Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . . (1 Viewer)

[Steve Phillips]

I watched three episodes last night. They looked better than they ever did on Channel 44 in Chicago thirty years ago when I was a kid. I didn't think the English dub sounded bad at all, either. For $20, this was well worth it to me, though the show doesn't really hold up to my memories of it.

I didn't get any cards, but I couldn't care less about stuff like that anyway.

 

[Nick Zbu]

I got the set recently and haven't been disappointed. It's a great step from the bad bootlegs I've been used to. I hope BCI puts out more of the Ultra line, that would indeed rock!

 

[Dan Szwarc]

Does anyone have anything to report on the extras? Do they show any behind the scenes or interviews? Are the people who did the dubbing in english still alive?

 

[Bryan^H]

Dan,
The extras are pretty cool. There is discussion between the english voice actors(they are up there in age) that has much insight into creating the dubs, and to be honest it's probably one of the best special features on any dvd that I've seen in a while. Very informative.

I noticed the reviews on Amazon are mostly very negative. I don't see it. This is a great set that will bring back fond memories,(if you enjoyed it as a kid) or if your just looking for cool Japanese giant monster show. The picture is very nice indeed. The issue about the audio switching back and forth from english to japanese w/subs, doesn't bother me. If it is an issue with the specific dvd player your using, then that is really weird, Although on the second disc, I noticed that the intro is only the Japanese intro. I couldn't switch it to English.

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

I rented the first disc of this for free over the weekend to check it out (love those Scarecrow Video rental credits). Sorry to say, this release is a disaster of Baltanic proportions. As if the switching soundtrack glitches and freeze-ups weren't bad enough (and those are defects, aka quality control issues, NOT "player-related issues"), all the episodes play in strobe-motion, as if the R2 DVDs were ripped onto a hard drive and processed through software that was adjusted incorrectly re: framerate and who knows what else (which might not be far from the truth). DVD reviewers who don't notice the jerkiness, especially when the camera pans, are perhaps legally blind. I could have made better DVDs than these myself. This release is absolutely pathetic, and I now fully agree with the naysayers re: the abysmal quality that was going to result as a consequence of BCI not being able to deal with Tsuburaya. That's right, I'm eating a huge pile of crow. This looks like a badly encoded Divx file downloaded off KaZaa. My god, if this is what the masters looked like when BCI got them from Chaiyo, they should have thrown them back in their face and gotten their money back immediately. They should get in line behind Tsuburaya and sue the pants off them. I'm urging all Ultraman fans to avoid this release like the plague; all in all, it's one of the worst DVD releases I've ever seen. The EIA tape plays much better; the picture isn't as sharp, but it's a hell of a lot more watchable, and no switch-glitches. Too bad it only contains four episodes.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

You're going by reviews posted by, most likely, diehard Ultraman fans who probably were biased that the masters were not provided by Tsu (abbre.) Productions and hated this release. I thought that was an Amazon Editorial.

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

I'll second those scathing Amazon reviews, and will add, for the record, that I was extremely optimistic about this release. Unfortunately, my optimism was entirely unfounded. I can't believe BCI let this release out the door--although I would have believed it in their "public domain" box set days. I thought they were supposedly setting the bar a bit higher now, after their extremely nice releases of some other old favorites, including their excellent Clutch Cargo sets. A pity it didn't last. The shockingly bad quality of this set makes them look incompetent.

 

[Jeff Krispow]

I wasn't ever planning on writing up anything regarding this DVD set, but after reading all of the misinformation being spread about this DVD release -- and then seeing it spread here onto the HTF -- I just couldn't let it sit. So here goes…

First off, let me say that I have been wishing for a domestic Ultraman release for a long time -- since the early laserdisc days -- desperately hoping someone would have the balls to release the original Japanese version (properly subtitled, of course). The Japanese laserdiscs were far too expensive (and too plentiful) to even consider purchasing. And I flat out refused to buy any of the bootleg tapes (or in recent years DVDs) due to the horrendous video quality. So in the interim, I've just had to settle for the few new shows that made it to Los Angeles TV, the various Ultra-toys I have in my collection (especially my ultra-cool 1989 2-foot tall Ultraman figure that greets all visitors to our house), and my memories.

And thus it was with great anticipation that I awaited the release of BCI Eclipse's Ultraman: Season One Volume One. Sure, it took over 20 years, but it looked like that dream was finally going to be fulfilled. Or was it…

On the one hand, I'm a big fan of the show. But on the other hand, I have also been following the Ultraman series debate for quite a long time now. I know more than I ever wanted to about the Tsuburaya/Chaiyo legal disbutes, and have followed to some degree the heated debates regarding this Region 1 release, and the demands and attempts by some fans to legally halt its release in some manner.

