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Originally Posted by Jeff Krispow
I wasn't ever planning on writing up anything regarding this DVD set, but after reading all of the misinformation being spread about this DVD release -- and then seeing it spread here onto the HTF -- I just couldn't let it sit. So here goes…
First off, let me say that I have been wishing for a domestic Ultraman release for a long time -- since the early laserdisc days -- desperately hoping someone would have the balls to release the original Japanese version (properly subtitled, of course). The Japanese laserdiscs were far too expensive (and too plentiful) to even consider purchasing. And I flat out refused to buy any of the bootleg tapes (or in recent years DVDs) due to the horrendous video quality. So in the interim, I've just had to settle for the few new shows that made it to Los Angeles TV, the various Ultra-toys I have in my collection (especially my ultra-cool 1989 2-foot tall Ultraman figure that greets all visitors to our house), and my memories. And thus it was with great anticipation that I awaited the release of BCI Eclipse's Ultraman: Season One Volume One. Sure, it took over 20 years, but it looked like that dream was finally going to be fulfilled. Or was it… On the one hand, I'm a big fan of the show. But on the other hand, I have also been following the Ultraman series debate for quite a long time now. I know more than I ever wanted to about the Tsuburaya/Chaiyo legal disbutes, and have followed to some degree the heated debates regarding this Region 1 release, and the demands and attempts by some fans to legally halt its release in some manner. However, unlike many other so-called "fans" of the show/series, I do not have any pre-existing bias towards BCI Eclipse on this matter. Back when I was officially reviewing laserdiscs for a living (and later DVDs) -- and now that I'm officially retired -- my one main criteria has always been to judge a disc fairly based solely on its own individual merits. It doesn't matter to me who the company is, or their past history, or their legal problems, or anything else for that matter (although a certain LD producer did come very close!). And this Ultraman DVD is no different from any other DVD release as released in this country -- it must be given a fair and proper chance to stand on its own merits. And I think I've done a fairly good job in doing just that. As far as I'm concerned, BCI Eclipse has done an outstanding job with their first Ultraman set. Simply put, I found it to look far better than I ever expected, and I can't wait to see future releases of this series from them. For a 40-year old TV show that was filmed in 16mm (not 35mm as many people assume), these transfers are simply stunning. These are easily the best transfers I have ever seen of these episodes in any format. You will immediately notice how spotless they are, as there is no print-related damage or defects to speak of, nor any other type of debris for that matter. No dirt, no scratches, no specks, no spots, no hairs, nothing. Because of the utterly flawless nature of this DVD transfer, it's fairly obviously that BCI Eclipse was given masters that utilize the restored Ultraman source materials. Contrary to what various other die-hard fans have been claiming around the net (plus one certain claim on this forum) not one single episode in my set from any "strobing motion" or "freeze-ups" or any other video-related problems -- this is just more internet "b.s.", as the episodes look fantastic. Back around 1998 or so, a huge restoration project was begun in Japan on the various "Ultra" series. The episodes were painstakingly restored frame-by-frame to removing any damage while enhancing details in the original 16mm frame. These stunningly-restored versions of the 1966 series were first released on DVD in Japan under the "Digital Ultra Series" banner beginning in December 1999. As far as the audio goes, the Japanese also restored to the best of their abilities, and the original monaural audio remixed to Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. For the Japanese DVD releases, 10 random episodes (equating to 1 episode per DVD volume) were remixed to Dolby Digital 5.1. But with regard to this BCI Eclipse edition, I am utterly shocked at the wildly ludicrous misinformation being spread regarding the transfer quality and the English dub issues-- supposed "shoddy manufacturing" and "disc errors" causing the players to haphazardly and/or randomly switch audio tracks on the fly... indeed. That sort of thing simply doesn't happen, unless your own DVD player has major defects (or your cat is sleeping on the remote). To reiterate the "problem": When listening to the English dubbed soundtrack, it will temporarily revert to Japanese (with English subtitles) for a few seconds during some episodes. This is NOT a defect, or a mastering issue, or a manufacturing defect -- but was a deliberate and unavoidable decision. The main intent of this DVD set is to showcase the original Japanese version of the 1966 Ultraman series -- to that end, the DVD is mastered from the completely uncut original Japanese versions of the episodes. However, since this set was being released in America, BCI Eclipse also wanted to include the original 1970's English-dubbed soundtrack -- partially as an incentive for new viewers (or for those folks who hate reading subtitles), and partial to cater to those nostalgic fans who grew up watching the show after school on our local crappy UHF station (for me, Los Angeles Ch. 52, woohoo!). Although BCI's intentions were commendable, they ran