Kiki DVD out-of-sync... (1 Viewer)

[Rob Lutter]

I watched the Japanese version last night and dialogue was spot-on. I did notice the broom-slap, but that was IT.

This was on a HTPC using PowerDVD.

 

[David Lambert]

I watched the Japanese version last night and dialogue was spot-on. I did notice the broom-slap, but that was IT.

I'm talking about the English dub, of course. While I plan to check out the OSL version at some point, my primary concern right now is with the Kirsten Dunst/Phil Hartman soundtrack - which is how I discovered the film.


When it comes to listening to Japanese soundtracks, we can't all be Rob Lutters!


I'll be calling Disney about this when lunchtime hits and the rest of my cubical neighbors empty out.

 

[MikeSilver]

One thing to note is that many times Japanese dialogue is not always in sync with lip movement because it's not a priority for the animators (unlike in North America). Maybe Disney tried to sync up the lip movements to the Japanese dialogue and in doing so, put the sound effects out of sync. Hmmm... That would make for an interesting experiment if I had the disc.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

When it comes to listening to Japanese soundtracks, we can't all be Rob Lutters

Ahem, who do you think converted Lutter?

Join us Dave...........

 

[David Lambert]

I just got off the phone with Disney technical support. The gentleman I spoke to there indicated I was the first compaint on this issue, and that he had been one of the testers of the DVD and had experienced no problems of this sort on the multiple players he tried it on.

He acknowledged that there could be a problem on other players, and that he would look into it. For starters, he would like to swing by here (HTF) this afternoon and read through this thread.

Yes, he's familiar with this forum (he says they monitor them constantly), and stated that he recollected my name although he didn't recall details (I replied that I was the loudmouth who said too much! ).


I would ask all of you who agree that there is a soundtrack sync issue OF ANY SORT (sound effects, dialog, whatever) to post it here. Please include the following information:

• Brief description of the problem (example: sound effects and dialog occur prior to the corresponding on-screen action and lip movements)
• Difference in sound to corresponding action (example: all sounds occur a half-second prior to the corresponding action)
• Is it constant or does it come and go ("intermittant")? (for me it was constant)
• Examples of any specific scenes or portions of the film that demonstrate this (example: the first 25 minutes of the film)
• Equipment this was tested on (example: Pansonic A120, Mintek 2110 {yes, that's my other one...I just looked it up}, and DVD-ROM in my Compaq PC)
• He didn't ask me about this, but it's probably not bad to state where you bought it at (example: Wal-Mart)

Help him to help us if you think there's a problem. If you don't think there is a problem, there's really NO NEED to say so...we already have a firm grasp that this is not an issue for everyone.

Thanks,

 

[David Lambert]

Nooooooooooooooooooooo! Must resist....


MikeSilver: As I explained to the technician, I had always been surprise at just HOW MUCH the VHS had the lip movements seem to correspond to the English words being spoken in the dub. A great example is the old woman in the potion shop when Kiki runs in to tell her mom that "tonight is the night". Watching her mouth it seems that ever lip movement fits every word (I have some meager lip-reading - and sign-language - skills due to two cousins who were born deaf, but I'm years out of practice so take it with a grain of salt).

But anyway, the magic of the lip movements matching up has been destroyed with the problems I'm having with the DVD.

 

[Malcolm R]

I replied that I was the loudmouth who said too much!

Technician: "Oh, THAT Dave Lambert. *smacks forehead with palm* Of course!"

J/K

I hope to watch my "Kiki" this weekend and will watch for these issues.

 

[Rob Lutter]

Nooooooooooooooooooooo! Must resist....

Yes Dave, I can see it now... The Weekly Anime Roundup

 

[Steve Y]

I've only listened to the Japanese soundtrack (I do not ever intend to listen to the English dub in its entirety)

I did notice the broom-slap problem - as is commonly written here on HTF, "someone dropped the ball." But it was the most noticeable and bothersome out-of-synch moment for me in the whole movie.

