Night/Werewolf encode error: wrong framerate

[Teazle]

Sorry if this has been posted already.

The AVC encode on BCI's "Night of the Werewolf" (finally tried it last night) seems to have been botched. The motion is jerky as though it's been set for the wrong framerate. It's especially noticeable when the camera pans or zooms or when there's something which should move fluidly e.g. a car driving slowly by. The action appears to go in fits and starts.

I'm sure this is not a problem with my player, firmware or settings (up-to-date PS3) and have never seen this before with any other BD.

In fact, the only time I've seen anything like it was on my amateur mp2 to AVC rips for my PSP, when I failed to specify the framerate correctly for 24fps content. There I got the _exact same_ jerky effect (whether playing back the file on the PSP or PS3). Somebody appears to have made a corresponding mistake on Werewolf (though presumably not using PSP Video 9!).

"Vengeance of the Zombies" (second disc in the set) is OK. All the same I'll return the set later this morning since the motion problem is basically unwatchable.

EDIT: See posts #5 and 6 below re: Zombies.

[Rob71]

That sucks, I was really interested in this one.

[owa]

Hmm, I didn't notice that but I'll try to watch it again tonight and pay more attention to the issue.

Edit: Actually, just popped it in and I do see what you're talking about. I don't think I gave it much thought the first time I saw it thinking it was just b/c it was a low-budget flick (and like a lot of old-timey flicks that aren't real smooth). Even at the very beginning when they stab the guy in the heart and that picture is paused (frozen) for a while, the whole picture is moving back and forth. I kind of thought they were filming it while holding the camera or something. Not quite shaky-cam style but rather not having a big enough budget to have the cameras mounted on something to make it smooth when moving. After looking at it again just now, I'm not sure what to think about it.

[Son of Dolemite]

The disc is bad... I own the Sister Street Fighter disc and it does the same thing. This is not a shooting style, you should contact BCI ASAP or return your disc. I had to pull my Sister Street Fighter DVD BOX SET to confirm how the film was shot also. I sent my disc back to AMAZON for a replacement and the second disc did this as well. There is no excuse for such shoddy work.

[Clark Kent]

I just watched Vengeance of the Zombies and my copy appears to do the same thing the original poster has with Night of the Werewolf(I haven't checked that disc yet). At first I thought it might be the style but it appears to be some type of encoding error. Every few minutes an annoying framejump would occur but the picture doesn't break up. Does BCI realize it needs to be mastered at 1080P with 24 frames per second? It looks almost like bad judder but I don't know. It's a shame as the Blu-ray itself looks pretty good for what it is if one ignores the weird frame jumping problem.

[Teazle]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

I just watched Vengeance of the Zombies and my copy appears to do the same thing the original poster has with Night of the Werewolf(I haven't checked that disc yet). At first I thought it might be the style but it appears to be some type of encoding error. Every few minutes an annoying framejump would occur but the picture doesn't break up. Does BCI realize it needs to be mastered at 1080P with 24 frames per second? It looks almost like bad judder but I don't know. It's a shame as the Blu-ray itself looks pretty good for what it is if one ignores the weird frame jumping problem.

I would re-check Zombies but I returned the set Sat am ... I didn't watch it very far in so I could have been wrong there; maybe it's botched too. Definitely they didn't encode Werewolf for 24fps. This is easily the worst screw-up I've seen on any Blu-ray to date.

[Clark Kent]

Update on my situation:

I watched Night of the Werewolf yesterday and can say my copy of the movie is perfectly fine with no weird skipping or frame jumping. For people unaware each movie comes on its own BD-25 disc. My disc of Vengeance of the Zombies had the same problem the OP had with Night of the Werewolf. So good copies of Night of the Werewolf are out there. I would love to see if anyone here has a working copy of Vengeance that doesn't skip or frame jump. I'm waiting on a replacement currently but I might have to mix and match to find working copies of both movies.

[Marcusarilius]

I have it. Watched it on my Panny BD30 and did not notice any of those artifacts mentioned. It looked pretty damn good to me.

[Clark Kent]

Originally Posted by Marcusarilius

I have it. Watched it on my Panny BD30 and did not notice any of those artifacts mentioned. It looked pretty damn good to me.

I thought Vengeance of the Zombies looked very good for a low budget catalog title. It looked better to me than the newer Night of the Werewolf.

[Clark Kent]

Update #2:

My second copy from Amazon of Vengeance of the Zombies has the same problems my first copy had. The skipping seems to be less frequent on the new copy but it still is annoying and jarring. I'm thinking of giving up on this title for now. I can't imagine they pressed that many copies of this title. I wonder if Amazon's whole stock is bad or this is just a certain percentage of bad stock. This is the first problem BD I've ever had.

[sean10mm]

There are a lot of reports of BCI's Blu-ray releases being defective. Both the Sister Street Fighter double-feature and this one have reports of everything from skipping frames to just plain dead discs.

Apparently BCI is just incompetent. I'd avoid their Blu-rays.

[cydetrakd]

Originally Posted by Son of Dolemite

The disc is bad... I own the Sister Street Fighter disc and it does the same thing. This is not a shooting style, you should contact BCI ASAP or return your disc. I had to pull my Sister Street Fighter DVD BOX SET to confirm how the film was shot also. I sent my disc back to AMAZON for a replacement and the second disc did this as well. There is no excuse for such shoddy work.

i had to do the same thing i decided to keep it in hopes that they will fix the problem and i can get a replacement that wont do this then.

[Arkadin]

I have been interested in finding out the reason why bci only encodes in 1080i. Is it because they don't have the ability hardware/softwarewise?
or are they just too cheap?
Anyway, it seems that whether or not there is truly an issue with these discs is debateable. The member who has the Panny bd-30 says he noticed NO problems. I have a Panny player also, and will order this disc from Amazon and report back. I have been planning on getting this release anyway, and this gives me a good reason to go ahead and order it.

[Jim]

I also have the Panny BD30 and this is easily the worst quality HD movie I've seen, both disks. I would not be surprised to find out that they simply took the DVD files and burned them onto a Blu-ray disk and called it good. It looks exactly like when I watch a poor quality DVD disk and the machine is trying to upscale it but it just does not have enough to work with.

[Deputy Doug]

What players did you all experience these problems on? A reviewer on another site just reviewed this title and didn't report any problems like what was reported here, but a poster on that site's board did reported experiencing them.

I, too, am wondering if it could be a player specific problem. The complaints where the type of player is known came from PS3 users. One poster here confirmed no problems with a Panasonic BD-30. Any other reports?

[owa]

It was jerky for me on the PS3.

Are you talking about the HDD review? If so, yeah, I saw that and noticed they didn't have any issue with it.

[jrchisholm]

Has there been any developments for a replacement on these discs. I just now watched the first Sister Street Fighter and my disc definitely has issues also. Watched on PS3 with latest firmware.