into quite a few problems with this. First off, they had an extremely difficult time even locating some English-dub tracks to use for this project. BCI initially attempted to locate the original master tapes/tracks, but discovered that they no longer existed in the United Artist vaults. They eventually learned that Tsuburaya had the only existing copies of the foreign language dubs -- made from the original masters -- but obviously could not obtain them because of the Tsuburaya/Chaiyo licensing dispute mess. Just as an FYI, in an interview with BCI over at Henshin! Online, H!O reported the following: In other words, the only existing QUALITY copies of the English dub soundtrack are locked way in Tokyo and completely inaccessible. Therefore, with much difficulty, BCI eventually the English-dub tracks to use for this set -- but the copies were problematic and the quality was generally poor, especially in comparison to the quality of the Japanese audio. The English tracks have a lot of hiss, distortion and other problems, and that was for the better copies! Although they cleaned them up as best they could, there is only so much they could do with the poor source tracks they had no choice but to use -- it was either this or no English at all. Obviously, had BCI been able to obtain copies of the original English dub master tapes from Tsuburaya, the quality would be vastly superior, but that was not an option. (Actually, the poor English dub audio quality sounded even more nostalgic for me, since it really emulates the sound quality of the crappy speakers on my parents ancient Zenith TV I was stuck watching as a kid. Too bad I didn't have a 40" Sony Wega or an in-home surround system back then...). As if BCI didn't already have enough problems just locating English dub tracks to use, they are now taking a lot of heat from the way they present the English dub track on the DVDs. In every episode, there are a few sections lasting several seconds long for which there is no corresponding English dub track -- this is because those segments had never been recorded in English in the first place. When the series was being prepped for its initial American syndication in the early 1970s, the episodes were edited down slightly -- sometimes to remove a bit of perceived "excessive violence" or a "confusing" moment, but mainly to speed things up to allow for more commercials, as was standard operating procedure at the time. (These uncut episodes average 25m15s each, and the UHF channels back then really depended on those extra advertising dollars.) Obviously, the subsequent English-dub recording sessions would conform solely to the edited syndicated version of the series, not the original uncut versions -- no production would waste valuable time or money to record dialogue for cut footage that would never be seen or "heard" (or so they thought at the time). So, rather than leave those unrecorded English-dub segments completely silent on the DVD, BCI purposely inserted the audio from Japanese soundtrack into the gaps in the English track. In many instances, the replacement audio on the English dub track will go by unnoticed by most viewers. This is because many edits were originally made during segments which had no dialogue -- only background sound effects and/or music -- so the replacement is fairly seamless. (I noticed most of the audio-only inserts, if only because the music/soundfx suddenly had much better definition than the poor, hissy and/or distorted audio I was listening to just before the change.) However, the replacement audio IS quite noticeable to all English dub listeners whenever a segment appears with dialogue cut from the U.S. syndicated version. Again, rather than leaving these sections complete silent on the English dub track, BCI inserts the audio from the Japanese soundtrack, and ensures that the accompanying English subtitles appear onscreen so you understand what's being said. (BCI Eclipse is not the first company to have done this -- several other DVD releases from other companies have also inserted the original-language soundtrack into their edited English-language dubs rather than leave them "silent". Even MGM has done this with a certain major spaghetti Western release…) Something else most people don't notice -- or realize -- it that there are two different English subtitle tracks on the DVDs:
So for the last time, if you suddenly hear Japanese (and see English subtitles) when listening to the English dub track, it is not caused by the disc suddenly switching tracks back and forth, or a manufacturing defect, a bad disc, a DVD player problem, space aliens, magnetic disturbances, global warming… or any other ridiculous excuse these folks attempt to create or accuse BCI Eclipse of. (That's simply their own paranoia working against them…). In reality it was caused by a certain production company 40 years ago who decided to edit footage out of a certain show… and a certain DVD company trying to fill in the gaps in the soundtrack in the only feasible way they could 40 years later. So there you have it -- BCI did a FANTASTIC job with this show! They were able to use the masters made from the pristine restored (16mm) negatives for their R1 releases. The original Japanese soundtrack sound better than I expected for a 16mm TV production of that era, and the subtitle translations are quite good. And though far from perfect, we even got the original English-dubbed soundtrack we remember from our "younger" days. All in all, BCI Eclipse must be commended for their work on this set -- and those of you willing to give this set a proper and fair chance will likely