A Few Words About A few words about...™ Downton Abbey - Season Two -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by nealg /t/318842/a-few-words-about-downton-abbey-season-two-in-blu-ray#post_3901302
Out of options, Friday evening I was able to exchange the set at Barnes and Noble. I had bet my wife $50 that the discs would be identical. Good thing for her, she didn't take the bet.
I had watched about half of Season 2 already on PBS. I never noticed a problem until I popped in the Blu-ray to finish the season (and see what had been cut from the PBS broadcast). I'll have to go back and check the recordings on the dvr for the problem. I'll report back.

Possibly they removed only all of the bad frames from broadcast.

 

[nealg]

Possibly they removed only all of the bad frames from broadcast.

This appears to be the case.
I just watched the opening 20 minutes or so on the dvr. Motion is nice and smooth, no anomalies. The color and contrast are far inferior to the Blu-ray, but there is absolutely no problem with frame rates.
My player doesn't seem to like the disc very well, either. I tried to search and it locked up. It was very hard to eject the disc. Then I had to put another disc in before Downton Abbey would re-load. Very odd.
Methinks somebody screwed up here big-time.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by nealg /t/318842/a-few-words-about-downton-abbey-season-two-in-blu-ray#post_3901342
This appears to be the case.
I just watched the opening 20 minutes or so on the dvr. Motion is nice and smooth, no anomalies. The color and contrast are far inferior to the Blu-ray, but there is absolutely no problem with frame rates.
My player doesn't seem to like the disc very well, either. I tried to search and it locked up. It was very hard to eject the disc. Then I had to put another disc in before Downton Abbey would re-load. Very odd.
Methinks somebody screwed up here big-time.

A quality show deserves a quality presentation.

PBS should review their QC notes.

RAH

 

[Kris Deering]

I don't have the US version but have the UK one. I didn't have any stutter at all on it. There was one episode that I wasn't impressed at all with how they shot it (almost like they brought on a new cameraman for that one) but I saw no technical issues at all. I enjoyed the season a lot and found it as good as the first season in terms of entertainment. We watched the finale Christmas Special via iTunes the other night as I didn't want to pay nearly twenty dollars for the BD from the UK just to watch a single episode.

 

[marsnkc]

Apparently the discs pressed themselves..

Abbey Ghosts!..........
It'll be a while before I get around to watching even the first season. Don't want to spoil my enjoyment by having to check every episode of Series 2 for problems, so taking no chances. It's going back (while there's time) to be reordered from Amazon UK.

 

[Robert Harris]

I've now ordered a set of the UK pressings for comparison, and if some of the comments (above) are correct, those discs may be without, or at least with fewer, problems in S2.

 

[Coressel]

I'm in the middle of Season 2 now, and while the picture had that jerky look on my local PBS station, no such thing occurs on my Blu Ray. Everything looks and works fine on my Sony Blu Ray player and Panasonic plasma display. The only oddity I've noticed is that the audio is pretty hot. The picture is fine. Not the best I've seen, but certainly not unwatchable.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Coressel /t/318842/a-few-words-about-downton-abbey-season-two-in-blu-ray#post_3901790
I'm in the middle of Season 2 now, and while the picture had that jerky look on my local PBS station, no such thing occurs on my Blu Ray. Everything looks and works fine on my Sony Blu Ray player and Panasonic plasma display. The only oddity I've noticed is that the audio is pretty hot. The picture is fine. Not the best I've seen, but certainly not unwatchable.

What product are you viewing?

 

[Coressel]

This one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005Q1W0ZQ/ref=oh_o04_s00_i00_details

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Coressel /t/318842/a-few-words-about-downton-abbey-season-two-in-blu-ray#post_3901803
This one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005Q1W0ZQ/ref=oh_o04_s00_i00_details

What this is telling me, is that, unless you may not be sensitive to repeated frames (some people are not), then the problem is hardware specific, and not UK vs. US release.

Are you seeing no motion artifacts during pans or horseless carriages moving across the screen?

The thick plottens...

 

[Coressel]

Originally Posted by Robert Harris /t/318842/a-few-words-about-downton-abbey-season-two-in-blu-ray/30#post_3901816
Are you seeing no motion artifacts during pans or horseless carriages moving across the screen?