However, unlike many other so-called "fans" of the show/series, I do not have any pre-existing bias towards BCI Eclipse on this matter. Back when I was officially reviewing laserdiscs for a living (and later DVDs) -- and now that I'm officially retired -- my one main criteria has always been to judge a disc fairly based solely on its own individual merits. It doesn't matter to me who the company is, or their past history, or their legal problems, or anything else for that matter (although a certain LD producer did come very close!). And this Ultraman DVD is no different from any other DVD release as released in this country -- it must be given a fair and proper chance to stand on its own merits. And I think I've done a fairly good job in doing just that.

As far as I'm concerned, BCI Eclipse has done an outstanding job with their first Ultraman set. Simply put, I found it to look far better than I ever expected, and I can't wait to see future releases of this series from them.

For a 40-year old TV show that was filmed in 16mm (not 35mm as many people assume), these transfers are simply stunning. These are easily the best transfers I have ever seen of these episodes in any format. You will immediately notice how spotless they are, as there is no print-related damage or defects to speak of, nor any other type of debris for that matter. No dirt, no scratches, no specks, no spots, no hairs, nothing. Because of the utterly flawless nature of this DVD transfer, it's fairly obviously that BCI Eclipse was given masters that utilize the restored Ultraman source materials. Contrary to what various other die-hard fans have been claiming around the net (plus one certain claim on this forum) not one single episode in my set from any "strobing motion" or "freeze-ups" or any other video-related problems -- this is just more internet "b.s.", as the episodes look fantastic.

Back around 1998 or so, a huge restoration project was begun in Japan on the various "Ultra" series. The episodes were painstakingly restored frame-by-frame to removing any damage while enhancing details in the original 16mm frame. These stunningly-restored versions of the 1966 series were first released on DVD in Japan under the "Digital Ultra Series" banner beginning in December 1999.

As far as the audio goes, the Japanese also restored to the best of their abilities, and the original monaural audio remixed to Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. For the Japanese DVD releases, 10 random episodes (equating to 1 episode per DVD volume) were remixed to Dolby Digital 5.1.

But with regard to this BCI Eclipse edition, I am utterly shocked at the wildly ludicrous misinformation being spread regarding the transfer quality and the English dub issues-- supposed "shoddy manufacturing" and "disc errors" causing the players to haphazardly and/or randomly switch audio tracks on the fly... indeed. That sort of thing simply doesn't happen, unless your own DVD player has major defects (or your cat is sleeping on the remote).

To reiterate the "problem": When listening to the English dubbed soundtrack, it will temporarily revert to Japanese (with English subtitles) for a few seconds during some episodes. This is NOT a defect, or a mastering issue, or a manufacturing defect -- but was a deliberate and unavoidable decision.

The main intent of this DVD set is to showcase the original Japanese version of the 1966 Ultraman series -- to that end, the DVD is mastered from the completely uncut original Japanese versions of the episodes. However, since this set was being released in America, BCI Eclipse also wanted to include the original 1970's English-dubbed soundtrack -- partially as an incentive for new viewers (or for those folks who hate reading subtitles), and partial to cater to those nostalgic fans who grew up watching the show after school on our local crappy UHF station (for me, Los Angeles Ch. 52, woohoo!).

Although BCI's intentions were commendable, they ran into quite a few problems with this. First off, they had an extremely difficult time even locating some English-dub tracks to use for this project. BCI initially attempted to locate the original master tapes/tracks, but discovered that they no longer existed in the United Artist vaults. They eventually learned that Tsuburaya had the only existing copies of the foreign language dubs -- made from the original masters -- but obviously could not obtain them because of the Tsuburaya/Chaiyo licensing dispute mess.

Just as an FYI, in an interview with BCI over at Henshin! Online, H!O reported the following:

In other words, the only existing QUALITY copies of the English dub soundtrack are locked way in Tokyo and completely inaccessible. Therefore, with much difficulty, BCI eventually the English-dub tracks to use for this set -- but the copies were problematic and the quality was generally poor, especially in comparison to the quality of the Japanese audio. The English tracks have a lot of hiss, distortion and other problems, and that was for the better copies! Although they cleaned them up as best they could, there is only so much they could do with the poor source tracks they had no choice but to use -- it was either this or no English at all. Obviously, had BCI been able to obtain copies of the original English dub master tapes from Tsuburaya, the quality would be vastly superior, but that was not an option. (Actually, the poor English dub audio quality sounded even more nostalgic for me, since it really emulates the sound quality of the crappy speakers on my parents ancient Zenith TV I was stuck watching as a kid. Too bad I didn't have a 40" Sony Wega or an in-home surround system back then...).

As if BCI didn't already have enough problems just locating English dub tracks to use, they are now taking a lot of heat from the way they present the English dub track on the DVDs. In every episode, there are a few sections lasting several seconds long for which there is no corresponding English dub track -- this is because those segments had never been recorded in English in the first place.

