Assault on Precinct 13 - Image REALLY Screwed up! (1 Viewer)

[Lyle_JP]

I finally received my copy from Deep Discount DVD last night, so I threw it in the player, popped some corn, and settled in to watch one of the greatest low budget exploitation flicks in history.

At first I was thrilled at how much better it looked on my 16:9 tv than my battered laserdisc copy. But it didn't take long before I realized that it didn't look quite as sharp as most of my DVDs do. So I hit display and noticed that there were NO progressive flags on the disc. :frowning:

No big deal, I thought to myself, so Image forgot to flag it. I'll just set my player into a "forced film" mode to get the full resolution. But that turned out to be a disaster. Severe combing in every single frame.

Then I realized what Image had done. Not only was the disc flagged improperly, but the fields had been swapped as well! How "asleep-at-the-switch" does one have to be to botch a simple telecine job this bad?!? This will not de-interlace (do film mode) properly on either my Pioneer or JVC stand alone prog-scan players, nor can PowerDVD accurately display it in "weave" mode on my PC.

Only VirtualDub*, using the Telecide filter, could make sense of the mess, but of course, that program has the luxury of not having to work in real time. Also, since I don't have a DVD-R burner, the .vob files it created are of little use to me, since they can only be viewed with PowerDVD on my PC.

So, do any cadence-reading prog-scan DVD players do film mode on this disc properly, or are they equally confused by the swapped fields? Is there any chance Image will fix this fantastic blunder?

* I realize that even mentioning VirtualDub could get me in trouble with the strict anti-pirating stance of this forum, but I don't feel that making a personal copy for the sole purpose of fixing a serious mastering blunder constitutes piracy.

 

[Damin J Toell]

* I realize that even mentioning VirtualDub could get me in trouble with the strict anti-pirating stance of this forum, but I don't feel that making a personal copy for the sole purpose of fixing a serious mastering blunder constitutes piracy.

Whether you think so or not doesn't really matter. From the HTF Rules: "Any discussion pertaining to copying of ANY video or audio source, defeating of copyprotection in any form, or how to obtain related equipment is forbidden."

DJ

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I agree wholeheartedly that what you did SHOULD be legal, as it seems to me like a natural extension of ownership. However, due to the DMCA making the counteracting any digital copyright protection illegal, you could be opening up the HTF to liability.

Thus the "see no evil.." stance in the forum rules.

 

[Mark_Wilson]

Pioneer and JVC are flag readers only, no better than PowerDVD. A Cadence reading player like the Panasonic RP91 or XP30/50 should make this look ok. I've got this disc and an RP91. I'll give it a spin and see how it looks. I've also got the old non-anamorphic disc. I'll try and give them a compare PQ wise.

 

[Lyle_JP]

For the record, VirtualDub has no ability to circumvent copy protections, nor decrypt DVDs in any way. The DVD must already have been ripped by other software which I will not mention here. VirtualDub is only a perfectly legal MPEG encoding and manipulation tool. It's great for making VCDs of your home movies, for example.

However, because it is so often used by file traders to create DivX files, I felt I should add a disclaimer.

To Mark: I'd be curious to see how a Panny handles this disc. Please let us know.

-Lyle J.P.

 

[Mark_Wilson]

This disc is flagged incorrectly. Goes into video mode on my JVC SA75 but plays corrects on my Panasonic RP91.

 

[Paul Arnette]

All,

Does anyone here know whether there has been any progress in getting this DVD authoring issue straightened out?

Thanks.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

Unlike the blurry Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life disc, this looks fine on my non 16x9, non-progressive set-up. I didn't even know about this problem until I read the MP thread.

 

[Matt Stone]

It looks fine on my Tosh 5700 hooked up to a Panny 53WX42.