The Pianist...Canadian vs American releases (1 Viewer)

[Joseph_mx]

Dodgy, the U.S edition reports a running time of 2 hours 29min 2sec while the Canadian dvd reports only 2 hours 22min 37sec

 

[JonZ]

Now thats Ive watched this twice, I think it was the best film made last year that Ive seen.

 

[Paul_Stachniak]

Dodgy, if you have PowerDVD trying watching the film frame by frame in a scene were there is lots of movement. That's where i noticed the ghosting anomalies. When a scene is still, it looks fine. However, we stuff is moving, it looks very fake for some reason.

I hope others are getting this ghosting effect, it could just be that my copy is bad. Perhaps I should have confirmed that.

Also, for a transfer sporting a 7mbs bite rate, there are too many compression artifacts when a scene moves or changes. This was very apparent on my High Def TV.

 

[DodgyCDN]

Paul, did you get my email? Yep I did watch it again the 3rd time (aarggh!! Thanks for your post ), this time was on PowerDVD, so I took the screenshots quite the same of the shots you had posted earlier. And they look fine... Hmm I don't know... but wouldn't that what you would see on any DVD if you use the "frame forward" (or called something like that) in PowerDVD on a PC? You know.. it would be like when you take photos of events with fast movements... Now how can I share my screenshots with you guys here if I don't have a website!!!:frowning:

 

[Gary Tooze]

I hope others are getting this ghosting effect...

They are... it was my reviwer Ole's criticism a few days ago when he had an early copy... we waited to see what everyone else was saying... New Yorker had a bad streak where all their PAL to NTSC transfers had this blurring during movement ( ex. Chunhyang)...

Cheers,

 

[Paul_Stachniak]

Dodgy, I got your e-mail. Send me your pics, and I'll post them on here.

 

[Runar_R]

I hope others are getting this ghosting effect...

I didn't get them on any of the screengrabs I initially got for some strange reason. Just bad luck with the grabs I guess. But it's there, which I noticed on later grabs. And I always noticed something was a bit 'off' with the image as I mentioned earlier, without quite knowing what it was.

As for getting in touch with TVA, has anyone tried writing them a letter via the adress on the back of the box?

 

[Dennis Heller]

Is this ghosting issue a problem only on HDTVs or am I just as likely to notice it on my 36" direct-view, run-of-the-mill TV?

 

[Runar_R]

Is this ghosting issue a problem only on HDTVs or am I just as likely to notice it on my 36" direct-view, run-of-the-mill TV?

I think you'll notice something's not right, but you will not see the actual 'ghosts'. At least that's what happened to me (with my crappy tv)

 

[DodgyCDN]

Not sure what to say at this point. As I described earlier, I viewed it on my HDXTV and I didn't notice anything peculiar. I'm emailing Paul my screenshots tonight. Probably he'll share them with all of us here.

Also, I have to point out that the pictures will look stretched vertically on a non-wide-screen TV. That may be considered a "defect". I don't know. I still keep my old SONY 20-inch. I tried it last night and noticed that. Someone seemed to bring it up too earlier on this thread. But if that's a "defect" then probably a lot of the new releases on anamorphic format will have it. For example, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM DVD is anamorphic enhanded for Wide Screen 16x9 TV looks completely aweful on an old 4:3 full screen TV. Otherwise, there would be two black bars on top and bottom of your TV screen.

 

[David McIntosh]

I got the Canadian 3 disc in the post today, and I'm disappointed that it's not progressive, because my Mac's DVD player doesn't do de-interlacing. I don't mind the edge enhancement, but a non-progressive DVD for a title as big as this is a bit of a let down. Apart from that, I'm more or less happy with it. I really should pick up a region 1 remote for my Xbox some time.

The extras aren't as impressive as they sound on the box tho, because most of them are text. Interesting none the less, and the documentary was a good watch. More so because I didn't know any of the background to the making of this film.

Later.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Otherwise, there would be two black bars on top and bottom of your TV screen.

