'BUFFY' dvd's, yet another reason NOT to listen to dvd reviews. (1 Viewer)

[Inspector Hammer!]

Over the past couple of weeks, i've been reading quite a bit from members here, as well as reviews at The Digital Bits about how "terrible" the video quality is on this set. Now, as I was reading these, I did not yet have the set, but had a sneaky feeling that the ones who were slamming these discs were clearly not aware of how this show has always looked. I was confident that they were making too big of a deal out of it, and that the dvd's were fine.
Well I finally picked them up on Friday and I was right, these dvd's are just fine! In fact, given that I know very well how these first 12 episodes originally looked, they look much better than I remember.
I may have went off a little half cocked in my topic header, I love reading Ron's and Obi's reviews, and most of the time they're right on the money, however it's instances like this where dvd reviews can't be considered reliable and accurate until you see for yourself. A few members even stated that they actually boosted the black level on their displays to try to improve the dark quality that is one of the characteristics of the first couple of seasons of 'Buffy'.
This is not necessary.
So my question to the ones who did this is, why did you bother to calibrate your display if your just going to change it to accomidate this show? The whole point of calibration is so that everything you watch will be displayed accuratly on your display device, and as far as I know, 'Buffy' follows the NTSC standards, so why make changes to your display?
Let me assure you that 'Buffy' looks accurate on my calibrated display, it was dark, but it IS dark, and the dvd's are an accurate representation of this first season. In short, anyone who boosts their black level for this show is making a mistake.
To FOX, you did a great job on these discs, 'Buffy' never looked this good before and I am damn proud to have the entire first season on dvd in my collection! June can't get here fast enough for me!

 

[TheoGB]

I am never that harsh about video standards and I thought it looked great.
However, the first disc of Season 2 really did look awful. :frowning:

 

[Steve Felix]

I agree. The discs are a good representation of low low budget film that is trying to be moody. Still, I'm not sure it's unfair for reviewers to grade the source material as well as how it's presented.

My TV is pretty well calibrated with Video Essentials, and I've had no problem with darkness so far. I never adjust brightness becuase it drives me crazy when blacks aren't black, and Buffy S1 is mostly black. I think they intentionally erred on the side of too dark.

There's a shot later on (in season 2) that is so grainy and colorless I wouldn't have broadcast it, and it will probably cause some to criticize the disc.

It all looks quite a bit better than what makes it to me on cable!

 

[Alan_Horner]

I was also surprised to see just how good the Buffy Season One discs looked. Pre-release reviews downplaying the video quality very nearly had me canceling my order, and I'm really glad that I didn't. I recently came across the airing of a Season One Buffy episode on the FX cable station and it looked nowhere near as good as the one presented on DVD. As Joss Whedon himself says in one of the commentaries, it's easy to think that these episodes were shot on 35mm and not the 16mm that was actually used. 16mm! My only complaint is that the Dolby Surround mix for the Buffy episodes is weak, but I've felt that way about most mixes for tv shows. I just disable that function, however, and things are fine.

Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, of course, but it's nice that we have forums like this so that others can balance reactions from both reviewers and consumers.

 

[TomF]

My reactions are similar. For some of the more die-hard hobbyists, I think part of the fun is watching DVDs with a real critical eye for even subtle deficiencies and then discussing how they could be better. That's great, but I hope I never develop quite that critical of an eye. Many DVDs that get bashed for one video/audio deficiency or another, I am able to sit back and enjoy and still marvel at their quality. The Godfather was one example, and Buffy season one is another...I love the show and am very happy with the DVD presentation. Can't wait for season two as I did not start watching until season three.

 

[Dave F]

Well, UPN reception usually cuts out at least once during every episode, so anything is an improvement for me
-Dave

 

[TheoGB]

There's a shot later on (in season 2) that is so grainy and colorless I wouldn't have broadcast it, and it will probably cause some to criticize the disc.

It all looks quite a bit better than what makes it to me on cable!

Yeah, but I believe I am thinking of episode 2 where they are looking in some lockers. The black areas are not only fuzzy but full of digital artefacts. My old VHS never looked this bad.

Also there is a mastering issue whereby the chapter stops aren't in the right places and some frames are actually constantly 'moving' when you freeze on them. Despite taking 8 months to give us this set Fox seemed to have rushed it. I'm guess the R1 will be a definite improvement.

 

[Dave Anderson]

The Digital Bits did rate Buffy S1 with a B+, but you wouldn't have figured such by their comments on the image. I think DVDers are becoming rather spoiled.

