Mastering errors on legacy bonus features on recent Warner Archive titles (King Solomon’s Mines, The Boy With Green Hair, One Way Passage, etc.) (1 Viewer)

[Chuck Pennington]

Caught a mastering error on a bunch of Warner Archive Blu-rays of legacy bonus features being horizontally stretched. I’m not suggesting they recall and fix discs; just correct how they upscale standard def sources for future releases. I mean, do you see how one of these is correct and one looks horizontally stretched? One is of the trailer on King Solomon’s Mines and the other is from the same shot (not exact frame) in the feature film encode on the disc.

 

[Chuck Pennington]

Frame grab of the horizontally-distorted trailer on The Long, Long Trailer Blu-ray, and a bonus short similarly maligned on the same disc.

 

[Chuck Pennington]

Bonus short distorted on The Boy With Green Hair Blu-ray.

 

[Chuck Pennington]

I made this video to demonstrate the difference between the trailer on the One Way Passage disc as is and when adjusted to correct the distortion. I’m thinking it might have something to do with the engineer taking the 720x420 standard definition source and not adjusting it for the proper display proportions of 640x480.

 

[Robert Harris]

Caught a mastering error on a bunch of Warner Archive Blu-rays of legacy bonus features being horizontally stretched. I’m not suggesting they recall and fix discs; just correct how they upscale standard def sources for future releases. I mean, do you see how one of these is correct and one looks horizontally stretched? One is of the trailer on King Solomon’s Mines and the other is from the same shot (not exact frame) in the feature film encode on the disc.

The images you've posted may be two different takes - possibly one before and one after crew break and lunch.

I would submit that this is not a "mastering error," but rather simple weight gain.

 

[Malcolm R]

I would submit that this is not a "mastering error," but rather simple weight gain.

They say the camera does add 10 pounds.

 

[Paul Penna]

I've noticed this on many WAC Blus over the past couple years. I posted about the Long Long Trailer bonus content back in January. It's definitely stretching. I made this screenshot comparison (directly off the disc, not a photo of a display) of The Strawberry Blonde feature vs. the trailer. Note how the image frame itself is wider. The issue seems restricted to up-rezzed SD material, not native HD, like the bonus restored cartoons.

 

[Alan Tully]

I wouldn't notice as I hardly ever look at the bonus features these days (the film's the thing). The worse Warner error I can remember is on the 1962 Mutiny On The Bounty; the included start & end that was cut out of the film & included as a (great) extra, is in the wrong aspect ratio, I think the picture is stretched tall & thin (I can't be bothered to check). It was like it on the DVD & I thought they were bound to correct it for the Blu-ray, but no, & not a single review (that I read) mentioned it. No doubt when the amazing looking 4K (scanned from the original negatives) is released, the fault will be rectified. It will happen one day, won't it?

 

[Chuck Pennington]

Bonus featurette on the Flamingo Road Blu-ray that is horizontally stretched compared to the same featurette on DVD. Also included here is a screen capture of the breakdown reel that is also distorted (the trailer for the film is not affected).

 

[Chuck Pennington]

Am I the only one who sees this as a problem? I don’t typically keep my old DVDs when a new, superior release is issued. If only the legacy features were properly authored to avoid distortion on the new Blu-rays… The image on the standard def source has had its width expanded by 11% on the Blu-ray.

 

[Paul Penna]

Am I the only one who sees this as a problem? I don’t typically keep my old DVDs when a new, superior release is issued. If only the legacy features were properly authored to avoid distortion on the new Blu-rays… The image on the standard def source has had its width expanded by 11% on the Blu-ray.

Well, there's me, anyway. But really, this is happening enough to indicate there's a glitch in the pipeline that some things like this are following on their way onto WAC Blus. I can't watch these stretched things without being constantly aware that things look off.

 

[mark brown]

Bothers me, yes, but not enough to lose a night’s sleep!

 

[Ernest]

Caught a mastering error on a bunch of Warner Archive Blu-rays of legacy bonus features being horizontally stretched. I’m not suggesting they recall and fix discs; just correct how they upscale standard def sources for future releases. I mean, do you see how one of these is correct and one looks horizontally stretched? One is of the trailer on King Solomon’s Mines and the other is from the same shot (not exact frame) in the feature film encode on the disc.

You make a good point but these old titles don't sell a lot of copies so it is nice to have them on Bluray even with the flaw you note.

