"Lost in Space" Season One DVD's Flawed By Edited Episode Versions - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Koch 

Sorry, but there's just no excuse for edited episodes! One of the most jarring cuts occurs during "RETURN FROM OUTER SPACE" at 35:35. This just isn't acceptable. I checked the Columbia House tape and it has the same wretched edit so it's the same master. At least the dvds look 100% better than those awful Columbia House tapes but there's still no excuse for edited episodes!

Jeff

I checked this episode on the DVD and while there is an edit at around the 35:35 mark, it amounts to just a few seconds that are missing. I agree it's aggravating, but in my opinion it's useless to complain about a minor edit like that. I have no idea why a couple seconds of an episode would be cut out, I'd try to contact the studio and see what they say.

One thing I would have liked for them to do is issue the 2nd and 3rd seasons in one box set each like the 1st season was. I don't like it that the 2nd and 3rd seasons were split into two box sets each. But it is what it is, overall I'm very pleased with the DVD's.
 

Well, I posted this already, but here is a repeat.

The transfer comparison between Lost in Space, and the Land of the Giants.

Irwin Allen used stock footage here, the exact same frame.

http://lostinspaceforum.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=25

LIS is a poor transfer, compared to LotG.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Karlosi 

Whether we get Blu-rays or not of this show, what I want are new transfers, period. The ones that were used for LIS Season 3 (and probably the other 3 seasons) looked like stuff I'd already had recorded off cable TV in 1989.

In the season 3 DVD sets, on many long shots, you can't see the eyes, nose, or mouths of actors in the backgroungs. It sadly funny. This is just how poor the definition is especially on those DVD. Ridiculous.  I wish I could grab a picture to show to skepticals.

Quote:

Originally Posted by QUADRATIC 

Well, I posted this already, but here is a repeat.

The transfer comparison between Lost in Space, and the Land of the Giants.

Irwin Allen used stock footage here, the exact same frame.

 

http://lostinspaceforum.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=25

 

 

LIS is a poor transfer, compared to LotG.

Wow! Thanks for that link, John P!  The comparison between transfers is talking to itself.  Makes me want that new transfer... NOW! 
 

Wow

Re reading the above posts.....Unbelievable.

I am a video producer who records in 1080i

Re Quality, anyone who says that HD isn't a major upgrade from SD in terms of quality has serious eye trouble or completely misinformed

HiDef is more than 5 times the quality of SD.

I am currently reworking a production I filmed in HiDef (1020i) which I oriiginally edited in SD for a client as they didn't have Blu-Ray playback capability and I am re-editing right over the top of my original SD edit. Watching the fuzzy SD scenes transform into crystal clear HD scenes in amazing. The difference is incredible.

I also own SD & Blu-Ray versions of Star Trek Classic and once again, the difference is incredible

Anyone seriously into their viewing experience could only love upgrading from SD to HD.

As someone noted above, all shows filmed in 25mm film would experience a huge upgrade when transferred to Blu-Ray as the result would be a quality never before seen. It's as good as if the original was completely reshot over again. A transfer to Blu-Ray can only allow a whole new generation of fans to enjoy old shows in a quality the original viewers never came even close to see thanks to todays HiDef universe

Refusing to accept that is... absurd and preposterous

Re Lost in Space. This old series was my absolute favourite and I absolutely looked forward to seeing the VHS release. When it came I was disgusted with the quality (even for VHS). The season 3 episode 'Kidnapped in Space' was so badly transferred that the audio was dull, flat & lifeless.

I looked forward to the DVDs only to find the show did NOT get treated well at all. A lot of episodes were blurry and had double edges to images, especially in season 3. The cliffhanger for 'The Golden Man' even had the first section missing completely and opened abruptly in mid-conversation between smith & Penny.

Lost in Space, while degenerating into campiness, was a true classic and is well worth a transfer to BD after being remastered fully from original film stock.

I was one of many who felt absolutely cheated by the disgusting transfers used in the DVD release.

I look forward to a decent Blu-Ray release. Remastering is absolutely necessary, especially considering broadcasters now transmit HD content across the airwaves.

Do it well, make it worthwhile and allow the best quality possible for the shows devotees.

I can assume the above posters defending SD quality must have a taste for Low Res in all its glorious blurriness that makes them hate anything that would sharpen and offer more detail to what they're watching.