 

[Ken Stuart]

I'm not sure how anyone can judge a TV show transfer to DVD.

I'm currently watching Buffy for the first time in reruns, and I've watch some of the UPN reruns, some of the FX reruns and some on local stations.

In every case, the broadcast quality is less than almost any reasonably well made DVD.

So, I have absolutely no way of knowing what the original looks like, or how good it could look.

This is an entirely different situation from Phantom Menace or 2001, where I remember quite well what the original looked like on the silver screen.

 

[Adam Tyner]

The Digital Bits did rate Buffy S1 with a B+, but you wouldn't have figured such by their comments on the image.

Those sorts of composite ratings are invariably arbitrarily selected and therefore rather meaningless. I have a tendency to ignore those sorts of scores and pay attention to the text, and there wasn't much doubt at all how Todd Doogan felt about the video quality of the Buffy set judging by the body of the review.

 

[Peter D]

The review that has scared me off from buying this set was DVDFile, where they said:

The episodes regularly suffer from compression artifacts, including blocky irregular grain patterns and the smearing of fine details in motion.

I know Season One's original quality was pretty bad, but if there are compression issues on top of that, well, OUCH. Can anyone else confirm/deny how bad the compression problems are?

 

[Jesse Leonard]

I know Season One's original quality was pretty bad, but if there are compression issues on top of that, well, OUCH. Can anyone else confirm/deny how bad the compression problems are?

I have watched the entire first season DVD set and noticed no compression artifacts. The show is grainy in some darker shots, but even this has been blown WAY out of proportion. In short, these DVD's look very good, the best the first season has ever looked and not far behind the quality of the X-Files boxed sets.

 

[Doug R]

I have to agree.. I saw so many ppl complaining I thought I had made a bad purchase.. but then watched several episodes and they're better than FX reruns on DirecTV. This is the best they've ever looked. Some people expect too much.

 

[LukeB]

I haven't even seen Buffy the show more than a few times or the DVDs, but to add a general comment that relates to DVD reviews: I'd say that 90% of my DVDs, I would give a video score of 4/5 or better. Does that just mean that I've picked out only the best DVDs? Not necessarily, since many of these DVDs have received less-than-excellent reviews. DVD reviews would be boring, if everyone went something like THIS DVD LOOKS PERFECT.

For example, DVDFile didn't give The Ultimate Toy Box a perfect score for extras. Review scores just don't make sense most of the time, and too often review sites are too hesitant to give perfect scores for outstanding quality. Nitpicking annoys me when it goes beyond simple video transfer complaints.

 

[Derek Miner]

I know Season One's original quality was pretty bad, but if there are compression issues on top of that, well, OUCH. Can anyone else confirm/deny how bad the compression problems are?

There are some very minor compression artifacts on these discs, but you'd have to look very hard to find them. My personal feeling is that there are problems inherent to these episodes that some people are mistaking for compression/authoring artifacts. As many have pointed out, these shows were done on 16mm film, but I think another factor that can't be overlooked is that the post-production was probably done in the video realm - edited on tape. Some processing appears to have been added to these shows to reduce the grain, accounting for the "smearing" artifacts. I would bet this was done as the show was originally produced and not as the DVD was prepared.

As I said in another thread in the television area, the only way to improve the image on these shows would probably be to re-transfer all the original film elements (if they have them) and re-edit each program.

Otherwise, I think the DVDs look pretty good considering. I agree completely with John on his initial comments, and I would add that I never felt I needed to change my calibrated settings to watch the discs either.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

So to sum up, as those before me have said

1-Season 1 looks this crappy on the original masters

2-There is nothing wrong with these DVDs

3-There is no need to adjust your set

4-Buy these DVDs NOW!

 

[Bob McElfresh]

I'm in the same boat with Ken: It is simply wrong to compare transfers for a made-for-tv show with the same criteria as you do for a big-budget movie transfered to DVD. It's not an apples to apples comparision.

I'm really enjoying the set.

 

[Craig S]

I am pleasantly surprised by this set as well. I'm a "Buffy" virgin, having only caught bits & pieces on broadcast TV. My memory of these is that they didn't look too good. The DVD looks great in comparison. Yes, it's dark, but it's very watchable.
BTW, I'm really enjoying the series. Count me as a "Buffy" convert.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Dumb question:

This set has 12 episodes. Were there only 12 episodes in Buffy season 1?

 

[Adam Tyner]

Sean: Yup. Buffy was a mid-season replacement.