Blu-ray Review The Invisible Man: The Complete Series Blu-Ray Review (1 Viewer)

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by MatthewA /t/321432/the-invisible-man-the-complete-series-blu-ray-review#post_3938098

What is the aspect ratio of the episodes on the DVD?

A review of the DVD on Amazon suggests several episodes suffer from artifacts and jerky motion when people move, maybe it's their DVD player and some sort of NTSC-PAL issue but whatever the case may be we can all agree the Blu ray is a complete waste of money and not worth buying.

 

[Neil Brock]

What is the aspect ratio of the episodes on the DVD?

Normal TV ratio 4x3.

 

[Neil Brock]

It's not fine - there's a glitch in the Pilot episode, about 50 minutes in. Unless, of course, the US edition is different (which is possible - even if they used the same masters they may have been made in different factories).

Yes, I saw that. Wasn't thrilled but since the only other option on this series is keeping the 45 minute hack jobs from SciFi Channel, its still better than that. At least these are complete. If the glitch bothered me that much I could always splice in that part from VHS but to me I'm not going to go crazy over 3 seconds.

 

[smithb]

42 minutes x 13 = 546 minutes or 9 hours and 6 minutes, no way is this possible on a BD-50 without serious issues to image quality, Warner manage to squeeze 6 episodes of Smallville onto a disc and it looks mostly ok apart from some minor compression issues that occasionally pop up, 13 episodes of a series shot on 70's 35mm film which is grainier than todays film stocks, not a chance of that being encoded onto 1 disc and looking okay.
They should have released this as 3 blu ray discs and kept the bitrate nice and high and did it in 4/3 format.
:EDIT: Just read it's 60 minutes an episode, that's even worse for 1 disc.

I think his point was regarding the ability to release TV shows in basically DVD quality on a blu-ray disk to cut down on the number of disks required in a release. In which case, if the episodes were at 10 MBPS they were still above typical DVD bitrates. Not that I am suggesting this approach, but I recall such comments in other threads where some see this as an option going forward.
I seem to recall reading somewhere that this is against the intent of the blu-ray spec that SD content be distributed using the blu-ray format. I know some extras have been released on blu-ray in SD format but that may only be acceptable if the main title is still in HD. However, i can't validate that any of this is accurate, but maybe someone else can clarify one way or another.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by smithb /t/321432/the-invisible-man-the-complete-series-blu-ray-review#post_3938116
I think his point was regarding the ability to release TV shows in basically DVD quality on a blu-ray disk to cut down on the number of disks required in a release. In which case, if the episodes were at 10 MBPS they were still above typical DVD bitrates. Not that I am suggesting this approach, but I recall such comments in other threads where some see this as an option going forward.
I seem to recall reading somewhere that this is against the intent of the blu-ray spec that SD content be distributed using the blu-ray format. I know some extras have been released on blu-ray in SD format but that may only be acceptable if the main title is still in HD. However, i can't validate that any of this is accurate, but maybe someone else can clarify one way or another.

I agree that if they decided to just put out the entire series on one blu ray disc in standard definition using the AVC codec then it could look superb and scale to 1080p brilliantly, instead they have tried to do it in high definition and compromised quality and also their logic is that blu ray player owners want 16/9 no matter how the show was supposed to be shot, really silly of them.

As you say though there is probably a rule stopping them putting SD out on one blu ray but it would work really well.

 

[MatthewA]

Originally Posted by Neil Brock /t/321432/the-invisible-man-the-complete-series-blu-ray-review#post_3938112
Normal TV ratio 4x3.

Thanks. With this in mind, I don't see why VEI went through the trouble to crop the masters if they received 4x3 ones, considering how little effort was put into anything else.

 

[TravisR]

Thanks. With this in mind, I don't see why VEI went through the trouble to crop the masters if they received 4x3 ones, considering how little effort was put into anything else.

Beyond that, I'm wondering who the cropping was done for. Fans of a 35 year old obscure sci-fi show are the same exact people that get pissed by altering the aspect ratio. I'm sure there's a handful of people who are more concerned with filling their TVs than respecting the original photography but I can't imagine it's that many.

 

[RickER]

Most of the people that would buy this would want it OAR, just like most of the other 60s and 70s shows that are on Blu.
OAR, and the best possible PQ. So far its worked for me on Star Trek TOS, The Prisoner, and Space:1999.
All of them great Blu-ray releases!

 

[MadmanTV]

Madman are releasing on August 15th on DVD - rep masters went off last week. Sadly the Region 4 market isn't large enough to make a blu ray edition cost-effective, so hearing of the aspect issue on the US release is a real disappointment.