enjoy what it has to offer as well. Also, for those viewers only interested in listening to the English soundtrack -- I really urge you to give the Japanese original a chance. Sure, the Speed Racer team did the dubbing, but they also rewrote and changed much of the original storyline. Those original Japanese storylines (and voice artists) are vastly superior in every respect, and the stories are written in a more "adult" (i.e. "less juvenille") manner than one would believe with this type of show. As I stated earlier, I love the Ultraman series, especially this 1966 version. But I'm also not a "biased extremist" who would immediately dismiss this DVD set out of hand simply because of the Tsuburaya/Chaiyo licensing dispute. And I absolutely would NEVER concoct completely false statements about video and/or audio problems, or defective mastering issues, that simply DO NOT exist. Do I wish there wasn't a Tsuburaya/Chaiyo licensing dispute? You bet. I wish Tsuburarya had full control over the licensing of their own shows here in the USA -- but thet DON'T. Even BCI has gone on record by stating they wished they could have dealt with Tsuburaya directly… they even attempted to, but were TOLD by Tsuburaya representatives to contact Chaiyo. But that is neither here nor there. The fact remains, no matter what you, or I, or anyone else "wishes" or "demands" was true, the rights lie where the rights lie, and I'll leave that up to individual Japanese companies, their lawyers and the Japanese courts. My only concern in any of this lies with the final repesentation of the Ultraman DVD set that as it was released in this country, and in giving that set a proper and fair chance to stand on its own merits. And I think I've done a pretty good job in doing that. I sincerely wish BCI Eclipse the best of luck with their release, and I look forward to the next volume in the series, and hopeful additional series after that. Enjoy! |
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Originally Posted by Dan Szwarc
Jeff, your post was very enlightening. Would you possibly post it on Amazon?
By the way, the link in your sig is mal-formed.. |
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Originally Posted by Tony D
i dont think jeff's site exists anymore as a functioning site. too bad.
this write up would be a great new jumping in point. |
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Originally Posted by Brian Hass
Now to my comments...
I will admit that there is some issue with unfocused video during long shots, (close-ups look fine) and the audio isn't of high quality, but I have been waiting years for this release and I'm having a blast watching the episodes. The price is fair and knowing the quality of this release I would certainly purchase again. |
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Originally Posted by Erik Smith
First off, let me say that I'm VERY happy to have this in my collection, as I also loved this show as a kid. Like Jeff said, it looks and sounds pretty good for a 40 year old TV show shot on 16mm.
That said, I'm still suspicious of it... especially with the English dub: If the show was edited down to make room for more commercials, why are there many episodes that are entirely in English? Wouldn't they ALL have footage cut? It doesn't make sense. |
| I knew that Episode 14 "The Pearl Oyster Protection Directive" had a large opening section without the English dub, so I compared it to my videotape (that I purchased at a comic convention about ten years ago). The opening scene was also in Japanese, and then switched over to English! However, it switched over to English while they were still in the store and the shopkeeper was in mid sentence. On the DVD, it did not switch over to English until the next scene, when they left the shop and were walking down the street. Hmm... |
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Originally Posted by JamesPe
I think a lot of times they used footage from one episode to fill in time for other episodes that had too much cut out that they didn't want to use. I got Space Giants from a bootleg guy and he explained it. It could be the same for Ultraman.
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Originally Posted by JamesPe
That's interesting. Someone will have to closely compare a bootleg set with this one.
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Originally Posted by Jeff Krispow
Yup… you got it! Definitely a blast watching it again, isn't it? And not only do I think the standard retail price is fair for this, but thanks to Amazon it was a complete steal… $20 (50% off)!!! Woohoo!
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Originally Posted by Jeff Krispow
Brian is absolutely correct about some issues with unfocused video during long shots and such… but hey, wasn't that always one of those "charming" things about the show we always loved? (Well, a future focus-puller has to get start somewhere, right?) Anyway, I did forgot to mention that in my "mini-review" above… plus the fact the overall image definitely leans a bit towards the soft. But I assumed that most of us here would already realize that this is how the show should look. This IS how the show was filmed, and the DVD does accurately represent the quality of the Japanese restorations. I can't imagine anyone ever being able to produce a better-looking, sharper or cleaner version of this show. (Okay, sure, we all know they could artificially "fix" it in post via standard unsharp mask filtering edge enhancement techniques, but would any of us really enjoy viewing the show if it were tainted in that matter…?)
