"Oklahoma" any plans to correct the Todd-AO disc?

#31

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8/2/07 at 7:24am

Ken_McAlinden
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Re: "Oklahoma" any plans to correct the Todd-AO disc?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Whitish

Does the Rogers and Hammerstein box set contain the same bad transfer of the todd ao version of Oklahoma?

The disc contents are bit-identical, IIRC.

Regards,

Ken McAlinden
Livonia, MI USA

#32

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8/2/07 at 7:28am

Greg_M
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Re: "Oklahoma" any plans to correct the Todd-AO disc?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul_Scott

I was watching South Pacific for the first time last night, and in the credits it is billed as being filmed in Todd-AO, yet SP looks infinitely better than Oklahoma!
What is the story there with the discrepency between the two in terms of PQ?

The Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles screened the Todd-AO version of Oklahoma about 8 years ago and it looked great, Can't imagine the film has detoriated in that short a time.

FOX admitted they screwed up the Todd-AO transfer. Don't know why they haven't corrected the problem, maybe when it reaches HD-DVD

#33

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8/2/07 at 7:53am

Chuck Pennington
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Re: "Oklahoma" any plans to correct the Todd-AO disc?

When did they "admit" that they messed up the Todd-AO remaster?

Oh, and Fox only supports Blu-Ray, not HD-DVD. So... It won't be fixed on HD-DVD since it will never be on that format.

#34

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8/2/07 at 9:06am

Greg_M
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Re: "Oklahoma" any plans to correct the Todd-AO disc?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck Pennington

When did they "admit" that they messed up the Todd-AO remaster?

Oh, and Fox only supports Blu-Ray, not HD-DVD. So... It won't be fixed on HD-DVD since it will never be on that format.

Back in Jan-Feb 2006 FOX said something about it, I believe on - line too. They did mention it at a screening of "South Pacific" in LA

#35

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8/2/07 at 10:02am

MatthewA
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Re: "Oklahoma" any plans to correct the Todd-AO disc?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul_Scott

I was watching South Pacific for the first time last night, and in the credits it is billed as being filmed in Todd-AO, yet SP looks infinitely better than Oklahoma!
What is the story there with the discrepency between the two in terms of PQ?

South Pacific was restored. Oklahoma has not been restored and probably needs to be poste haste. Considering next year is the 65th anniversary of the Broadway show that would be a great incentive to do it.

STOP THE MADNESS! STOP THE BUTCHERING AND ABANDONMENT OF TV SHOWS ON DVD!

My DVD List at DVD Aficionado, Now Featuring Blu-Ray

#36

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8/2/07 at 10:12am

Chuck Pennington
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Re: "Oklahoma" any plans to correct the Todd-AO disc?

I'd like to see something in print or a quote or something where Fox admitted they released a botched OKLAHOMA set. I haven't seen that yet.

Do I think it is a perfect set? No.
Do I think the anamorphic Todd-AO is better than the old non-anamorphic release? Yes.
I swear that the people praising the old release MUST NOT be viewing it on an HDTV or some other premium, calibrated setup. I believe my local library has the old DVD release on hand, and if they do I'll use it to make some screen captures for some comparisons and post them here. I have the THX Laserdisc still, but using it wouldn't be a true comparison. I can say that at the time of that Laserdiscs release there was talk of how extensive the transfer process was in terms of color correction from the original negative. It does look quite processed and unnatural to me, but maybe that look is what people are looking for in the remastered version as well.

#37

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8/2/07 at 5:12pm

Chuck Pennington
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Re: "Oklahoma" any plans to correct the Todd-AO disc?

The following screen captures originate from the 1999 non-anamorphic and 2005 anamorphic releases of the Todd-AO version of OKLAHOMA, respectively. The 1999 release has been enlarged to match the proportions of the 2005 anamorphic transfer, and the frames were captured using VLC on a Mac with the closest frames I could manage (VLC is a bit random on what frames it will grab, at least on the newest Mac version).

When I play these two in sync on separate DVD players and switch back and forth, the 2005 is far preferable [to me] because it lacks the excessive edge enhancement, heavy contrast, extreme over-saturation and over-brightness of the 1999 release. Do I think the 2005 release is reference quality or as good as it could be? No. It has very low contrast with dulled whites and is softer than I would expect, but the extreme measures undertaken for the 1999 release is not the answer in my mind.

As far as framing, the 2005 release sometimes shows a bit more on the sides and maybe the bottom, and the 1999 release sometimes show a bit more at the top - but this fluctuates. What IS noticeable when switching between the two is that the 1999 release is squished slightly (or stretched, depending on how one wants to describe it).

I was tempted to record some of the 2005 release to VHS and then make captures from it to show that the claims of it having VHS resolution is a zealous overexaggeration, but I really didn't want to bother. That doesn't mean that I won't, though. :-)

1999 [same transfer as 1995 Laserdisc]