I saw a ton of that on the PBS broadcast, but not as much on the discs. A few minor cases of a sort of motion blur, but nothing horrible. And no herky-jerky jumps or stutters at all.

My Blu Ray player is the Sony BX57, if that helps or means anything.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Coressel /t/318842/a-few-words-about-downton-abbey-season-two-in-blu-ray/30#post_3901822

I saw a ton of that on the PBS broadcast, but not as much on the discs. A few minor cases of a sort of motion blur, but nothing horrible. And no herky-jerky jumps or stutters at all.

My Blu Ray player is the Sony BX57, if that helps or means anything.

Thank you. Now waiting for my UK discs to arrive, as well as feedback from the guru of gurus.

 

[Craig S]

I just looked at a few scenes from disc 1 of this set on my PS3. Everything looked OK through numerous scenes with camera moves. I was just about to pop the disc out and declare it OK on my setup when there was a scene with a simple right to left pan across a room and I definitely noticed a little hesitation or stutter every few frames. But it only lasted as long as the pan (which was 2 or 3 seconds).

Without watching at least an full episode or two I can't say whether the problem is bad enough for me to consider the disc unwatchable. if it only happens in the occasional short scene I could probably live with it. That said, if the problem doesn't exist in the Season 1 discs (which I have yet to watch) and does in S2, then something definitely was done wrong and the set should be recalled & fixed.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Craig S /t/318842/a-few-words-about-downton-abbey-season-two-in-blu-ray/30#post_3901905
I just looked at a few scenes from disc 1 of this set on my PS3. Everything looked OK through numerous scenes with camera moves. I was just about to pop the disc out and declare it OK on my setup when there was a scene with a simple right to left pan across a room and I definitely noticed a little hesitation or stutter every few frames. But it only lasted as long as the pan (which was 2 or 3 seconds).

Without watching at least an full episode or two I can't say whether the problem is bad enough for me to consider the disc unwatchable. if it only happens in the occasional short scene I could probably live with it. That said, if the problem doesn't exist in the Season 1 discs (which I have yet to watch) and does in S2, then something definitely was done wrong and the set should be recalled & fixed.

S1 is hardly noticeable. S2 is in one's face from the very first shot.

RAH

 

[nealg]

Since not everyone is seeing problems, I'm wondering if it plays OK in some players. MattH also said that he so no jerkies on a PS3. He saw no problems on his Panny 310, either. I will try to play this on a recent vintage Panny at Best Buy, but I don't think I have access to a PS3.
Maybe something in the authoring requires a firmware update. Seems odd, since it's not like it's Avatar. And it's 1080i. State of the art encoding.

 

[haineshisway]

What this is telling me, is that, unless you may not be sensitive to repeated frames (some people are not), then the problem is hardware specific, and not UK vs. US release.
Are you seeing no motion artifacts during pans or horseless carriages moving across the screen?
The thick plottens...

I think the plot does not thicken I think some people just don't see it or don't care - it can't be player specific as I've tried it on multiple players and it most certainly jerks on every one of them. And I doubt it's the display device. Anyway, season two just arrived from the UK so I'll report back momentarily.

 

[haineshisway]

Well, I've just spot-checked several scenes of several episodes with nary a problem in sight. Smooth as silk and looking wonderful - every shot, just as season one did on the UK disc. I'm talking about the UK version of season two, BTW. Smooth as a baby's bottom.

 

[Jeff F.]

I thougt it was just me, but I noticed the same issues with the picture. Even my wife - who never notices these things - asked what was up with the "jumpy" picture. I have both a PS3 and a new Panasonic BD player, and it does the same on both. Could this possibly be a PAL speed-up issue?

 

[Craig S]

I think PAL is an SD-only standard. It doesn't apply to HD releases.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by haineshisway /t/318842/a-few-words-about-downton-abbey-season-two-in-blu-ray/30#post_3901989
I think the plot does not thicken I think some people just don't see it or don't care - it can't be player specific as I've tried it on multiple players and it most certainly jerks on every one of them. And I doubt it's the display device. Anyway, season two just arrived from the UK so I'll report back momentarily.

I had checked in on an Oppo 83, an Oppo 93 and a PS3, with the same issue on all players, and three different screens. All with the same problem.

Some people, and this is not in any way meant as a negative, are simply less affected by this sort of thing. Rather like an allergy to peanuts or shellfish...

but without serious health issues.

RAH