Doctor Who: The Collection Season 7 (Jon Pertwee Season 1)

[Megazeti]

and admittedly its on a social media site where you're not seeing the original file to examine it in detail you're just a seeing a smaller upload of the original file.

[LigandFields]

Originally Posted by TheMeddlingMonk

Given what they had to work with for this season, even the DVDs were an impressive result. The blurays will definitely look better just due to the higher bitrate, better encoding and improvements to noise reduction algorithms (which, if the other 70s boxsets are anything to go by, the team involved has worked out the appropriate DNR to significantly reduce the analog picture noise whilst preserving details).

Yeah, there BIG improvements on bluray for stories like COLONY IN SPACE and CURSE OF PELADON - when I compared the DVD I was surprised how crap it looked in retrospect!

[TheMeddlingMonk]

Originally Posted by LigandFields

Yeah, there BIG improvements on bluray for stories like COLONY IN SPACE and CURSE OF PELADON - when I compared the DVD I was surprised how crap it looked in retrospect!

I think these two stories were the only two from the DVD range that didn't get a second release using an improved restoration technique and so show a significant improvement on the Blurays.

Some of the Pertwee era only survives as NTSC transmission masters produced for the North American market. Inferno, The Claws of Axos, Colony in Space, and a few others were released on DVD using the Reverse Standards Conversion process (which was the result of a lot of research to mathematically unpick the 70s PAL->NTSC conversion). RSC was a step up from just converting the NTSC tapes back to PAL again, as it yielded smooth motion. Unfortunately it also had a problem with the amount of colour noise it produced.

In the case of other stories like The Mind of Evil and Episode 3 of Planet of the Daleks, only 16mm B&W film conversions survived in the BBC archives. These were produced by playing the PAL masters on a B&W TV screen and capturing them with a film camera (unfortunately this did crop the image slightly, as the overscan area was not visible on the screen). Ironically, if one didn't filter the colour signal when doing it, it would manifest as noise in the picture. The Restoration Team worked out that they could actually recover the original colour signal from these chroma dots - hence Chroma Dot Colour Recovery (a notable exception is Invasion of the Dinosaurs Episode 1, where it seems an attempt was made to filter the colour signal but it wasn't done properly - so the colour recovery technique only produced partial colour, mostly the reds and greens, for that episode).

The Restoration Team later worked out that they could combine three of their techniques - the original colour overlay approach they used in the 90s (for the first attempts at recolourising The Silurians, Terror of the Autons and The Daemons), the RSC process and the Chroma Dot Colour Recovery - to get a superior result. This lead to The Claws of Axos SE DVD:

https://web.archive.org/web/20211017...fAxosRedux.htm

The same was done with the Inferno SE DVD release, but Colony in Space and The Curse of Peladon missed out.

The version of these two stories on the Bluray boxsets, though, uses this improved restoration technique (to the best of my knowledge). Because there is a slight loss of the picture area between the 16mm film versions and the NTSC masters, the RSC versions are still included as an extra in these boxsets so that fans have the choice.

[oddbox83]

Originally Posted by TheMeddlingMonk

I doubt it. That particular screenshot looks like the DNR and sharpening were slightly too high (DNR has removed some of the skin texture and the sharpening has made the edges of his shirt harsh). I can't see any obvious signs of AI.

Has it even done that?

A bit of noise and compression artefacts on the iPlayer stream can given the illusion of greater detail, when it's not actual detail at all.

That said, I have heard they're using AI-assisted tools now. Which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who realises AI doesn't automatically mean firing it though Topaz without a care like Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death.

[oddbox83]

Originally Posted by Ivanhoe52

This has apparently got a new Chroma Dot Colour Recovery.

Possibly this is why it has two discs on the set. One disc will be based on the domestic off-air colour restoration while the other disc will be the colour recovery version.

They do Colour Recovery on all of these Pertwee telerecordings now as part of the process can unwarp the film and restore the original geometry. So the NTSC colour can overlay much more closely without having to warp it like they did in the original recolourisations. So the Inferno SE DVD used that method for example (and presumably doesn't need redone from scratch for Blu-ray) but the Silurians DVD came from before they were doing that.

They'll likely only use the actual colour recovery to patch in bits missing or poorer quality from the off-airs rather than a completely separate restoration. I'm sure the only one to get an older restoration included in full will be Inferno as the original DVD was RSC.