 

[Indy Guy]

I have to manually push the 4x3 aspect button on my processor. Normally it adjusts 4x3 content automatically as do most BD players. You might check to see if your player offers a setting in the zoom/size control that can correct the width.
The disc flag to automatically adjust the picture size is apparently missing, but can be corrected manually. Warners must be overlooking the missing signal or using authoring equipment that consumer players aren't able to recognize.

 

[Chuck Pennington]

You make a good point but these old titles don't sell a lot of copies so it is nice to have them on Bluray even with the flaw you note.

Wouldn’t it be nice if their authoring engineer just did their job properly? And perhaps their quality control department as well? I don’t think groveling and accepting just anything is helpful - “just be thankful we have anything” is looking at the situation from the wrong perspective. Isn’t this a forum to point out these issues so perhaps it can be avoided in future releases?

 

[Chuck Pennington]

I have to manually push the 4x3 aspect button on my processor. Normally it adjusts 4x3 content automatically as do most BD players. You might check to see if your player offers a setting in the zoom/size control that can correct the width.
The disc flag to automatically adjust the picture size is apparently missing, but can be corrected manually. Warners must be overlooking the missing signal or using authoring equipment that consumer players aren't able to recognize.

That won’t fix these encoding flaws. The image is stretched by 11%. There is no setting that will correct for that on any TV. It isn’t like they took the 4x3 original source and stretched it to 16x9 proportions; it is distorted by a non-standard 11%.

 

[Paul Penna]

I have to manually push the 4x3 aspect button on my processor. Normally it adjusts 4x3 content automatically as do most BD players. You might check to see if your player offers a setting in the zoom/size control that can correct the width.
The disc flag to automatically adjust the picture size is apparently missing, but can be corrected manually. Warners must be overlooking the missing signal or using authoring equipment that consumer players aren't able to recognize.

It's the same with both my OPPO BDP-93 and Sony BDP-S6700 going through my JVC projector and via Blu-ray Player Pro on iMac. Nothing like this ever happens with anything else I watch with this equipment.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Am I the only one who sees this as a problem? I don’t typically keep my old DVDs when a new, superior release is issued. If only the legacy features were properly authored to avoid distortion on the new Blu-rays… The image on the standard def source has had its width expanded by 11% on the Blu-ray.

I rarely watch the extras so haven’t noticed the issue but, yes, there is no excuse for this clearly sloppy work on their part.

 

[RobertMG]

I rarely watch the extras so haven’t noticed the issue but, yes, there is no excuse for this clearly sloppy work on their part.

Chuck is great does so much for us - but this is strange pple are posting it plays fine on their players WAC will not correct this because they will claim it is the players but hopefully they can figure a solution that every player will have no issues

 

[Indy Guy]

That won’t fix these encoding flaws. The image is stretched by 11%. There is no setting that will correct for that on any TV. It isn’t like they took the 4x3 original source and stretched it to 16x9 proportions; it is distorted by a non-standard 11%.

It has nothing to do with the encoding flaw itself. A good processor can handle any aspect ratio/image compression right or wrong.
I have presets that adjust automatically to the input, and for rare cases like these bonus features it's easy to make the correction manually with one button tap.
For example, most 1.85 films are now encoded as 1.85 images instead of being cropped to fit the 16x9 format. This leaves small black bars on the top and bottom of a 16x9 panel. I have a 2.35 screen and I created an automatic preset for 1.85 encodings. When a 1.85 disc plays passed its 16x9 menu, you see the screen image widen past the 16×9 frame limitations to provide a slightly wider image with no top and bottom bars eating into valuable screen space. Even a small increase like this has a noticeable effect on the sense of immersion.
Going back to the bonus feature encoding error, if it ends up becomming more common, I will try creating another automated setting in the processor, but at this point it is so infrequent that one button easily resolves it manually.
Also, if you revisit some early 4x3 DVD's, the entire feature may be subject to this problem. The same processor button corrects that stretch as well. Newer equipment can confuse the "ancient" letterbox encoding developed for playback on CRT television sets. This problem doesn't exist after DVD'S began encoding with anamopphic compression. The automatic detection in most all players delivers higher resolved widescreen images when played back on standard 16x9 panels in comparison to letterboxing for CRT's.
4x3 CRT's were the main method of viewing content back when DVD's first hit the market, and very limited quality letterbox processing was the only way to view widescreen films without resorting to pan and scan images.