I tried to pay attention to synchro problems, but I just didn't notice anything bad enough again to distract me or warrant "stopping the movie" ) which by the way is wonderful). If there was a recall I would take advantage of it, however, just because I like to have the best possible version.

I am in the minority - I think the synchronization issue is completely subjective and has little to do with various player issues. We all know how audiophile debates can describe one recording a thousand different ways... one person's synchronization is another person's travesty.

~steve

 

[ChrisJefferys]

Geez, I was planning on picking this up on the weekend, but I think I'll wait a bit, to see how all this pans out. Since I already have the R2 Spirited Away, I guess I'll just be picking up Laputa for now(that ones OK, right??) :frowning:

 

[HowieG]

One final note, I'm surprized you "perfectionatos" didn't notice, is the way the Kiki trailors were presented.

Obviously, they were 1:85 letterbox originals and then mistakenly rerendered in animorphic. The result effect looks like Kiki got smashed into Cinemascope.

Now I'm gettin adamant, if I were Disney, I'd fire whoever was in charge of this transfer, it's a disgrace!

This Kiki DVD is just slop-slop-sloppy!

 

[Richard Kim]

Um, Howie, the trailers ARE in 1.85:1. It's just that they're non-anamorphic.

If you have a widescreen TV, take it out of full 16:9 mode and put in fill or zoom mode, or if you have a 4:3 TV that does a 16:9 squeeze mode, turn it off.

 

[HowieG]

Um, Howie, the trailers ARE in 1.85:1. It's just that they're non-anamorphic.
If you have a widescreen TV, take it out of full 16:9 mode and put in fill or zoom mode, or if you have a 4:3 TV that does a 16:9 squeeze mode, turn it off.

Yes (of course), you can do that (just one more slew of wierd things to do). I don't happen to own any other DVDs where one has to manually reconfigure widescreen settings to get the proper AR, but I'm sure if I persist there are probably many DVDs out there that (may) work that way. I don't own any (out of 500), but granted there may be some (and I really don't want to hear about them). Also, I really could care less about the trailers (though some may care a lot). It's just an example of one more "mistake" on the disc.

My thread is about Kiki and it is obvious (to me anyway) through a series of (found) mistakes that this DVD isn't as polished as it "should" be (as polished as Disney DVDs are expected to be). If compared to the other two DVDs (Spirited Away and Laputa: Castle in the Sky), Kiki seems to have gotten the short end.

Either someone at Disney doesn't like witches or quality control was off that day!

 

[John_F]

HowieG,


I own much less then 500 DVDs and many of them have this problem. I would almost say it is the norm. I'm switching modes on my TV all the time.

What type of display do you have? Is it possible that it auto-switches modes and the Kiki DVD is improperly flagged.

Regards,
John Flegert

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Almost every trailer on every disc I have ever seen is non-anamorphic letterbox (with a few exceptions, especially on new releases)... you must not watch trailers on many of those 500 discs if you had never encountered non-anamorphic letterbox before.

This is not an error for the disc- although you might not normally notice non-anamorphic letterbox content if you have player that auto zooms based on flags (like the RP91).

But I would assure you it's very common- heck there are hundreds of widescreen films released non-anamorphic (one that comes up all the time with new folks is Armageddon Criterion)-- and for your TV to display it properly you either have to be in 4:3 mode (with bars on all 4 sides) or the letterbox zoom mode, which crops away some of the unused screen area (bars) and maintains proper picture geometry.

-V

 

[Mark Zimmer]

The trailer thing varies all over the board. Anchor Bay's are almost always anamorphic. Columbia often will have 3 or 4 trailers on a disc, one or two of which are anamorphic and the rest aren't. It's annoying, but what can you do?

 

[Jeff Kleist]

I have confirmation that both the Kiki sync issue and the Spirited Away title card bug are being looked into. I should have more details early next week.

 

[HowieG]

Yes, thank you!

 

[David Lambert]

Thanks for the update, Jeff! Good to know it's being looked at...perhaps my call got the ball rolling?

 

[HowieG]

Yes, thanks to both of you, Jeff and Dave for gettin this thing rolling.

I hope something good can come of it.

Over and out!