[Mattmck99]

Full details:

https://www.doctorwho.tv/news-and-fe...-blu-ray-range

[Todd Fredericks]

The HMV 20% code doesn't seem to work on this one. Looking forward to it nevertheless.

[TwinCitiesBluFan]

Originally Posted by Todd Fredericks

The HMV 20% code doesn't seem to work on this one.

Rarewaves has a 10% code for this title specifically, so I think that's where I'll order from. I've been really happy with their shipping speed and packaging since I started using them!

[CouncilSpectre]

Originally Posted by Todd Fredericks

The HMV 20% code doesn't seem to work on this one. Looking forward to it nevertheless.

I don't think it's this set specifically. I tried a code with a bunch of other stuff and it didn't work on that either. Hopefully a temporary glitch rather than a change in policy re pre-orders.

[Deciazulado]

Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 7 Blu-ray

[duggie walker]

Originally Posted by CouncilSpectre

I don't think it's this set specifically. I tried a code with a bunch of other stuff and it didn't work on that either. Hopefully a temporary glitch rather than a change in policy re pre-orders.

FWIW, I noticed that the referral scheme page seems to have disappeared. I presumed that it was for xmas but it might well be permanent. Let's face it, it's not going to last forever, though I suspect they'll lose a lot of custom if it goes.

[CouncilSpectre]

Originally Posted by duggie walker

FWIW, I noticed that the referral scheme page seems to have disappeared. I presumed that it was for xmas but it might well be permanent. Let's face it, it's not going to last forever, though I suspect they'll lose a lot of custom if it goes.

I don't think there's a direct link to it from the homepage, that changed a little while ago, but you can still get to it:

https://hmv.com/refer-a-friend

It's a scheme that's so wide open to abuse that I'm surprised it took them this long to address it if it were really an issue for them. It wouldn't surprise me if they removed pre-orders eligibility, but I can't see them removing it completely as, like you say, I would think it would impact a significant % of sales.

Hopefully a glitch, but if not then just more ammo for the "buy less" argument.

[LigandFields]

Originally Posted by Megazeti

and admittedly its on a social media site where you're not seeing the original file to examine it in detail you're just a seeing a smaller upload of the original file.

Trying to compare downscales of upscales is something of a fool's errand

[Todd Fredericks]

Hopefully, it's a glitch.

[JohnnyF]

Originally Posted by TheMeddlingMonk

Although 1 & 5 may swap around if they decide to do a Troughton animation next (and the fact that the BBC doesn't want anything to do with the 3D fan animation of The Wheel in Space just might indicate they're working on that behind the scenes).

Which is weird as it’s VERY well done. That only two people worked on it is incredible. (Granted, the BBC has been more keen on color animations in 1.78 so maybe if they did a second version like that…)

[duggie walker]

Originally Posted by CouncilSpectre

I don't think there's a direct link to it from the homepage, that changed a little while ago, but you can still get to it:

https://hmv.com/refer-a-friend

It's a scheme that's so wide open to abuse that I'm surprised it took them this long to address it if it were really an issue for them. It wouldn't surprise me if they removed pre-orders eligibility, but I can't see them removing it completely as, like you say, I would think it would impact a significant % of sales.

Hopefully a glitch, but if not then just more ammo for the "buy less" argument.

All I get when I click that link is the "refer a friend" title and no info, which is what I was alluding to earlier.

That said, it would make perfect business sense to shut it down for the xmas period. Too early to pronounce it permanently dead.

[CouncilSpectre]

Originally Posted by duggie walker

All I get when I click that link is the "refer a friend" title and no info, which is what I was alluding to earlier.

That said, it would make perfect business sense to shut it down for the xmas period. Too early to pronounce it permanently dead.

Might be a browser issue. If I click that link I can enter my details to register still....

[duggie walker]

Originally Posted by CouncilSpectre

Might be a browser issue. If I click that link I can enter my details to register still....

Really? Interesting. I've seen other people having the same issue in the HMV thread. I'll check it out.

[CouncilSpectre]

Originally Posted by duggie walker

Really? Interesting. I've seen other people having the same issue in the HMV thread. I'll check it out.

I'm using Chrome if that helps

[Jamiouse]

No trailer, yet. I hope there is one, I wonder if the leak has impacted on their original plans for the press release?