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| Headline | Picture quality of Old Friends and Paris DVD |
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| Author | Comment |
Bodo
Feb-14-2009, 13:52 GMT
Austria
 | I started a new topic, because this has nothing to do with the concert.
Ian - definately the YTO DVD from Paris looks much better.
I have made screenshots now. 3 from the S&G Old Friends DVD, 1 from the Paul Simon Paris DVD (the one with subtitles)
The format is not correct, but I did not want to change anything. I tried 3 different pictures from the S&G DVD to find a really sharp one, but thats not possible. For the Paul Simon DVD this was the only and first one I took.
Follow this link to see the picture
>DVD Comparison
As I said before, this might have to do with the film material used. But there is no information if this has been filmed digital or on usual film material. The lightning at the S&G is very dark, so you always have to use a more sensitive film (higher ISO for picture cameras). And that produces not very sharp pictures and a lot of grain.
I do not like the stage design they used for that tour - way too dark.
Another quality issue: For the S&G DVD they also made no DTS audio mix. the Paris DVD has it. Thats not too important, but can show you that they did not spend too much money for the quality of this DVD.
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Bodo
Feb-14-2009, 13:55 GMT
Austria
| BTW: What I wanted to say with the last statement is that you also can do a lot for the picture quality AFTER the filming - use high quality filters to reduce grain and sharpen the picture. But I guess nothing has been done. |
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Ian
Feb-14-2009, 15:39 GMT
USA - United Staates America
 | Thanks Bodo,for the screenshots and comparison work. It has answered my query as to whether the problem was limited to the Australian print only. It seems that it´s a condition inherent in the original film. You can notice the compromised clarity of the ´Old Friends´ DVD by comparing the strings on Paul´s guitar on both discs. ´You´re The One´ absolutely looks finer,cleaner and sharper,and this is made more obvious when the picture is moving as well. I bought the 3 disc version of ´OFLOS´ and at first appearance,it seemed from the packaging,that a considerable effort had gone into it,with the book and photos etc. Looking a little closer,I don´t think there is even a credit for who produced the album, CD´s or DVD! I think there is a credit for the audio mix,but not the production. You are also correct about the dark look of the stage design and lighting,which is odd,as I think one of the production designers worked on both tours. Is the darkness a true representation of the actual concerts? Was it like that? |
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Bodo
Feb-14-2009, 15:46 GMT
Austria
| Well, I was at one show in the first row and could stand - and there it seemed to be enough light.
In Florida I was sitting in the back, so most of the time I watched the show on screen. It was way too dark... the audience was never involved. Maybe Paul and Art wanted to make it look intimitade. What works good for a 300 people audience in a pub, but not good in a 20.000 people sports stadion. |
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Ian
Feb-14-2009, 15:58 GMT
USA - United Staates America
| Just to add-Have a look at the photo section under ´Special Features´ on the ´Old Friends´ DVD. They look much cleaner. It´s a pity that the film itself doesn´t look as good as the photo section. The grain could be a mixture of the low lighting and perhaps the compression used on the disc. It´s a reasonably long concert,and with the other features-the excerpts from the TV special,photos,´Citizen of the Planet´ and 2?? audio tracks,must have pushed the limits of what a DVD can hold,before Quality is affected. Just a thought. And yes,it is a pity that there was no DTS mix. The DTS mix on ´YTO´ is far superior to the Dolby one. |
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Kuno
Feb-14-2009, 20:23 GMT
Switzerland
 | Besides the poor picture quality, I must add another mistake they made on that DVD. Artie was wearing different outfits on the two shows the DVD was made of. Most of the people might think that this is a minor thing, but even for a pot smoker it should be possible to remember that he has to wear the same outfit on both nights.
I can imagine Paul saying to Art when he first saw Arts new outfit on the second show: "Oh, man... you f*cked up the CP81 DVD with your wrong lines and now you have the wrong outfit for this DVD. Bad Artie ! From now on, I only let you join me for 3 songs maximum on my shows !" :o) |
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nancy
Feb-15-2009, 00:24 GMT
USA - United Staates America
| I don´t think they were trying to pretend it was all one show. They were just picking and choosing among the two shows. |
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Klausi
Feb-15-2009, 10:32 GMT
Germany
 | By the way I don`t know whether this is commonly known, but still today all good filmwork-originals are taped on celluoid.
Because Nobody can predict how long other mediums will be ok.
From there it goes maybe on digital sources.
It is like with mikrophones and speakers - we cannot understand digital informations. At the beginning and end they all have to be transformed (again).
And no origininal signal can be improved - what is missing, remains lost forever. Only a replacement is possible.
So the advertising of "digitally remastered" is only a joke. The improvements are made with the original tapes and better electronics, speakers, more time etc. |
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Bodo
Feb-15-2009, 10:44 GMT
Austria
| Well - you can repair a lot of things with digital filters on Old movies. Remove dust for example, or sharphen it. Of course: the information at this position is always lost, but if there is a small dot of dust somewhere on the movie for 1 picture, then you take the information from the following picture, and ´paint´ over this dust.
Your eye will not see this error then, because it´s the same color (most of the time nothing changes during 2 pictures in a movie) - but the dust before was visible very good.
So these techniques just change everything to please your eyes. |
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Bodo
Feb-15-2009, 10:59 GMT
Austria
| Ok - I played around a little bit with photoshop, and I could see that even those low-resolution pictures could be improved easely.
And what is interesting: Even standard photoshop tools like Auto-contrast made a good job on the S&G DVD pictures, while on the Paul Simon Paris DVD nearly nothing changed. So I guess the Paris DVD has been improved a lot, while nothing has been done with the S&G DVD.
That said: I guess when you have the original film material and some good digital tools to enhance movies sharpness and contrast (photoshop is just a ´hobby tool for kids´) then you could produce a very good Blue ray HD-DVD from that S&G show.
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Bodo
Feb-15-2009, 11:08 GMT
Austria
| Ouch!
It even get´s more worse.
There you see a part of one picture I already showed to you before:
Look at Pauls neck, right from the microphone (or also this halo around the microphone). Thats not a shade, the shade of the microphone is on the left side of the picture on Pauls shirt.
These are sharpening artefacts, extrem bad ones. They look like ghost pictures.
Really, it seems like as if someone who knows nothing about making digital movies has done this work. So I think they tried to improve the picture, but made it even worse.
I should stop now. |
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Ian
Feb-15-2009, 13:18 GMT
USA - United Staates America
| I knew it. Thanks for proving it Bodo. That is definitely some form of edge enhancement on that last picture. I upscaled the disc when I played it recently,to 1080i,and this only served to increase most of the issues that can clearly be seen in standard definition already. ´You´re the One´ on the other hand is beautiful to look at. The colours are rich,the image smooth,and the sound is excellent too. It looks even better upscaled too. If they do a Blue-Ray edition of ´Old Friends´,I hope they take some time and effort on it´s preparation. |
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