The Bionic Woman: Season 2 audio defect (2 Viewers)

[Regulus]

Looks like Universal is in line to get my 2011 "Bull-O-Nee" Award for this Fiasco.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Originally Posted by Regulus

I'm gonna get season 3 as well and hope for the best. I just think they should have tried a little harder to procure better prints, or at least look around for better audio elements. Come on, there's tons of prints of BW floating around out there; it's not exactly a rare series in the fan trade arena. Maybe BW masters burned up in the Universal fire or something; I don't know. And yes, Kenneth Johnson is a class act. Of all the producers, he's been very forthcoming with fans of his genre work. He participates constantly in the "V" fansite, for example, and attended the one and only "V" convention back in 2000. He gave an hour lecture on the creation of the series, brought along never-before-seen outtakes and waited patiently to sign each and every autograph that was asked of him. I was blown away at that convention by his accessibility and the graciousness he held towards his fans.

 

[derosa]

It does boggle the mind, that in this day and age of internet and social media communication,

how does a studio like Universal thinks its not going to become a story that nearly 10 minutes of audio

is missing from an episode? Imperfections are one thing, but how is it even possible that

the people making the decisions about this stuff don't see it as a problem that their product

is this flawed, that they don't even care to mention it.


The thing is... if they actually noted this issue from the beginning, and it was a problem impossible

to correct, the fans would accept it. Customer service rule #1: don't over-promise and under-deliever.


But the fact is that we know it could be corrected, and the studio doesn't even mention the problem,

you know it's just incompetence and lack of respect for the customers buying their products that leads

this situation to happen all the time.


It's been said a hundred times in the past, if the studios were actually fans of the shows they

release, this stuff would never happen, that's what makes the fans so angry.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Originally Posted by Hank E

And the plot thickens... I went back and watched the beginning of the region 2 "Deadly Ringers" and there is a distinct audio shift at the exact same place as the jump from inaudible-to-normal on the region 1 set. The audio on the region 2 episode gets louder at that point. So it looks like there really is an actual deterioration of the original audio elements on that episode, except that the UK guys actually went to the trouble of fixing it.

I think I'm safe in saying there's no way that Universal Playback (the UK arm of Universal) did any sort of clean-up or remastering on the R2 sets. I'm sure all they did was take the PAL master tapes that were provided to them and stuck them on disc!


What this does possibly mean, though, is that the audio elements (at least for this episode) were always of inconsistent quality, just that the original separate elements have deteriorated further after the episode(s) were post-produced, and, also, maybe the sound inconsistencies were fixed at the time of the original '70s post production, but weren't fixed for the R1).


I'm sure all copies for the original ABC/NBC showings (and worldwide syndication copies) came from the original, finshed (i.e. post-produced) versions of the episodes. This is why people's VHS off-airs and the R2/R4 sets have clearer dialogue than the new R1.


So, the UK guys didn't fix anything. It's just that the US guys, thinking they would be improving things by going back to the original source elements, really dropped the ball and would've been better off with the original soundtrack in a lot of cases.

 

[Sam Favate]

I don't know how these things work, but isn't it at least possible that in the process of preparing the US DVDs, they could have said "Hmmm, the sound from the source sucks" and used another source, even the commercially-released R2 DVDs? Who would have known?

 

[Regulus]

For the first time in History, a Studio (Universal) has come out with (unless the Problem is dealt with), an Official DVD Release of a series who's quality is LOWER than those "Homemade DVD" sets.

 

[Neil Brock]

Originally Posted by Sam Favate

I don't know how these things work, but isn't it at least possible that in the process of preparing the US DVDs, they could have said "Hmmm, the sound from the source sucks" and used another source, even the commercially-released R2 DVDs? Who would have known?

You mean like quality control? Like when companies put out a show and the tapes they are sourcing from have a slate on the front saying U.S. DOMESTIC SYNDICATION MASTER, TRT: 22:00 and they then say they didn't realize they were using edited versions? Or when an episode comes in 4 and a half minutes shorter than all of the rest of them and no one notices? Or any of the dozens of other abominations we've had over the last decade with DVD TV releases? You can't pick on any one company because they've pretty much all been guilty of slipshod products at one time or another, always followed by the flimsiest and totally fabricated excuses. The ironic thing here is that Universal, the company which hates to have to pay to remaster, the company that used to license shows out and then tell the licensee to go dumster dive to find elements, actually did a rare remaster of one of its seventies shows and still it winds up with issues. Maybe they should have gone dumster diving themselves!

 

[Jack P]

Not the first time, because every homemade set of "The Odd Couple" that does not have those senseless pieces of butchery done because of humming a song or the case of the deletion of "Cocktails For Two" that ruined one episode beyond belief is far better than the official sets for Seasons 4 and 5.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Bill Hunt at the Digital Bits posted some info from Universal about the BW S2 defects. The link to Bill's daily (M-F) "My 2 Cents" column for today 05/23 is here .


