic and Radio Ga Ga spring to mind.[/QUOTE]
They screwed up AKOM by squeezing down the already letterboxed video instead of cropping it. As for Ga Ga, I think it actually works best the way they did it. A uniform height whilst getting wider in some sections. This reflects the director's desire to have the image become wider at times.
Hard as I've tried and as much as I hate the idea of losing some of the original image to make something artificial widescreen, I can't point to any of the videos which really seem to lose anything important.. the only one I notice being cropped is "Body Language" because some of the arrows are incomplete.
I think the biggest problem is the actual quality of the material itself. The older videos have this 'fuzzy' colored graininess in them from some sort of processing. YMBF is a good example. It looks really bad and yet I know better versions of this stuff must exist somewhere. The karaoke hits videos have much better picture quality, but they have that damn lyric text burnt into them.
It's a good thing the extras make up for the screwed-up videos though. I just hope someday a better version of everything emerges.
I always think of 'Best Of Bowie' when considering the quality of old music videos. ALL of his videos dating back to early BBC stuff from 1969 or so look fantastic on that set.
As for the 4.1 mixes, it looks like Justin Shirley Smith is to blame for this. His explanation of this centers around lead vocal being in the center channel, as if that's the only thing they could put there. He wants the center to be forced to the front right & left, rather than giving consumers the choice of doing that in their receivers if they don't have or don't want a center speaker. Apparently we're stuck with his own twisted listening preference.
The DVD-A releases have plenty of center action because another company was involved (DTS Entertainment) and they wouldn't dare pull the shit that Queen did with the video hits, not making full use of the 5.1.
I agree with you that the picture quality is crap. I was amazed at how bad it looks.
I think 'Radio Ga Ga' looks terrible in that little box screen. What's the point in leaving all that black space?
[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]Bijou In Queens Crown wrote: [/QUOTENAME]I think 'Radio Ga Ga' looks terrible in that little box screen. What's the point in leaving all that black space?[/QUOTE]
That's the only way they could present it without changing the height. The 4:3 portions have to be 'windowboxed' like this in order for the wide parts to fill to the sides.
It could go either way, but the screen getting taller/shorter in parts just doesn't seem right to me. The wide parts are supposed to be wider, not shorter :-P
There's a film called 'Brainstorm' which does a similar thing on DVD. The movie was shot in two (some info says 3) ratios/formats, so that these special 'playback' sequences are big widescreen while the normal narrative parts of the film are a more standard 1.85:1 widescreen. To maintain the same picture height, they had to windowbox the 1.85:1 parts so the width expands for the wider parts. Same thing in Radio Ga Ga really.
That's the only way they could present it without changing the height. The 4:3 portions have to be 'windowboxed' like this in order for the wide parts to fill to the sides.
It could go either way, but the screen getting taller/shorter in parts just doesn't seem right to me. The wide parts are supposed to be wider, not shorter :-P
There's a film called 'Brainstorm' which does a similar thing on DVD. The movie was shot in two (some info says 3) ratios/formats, so that these special 'playback' sequences are big widescreen while the normal narrative parts of the film are a more standard 1.85:1 widescreen. To maintain the same picture height, they had to windowbox the 1.85:1 parts so the width expands for the wider parts. Same thing in Radio Ga Ga really.
You're spot on through all this Bubbles.
I used to have Brainstorm on Laserdisc. It was letterboxed, then would go fullscreen for those sequences. Was quite effective "back in the day"
I used to have Brainstorm on Laserdisc. It was letterboxed, then would go fullscreen for those sequences. Was quite effective "back in the day"
Yeah the laserdisc did it the other way though.. I had it too, hehe. Maybe I'm confused about the DVD, but it's done differently and one of them seems right to me. LOL
I'll pop the DVD in later and make a few caps.
I'll pop the DVD in later and make a few caps.
Oops, the DVD of Brainstorm actually does it wrongly (in my opinion) by filling the sides continuously and having the height change.
It was the laserdisc which presented the film properly :-P
It was the laserdisc which presented the film properly :-P
[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]Bijou In Queens Crown wrote: [/QUOTENAME]I think 'Radio Ga Ga' looks terrible in that little box screen. What's the point in leaving all that black space?[/QUOTE]
it's for 16:9 wide screen tv... if you had one, you'de see that the only black bars are on the side and not in a black box like they are in 4:3 tv's
it's for 16:9 wide screen tv... if you had one, you'de see that the only black bars are on the side and not in a black box like they are in 4:3 tv's
So you've got to compromise either way. I don't know how anyone could watch widescreen tv with the 16:9 screen. Eveything is squashed down and it's hard to look at. 4:3 I prefer, it fills the whole screen which it should do and it doesn't have those daft black rectangles on the top and bottom of the screen.
