Re: UFO on DVD

>Is there any information about which will come first and if the DVDs
>as such (bonus features, soundtracks) will be identical save for the
>different formats? Do you know how many might be released, four
>episodes per DVD as usual? Will there be a "box set"?

These are all good questions, but I don't think anyone really knows
the answers to them at this time -- not even Carlton & A&E!

If I had to take a guess, I'd think the Carlton DVDs will
have more special features, because it sounds like FANDERSON is
actively involved in these DVDs, but perhaps not so involved
in the American DVDs.

>By the way, UFO was produced in the UK, right? So to get the real
>"original" the Cartlon-DVDs would be the ones?

I'm not sure what you mean by this... right now the best home
video versions of UFO are the laserdiscs from Japan! I'd think
that both the UK and USA DVDs will be the "real original"
episodes... uncut, digitally remastered, etc. I will likely
prefer the USA versions, as the speed will be closer to the
original 35mm film.

>I feel more comfortable in the knowledge that there will not be
>any degradation in quality over the years

No degradation as long as you're careful not to scratch them
or let them sit out in the sun, etc. If you ask me, you have
to be *more* careful with your DVDs than you are with VHS tapes,
but yes, DVDs have the advantage of not wearing out with
repeated playing -- a big concern with UFO! :-)

>By the way - do you have some
>kind of access-limit on that site or can anyone draw as many MBs as they
>want without raising the cost on you? There is so much stuff there that I'd
>like to "mirror" it and check it out offline.

It's probably safe for one person to do this occasionally. However,
if several people tried to do this at once, the website provider
would probably shut down my website! So don't everyone do this
at once, please!

--
Marc Martin, [hidden email]

Marc Martin <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I'm not sure what you mean by this... right now the best home
> video versions of UFO are the laserdiscs from Japan! I'd think
> that both the UK and USA DVDs will be the "real original"
> episodes... uncut, digitally remastered, etc. I will likely
> prefer the USA versions, as the speed will be closer to the
> original 35mm film.

NTSC output could well have picture artifacts if not handled properly.

All we could hope for is that the soundtrack will have the correct pitch.

Jez
--

>NTSC output could well have picture artifacts if not handled properly.

Yes, although A&E have a good reputation from their Avengers DVDs. I
haven't actually seen these, but reports are that they look great!

>All we could hope for is that the soundtrack will have the correct pitch.

Yes, for the UK PAL versions they could easily correct the pitch
while having the whole thing still running 4% too fast (required by
PAL's 25 frame/second). Then the only problem would be that people
seem to walk/talk a bit fast -- but at least Straker's voice wouldn't
sound so funny!

--
Marc Martin, [hidden email]

I wrote:
>Yes, for the UK PAL versions they could easily correct the pitch
>while having the whole thing still running 4% too fast (required by
>PAL's 25 frame/second). Then the only problem would be that people
>seem to walk/talk a bit fast -- but at least Straker's voice wouldn't
>sound so funny!

Hi All,

I just thought I'd perform an experiment to test this PAL
pitch-corrected-theory:

Here is an audio clip from THE DALOTEK AFFAIR, where Straker is
talking to Mr. Blake, the president of the Dalotek Corporation.

Here is the clip at it's original speed, which you would hear if you
watched it on a 35mm theater projector or on a properly-transferred
NTSC (American/Japanese) video:

http://ufo.simplenet.com/temp/35mm.mp3 (speed ok, pitch ok)

Here is this clip as it is heard on a PAL video/broadcast, which has
been speeded up by 4%, and as a result the pitch is slightly high as
well:

http://ufo.simplenet.com/temp/pal.mp3 (speed too fast, pitch too high)

And here is the clip as it would be heard on a PAL video/broadcast if
the speed remains 4% fast, but the pitch is corrected:

http://ufo.simplenet.com/temp/palPitchCorrected.mp3 (speed too
fast, pitch ok)

After listening to these, I think it would be worthwhile if Carlton
tried to correct the pitch for the UK releases.

I wonder if they did this for the remastered versions of Thunderbirds?

--
Marc Martin, [hidden email]

Servus!

MM> Yes, for the UK PAL versions they could easily correct the pitch
MM> while having the whole thing still running 4% too fast (required by
MM> PAL's 25 frame/second).
Isn't that only the case when the picture is converted from US formats _to_
PAL? That's why I was asking in the first place - if UFO is a British
production, then the material would already be in PAL format. Why should
there be any modification in speed in this case?

RU! (48o18'13''N/10o10'32''E)

Marc Martin <[hidden email]> wrote:

> >NTSC output could well have picture artifacts if not handled properly.

> Yes, although A&E have a good reputation from their Avengers DVDs. I
> haven't actually seen these, but reports are that they look great!

Without turning this into a TV tech list, I was referring to those problems
caused by 3:2 pulldown which is the way for a film at 24 fps is shown on
NTSC at 29.97 fps.

A good explanation of the effects and how they might be overcome with
DVD players can be found at:

http://www.dvdfile.com/news/special_report/spotlight/3_2_pulldown.htm

> >All we could hope for is that the soundtrack will have the correct pitch.

> Yes, for the UK PAL versions they could easily correct the pitch
> while having the whole thing still running 4% too fast (required by
> PAL's 25 frame/second). Then the only problem would be that people
> seem to walk/talk a bit fast -- but at least Straker's voice wouldn't
> sound so funny!

If pitch-corrected versions were issued I suspect there would be
comments about the differences from what they are used to.

Pitch correction appears to be infrequently used, although it should
be noted that film shot for British television these days is expected to be
at 25 fps.

Jez
--

Jeremy Rogers wrote:

> NTSC output could well have picture artifacts if not handled properly.
>

On this point - I picked up a bunch of (NTSC) DVDs while in the States
last week, and was presently surprised to find that the picture
quality is very good, even after being converted to PAL by my (UK) DVD
player. No noticeable artefacts.

James

>Isn't that only the case when the picture is converted from US formats _to_
>PAL? That's why I was asking in the first place - if UFO is a British
>production, then the material would already be in PAL format. Why should
>there be any modification in speed in this case?

UFO was not shot on PAL video. It was shot on 35mm film at 24 frames
per second. Since PAL is 25 frames per second, the show is sped up
slightly from the original 35mm film. Since NTSC is 30 frames per
second, frames are periodically repeated to correct the speed.
Although there are problems with both of these conversions from film
to video, you should realize that almost every Hollywood motion
picture is shot in the same format as UFO, so almost every home video
has to go through the same conversion process. And since you don't
see many people complaining about home videos of films, then
obviously these methods are acceptable to most people.

--
Marc Martin, [hidden email]

P.S. Here is what a frame of original 35mm UFO film looks like:

http://ufo.simplenet.com/temp/straker35mm.jpg

Curious,
I assume the audio track is shown on the left side of the frame.

It would seem that the double signal implies stereo. But yet,
it's been stated that UFO was recorded in mono. True?



Marc Martin wrote:

> P.S. Here is what a frame of original 35mm UFO film looks like:
>
> http://ufo.simplenet.com/temp/straker35mm.jpg

>I assume the audio track is shown on the left side of the frame.

Yes, that's correct.

>It would seem that the double signal implies stereo. But yet,
>it's been stated that UFO was recorded in mono. True?

Yes, UFO is definitely in mono.

The optical track on 35mm film has 2 channels to accommodate a
stereo recording. Since UFO is in mono, both of these tracks
are identical.

--
Marc Martin, [hidden email]