FRIENDS The Complete Series - November 13, 2012

[hijeff1]

I pre-ordered the UK release but I am a little concerned. I am sorry if I have this all wrong but I wanted to make sure that even though the discs are region free that they are the same ratio in the US and the UK.

Does anyone know if they are?

[weatherchannel]

Originally Posted by gregmasciola

I'm a little skeptical about buying this set. I've been watching a few episodes on TV and noticed some bad cropping. Example, in the episode where Rachael gets pulled over & avoids a ticket by flirting with the cop, the same thing happens to Ross a few minutes later. You're supposed to see the look on his face when he gets the idea, but his head is almost completely out of the frame, and the laugh track plays.
Just to give you an idea, here is the 4x3 image:


And here is how the shot looked when I watched it:


I'm not trying to be nit-picky (I still haven't even noticed any of the set-edges/lights while watching the show), this just makes me wonder about other shots that may have been cropped like this.

That's cropped from the 4:3 source, not the original 35 mm film, it will not look like that.

[RayCRP]

Yeah, the outdoor shots from that episode with Emma's party are cropped on all the new broadcasts I've seen of it. Also, in The One With Joey's New Brain, all the Days of Our Lives footage is also zoomed/cropped for some reason, and everyone's face is gigantic. It's weird, because you'd think that by then, most studios were starting to make the switch to HD and widescreen, so you'd think no one would resort to a 4:3 shot for anything that was normally on 35mm 16x9, even if broadcast in 4:3...

Interestingly, they don't seem consistent. Anyone see TOW Ross' Wedding? The camcorder footage of Fergie and Joey seems to be pillarboxed rather than cropped, but that shot may or may have been matted before anyway, so it might've been easy to pillarbox (I never noticed a matte before...)

Makes me wonder about the "home video" footage in TOW the Prom Video and TOW the Video Tape, as I've not seen those in widescreen yet.

[jimbean]

[jimbean]

[jimbean]

[jimbean]

[KubrickFan]

Wow, those look great, exactly as the producers intended it .

[nametag]

If they insist on putting it out in Widescreen (I'd rather they didn't, but hey) then these issues could be addressed with some select reframing or slight cropping, or digital touch-ups. I'm not sure they will, but I can't believe a major studio would put out a product which actually inadvertently shows a cameraman filming the show.

[Adrock]

Originally Posted by jimbean

[Show spoiler]

If you are going to post large, blurry images, you may in the future want to put them in a Spoiler tag. Saves room, and doesn't take up the entire thread page.

[RayCRP]

Thanks for posting those. I'll be on the lookout for those episodes... I have yet to see these in realtime, so I want to see for myself how noticeable they really are.

[UUUUGGGGHHHH]

I will be buying this at some point, but the price I hold out for will depend on if they fixed all the errors such as those or not.

[samukas]

Originally Posted by nametag

If they insist on putting it out in Widescreen (I'd rather they didn't, but hey) then these issues could be addressed with some select reframing or slight cropping, or digital touch-ups. I'm not sure they will, but I can't believe a major studio would put out a product which actually inadvertently shows a cameraman filming the show.

For the scenes shot in 4:3 video, I wish they would just pillar box it and be done with it.

Personally I like that they opened the mattes but in cases where something from the set is visible, reframing or touch-ups are needed.
if this gets released this way, it only shows laziness and amateurism from WB for not wanting to address this issues. If that's the case as I said I do hope the set sells really badly and/or they get a lot of complaints.

They already sold these HD masters worldwide, so it's not looking good for the BDs.

Buffy on European DVDs was also released with opened mattes and while I enjoy watching the show that way ( and I've only watched it that way), it annoys me when I see stuff I'm not supposed to. But I haven't found anything near as bad as this.

[mzupeman]

Originally Posted by KubrickFan

Wow, those look great, exactly as the producers intended it .

-"I know. They future proofed it!"

Buuuut... uhhh... there's cameras and camera windows and boom mics and stuff rather frequently....

-"Future!!!!"

But...

-"FUTUUUUUUURE!"

Originally Posted by nametag

If they insist on putting it out in Widescreen (I'd rather they didn't, but hey) then these issues could be addressed with some select reframing or slight cropping, or digital touch-ups. I'm not sure they will, but I can't believe a major studio would put out a product which actually inadvertently shows a cameraman filming the show.

You're right. A highly respectable company wouldn't allow that to happen on Blu-ray... only on broadcasted television

[Lnds500]

Originally Posted by KubrickFan

Wow, those look great, exactly as the producers intended it .

Originally Posted by mzupeman

-"I know. They future proofed it!"

Buuuut... uhhh... there's cameras and camera windows and boom mics and stuff rather frequently....

-"Future!!!!"

But...

-"FUTUUUUUUURE!"



You're right. A highly respectable company wouldn't allow that to happen on Blu-ray... only on broadcasted television

the 4x3 versions have framing problems and equipment showing frequently as well.

[mzupeman]

Originally Posted by Lnds500

the 4x3 versions have framing problems and equipment showing frequently as well.

And yet it wasn't something I noticed very often while I was watching the show. It's hard to miss a cameraman sitting in a quarter of one side of the frame though...

[Lnds500]

Originally Posted by mzupeman

And yet it wasn't something I noticed very often while I was watching the show. It's hard to miss a cameraman sitting in a quarter of one side of the frame though...

My point exactly



Cause I said something similar myself. So either we all lie, or the mistakes are actually not that noticeable when you watch the episodes. Sure if you spend your time noticing the corners instead of the action you'll notice more boom mics, cameras or lights on top, but that's just asking for it.

[nametag]

Originally Posted by mzupeman

You're right. A highly respectable company wouldn't allow that to happen on Blu-ray... only on broadcasted television

It seems to me like they got the new HD versions out for international broadcast asap. They've been playing in HD on TV for what, a year or 2 now? If they're going to wait that long to release it on home video, in a big fancy set that people will pay a lot of money to keep permanently, it would make sense for them to spend a bit more time fixing things like this. People have lots of channels on TV, they watch old re-runs more casually, and make do with ad breaks and network logos. It's not the same as spending $200 on a home video product and having errors like these prevalent on there. They'll certainly get more complaints than they have done from all the people who've watched it on TV.

I still wouldn't be surprised if they DON'T make the effort. I'm just saying it would be so obviously lazy and dumb of them not to, I have some hope that sense will prevail.

Originally Posted by Lnds500

Cause I said something similar myself. So either we all lie, or the mistakes are actually not that noticeable when you watch the episodes. Sure if you spend your time noticing the corners instead of the action you'll notice more boom mics, cameras or lights on top, but that's just asking for it.

That is nowhere near as noticeable as actually seeing a man's face behind a huge TV camera and seeing the end of the set floor. The one you've posted looks like a jacket on the back of a chair or something, a random shape in the background, and, yes, fairly indistinguishable in context.

Also, in a 4:3 frame everything's a lot more in close up, you focus a lot more on the action because it almost fills the frame. The 16:9 composition has a lot more space for errors to take up and be noticed, and I reckon people will notice them an awful lot more than the errors in the 4:3 versions as a result.

[scorpiontail60]

You don't get to ***** about how a show is transferred until you learn how to take a proper screenshot.

[mzupeman]

Originally Posted by scorpiontail60

You don't get to ***** about how a show is transferred until you learn how to take a proper screenshot.

Why not? We're not talking about the picture quality, we're talking about the composition of certain shots here.