Combat! - Season 2 (1 Viewer)

[Randy A Salas]

I hesitate to fuel the negativity that seems to dominate every thread on this board, but for purely informational purposes:

The episodes on the second-season Combat! DVDs continue to average about 47 minutes each, just as on the first-season collections. Like those episodes, they are probably taken from time-compressed prints, not edited from their original length of about 49-50 minutes. This is based on my sampling various episodes on the upcoming discs, which I received a few days ago.

For folks who are old enough to understand the reference, this level of time compression is about the equivalent of playing a 33 1/3 RPM record at 34 2/3 to 35 RPM. That's not that noticeable to most people, but it's there nonetheless.

 

[James Landau]

Randy, my objection to time compression is not the actual speed up per se, but rather the artifacts that the Lexicon process leaves behind. The process does attempt to maintain pitch while performing the speed up so audio artifacts are minimal unless they really crank up the compression. The video artifacts are a whole other matter unfortunately. They are extremely visible and annoying and only become worse as the compression increases. The effects can most easily be seen in areas with fine, high contrast detail.

If you've ever noticed the closing credits of an old, syndicated movie cycling between slightly blurred and sharp or the thickness of horizontal lines on letters such as T or A cycling between two different widths, then you've seen the results of time compression. In my opinion, it's far more noticeable and annoying than the edge enhancement that many people complain about.

 

[Chuck_W]

Thanks Randy....any info you provide on the set is welcome and appreciated.

 

[Randy A Salas]

You're welcome, Chuck.

Image obviously has a production cost and price point that it has targeted for these DVDs, and they don't include demanding and restoring/remastering from the original prints. I had hoped that Image might try a new approach to the second-season set, but sales of the first season appear to have dictated that nothing changes.

It should be noted that a common refrain related to these old ABC-produced movies and TV shows is that Disney won't provide anything but these modified masters, so I'm not sure if there's any other option for the licensees, like MGM and Image.