Blu-ray Review The Flintstones The Complete Series Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[BobO'Link]

It's the Christmas episode from season 2 (Disc 2) titled 'An Old Fashioned Christmas'. I've circled in red an example of it.

Green-Acres-Example hosted at ImgBB

Image Green-Acres-Example hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

My original MGM set isn't accessible at the moment, but I assume it's present there as well.

It's small and not objectionable, but hard to unsee when you notice it. But mostly I was just curious what the heck it was.

That looks like damage from a sprocket or something on the sprocket wheel. It could be on the master (unlikely) but is likely on the dupe created for distribution. At some point the film may have jumped off the sprocket while running and it damaged the stock. It'll move from bottom to top for the duration the object was hitting the film.

There's also a small "crinkle" above and to the left of that bit of damage. Does it move too? If so, it's likely something was stuck on a sprocket wheel hitting the film as it was transferred.

 

[moviebuff75]

I just watched that episode. It is definitely a piece of film emulsion that was damaged and moving around on the film.

 

[moviebuff75]

It is unsettling to know that someone sitting at a console has the ability to protect or harm a piece of our shared cultural heritage. And if it is harmed, the studio doesn't come to its defense by repairing the damage done.
I really want to start a campaign called "First, Do No Harm." I want to hold the studios accountable for their errors, so that they can be fixed.

 

[moviebuff75]

Ugh! I just watched an episode, and during the entire black fade out there is a white, dead pixel on the screen. WTH?

 

[Mark Y]

How many academic credentials do you need to tell the difference between whether a TV show episode is complete or incomplete?

For something like "The Flintstones" which is a self-contained half-hour show (as opposed to having three short cartoons with different characters) I would think at the very least, "they" should be able to tell (in most cases), just by running time alone, whether footage is missing. If seven episodes on a disc are 26 minutes long and one is 22 minutes, that would be hard to miss!

Now if it's something like underscore or a laugh track not being there, that would require sitting there and watching every episode, and there are 166 of them. That doesn't seem to be part of the process. Likewise with making sure the credits are accurate on every episode. You'd need an Earl Kress for that stuff.

 

[moviebuff75]

HUGE ERROR:
DIsc 3 "A Star is Almost Born"
The aspect ratio starts at around 1.66 and stays that way, except for the dozens of times that it shifts in and out throughout the episode.
This set needs to be recalled now!

 

[moviebuff75]

WB also stated that Wonder Woman was being corrected, but nothing has come of it.

 

[Timothy E]

WB also stated that Wonder Woman was being corrected, but nothing has come of it.

I have held off on purchasing that set for that reason. I will have more confidence ordering it when I hear that corrected discs are being made available.

 

[Tony Bensley]

HUGE ERROR:
DIsc 3 "A Star is Almost Born"
The aspect ratio starts at around 1.66 and stays that way, except for the dozens of times that it shifts in and out throughout the episode.
This set needs to be recalled now!

OK, that is just way beyond ridiculous!

WTF, Warner?

 

[moviebuff75]

This is not acceptable. We did not pay good money for this. So what if it costs them to fix it? It is their mistake. They should have to fix it.

 

[Tony Bensley]

This is not acceptable. We did not pay good money for this. So what if it costs them to fix it? It is their mistake. They should have to fix it.

Especially for something so glaring as constant Aspect Ratio shifting, UGH!! Far as I'm concerned, this is every bit as bad as the missing music and sound effects on Episode 17. At the very least, there needs to be a disc replacement program put in place for Disc 3 for the "A Star Is Almost Born" AR disaster!!

CHEERS!

 

[moviebuff75]

As well as the zooms on Disc 2 (almost all of them are on that disc.)

 

[ScottRE]

HUGE ERROR:
DIsc 3 "A Star is Almost Born"
The aspect ratio starts at around 1.66 and stays that way, except for the dozens of times that it shifts in and out throughout the episode.
This set needs to be recalled now!

I just put this episode on. The picture is flawless. It stayed in its original ratio the whole 26 minutes. Maybe you just got a bad set?

 

[moviebuff75]

When did you buy the set? And it isn't wider than the other shows? Others have the same problem.

 

[ScottRE]

It did seem slightly wider, like the Lost In Space blus showed the "overscan" area. But the aspect ratio never changed.

I bought the set at Target shortly before Christmas.

 

[moviebuff75]

Can you check "The Good Scout" from Season One (Disc 2.) At the start of the opening THE FLINTSTONES title, it also does a quick zoom and the title gets smaller. Let's see it yours does that.

 

[ScottRE]

I didn't see a zoom but the title gets a tiny bit smaller when Fred changes lanes the first time. I mean, a TINY bit, I never would have noticed if I wasn't looking. I checked it against the previous episode and the title doesn't do that, but the picture looks the same. No zooms. Maybe it was corrected and I got one of those sets.

 

[Mark-P]

HUGE ERROR:
DIsc 3 "A Star is Almost Born"
The aspect ratio starts at around 1.66 and stays that way, except for the dozens of times that it shifts in and out throughout the episode.
This set needs to be recalled now!

The digital version of “A Star is Almost Born” on iTunes is exactly 1.33:1. Surely you don’t mean the AR shifts all the way to 1.66:1? Maybe it is shifting between 1.33 and 1.37? I do see the tiny zooms you are talking about in “The Good Scout” and other episodes, but like Scott, to me those zooms are negligible.

 

[moviebuff75]

Yes, it is 1.66, almost all the way out to the edge of the screen. And then it shifts to about 1.5.

 

[moviebuff75]

The problem isn't that the zooms are tiny, it's that they keep happening....and the cause is also the cause of something larger like the AR shift. Whatever the technology is "reading" is incorrectly capturing the information. Same thing with WONDER WOMAN (although those zooms are MUCH worse. The zooming goes in and out much further and happens at every cut/change of shots.)
Add to that the incorrect end credits for Season 5 (all of which were correct on the dvds) and this set is disappointing. It is much more disappointing because the picture quality is so great otherwise.