Friends: The Complete Series (1994-2004)

[jacksonwalker]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

Yeah, I saw some episodes on Nick at Nite last night and they did look really good overall.

Also, for some reason (even though this didn't involve any special effects shots), the scene from that episode where Monica, Joey, and Chandler are on the beach and Monica gets stung by a Jelly Fish (with pee being the solution to the pain) was really bad looking, too. Perhaps they used a different kind of camera for that scene since it was outdoors or something, and maybe it was only standard definition. I'm not sure, that's just speculation on my part. But it's not like this scene involved any kind of split screen effects like the thing with Phoebe and her sister, so it's the best reasoning that I can figure for this.

That was the part I saw. Seeing all the video smearing around Joey's face made me think this was not remastered, even though I have Nike At Nite HD.

[Craig666]

In the UK, when Channel 4 and E4 broadcast these since 1994 they have always looked awful. Comedy Central now have the rights and are beginning to advertise their broadcast starting in october. already seeing these adverts in HD show just how great this series looks in high def

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by jacksonwalker

That was the part I saw. Seeing all the video smearing around Joey's face made me think this was not remastered, even though I have Nike At Nite HD.

Yeah, but the problem was only that scene and the split screen/fx shots with 2 Lisa Kudrows on screen at the same time. The rest of the episode was in HD and looked great.

[Kenshiro 26]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

Yeah, but the problem was only that scene and the split screen/fx shots with 2 Lisa Kudrows on screen at the same time. The rest of the episode was in HD and looked great.

I expect anything with an F/X shot or something shot on location such as 'The One in London', probably will suffer from this.

All the stuff filmed on a soundstage should look very nice. Which is good, because the majority of this show was shot on controlled sets with very few F/X.

[KubrickFan]

Originally Posted by Kenshiro 26

I expect anything with an F/X shot or something shot on location such as 'The One in London', probably will suffer from this.

All the stuff filmed on a soundstage should look very nice. Which is good, because the majority of this show was shot on controlled sets with very few F/X.

The stuff shot in London looked on par with the rest on DVD, so I think that was still shot on film.
I can't remember too many special effects shots. There was one where Rachel showed Joey how to sail that was shot using a green screen. And maybe there were some similar shots with Ross and Russ, but I don't know for sure. Odd that they didn't redo those, since it's basically just patching two shots together.
If they shot the scenes whenever they're in a car using blue or green screen, then a lot of shots are going to suffer, I think.

[Kenshiro 26]

Originally Posted by KubrickFan

The stuff shot in London looked on par with the rest on DVD, so I think that was still shot on film.
I can't remember too many special effects shots. There was one where Rachel showed Joey how to sail that was shot using a green screen. And maybe there were some similar shots with Ross and Russ, but I don't know for sure. Odd that they didn't redo those, since it's basically just patching two shots together.
If they shot the scenes whenever they're in a car using blue or green screen, then a lot of shots are going to suffer, I think.

There are some shots in 'The One in London', like Joey with a video camera greeting Sarah Ferguson that will probably look pretty rough.

Another example of an optical F/X shot I saw on Nick@Nite was when Ross & Rachel go to the planetarium, shots with the dome in frame looked to be SD upconverts too.

You're right, scenes that take place in moving vehicles with rear projection backplates might suffer as well (i.e. Phoebe's Taxi Cab). Haven't come across any episodes on Nick@Nite with those scenes yet though.

The show is littered with small F/X shots, but in reality they only comprise less than 5% of the footage shot.

[BluRyan]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

....One part was when Phoebe was talking to her sister. Both parts are played by Lisa Kudrow, of course, so whenever there was a shot where they were facing each other (or in other words, whenever you specififcally can see 2 Lisa Kudrows), the quality SUBTANTIALLY dropped. It actually looked worse to me than an upconverted DVD.

I'm guessing that the "special effect" that was done to put 2 of her in the same shot must have only been rendered in SD, so that probably accounts for the difference. Other shots during that scene, in which you would see Lisa Kudrow playing on character, and you would only see the back of the other character's head (which was just someone else standing in since you don't see the face), everything went back to nice, clear HD. It was actually kind of jarring since it kept jumping back and forth between the 2 different levels of quality. I'm assuming that this will likely be an issue for any other episodes in which she plays both parts...

