Tommy Boy - lackluster transfer? (and paramount dvd in general) (1 Viewer)

[Sean Patrick]

I hadn't popped this dvd in my player in a LONG time, and this was the first time i'd seen it on my 16x9...and i was quite disappointed. The Tommy Boy transfer looked rather dark and sometimes poorly compressed, and very soft.

then i realized it reminded me of a lot of Paramount's catalog titles....they all have the same "look" to them...kind of dark and dull. they aren't BAD transfers, just consistently AVERAGE.

Am i the only one seeing this? is my tv out of whack?

 

[Dave H]

I can't speak for Tommy Boy. But, the other Paramount older titles I have seen lately look good (Trading Places, Star Trek III: SE, Pet Sematary, Apocalyspe Now). The "look" you are referring has a lot to do with 80's stock film and all studios exhibit this.

 

[Sean Patrick]

their special editions that you mentioned do look very good.

i'm talking about mostly their barebones catalog dvd's (Tommy Boy, Pretty in Pink, Harold and Maude, etc)....films from 3 different decades that all have the same "look" on dvd (to my eyes at least)...is it the dvd production/compression facilities they use that lend them this "look"? maybe that's the common denomenator....

in the case of Tommy Boy, it has the same look of the paramount 80's catalog titles, but the film came out in 1995. Also, the top of the image seemed a little cropped. i'm pretty sure this was filmed open matte, so i understand that the VHS, while non-OAR, might have more info on the top and bottom, but the top of the frame seemed very cropped, like there was often little headroom. a good test of this was during the wedding scene, when the screen looks like the camcorder viewfinder - the "frame" hathmarks look shifted up, not in the middle of the screen like i think it was supposed to be.

it's not a big deal, i was just wondering if anyone had ever noticed this also.

PS - was Tommy Boy just a very low budget film? i just remember it being "brighter" than it looks on this dvd.

 

[MarkHastings]

a good test of this was during the wedding scene, when the screen looks like the camcorder viewfinder - the "frame" hathmarks look shifted up, not in the middle of the screen like i think it was supposed to be.

I just popped in Tommy Boy and didn't notice the 'darkness' that you spoke of. The quality wasn't super great, but since it was released in '99, it looks pretty good.

The hatchmarks in the viewfinder were not center, but they were only shifted up slightly...I'm not sure if that was a mistake in framing because the red light and the record box weren't cut out.

I'd just leave it up to 'old' DVD technology.