You both make good points maybe that is the problem! I have a 27 inch JVC monitor and the image on the EASTER PARADE dvd looks terrible. Every other dvd I have looks great including OZ. GWTW etc ultra rez discs. I know I am not alone in this opinion. When I first got the EASTER PARADE a friend of mine dropped by he had worked at Laserland for years and is also quite a film buff. And he thought the dvd looked terrible. I put the laser on and he was totally shocked that the laser looked better than the dvd. I then put the dvd on my dell computer and the dvd looked very good!
So one I am not alone in thinking the dvd is problematic on monitors, none of the other Warners restorations have this problem. In fact the dvd of Adv of Don Juan leaps off the screen!!!
Well, a flash player video isn't exactly the best way to make the comparison, but it's as true a representation of the discs that I can muster on short notice for the masses.
One thing is clear to me, the laserdisc has a pale blue haze over the image. It's obvious when we see grey and brown male costuming. Again, these things are very monitor specific and calibration, cables, equipment....all play into the equation of the vision we all have before us in our home theatres.
Which Laserdisc version are we talking about? The first EASTER PARADE LD was transferred from a CRI - like many of the pre 1991 or 1992 MGM Laserdiscs. I have had several other early MGM titles on LD (SUMMER STOCK and TORCH SONG to name two) and the color was quite inconsistent. Sometimes the trailers looked much better than the actual feature films! EASTER PARADE was reissued and labeled as a "Technicolor Restoration" later in the 1990's, and I assume that is the one that is being referenced. I sold the disc long ago so I can't compare it, but I am watching my Laserdiscs on a 42" HDTV. I have a newer LD player now (amazing how different video quality is player to player on those things - I need to make new screencaps of the Disney animated features from the LD releases) and many of them look better than the DVD releases, though they are never as sharp. They almost always have better sound and often have better color balance, but they are inevitably much softer and less processed (or completely altered, as in the Disney animated features) on the DVD releases.
assuming you're using professional caliber decks, which is unlikely. The decks themselves will generate a greater discrepency on an identical properly calibrated monitor.
Maybe so, I watched the dvd again taking the advice of a fellow member on the board I lowered the contrast way down and the colors looked much better. Also if you watch the Tech Restoration laser every scene in consistent in it's vibrant colors, if you watch the dvd as the other poster in this thread said is right in saying the ends of scenes or disolves look like dupe material.
And I am now watching the film on TCM and it looks good, not great. They have it on since 11:45am!