Cartoons and DNR (1 Viewer)

[DaViD Boulet]

Chris,

that article is outstanding. Everyone should read it!!! Especially WB...

 

[Chris*W]

I enjoy both of the sets as well, but I certainly wouldn't consider this issue to be unimportant like you do. If WB is only releasing 60 cartoons a year, why can't they get the transfers right? As the article states, Disney doesn't even use DVNR technology; they restore frame by frame. Disney has released more classic animation per year than Warners. What I don't understand is how a company that makes 4K resolution transfers of films can use such cheap and crappy restoration technology on some of their most valuable assets. You don't see any DVNR on Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, or Meet Me in St. Louis. As far as I'm concerned, the Looney Tunes library is just as important as all of the previously mentioned features. The Warners animation department has to get their head out of their you-know-what, especially after a disaster like the "Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection". Rant over.

 

[LaurenceGarvey]

I talked one of my Internet pals into ordering the Betty Boop set from France, and now, I hardly ever get to speak with him, because he's always watching those damn cartoons. *L*

 

[David Mackenzie]

Hey everyone,

I've been lurking here for awhile and it's great to visit a forum that's not only friendly but doesn't have the aimless attitude of many others... it seems that people on here really care about DVD and the presentation of DVD software. So, I decided to sign up.

I'm quite pleased how that Wall Street Journal article came out, although I thought they made it sound like I got upset over one missing vine which sounds a little more trivial. In reality I'm more annoyed about the attitudes toward animation and using gimmicky "improvement systems" in general.

Either way, I think it came out very well and I'm glad the public got to read about this. Hopefully Warners will be more careful next time around. (BTW, I'm the one behind the Lyris-Lite site in case you're wondering).

 

[Patrick McCart]

Well, even if the French set is without DVNR, it will likely be pretty mediocre compared to what Paramount could do with the cartoons.

UCLA has restored and preserved most of the Boops, so it's just a matter of utilizing those great elements.

Now that it's almost June, I wonder if the Republic DVD rights have fully reverted back to Paramount yet. We know Twin Peaks: Season 2 is being worked on, so perhaps that's an indication of the rights being returned. Paramount already has it listed on their website that new restorations of High Noon and It's a Wonderful Life are either ready or in the works.

 

[David Mackenzie]

Think this deserves a bump.

Everyone concerned with the small number of cartoons put through this technology like me, I bring you proof that deep inside Warner Home Video, we are making a difference of some description.

Using my web server's tracking facility, I can see where my visitors are coming from. Unsurprisingly, a huge number came from the Wall Street Journal's web site. I did however, find this interesting one in the list:

outlook2k.warnerbros.com/Exchange/(NAME)/LT GOLDEN DVNR PROBLEM/MORE DVNR FALLOUT.EML

Note that I've removed the part of the address that contained the full name of that particular persons' email inbox, out of respect for their privacy. The URL however does show that the in the email system, there's an entire folder called "LT Golden DVNR Problem" and my article has been linked to internally in an email with the subject "More DVNR fallout" - emphasis on MORE.

So, it looks like Warner are listening and are committed to catching these sort of errors in the future. We can hopefully expect excellent sets instead of just very good ones.

 

[Chris S]

Very interesting....

Ron has always said that WHV monitors the site closely but I was always skeptical on home much they really see. But lets not assume too much based on web traffic.



At most this shows that Warner is well aware of the problem since there is "more" fallout. I think its easier to assume that they are trying to determine the extent of the damage they believe that this will do / is doing to their sales and public image. Otherwise why would it appear as though they are tracking the issue when they could simply fix it outright. I just don't see the logic that this shows they are working to catch the errors and fix them in the future.

My guess is that the information they see here and elsewhere (WSJ, etc) will likely be the deciding factor on whether they believe it is cost effective to do away with DVNR. My hope (and prayers) is they will.

 

[David Mackenzie]

Probably true, it was more wishful thinking on my part than anything else. I always imagined big corporations simply ignoring things outright that they didn't see to be a threat, though. Who knows - we'll have to wait and see. I imagine the cartoons already prepared for Volume 3 with DVNR won't be redone, but we can hope.

 

[ChrisPearson]

So, while there's no indication that the seven affected cartoons on LTGC1 & 2 will be reissued sans DVNR, this does suggest it might not be a problem on future releases.

BTW, Dave, thanks for raising awareness of this issue.

 

[David Mackenzie]

Yeah, that's what I was hoping for - it seems unlikely they'd rerelease the affected DVNR'ed ones from earlier sets. Doing a proper restoration on "Have you got any Castles" would be nice, though - there's some odd splice marks that are so easy to take out. They could even bury it in the Special Features menu of volume 3 and pass it off as a "newly discovered version" or something if they wanted to disguise it.

That's great news from Jerry Beck, too. Hopefully they'll be extra-careful. And thanks to everyone on forums like this one for actually taking the issue seriously instead of dismissing it as another thing that we can just out up with and let slip.

 

[Patrick McCart]

They probably could have digitally removed the lines, but not on film. Considering that the print with the edit marks (that's what the diagonal lines are) is the only one that exists, I doubt anyone wants to risk damaging the print by removing the grease pencil lines.

 

[David Mackenzie]

Aha, that's what those are. Well, I actually attempted my own little amateur restoration job of that one myself. The very first set of marks in there are very hard to paint out. But, if you'll notice, what looks to me like the exact same shot only in reverse is used at the end of the cartoon. I lifted that, timed it properly, and reversed the footage. Maybe there's some difference in that shot though, which would explain why they didn't do this.

All of the other edit marks are on static backgrounds so all they'd need to do is take a small loop of frames from before and replace the marked frames. In other words freeze the image, but loop a number of frames to avoid a static video freeze and keep the film grain moving.

There's no way to remove that excessive DVNR though. So this little personal project of mine was more of a time killer and video editing expirement than anything else.