Blurry/Ghosty Motion with The Woman in White (2018) Region-1 DVD Played from Sony Blu-ray Player (1 Viewer)

[Classic Movie Fan]

I just bought PBS's Region-1 2-DVD set of this production that aired on Masterpiece a couple of years ago. I was really surprised and disappointed to see noticeable blurring/ghosting of characters when they move around (nod their heads, walk from one side of the scene to another, etc.). It's as though motion causes the image to become a double, ghosty offset image. When the characters are stationary, things look pretty normal. I have a lot of other DVDs, including quite a few for other BBC productions, and I've never seen anything like this before. To make sure my somewhat older Sony Blu-ray player isn't malfunctioning, I popped in another BBC-derived Region-1 DVD (The Moonstone) and compared it with The Woman in White. No problems with motion artifacts in The Moonstone at all. My Blu-ray player plays the latest Blu-ray discs just fine, so I don't suspect the player.

Has anyone else had this problem with this title? Are there any settings in my Blu-ray player and/or my TV that I could tweak to overcome this problem? So far, I've tried switching my Blu-ray player to 60p instead of 24p, and I've tried changing the Blu-ray player's output resolution to 1080i instead of 1080p. Neither of those changes helped. My setup is a Sony Blu-ray player connected via HDMI to a Denon AV receiver, which is in turn connected via HDMI to a Sony Bravia 55" 1080p TV.

 

[Worth]

Sounds like it might be a poor PAL-NTSC conversion.

 

[Classic Movie Fan]

Sounds like it might be a poor PAL-NTSC conversion.

I wondered about that. I've never seen firsthand the kinds of artifacts that can occur with a poor PAL-to-NTSC conversion, but I've heard that it can be done poorly. It's difficult for me to believe that an organization like PBS (in partnership with the BBC) would do a crappy PAL-to-NTSC conversion for a Region-1 DVD release in 2018, but something definitely went wrong, in this case. What I really wanted was a Region-A Blu-ray edition, but that does not appear to exist, though they did release a region-locked version for Region B.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

I overlooked the fact that this is a region 2 release when I started typing my reply. My best guess is they messed up flagging the disc for progressive displays, which would explain the ghosting.

 

[Will Krupp]

You probably don't want to hear this, so apologies in advance, but there is no legitimate reason not to be region free in this day and age. Really, none whatsoever. The region free players are not that expensive and an entire new world opens up to you once you go there!

Again, apologies (but you really should look into it!)

 

[Worth]

I overlooked the fact that this is a region 2 release when I started typing my reply. My best guess is they messed up flagging the disc for progressive displays, which would explain the ghosting.

The original post says it's region 1, but a 2-DVD set.

 

[Will Krupp]

It's the blu-ray that's region locked to "B"

Hey, there IS an HD version avialble to purchase for $9.99 (entire season) on Amazon Prime, if that helps.

 

[Classic Movie Fan]

You probably don't want to hear this, so apologies in advance, but there is no legitimate reason not to be region free in this day and age. Really, none whatsoever. The region free players are not that expensive and an entire new world opens up to you once you go there!

Again, apologies (but you really should look into it!)

Point well taken. The backstory here is that I started by buying a digital copy (in HD) from Amazon Prime Video, and all I wanted the Region-1 DVD for was backup, in case, for some reason, I can't access the cloud version in the future. That didn't work out so well, in this case (so disappointing). The digital copy I bought looks excellent (like a Blu-ray presentation, as one would expect) when I stream it from Amazon, so as long as that works this DVD can just sit on the shelf. The motion artifacts are so bad that I nearly returned it for a refund.

 

[Classic Movie Fan]

The original post says it's region 1, but a 2-DVD set.

Correct. I'm not talking about a Region-2 DVD. It's definitely Region 1.

 

[Classic Movie Fan]

It's the blu-ray that's region locked to "B"

Hey, there IS an HD version avialble to purchase for $9.99 (entire season) on Amazon Prime, if that helps.

Yep. That's what I started with, and that's looks great. See my other reply to you. All I wanted this Region-1 DVD for was hard-media backup. The region-free player you mentioned is a tempting possibility because then I could get the Region-B Blu-ray as my backup.

 

[Will Krupp]

The region-free player you mentioned is a tempting possibility because then I could get the Region-B Blu-ray as my backup.

You can get regular region-free blu-ray players in the neighborhood of $150 and 4K players (like the Sony x700) for around $280 ish. Totally worth it.

If you do get one, here's a pro-tip. Order your region "b" discs directly from Amazon UK and you'll get much better prices. They remove the VAT tax once it's shipping to America and the postal cost is not all that high.

The trade off is that they take a little longer to get here but not as long as you'd think (once the pandemic clears up, that is.)

 

[Classic Movie Fan]

If you do, here's a pro-tip. Order your region "b" discs directly from Amazon UK and you'll get much better prices. They remove the VAT tax once it's shipping to America and the postal cost is not all that high.

That's good to know. Thanks.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

The original post says it's region 1, but a 2-DVD set.

I still say someone screwed up the flagging on the DVD.

 

[Classic Movie Fan]

I still say someone screwed up the flagging on the DVD.

Well, they definitely screwed up something. As I mentioned, I've never seen anything quite like it. I bought DVDs back in the early 2000's that would have kicked this release to the curb. Pretty sad that an outfit like PBS/BBC would release something this poor these days. What I don't understand is why there aren't more complaints about this release from other unhappy purchasers. Yes, one does have to look closely to see the motion-blur/ghosting issue, but I spotted it within seconds after I began testing the discs. It's pretty distracting.