What a lot of people seem to forget is that this is 1966 Ultraman we're talking about… it looks and sounds the way it looks and sounds, and that's all there is to it. 40 years later, folks have to understand that the show is a victim of its own production qualities. Which apparently most of us here at the HTF do realize. From some of the stuff I've read elsewhere, it seems that some people expect this to look as "perfect" as the Star Trek set does… because it was filmed at about the same time. So it HAS to look the same, right? It's not even worth getting into how utterly ridiculous such comparison is. Yeah, both were filmed at about the same time, but every production and their inherent qualities are vastly different in nearly every way imaginable… *Ugh* Just thinking about this is beginning to give me a headache again. |
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Originally Posted by Jeff Krispow
Whatever. The basic thing is this -- if folks understand that Ultraman is what it is, they'll also enjoy the DVD set for what it is… not for what it could never possible be..
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Originally Posted by Jeff Krispow
'Nuff said.
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) for a Video Search copy of the first four or five episodes on VHS. I can't believe this would be any worse.| To BCI's credit, they found and presented the fully restored episodes rather than the American or international re-edits, which means that not all of the dialogue was looped for English-speaking audiences. This also means that some of the scenes in the episodes are presented in Japanese with English subtitles, even if you opt for the English audio from start to finish. But personally speaking, this is a good thing since it means that we are able - perhaps for the very first time - to actually watch the fully-restored and intact episodes without worrying if they have been cut or changed to suit syndicated running times (which usually are about two minutes shorter). And again, English subtitles are available for hearing-impaired and multilingual audiences, but this tool also proves useful if you are interested in observing how the American editors and writers re-worked dialogue (or even removed it completely) to suit the actors' mouth movements. |
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Originally Posted by Erik Smith
If the show was edited down to make room for more commercials, why are there many episodes that are entirely in English? Wouldn't they ALL have footage cut? It doesn't make sense.
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Originally Posted by Jeff Krispow
Oh, and let's not forget about IGN's review of the show here. Hmmm… also no playback issues. Interesting. On a especially telling notes, IGN also discusses the edited syndication versions we received here in the 1970s. Here's the excerpt: Won't say I told 'ya so… (but I sure will privately think it). Oh, come on… you know you'd say the same thing. |
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Originally Posted by IGN
The Video
Night Watch is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) preserving the aspect ratio of the theatrical exhibition. (The flip-disc also offers a pan-and-scan 1.33:1 version, but we didn't check that side out.) The picture quality is strong and clear, carefully maintaining the stylized cinematography, even when the editing and composition are purposely exaggerated or intensified. |
| Episode 1: 21:36-22:56 There's an exchange between the Science Patrol in their ship about the nature of Ultraman's Color Timer and what it would mean when it blinks faster. At 22:56, there's a 3-4 second pause where, I assume, the language track switches back to the english dub. Kinda annoying, but... Upon seeing this, I went back and watched it with the japanese audio on (with subtitles) and the "glitch" is still there at 22:56. So, I went and dug out my old EIA tape from 1996, blew off the dust and went to that scene (the one that reverts to the japanese/subtitled track when playing the english dub). It's dubbed IN ENGLISH all the way through on the EIA tape: to paraphrase "Look, it's blinking, what do you think it could mean?" "Well, it's red and red is never good..." Answer: BCI didn't get the complete english dub from Chaiyo. The cuts weren't made for timing, violence or other potential broadcast reasons when the episodes were broadcast back in the 70's. BCI just didn't get a "complete" dub of at least episode 1... |
| Video- Obviously better than the old EIA tape, but not as gorgeous as the R2s. I spent a few minutes wathcing some of the effects sequences from episode 5 (with Gesura), and detected quite a lot of pixellation in scenes where there's water splashing around. These weren't present in the R2's, anywhere. I'm assuming the issue is with the Chaiyo-derived source or overcompression by BCI to fit more on the disc. |
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Originally Posted by Brian Manning
I'm the one who's done the EIA tape/R2 comparsion, FYI.
There's a decent thread on the DVD Manaics forum that includes a post from someone within BCI (this is a supposition, rather than knowledge) explaining what they did and why. As I've said on the "other" board, an example of making a silk purse from a sow's ear... |
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Originally Posted by Dan Szwarc
Those comparison pics don't show pixelization. They show interlacing artifacts. Could the R1 BCI DVDs be made from an interlaced source?
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Originally Posted by Dan Szwarc
Those comparison pics don't show pixelization. They show interlacing artifacts. Could the R1 BCI DVDs be made from an interlaced source?
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Originally Posted by Erik Smith
I think I see what you're saying, but I'm not entirely sold on it. #1 because of the discrepancy between the videotape and the DVD, and #2 because they weren't allowed access to the original DAT recordings.