[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]Bijou In Queens Crown wrote: [/QUOTENAME]So you've got to compromise either way. I don't know how anyone could watch widescreen tv with the 16:9 screen. Eveything is squashed down and it's hard to look at. 4:3 I prefer, it fills the whole screen which it should do and it doesn't have those daft black rectangles on the top and bottom of the screen.[/QUOTE]
i think you are mistaken. maybe what you ment to say is "I don't know how anyone could watch widescreen tv with the 4:3 screen."
if you watch a 16:9 tv program (let's say..the world cup in germany WAS originaly filmed in 16:9) in a 16:9 tv screen, it fills the screen.the image is not squashed down,it's the original aspect ratio,you get a wider image,a gain in i think AT LEAST 25%. here in Portugal the world cup was broadcasted in 4:3, and you now what? i've watched the world cup games in german tv,they broadcasted the games is 16:9, not a 4:3 squashed down with the 16:9 button in a 4:3 tv set.
want a example of a game originally filmed in 16:9,but trasmited in Portugal (and various other country's i think) in 4:3? i give 2 screen caps of the game Portugal - Angola. i defend 16:9 if it's transmited in it's original aspect ratio, not in chopped like the screen cap version of the portuguese tv SIC. don't look at the image quality,one is hdtv, the other is analog tv.
the original broadcast in 16:9 (it's HDTV from espn2)
http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/5601/hdtv3ns.png
the sh*t transmited in Portugal (and other countries)
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/9194/sic7qn.png
so...you still prefer the 4:3 version instead of 16:9? i don't. in Queen videos i also stand for in the same way, if it's 16:9 (like WWRY Montreal, I Want It All video...) it should stay that way. if it's 4:3, it should stay that way also (like the Tribute Concert,the GVH DVD videos...)
i think you are mistaken. maybe what you ment to say is "I don't know how anyone could watch widescreen tv with the 4:3 screen."
if you watch a 16:9 tv program (let's say..the world cup in germany WAS originaly filmed in 16:9) in a 16:9 tv screen, it fills the screen.the image is not squashed down,it's the original aspect ratio,you get a wider image,a gain in i think AT LEAST 25%. here in Portugal the world cup was broadcasted in 4:3, and you now what? i've watched the world cup games in german tv,they broadcasted the games is 16:9, not a 4:3 squashed down with the 16:9 button in a 4:3 tv set.
want a example of a game originally filmed in 16:9,but trasmited in Portugal (and various other country's i think) in 4:3? i give 2 screen caps of the game Portugal - Angola. i defend 16:9 if it's transmited in it's original aspect ratio, not in chopped like the screen cap version of the portuguese tv SIC. don't look at the image quality,one is hdtv, the other is analog tv.
the original broadcast in 16:9 (it's HDTV from espn2)
http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/5601/hdtv3ns.png
the sh*t transmited in Portugal (and other countries)
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/9194/sic7qn.png
so...you still prefer the 4:3 version instead of 16:9? i don't. in Queen videos i also stand for in the same way, if it's 16:9 (like WWRY Montreal, I Want It All video...) it should stay that way. if it's 4:3, it should stay that way also (like the Tribute Concert,the GVH DVD videos...)
What numptie made the decision to GVH1 & 2 in 16:9?
Was it David Richards?
It's bizaarre and embarrasingly amateurish. I never watch em anymore, I prefer the Greatest Flic promo DVD instead, ok sound is 2 channel PCM but at least it's OAR and PQ is on a par, if not better.
I've got loadsa commercial DVD promo compilations from artist from the 70s and 80s and NOT one of them is in 16:9. (other than Queen!)
Was it David Richards?
It's bizaarre and embarrasingly amateurish. I never watch em anymore, I prefer the Greatest Flic promo DVD instead, ok sound is 2 channel PCM but at least it's OAR and PQ is on a par, if not better.
I've got loadsa commercial DVD promo compilations from artist from the 70s and 80s and NOT one of them is in 16:9. (other than Queen!)