"A CHRISTMAS CAROL/SCROOGE" 1951 Alastair Sim on DVD (1 Viewer)

[John Hodson]

Cheaper at Bensons, but the problem is that the distributor when into administration in the summer, they've since been taken over but as you can seen their pricing is a little steep.

 

[Harry-N]

Be careful judging sharpness issues with still screen captures. I'm noticing some jaggy edges on the R2 screen capture. Take a look at Cratchit's ear and collar. They both exhibit jagged edges not found on the R1 screen capture.

I'm wondering if some artificial sharpness filters were applied to the R2 release, or perhaps edge enhancement.

Or it all may simply be an artifact from how the screen capture was compressed on the computer.

Harry

 

[Mike Frezon]

And that's just part of what makes screen captures so iffy.

On the display I'm using at the moment I see those jaggies on Cratchit's ear & collar quite well. But, if I click the little bar at the top of the R2 image to expand it, they go away.

So, it's really hard to tell if limitations come from our personal displays, the jpg compression, the capture software or the video source. And I know there's a lot of potential variables I'm leaving out.

 

[Dave Mack]

pal does have slightly higher res though.

 

[ScottR]

But why the cropping?

 

[Mike Frezon]

Still can't find this in any store. And I found my local FYE tonight had a pretty big Christmas DVD section out already. I found copies of the Reginald Owen, Patrick Stewart, & Kelsey Grammer versions of A Christmas Carol (along with a few animated versions)...but none of THE definitive version.

Dave: did you ever get your copy from DVDPacific?

 

[Dave Mack]

Hiya Mike!

I actually cancelled it to look for it locally. Nothing. Guess I'll Amazon it.

 

[WilliamMcK]

I ordered it from Deep Discount after even Kim's Video in NYC let me down. It shipped yesterday. (Can't find the new Three Stooges boxed set either).

 

[Charles_Y]

I just viewed my copy last night and whereas I thought the movie overall looked quite nice, there were scattered brief sequences where the print looked unrestored, almost as bad as a workprint. For instance, the early part of the scene where Scrooge and Marley sit in on a business meeting.

These sequences are most dismaying and I can only surmise VCI and .360 couldn't work their magic/expertise on them. Maybe, the elements they had to work with were simply too degraded. I wish it was at least mentioned. They go on about how great the restoration looked in the supplements without referencing these clearly inferior segments.

Nonetheless, a great purchase. I'm not a colorization fan but even the brief parts I sampled on the colorized version looked good. I wonder if this was the original colorization done in the 80s. It was nice to have the Patrick MacNee intros from that time. I was he had referred to his participation in the film, some viewers probably missed him as the younger Marley. He looked so different at that age!

I agree with others the 16:9 anamorphic is a disgrace. Looks more than blown up. It appears to have been taken from the unrestored version and the surround sound is weak and too diffuse in my opinion.

 

[Dave Mack]

tangent, but what we did Halloween nite!

[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/6/61/htf_imgcache_15496.jpeg] [/url]

First time ever trick-or-treating for Mini-Mack!

 

[Mike Frezon]

Christmas DVD displays are now becoming common...and still no copies of this that I've seen in my immediate area. I'm also looking for a relatively new release of "The House Without a Christmas Tree" (Robards/Natwick/Lucas) to no avail. :frowning:

Definitely should have just ordered on-line. Maybe I will if I haven't found them before the DDD sale!

 

[Mike Frezon]

Phew! Finally!

A B&M finally came through for me. My local Best Buy finally had a small section of Christmas movies out yesterday. (They have a HUGE collection of Christmas music out this year!)

And there was the new A Christmas Carol! Yay!

I am anticipating a Thanksgiving weekend viewing! Although I may go run and look at the opening title sequence right now!

 

[Mike Frezon]

Well...I couldn't wait until Thanksgiving and watched the new A Christmas Carol last night!

First, I did a quick, unscientific A/B comparison of the prior VCI version to this one. Besides the intact opening sequence (!), the new transfer seems VERY sharp and nice. There are, indeed, times when it looks like different elements were used as the quality drifted in spots. But all-in-all it looks like a top notch presentation of one of my favorite films.

My wife brought a big smile to face when we sat down and she asked, "what are we watching tonight?" When the titles came up she thought for a minute and said, "you know, this is just about the perfect movie." I couldn't argue with her one bit.

I even listened to the first twenty minutes (or so) of the commentary. It was, frankly, pretty boring. Some British film historian and George Cole (who played Ebeneezer Scrooge as a young man). The historian would ask a leading question such as, "was it interesting to work at such-and-such studios back then?" Cole would respond along the lines of, "(long pause) No. Not really."

Didn't bother with the color or 16:9 versions. The original black and white was as beautiful as I'd ever seen it.

 

[ScottR]

So, Mike, it didn't seem cropped too much?

 

[Mike Frezon]

Nope. But, I'm no expert on such matters. But I had actually forgotten about that concern until you asked.

I actually did see a few seconds of the 16:9 version as I was fumbling to change the audio. It did look just awful. It was the scene near the beginning when Scrooge was talking to the two other businessmen and said Christmas was a humbug. It was poorly cropped and framed.

I neglected to report there were a few occasions where I thought the audio had a hollow ring and I was checking to make sure I had the original mono track selected and not some manufactured 5.1 track. The instances in which I noticed this were mostly indoor sequences like the one I just described above. This was nothing to be concerned about, though...as it was minor and only in a few sequences. All-in-all the PQ & SQ were pretty darned good. As I said in my earlier post, I thought the images were, for the most part, a sharp as can be for a film of that age and condition.

I'm very curious to hear what others think.

 

[Matt Hough]

Like you, Mike, I couldn't wait and had to watch it early. I had exactly the same reaction to some of the shots, obviously from a different source and of poorer quality (as most don't last more than a moment or two, it's acceptable). Most of it, however, looks just wonderful, undoubtedly the best I've ever seen on home video.

That 5.1 track is miserably done. Why on earth have the surrounds louder than the center channel?

 

[RobertGr]

Got to finally sit and watch the restored OAR version and I noticed one shot is missing are there other such problems with this "restored" version? The shot I refer to happens when Scrooge goes to his nephews house on Christmas Day. When he opens the door and surprises his nephew and his nephews wife then Fred jumps up we then are supposed to see another shot of Freds wife sitting on the sofa then the scene changes back to Fred and Scrooge and some dialogue. Well the shot is on the colorized verzion but not on the restored 16 x 9 or OAR. I am very surprised this was not caught before the disc was mastered very sloppy for a restored version!