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| If anyone can point me out some specific spots on the discs where it switches over to Japanese, it would be a great help. |
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Originally Posted by Erik Smith
R2 Japanese Disc:
R1 BCI Disc: And someone else with the R2 Japanese discs noted: |
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Originally Posted by Jeff Krispow
Hope you found the screengrab as "enlightening" as I said it would be…
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Originally Posted by Jeff Krispow
Just in case anyone cares, DVD Verdict has posted there review of the disc set here. And… amazingly enough… here noticed NO playback issues with his set. Imagine that.
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Originally Posted by Jeff Krispow
Oh, and let's not forget about IGN's review of the show here. Hmmm… also no playback issues. Interesting.
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Originally Posted by Jeff Krispow
Okay, onwards to other matters…
Let's talk about compatibility testing. Just as an FYI, not one single home video company anywhere in the world can test for compatibility with all DVD players -- it's a physical and practical impossibility. There are hundreds (if not over a thousand) different player brands, totalling tens of thousands of different player models, and each individual player variety has a multiple of different internal revision/OS updates/etc. All companies use a representative selection of players to test their discs on, usually between 10-20 units tops, and no company can guarantee 100% compatibility will ALL players. If it was even possible for any company to test their titles for compability on just 1% of all the players made, it would take years just to get one disc out the door, which means we'd never see any titles released. I used to have a Toshiba model which was nothing but problematic -- every few months I had to take it in for an free upgrade just so it would play the latest DVDs on the marketplace -- and I'm talking major releases. Yet other people had no problems playing any of those discs on some other players. Once I got fed up with the Toshiba unit, I picked up a Pioneer unit, which I've been using as my main player for at least the past 8 years or so now. And it's been an outstanding workhorse, still having no problem playing current release no matter how intricate the mastering might be. And just fo the record, my collection now totals somewhere over 5000+ DVDs (gotta finish updating my database). Have I had playback problems? Most certainly, but rarely, especially considering the number of DVDs I have. In every instance, any playback issue I've had was related to a manufacturing or mastering problem, rather than a "player" issue. And I consider myself extremely lucky to have such a terrific DVD player, especially after coming off of the DVD-hating Toshiba unit. But getting back to Ultraman, I haven't had ANY playback problems with this set whatsoever. The only "freezing" I've seen was the standard momentary pause during the layer change, as Gary noted. (And no, I don't consider the English dub a "defect"). |
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Originally Posted by Jeff Krispow
But the reality of the matter is that there with around 100,000 or so existing player varieties (total = brands + models + internal model revisions) -- not to mention however many different DVD-creation software packages -- that have been produced over the past 10 years, there definitely DO exist player-related playback issues with certain discs. Some of us have been extremely lucky to have obtained nearly problem-free players (like myself), some of us aren't -- even my first player was extremely problem-prone. I had friends with $2000 Sony units that had playback problems that didn't exist on someone else's $199 Panasonic model… or my Pioneer. But player-related playback issues ARE a reality, and are not necessarily always caused by "poor DVD manufacturing" or a "defective disc." And just as an FYI, anyone with a $29-special no-name DVD player as a main unit has no right to ever complain about playback issues.
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Originally Posted by Jeff Krispow
Sure, it's mildly annoying, but you can't pull audio that was never recorded out of thin air. The only way anybody can EVER know for sure 100% what was recorded for the original English syndicated versions -- and what wasn't -- would be to obtain Tsuburaya's English dub master copies and do a comparison. And Tsuburaya isn't letting ANYONE access those tracks, nor is it likely they'll ever use it themselves (their 1986 LD, 1994 reissue LD and 1999 DVD releases were Japanese-only, as was their April 2005 DVD megaset). So frankly, until such a time as Tsuburaya does use them -- or allow outside access to them -- it's pretty much a moot issue.
HOWEVER, that being said, I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if the English soundtrack copies BCI did obtain were missing a few small bits of English here and there that WAS recorded… in fact, I'm certain of it. Again, since Tsuburaya has the originals locked away and unattainable, BCI had to make do with whatever old recordings they could find, mostly likely from private collections. And I'm sure most of these recordings were made over 30 years, back when the show was still syndicated. |
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Originally Posted by Jeff Krispow
Hope you found the screengrab as "enlightening" as I said it would be…
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Originally Posted by Mark Talmadge
Judgting from all of the bad rteviews that everyone is posting here I'm having a hard time deciding whether to buy this set or not. Is it really that bad or not? Considering that the series is from the 60's the picture quality can't be assumed to be digital quality.
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Originally Posted by Paul Miller
Has anyone seen the second volume that is suppose to be coming out on October 10th listed online anywhere? I haven't been able to find a listing for it yet.
Paul |