Basically, Uni is saying that they didn't have access to the source material that was used for the PAL releases. Ethan upthread mentioned the possibility of the Uni vault fire as to the reason. Bill offered that speculation as well. Uni isn't saying one way or the other about that part.

 

[Glenn Curtis]

So Universal doesn't have access to the source material for the PAL masters of the Bionic Woman to enable them to correct the audio problem.


Their excuse I guess if that these masters were done several years ago.


I may be missing something here but I wonder if Universal know that Amazon UK ship world-wide. Perhaps they could order a copy of the PAL version of the Bionic Woman and then they could take the audio from the DVD itself if that is what is required.


It amazes me that you get the Doctor Who Restoration Team putting together episodes from umpteen different sources to produce the best quality picture and sound possible and yet Universal seem incapable of doing this. Perhaps they should contact the BBC for help.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Originally Posted by Jeff Willis .


Basically, Uni is saying that they didn't have access to the source material that was used for the PAL releases.

That shouldn't matter, as those PAL releases would've come from the worldwide distribution copies, which are likely just standards-conversions of the US syndication/distribution copies, which Universal would presumably still have copies of (unless all of them were destroyed in the fire, which is unlikely).

 

[Regulus]

I've heard of DVD Distribution Companies such as TMG and Shout! Factory seeking copies from "Other Sources" when looking for certain TV Shows to release. I'm surprised Universal doesn't do the same for this series.


IMO this is turning out to be some fiasco!

 

[Jeff Willis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndyMcKinney

[/quote]
It is that (fiasco). Someone correct me here it needed but I've read in past years that Uni isn't known for seeking outside help and/or information regarding their TV/DVD releases. If that's accurate, it's a shame as guys like Matt could have provided a gold mine of assistance if they'd been inclined to accept it. I know he tried with Uni.


This isn't intended as a Uni bash fest, honest but we all recall the "dvd-18" issue that affected several release sets with defects that originated from their Mexican Mfg plant so it's not the first time that QC hasn't either caught pre-release issues or in the case of the BW S2 set, included a clear disclaimer along with the release, mentioning that "Deadly Ringer" defect.

 

[DeWilson]

Originally Posted by Neil Brock

... The ironic thing here is that Universal, the company which hates to have to pay to remaster, the company that used to license shows out and then tell the licensee to go Dumpster dive to find elements, actually did a rare remaster of one of its seventies shows and still it winds up with issues. Maybe they should have gone Dumpster diving themselves!

It's actually telling a licensee they can pay an arm and a leg to have new masters made from the original elements, can use whatever tapes/prints that may be on hand, OR go "Dumpster diving" to find elements.


Universal is guilt of 1) Not catching the mistake and 2) Not checking other elements - domestic or international to see if the problem still exist.


On a side note Sony is crying to ANTENNA TV that the master elements to "The Farmer's Daughter" and some of the "Burnes and Allen" are in too rough a shape to transfer. What they really mean they don't want to spend MORE money to bring them up to broadcast shape. this issue was caught after the licence fees were set for the airings!

 

[jcdmlw]

I had issues with Deadly Ringer Part I freezing every minute or two as well as the audio issues. I did send an email to Universal using the link that was provided above. Hopefully, if enough of us complain, they will address the problem.


Did anyone else have issues with the disc freezing every couple of minutes throughout Deadly Ringer Part I? Very frustrating!

 

I have mixed feelings about wanting to add season 2 of the bionic woman with what i've been hearing about the audio troblems on one of the episodes

 

[MattHR]

Originally Posted by Tim Gregerson

I have mixed feelings about wanting to add season 2 of the bionic woman with what i've been hearing about the audio troblems on one of the episodes

I wish it was only one of the episodes. "Deadly Ringer—Part I" is just the worst offender. There are several others that are plagued by severely muffled music and/or missing FX tracks.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Originally Posted by MattHR



I wish it was only one of the episodes. "Deadly Ringer—Part I" is just the worst offender. There are several others that are plagued by severely muffled music and/or missing FX tracks.

With the poor audio on the R1, and PAL speedup on the R2, it's hard for a Bionic fan to know what to do! I don't suppose there were any Mexican R1 sets released (as there was with S1 of $6m Man), eh?

 

[Gary OS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndyMcKinney



Gary "just to be sure no one misunderstands... yes, that was a joke" O.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Originally Posted by Gary OS



Gary "just to be sure no one misunderstands... yes, that was a joke" O.

Last concrete info I've heard was neither Bionic show got past their first seasons south of the border.