 

[Nebiroth]

Thanks. With this in mind, I don't see why VEI went through the trouble to crop the masters if they received 4x3 ones, considering how little effort was put into anything else.

Although the evidence is that they went to very little effort - since in some scenes the images are obviusly stretched and distorted.
This is a very different prospect to the BluRay release on Thunderbirds here in the UK. That too is "widescreen" but it was at least intelligently done and with efforts made to preserve the composition of the shots.
Although, of course, it still remains of zero interest to me; I want the thing how it was made.
Good news about Madman releasing this series in r4.

 

[SimonTemplar]

I've written to VEI asking for an explanation and asking them to consider fixing this.
If I get a response, I will post it here.
I'm glad Grant is on the case with the dvd.
I want more classic TV on BR though.

 

[SimonTemplar]

Hi guys
Here is the response I got from VEI.
I'd like to point out that I did not post anything on Amazon and my email to them was polite and accurate. Please feel free to let Jeff Spring know I am not the only person who is not happy with their decision.
many thanks
David (aka ST)
David,
Firstly we don't appreciate you bashing the Blu-ray of Invisible Man and
writing a negative comment on Amazon.
We would receive more complaints about a square picture in the middle of the
TV screen than what we ended up doing.
You are the only complaint to date addressing this issue.
The end result did not affect the end quality of the product.
We were very pleased with the result especially dating back 35 years ago.
Jeff
****************************************************************************
*****
Jeff Sprigg
President
Visual Entertainment, Inc. (VEI)
39 International Blvd
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M9W 6H3
Telephone: +416.259.9100
Facsimile: +416.259.7997
Web: www.visualentertainment.tv
e-mail: [email protected]

 

[Nebiroth]

Great way to treat customers who take the trouble to give product feedback.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by SimonTemplar /t/321432/the-invisible-man-the-complete-series-blu-ray-review/30#post_3940263
Hi guys
Here is the response I got from VEI.
I'd like to point out that I did not post anything on Amazon and my email to them was polite and accurate. Please feel free to let Jeff Spring know I am not the only person who is not happy with their decision.
many thanks
David (aka ST)
David,
Firstly we don't appreciate you bashing the Blu-ray of Invisible Man and
writing a negative comment on Amazon.
We would receive more complaints about a square picture in the middle of the
TV screen than what we ended up doing.
You are the only complaint to date addressing this issue.
The end result did not affect the end quality of the product.
We were very pleased with the result especially dating back 35 years ago.
Jeff
****************************************************************************
*****
Jeff Sprigg
President
Visual Entertainment, Inc. (VEI)
39 International Blvd
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M9W 6H3
Telephone: +416.259.9100
Facsimile: +416.259.7997
Web: www.visualentertainment.tv
e-mail: [email protected]

They were pleased with the result, wow, cramming 13 episodes into one disc and cropping the image and they were pleased with the result, i think they are showing no respect for the consumer at all and deserve to lose sales, i will avoid any future Blu ray from this company, their attitude stinks.

 

[Radioman970]

That guy is president of something? lol

 

[Jack P]

Their credibility as an organization just went into the toilet with that response.

 

[TravisR]

I got no response but it's clear that they don't care. I can only hope that more people put up reviews on Amazon and more people stay away from this product so they and other companies don't think that people want ruined photography on Blu-ray.
I could be wrong but I find it hard to believe that they "would receive more complaints about a square picture in the middle of the TV screen..." for a show that's only going to be bought by people who are the same ones that care about the proper aspect ratio of movies/TV shows. If we were talking about Friends, I could buy that the majority of consumers want their screens filled but not on The Invisible Man.

 

[Jason_V]

That's just a joke of a response. It would probably be fun to play with this guy a bit, but it doesn't matter in the end. His mind won't be changed and he's standing by an inferior product.

 

[Charles Smith]

This is reminding me of a couple of years ago when someone issued a butchered/stretched Fleischer Gulliver's Travels on Blu-ray. That was a real circus for a while on Amazon.

 

[Jason_V]

Originally Posted by Chas in CT /t/321432/the-invisible-man-the-complete-series-blu-ray-review/30#post_3940325
This is reminding me of a couple of years ago when someone issued a butchered/stretched Fleischer Gulliver's Travels on Blu-ray. That was a real circus for a while on Amazon.

I was gonna mention that. I went a few rounds with those people and posted our entire conversation publicly. Then I realized it wasn't worth the argument.