Not me - Bring on the high quality and the remastering of old classics

Hell Yeah.

A fix for my error above - 25mm should read 35 mm

ie

"As someone noted above, all shows filmed in 35mm film would experience a huge upgrade when transferred to Blu-Ray..."

oops

Okay, RokkoRokko, let me ask you an important question:

Do you approve of fake widescreen, which, from what I understand, is a common practice when it comes to remastering a 4:3 show or a 4:3 movie from SD to HD?

Quote:

Originally Posted by vnisanian2001 

Okay, RokkoRokko, let me ask you an important question:

 

Do you approve of fake widescreen, which, from what I understand, is a common practice when it comes to remastering a 4:3 show or a 4:3 movie from SD to HD?

Really? Star Trek TOS wasn't and neither was the Prisoner, and I don't believe Twilight Zone will be. I recall a few DVD's where they tried the fake widescreen on 4:3 material. Being a common practice you should be able to easily name several. Not saying there aren't any but but I would think it actually a very uninformed uncommon practice that isn't limited to a format. But feel free to prove me wrong.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by smithb 

Really? Star Trek TOS wasn't and neither was the Prisoner, and I don't believe Twilight Zone will be.

Both of The Simpsons Blu-rays are another example of the correct aspect ratio being used too.

Re Fake Widescreen...

When remastering from original 35 film elements it would be possible to crop the 3x4 images to widescreen without any quality loss as 35 mm film still has higher resolution than HD.

However, it's not as simple as that,

When shots are set up the aspect of the image is taken into account to fully utilize the image area. This means that cropping off the top and bottom of each 3 x 4 shot to make it widescreen would take away valuable image and the remaining image wouldn't be as effective.

While individually cropping scene by scene could work in situations where the ratio of top to bottom can be balanced , ie a scene that could stand a little loss off the top and more off the bottom and so on, it would be unlikely that all scenes in any given show could be effectively dealt with like that. However, individual scene cropping would be far better than just cutting off the top and bottom as is normally done. 

Another method could be to 'build out' scenes that can't be cropped, sideways by taking information from other scenes to re-create what would have been to the left and right of the images. Once again, while possible, it would be time consuming and expensive.

But, as seen with the Star Trek 3 x 4 Blu-Ray images, the high quality of the image brings out so much more detail that it's just plain awesome even in 4x3

I love widescreen but HD 3x4 is still very watchable.

As technology becomes more intuitive and intelligent more possibilities will be sure to open up in the future.

Getting back to Lost in Space....

I'd love to see some of the better episodes reworked with new effects like they did for star Trek

hell - I'd love to DO it

Thinking about the edits on the lIS episodes I noticed these myself

In 'Reluctant Stowaway' before Liftoff a short segment of the music has been cut, but, knowing the music it's like half a second long with no apparant change in the visual action. It was still there on the DVD.

I noticed this on a few other episodes also, and the same on the last LIS broadcasts here in NZ in 1994-7.

In 'Blast off...' theres a scene where Smith's complaining about the noise where a fraction of a second of his speech REPEATED itself.

My suspicion is that these weren't 'cuts' or 'edits' per se but rather more like the originals weren't mastered in one complete length but in shorter segments & these 'glitches' are either where they've been poorly edited together afterwards, or there has been slight sync drift between the segments. I found them annoying but didn't think there was anything actually missing.

The opening to the cliffhanger to 'Golden Man' being missing is plain offensive, however & just shows a 'couldn't care less' attitude re finding an undamaged original.

In every broadcast since I was a kid there has always been something missing in the 'girl from the Green Dimension' ep. After the opening encounter with the green girl at the spaceship the scene cuts to Smith looking for her and calling her by name 'Athena'   and he knows she can see in to the future, seemingly without explanation. The written episode synopses from the publicity kit describes how he knew this but appears not to have been filmed. Maybe this is the episode where Irwin, pushed for time & upset at delays, just tore pages out of the script as per an account from an interview long ago. (Starlog??)

Anycase - LIS deserves a full remastering as it's not only a classic it was the world's FIRST attempt at a full hour long prime time space drama series. 

I agree, LIS needs to be re-done with much improved quality, especially Season 3.