Those black bars are supposed to be there. Check out www.widescreen.org or http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=120328 for more information.

 

[Joseph_mx]

 

[Mark McLeod]

I've sent an email to my contact at TVA/Lions Gate. She's not the technical person in charge of the disc she deals with media and press requests. I've asked her to pass along this thread to the person who worked on the disc.

We'll see what she or someone in the know has to say.

Mark

 

[Paul_Stachniak]

Thanks Mark, that's good news.

I've had no luck finding an e-mail to them.

 

[Simon Young]

I have not opened and watched my Canadian version of The Pianist, and I don't think I'm going to. From what I've heard, this does indeed have all the makings of a direct PAL -> NTSC transfer. I'm sure most of you are aware of the differences, but if not let me take the time to explain:

NTSC video contains 30 frames per second, while PAL video contains 25 frames per second. Film, on the other hand, is almost always shot at 24 frames per second (FPS). When film is converted to NTSC video, the 24 frames in each second of film must be somehow stretched out to 30. This is achieved in one of two ways.

The first is to encode the DVD at the original frame rate of 24 FPS. If you then play the disc in a non-progressive player or an interlaced display device (like a normal TV), the player automatically doubles up every third field (half a frame). If, however, you play the disc on a progressive-scan player and display device, this effect (known as 3:2 pulldown) is bypassed and you can enjoy the film at its original frame-rate.

The second way is to interlace the video and add 3:2 pulldown before it is transferred to DVD. That way the film is stored at 30 FPS, and it will not play back progressively because the original 24 frames in each second have been altered irrecoverably. It's rare that you'll see this from large, reputable DVD manufacturers, but it probably still happens.

Now, when film is transferred to PAL video, rather than alter frames the film is simply transferred at a high frame rate, i.e. where previously there were only 24 frames in each second, now there are 25. This means that the film is sped-up by a 4%, shortening the running-time and causing a pitch-shift in the audio. Obviously, material filmed at 25 FPS does not need to be altered, such as television programmes by the BBC.

What people were describing earlier in this thread, when they referred to the 'look' of BBC documentaries on NTSC DVD, is the effect of converting PAL to NTSC. Believe me when I say that these documentaries, viewed before conversion and on a PAL display, normally look stunning. However, the process of converting them to NTSC has meant that 5 frames have been artificially added to each second. To achieve this, certain frames must be interpolated with their neighbouring frames to create new 'in-between' frames. These are the ones with the so-called 'ghosting effect'. They are the by-product of laying two frames on top of one-another...not a nice sight, even when in motion. They simply shouldn't be there.

With the Canadian release of The Pianist we are seeing the same thing, except that in this case, the film has first been sped-up before being shoddily converted. Obviously, it cannot be displayed progressively as the material it originated from was not at 24 FPS - it was at 25 FPS. Therefore, not only is this version of The Pianist not progressive...not only is it a down-conversion from another video source rather than from film...not only does it contain the 'ghost' effect, where in-between frames have been added to 'pad it out'...but the audio also plays at the wrong speed (almost one semi-tone too high).

Way to go Lion's Gate. Way to go indeed.

 

[Paul_Stachniak]

The whole PAL to NTSC thing sounds all fine and dandy. But I wonder if anything special is done to my Monty Python and Fawlty Towers DVDs look better? Or maybe I just don't notice it too much, because the material is from the 70s.

 

[Simon Young]

It's probable that because they were made before the video revolution, those television shows were shot on film. Therefore, if done correctly, they would simply be transferred onto NTSC DVD at 24 FPS, and you would be able to view them at the original frame-rate on a progressive display. I suspect this is why they look so nice.

 

[Alex_zhang]

If you want to upload screenshots use the site iUpload for posting them on the forum

 

[DodgyCDN]

Alex_Zhang, thanks for the link for iUpload but when I clicked on it, I got nothing but a user name and password login screen. Anyway, I've just sent 3 screen shots to Paul to check out. Hopefully he will compare them and comment.