The Chaplin Collection (Warner and M2K): reactions? (1 Viewer)

[John Watson]

Well, picked up Modern Times, and very much enjoyed it. The quality is outstanding from my non- professional HTF perspective, and the film is very entertaining.

The package is beautiful, but the disk is slight marred? by that appalling FBI warning. (The off kilter, out-of-focus, black and white with a bit of red one, that's been hangiing around for decades. When is that freakin' thing gonna be restored!!!

I don't think I like Chaplin's persona enough to buy more of the set, and will save my next classic purchase $s for Laurel and Hardy

PS, I agree, this is a fantastic thread for the info on many silent films it contains. I'm happy to bump it up again.

 

[Bill Burns]

Admins: I'm thrilled so many have enjoyed this thread, and if you'd like to edit the title from "M2K" to MK2, correcting my typo, please feel free to do so. It might help some who search under that company's name.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I just got a chance to sit down with the set (I had ordered it before this controversy had sprung up, and decided to keep it). I've only had a chance to watch "Modern Times" so far (and a few little bits from all the other discs), but I have to say, I'm impressed. As someone whose grown up watching these films in crappy looking versions shown out late night television, this set is a revelation.

Yes, I can detect some of the ghosting mentioned here, but only if I freeze-frame the DVD. Last time I checked, I watch DVDs in continuous motion, not freeze-frame, so it doesn't bother me as much as it does some. I didn't notice a negative affect of a 4% speedup either; it's nowhere near as drastic as some might have you believe.

Depending on how much money you have to burn, and how much of a Chaplin and home theater fanatic you are, these discs may or may not suit your purposes. I'm glad I have them, I think they look fantastic, and I love what I've seen of the extras so far. For me, this set is a keeper, and for other Chaplin fans who don't have any of his work on DVD, I think you'll enjoy this set too.

 

[rob kilbride]

I saw the movie Chaplin on HBO this week and it really peaked my interest. I think I may cave in and buy the set after the new release season has endedm if I have any money left. It's disappointing they didn't do it 100% right but I'm guessing its not likely to be corrected any time soon. Maybe some new discussion will help talk me into or out of it!

 

[Jon Baker]

Has anyone who owns a player with aspect ratio control played any of these new Chaplin discs yet? I played The Great Dictator last night on my Panasonic RP-91, and when the player is in AUTO mode, the disc image for this title gets zoomed/scaled as if the disc is flagged as a non-anamorphic widescreen disc. I had to manually select the SHRINK mode to watch the film in its proper aspect ratio. The menus and FBI notices were also zoomed.

This could be a real problem for owners of players that do not allow for manual override of the scaling (such as some JVC models).

I have never had this problem with any other full frame discs.

I know this is a really old thread, but this also plays widescreen on my player. I still have not figured out how to correct it on my Sony player/Samsung TV. I am thinking of upgrading to the Criterion blu-rays, but some of the films in that are in the second set are no longer available so I want to hang onto them. Problem is getting the correct aspect ratio. I'm surprised more people haven't had this problem with this set. And these are the only full screen DVDs in my collection that do this.

 

[Robin9]

I know this is a really old thread, but this also plays widescreen on my player. I still have not figured out how to correct it on my Sony player/Samsung TV. I am thinking of upgrading to the Criterion blu-rays, but some of the films in that are in the second set are no longer available so I want to hang onto them. Problem is getting the correct aspect ratio. I'm surprised more people haven't had this problem with this set. And these are the only full screen DVDs in my collection that do this.

Most modern TVs and projectors enable you to select which aspect ratio you want, and thereby correct any mismatch between the Blu-ray player and the screen. I have four Blu-ray players and only one presents 1.37:1 DVDs correctly. It's not a problem for me. I just change the projector's aspect ratio.

 

[Matt Hough]

I haven't had a problem playing any DVDs from that Chaplin set. Do you have the player set to "widescreen limited" instead of "widescreen full"? (Different players call this various things, but it's usually the main culprit when DVDs don't display correctly.)

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Most modern TVs and projectors enable you to select which aspect ratio you want, and thereby correct any mismatch between the Blu-ray player and the screen. I have four Blu-ray players and only one presents 1.37:1 DVDs correctly. It's not a problem for me. I just change the projector's aspect ratio.

I’ve never had an issue playing a 1.37:1 DVD on any of my BD players or on my Sony UHD player. These Chaplin DVDs were the only titles I ever had an issue with, but I no longer own those titles to try on my current BD or UHD players. I upgraded to the Criterion BDs long ago.

 

[Jon Baker]

Thanks for the info. I tried changing the aspect ratio on both my TV and blu-ray player, but while the image changes to 4:3 the picture is stretched and still cut off on top to bottom. This is a newer Samsung model and I've tried everything. I think I'm just going to have to give in and upgrade the discs to the Criterion. My only issue with that is that several of the titles and shorts in the second set are not available elsewhere.

 

[Matt Hough]

I watched The Chaplin Revue (disc 2) tonight and found that it's not stretched; it's zoomed in and cropped on the top and bottom to make these into widescreen (1.78:1) films. The Circus is not like this, but these collections of shorts are. Stupid, stupid decision. I guess I hadn't watched these in so long that I had forgotten they (Warners, mk2) had done this. It's abominable. But there is nothing wrong with your set or your player. This was a production choice that is wildly wrong.

 

[Jon Baker]

There probably weren't as many complaints about the aspect ratio problem upon initial release, but now on the newer TVs and players the AR is all screwed up. I'm just hoping that Criterion (or some other studio) releases the remainder of the material from these sets, including The Circus.

 

[Brent Reid]

I've never heard of any actual cropping but it's been known since their release that several DVDs in the mk2/Warner Collection were authored incorrectly, causing the 1.33:1 image to be zoomed to fill a widescreen display from side-to-side. This applies to both the PAL and NTSC (actually PAL-NTSC transferred) DVDs.

Criterion are still a few years away from releasing all the Chaplins they've licensed. If you want to replace the mk2/Warner Collection wholesale, the nearest equivalent is the latest UK box set from Artificial Eye (DVD/BD, region 2/B). Apart from Criterion's significantly upgraded transfers for The Kid and City Lights, the only thing it's missing is the reconstruction of The Gold Rush's original silent version.