I have the Japanese laser-discs from a few years ago and I'm not sure if there are different transfers or not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MBrousseau 

In the season 3 DVD sets, on many long shots, you can't see the eyes, nose, or mouths of actors in the backgroungs. It sadly funny. This is just how poor the definition is especially on those DVD. Ridiculous.  I wish I could grab a picture to show to skepticals.

When viewing Lost In Space, I watch what's going on, follow the story and concentrate on what the actors are saying. I'm rarely concerned with looking into the background to check if I can see the look or reaction on actors faces. If something in the background happens to be a little blurry it wouldn't ruin the experience for me. A few episodes are said to have minor edits, I see that as more of an issue than the quality of the video. I'll agree that Fox could have done better with the season 3 DVD. One example, the episode "Time Merchant" doesn't have the greatest video quality. It has a soft picture, but I can live with it. It's a 40 plus year old TV show, I don't expect these episodes to look so sharp to the point it looks new like they were made yesterday. Video quality is very good in the season 1 and 2 DVD. Season 3 is a mixed bag. HD is fine, I just think it's overblown and way too much is made of it, especially with older TV shows like this. For those who call for LIS to be remastered and reissued, I hope your wish will come true. I'm satisfied with the DVD's, they are not perfect but I think they're more than adequate.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lecagr 

 

 It's a 40 plus year old TV show, I don't expect these episodes to look so sharp to the point it looks new like they were made yesterday.  

 I'm not sure how you can use that excuse when plenty of shows just as old as LIS (like STAR TREK, TWILIGHT ZONE) and even older (like I LOVE LUCY from the '50s) have been made to look very sharp.

And back to LIS -- I have seen very nice and remastered-looking clips from the show on the DVD documentary called LOST IN SPACE FOREVER, and elsewhere.

I guess it depends on what is important to each individual person. I can tolerate soft video quality in some Lost In Space DVD episodes. The shows look good overall and are mostly uncut, which is important to me. Another poster mentioned the edit in the cliffhanger for The Golden Man. It's a brief edit, I estimate 20 to 30 seconds of the scene is missing. I wonder why that happened. Unfortunate, but it's a small cut in one episode so I can live with it.

Funny thing… I was never bothered about the picture quality of LOST IN SPACE, until I got an HD TV and started re-watching the sets upconverted on my also-new Blu-ray player.

Oddly, the Season Two color episodes look fine (not great, but fine – at times they border on outstanding, and other times not so), but the Season Three episodes (most of my favorites) look bad!  Yet, the S3 eps are still satisfactory if I watch them on my computer or a standard def TV.

It wasn’t always so, but my position NOW is that I wish the LOST IN SPACE sets were produced with the same sharpness and clarity as the VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA sets.

Makes you wonder why FOX could make VOYAGE look so great, and not do the same for LIS – which one would assume is more popular.  

I’d purchase a quality reissue – particularly on Blu-ray – but I’m not holding my breath! 

I'll agree that some episodes on the DVD could look better, but it's not a dealbreaker for me. I considered buying the "Voyage" DVD's, but I'm not really a big fan of the show. I think Lost In Space was Irwin Allen's best series, the unfortunate thing about it was it's untimely cancellation causing the series to not have a proper ending.

I would like to add, the 'THE INVADERS' TV show, the DVD's were so clear, ( I mean SO clear!) , I could spot imperfections in the face. (like pimples.).

Not that seeing that is a good thing, but I was SO impressed about the transver to DVD.

It looked like it was filmed yesterday.

I guess they took it from the original film master.

John

PS, I saw Wizard of OZ remastered in the theater, and I was NOT impressed with the sharpness. The scatches, and lines were taken out, so it was better in that way. It just seemed...'soft.  I think an original film would be better focused, sharper?

From time to time, this thread comes up and one can see that FOX hasn't been commited to release a better DVD edition, or better yet, a new blu-ray premier edition.  Shameful!  The actual DVD edition is so technically outdated, it's a joke. Most every DVD from vintage TV shows are watchable on a very wide screen but not Lost in Space.It was even limited to regular small square tube TVs.

What is wrong with Fox?

Someone asked if the laser discs were mastered from the same source as the DVDs: see the excerpted review from Amazon, which started this thread with post 1 way back when....