For prog. scan player owners re: TV series Box sets..

Hey Y'all!
I now own 2 box sets, "Buffy" season 1 and "sex and the city" season 3 (girlfriend actually owns that... ) and am about to pick up "Buffy" season 2 and ALL these are improperly flagged! I believe OZ season 1 is the same. They are flagged for FILM mode and although they WERE shot on Film, they were edited on Video. When the player (JVC-70) is in AUTO, meaning the disc tells the player what Mode to use or in SMART where it reads the Flags, there are "Combs" galore at the edits!!! AGH!!!!!
Now, I AM lucky that my player has a manual mode switch (some players don't!) to put it in VIDEO mode which eliminates the combs, the pic' isn't as good, No more 3/2 pulldown just 30 FPS field combination, and the credits actually "shimmer" in VIDEO mode! AGH! Again! I don't know about The X-Files or Star Trek TNG, don't have any yet. But my old classic Trek discs look fine, because they were edited ON FILM!
Now, why can't these production houses get this right?
Who can we complain to? Ron, can you advise? You have relationships with these companies, studios.
It's quite annoying almost like having a "defective" product. I know some people will say "Big deal, just put it in VIDEO mode." But some people can't because of their players and can you imagine the stink if say, "ET" came out flagged this way?
HELP!!!!!
...and Peace!

 

It has NOTHING to do with the player. It's the DVD's themselves. They are flagged for FILM, and that's a mistake since they were edited on VIDEO. I read a post earlier stating the Buffy season 2 was also flagged this way. You won't see a "comb" at every edit. It depends on where the 3/2 cadence falls. BUT, everytime they do a video "FX" scene like dissolves and slow-mo, or jumpy speeded up edits, it becomes QUITE apparent. To demonstrate, watch the opening title sequence with your player in FILM mode and you will see what I mean.
from DVD benchmark shootout...
"More Tales of the City,
This whole miniseries was shot originally on film, probably because of the film “look,” then transferred to video and edited on video. For this reason, it has a cadence break on most of the cuts, and hence combs all the time on many players.
This is also a common issue. Almost anything originally shot on film for TV, like dramatic series, miniseries, or music videos, will have "bad" edits just like the ones in More Tales of the City..."
and the test result.. "Like the other players with Sage deinterlacing, the RP56 had a long recovery time when it switched to video mode from film mode -- too slow to pass our test. And it combed a few times on the subtitles on "The Abyss", which again was pretty normal for this chip."
So sorry, not to be sour grapes, but this is an issue which affects MANY of us.
D

 

Hey Michael,
You do have a great player, it just BLOWS that they are releasing these products that for lack of a better, clearer term, are "defective".
Can't anyone help this problem?
I mean, is it accidental? Are they incompetent morons? What's the deal?
Also, I wish more DVD reviews would mention these types of issues when reviewing discs. (There are SCORES of badly flagged (mostly older...) Discs, like "Titanic" etc...) I mean, there's always a HUGE stink when there's an audio problem. Like Moulin rouge DTS sync, etc...
D