Actually, I was expecting this but I was surprised when I discovered that this wasn't a problem during 'The One With Two Parts' which I downloaded online in 720p HD. It was a small file size so the screencaps don't really do it justice but the scenes with two of Lisa Kudrow looked exactly like all the other scenes, just as perfect which means they must have put some effort in there. Here are three screencaps and believe me, they may not be perfect quality but they trump that of the DVD!

[Show spoiler]

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Hmmm... interesting! That does look pretty good there.

I'm not sure why it was so terrible on the episode that I saw last night, but it was pretty bad looking. I mean, I think putting the DVD in my BD player upscaled and zoomed in would probably look better (not MUCH better, but still better) than what I saw last night.

Let's hope most of these cases look more like the example you posted, and not like what I saw last night.

[Ace of Sevens]

They may have changed techniques for the split. With a fixed camera where they each stay in their own part of the frame, you can do it in camera.

[BluRyan]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

Hmmm... interesting! That does look pretty good there.

I'm not sure why it was so terrible on the episode that I saw last night, but it was pretty bad looking. I mean, I think putting the DVD in my BD player upscaled and zoomed in would probably look better (not MUCH better, but still better) than what I saw last night.

Let's hope most of these cases look more like the example you posted, and not like what I saw last night.

Yeah because before I downloaded it a couple months back I was expecting to see what you posted about, how it looked SD compared to everything else but I was shocked and very pleased to see that they had put the effort in to properly remaster these shots. I can only hope they do the same for car scenes etc, like you said, but I'm sure they will make everything look like the above screenshots for the BD release.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

I was checking my cable menu for what other episodes will be airing and tomorrow night at 9pm/8pm Central time, the episode "The One with Russ" will be on, in which Rachel is dating a guy named Russ, who turns out to be a near carbon copy of Ross, with David Schwimmer playing both parts. It's been a while since I've seen that episode, but I'm pretty sure that there is a split screen effect or two in it. I set my DVR to record it to see how it looks.

[bboisvert]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

I'm pretty sure that there is a split screen effect or two in it.

Yup...

Here's a reference in standard def:

[Gempulse]

Friends just recently came onto the Nick at Nite line-up and they have been playing 'all nite' marathons since Monday. I have been watching it (in HD obviously) and it looks great... even the earlier episodes.

[Drewbee87]

Originally Posted by bboisvert

Yup...

Here's a reference in standard def:

Here's an HD cap from one of the German 720p episodes that are online, hopefully it looks this good in the Nick@Nite airing!:

[Show spoiler]

[Dave_6]

I caught a few of these episodes last night and I can't believe how good they look! I love this show and hopefully they will be announced sometime soon.

[Mark Malmstrøm]

oh... the details in Ross's hair - so what if they stand in a 4:3 picture - as long as they have free air around them i don't mind it in 16:9


When will they release it

[Kenshiro 26]

Originally Posted by Drewbee87

Here's an HD cap from one of the German 720p episodes that are online, hopefully it looks this good in the Nick@Nite airing!:

[Show spoiler]

Here's the Nick@Nite cap for comparison.

[Show spoiler]

[Craig02]

Originally Posted by Craig666

In the UK, when Channel 4 and E4 broadcast these since 1994 they have always looked awful. Comedy Central now have the rights and are beginning to advertise their broadcast starting in october. already seeing these adverts in HD show just how great this series looks in high def

Thanks for the info, I was hopeing some channel in the UK would broadcast them in HD

[BluRyan]

I've been watching the first season in HD for the last week, every night, and last night I had to watch the Season 2 Premiere on DVD. Let me tell you, it was almost impossible to watch, the quality was atrocious, the 4:3 ratio made everything feel claustrophobic. This just HAS to come out on Blu-ray, and soon!!!

[Mark Malmstrøm]

the german looks sharper