Meet John Doe: 70th Anniversary Edition by VCI in November (1 Viewer)

[Ruz-El]

I have this on pre-order. I'm yet to have seen it, so I'm hoping that when this does eventually come out it'll be worth it quality wise.

 

[smithb]

Originally Posted by Russell G
I have this on pre-order. I'm yet to have seen it, so I'm hoping that when this does eventually come out it'll be worth it quality wise.

You can see a sampling on the VCI website. While looking a bit soft it looked relatively clean. It is hard to say how soft it will be in the end since many times these samples have additional compression. I think I will be pleased enough based on what has been available to most of us in the past based on the numerous PD prints that have been available.

 

[MadMikeyD]

I ordered this along with the repackaged Arsenic and Old Lace. This one has already shipped, so I guess the move to December 15 wasn't entirely accurate. Has anyone gotten a look at the disc yet?


Edit: According to the first review on the Amazon page, it sounds like this will definitely be the best looking DVD of Meet John Doe so far.

 

[ScottHM]

I received Meet John Doe in the mail today, and while I can say that it's much better looking than my twelve year old Madacy DVD, it still leaves a lot to be desired. Though the picture is pretty clean, it's soft, has a lot of edge 'enhancement', it's interlaced, and there are some odd artifacts present (take a look at the left half of the screen at about 61 minutes in.)


I can't complain too much because as I said it's a lot better than what I've had for years, but it falls quite a bit short of what I was hoping for.


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Originally Posted by smithb
You can see a sampling on the VCI website. While looking a bit soft it looked relatively clean. It is hard to say how soft it will be in the end since many times these samples have additional compression. I think I will be pleased enough based on what has been available to most of us in the past based on the numerous PD prints that have been available.

 

[MadMikeyD]

I received my copy last night. I haven't gotten to watch it all the way through, but I flipped through it a little. It's not perfect, but it is the best looking copy I've seen to date. I also listened to the commentary for a couple minutes. I like the inclusion of comments from Capra himself. Hopefully I can watch it through in the near future.


EDIT: I did want to add that this version does include the Warner Bros. logo at the beginning followed by the Laureate logo superimposed over the first few seconds of the film. Just so you know.


A second review on Amazon is from somebody who prefers their Madacy version to this one, citing missing frames.

 

[ScottHM]

I played both this new VCI version and my old Madacy version side-by-side on my dual monitor PC yesterday, syncing them up as closely as I could (playing one with WMP and the other with PowerDVD), and I can tell you that with all its shortcomings the VCI version is still much better looking than the Madacy.

Originally Posted by MadMikeyD
You can see a sampling on the VCI website. While looking a bit soft it looked relatively clean. It is hard to say how soft it will be in the end since many times these samples have additional compression.

 

[MadMikeyD]

Good to know. I don't own any other copy to compare it to, but I have seen 3 or 4 previous prints (borrowed, downloaded, on TV), and I can say this is the best of the ones I've seen. I watched the Capra featurette and enjoyed it. Nothing groundbreaking, but a nice overview of his career.

 

[Colin McGuigan]

The DVD Beaver review here.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Livius .

That certainly doesn't look so hot.

Better, maybe. But someone really should devote the time to this film.


Thanks for the link, Colin.

 

[Rodney]

Thanks for the DVD Beaver review. Looks like I will stick with my Laureate R2 edition. I am pretty disappointed with VCI on this one.

 

[MadMikeyD]

DVD Town Review


DVD Town seems more impressed with this release.

 

[mdnitoil]

Not to take anything away from their review, but they seemed to be more impressed with the bonus features. Not a lot of talk about the print quality except to repeat what we've already heard that it's soft.

 

[smithb]

I got mine. As reported it is soft. But it is still better then what I had.