When the series was being prepped for its initial American syndication in the early 1970s, the episodes were edited down slightly -- sometimes to remove a bit of perceived "excessive violence" or a "confusing" moment, but mainly to speed things up to allow for more commercials, as was standard operating procedure at the time. (These uncut episodes average 25m15s each, and the UHF channels back then really depended on those extra advertising dollars.) Obviously, the subsequent English-dub recording sessions would conform solely to the edited syndicated version of the series, not the original uncut versions -- no production would waste valuable time or money to record dialogue for cut footage that would never be seen or "heard" (or so they thought at the time).

So, rather than leave those unrecorded English-dub segments completely silent on the DVD, BCI purposely inserted the audio from Japanese soundtrack into the gaps in the English track.

In many instances, the replacement audio on the English dub track will go by unnoticed by most viewers. This is because many edits were originally made during segments which had no dialogue -- only background sound effects and/or music -- so the replacement is fairly seamless. (I noticed most of the audio-only inserts, if only because the music/soundfx suddenly had much better definition than the poor, hissy and/or distorted audio I was listening to just before the change.)

However, the replacement audio IS quite noticeable to all English dub listeners whenever a segment appears with dialogue cut from the U.S. syndicated version. Again, rather than leaving these sections complete silent on the English dub track, BCI inserts the audio from the Japanese soundtrack, and ensures that the accompanying English subtitles appear onscreen so you understand what's being said. (BCI Eclipse is not the first company to have done this -- several other DVD releases from other companies have also inserted the original-language soundtrack into their edited English-language dubs rather than leave them "silent". Even MGM has done this with a certain major spaghetti Western release…)

Something else most people don't notice -- or realize -- it that there are two different English subtitle tracks on the DVDs:

• Subtitle Track 1 -- The full translation track which accompanies the Japanese soundtrack
• Subtitle Track 2 -- A partial translation track which accompanies the English dub track.

Upon standard playback, all of the discs DEFAULT to the English dubbed soundtrack + Subtitle Track 2. Also, whenever "English" is selected via the languages set-up, Subtitle Track 2 is automatically selected as well. This is NOT a defect, but simply a way to ensure that there are no gaps in the edited English soundtrack.

So for the last time, if you suddenly hear Japanese (and see English subtitles) when listening to the English dub track, it is not caused by the disc suddenly switching tracks back and forth, or a manufacturing defect, a bad disc, a DVD player problem, space aliens, magnetic disturbances, global warming… or any other ridiculous excuse these folks attempt to create or accuse BCI Eclipse of. (That's simply their own paranoia working against them…). In reality it was caused by a certain production company 40 years ago who decided to edit footage out of a certain show… and a certain DVD company trying to fill in the gaps in the soundtrack in the only feasible way they could 40 years later.

So there you have it -- BCI did a FANTASTIC job with this show! They were able to use the masters made from the pristine restored (16mm) negatives for their R1 releases. The original Japanese soundtrack sound better than I expected for a 16mm TV production of that era, and the subtitle translations are quite good. And though far from perfect, we even got the original English-dubbed soundtrack we remember from our "younger" days. All in all, BCI Eclipse must be commended for their work on this set -- and those of you willing to give this set a proper and fair chance will likely enjoy what it has to offer as well. Also, for those viewers only interested in listening to the English soundtrack -- I really urge you to give the Japanese original a chance. Sure, the Speed Racer team did the dubbing, but they also rewrote and changed much of the original storyline. Those original Japanese storylines (and voice artists) are vastly superior in every respect, and the stories are written in a more "adult" (i.e. "less juvenille") manner than one would believe with this type of show.

As I stated earlier, I love the Ultraman series, especially this 1966 version. But I'm also not a "biased extremist" who would immediately dismiss this DVD set out of hand simply because of the Tsuburaya/Chaiyo licensing dispute. And I absolutely would NEVER concoct completely false statements about video and/or audio problems, or defective mastering issues, that simply DO NOT exist.

Do I wish there wasn't a Tsuburaya/Chaiyo licensing dispute? You bet. I wish Tsuburarya had full control over the licensing of their own shows here in the USA -- but thet DON'T. Even BCI has gone on record by stating they wished they could have dealt with Tsuburaya directly… they even attempted to, but were TOLD by Tsuburaya representatives to contact Chaiyo.

But that is neither here nor there.

The fact remains, no matter what you, or I, or anyone else "wishes" or "demands" was true, the rights lie where the rights lie, and I'll leave that up to individual Japanese companies, their lawyers and the Japanese courts.

My only concern in any of this lies with the final repesentation of the Ultraman DVD set that as it was released in this country, and in giving that set a proper and fair chance to stand on its own merits. And I think I've done a pretty good job in doing that. I sincerely wish BCI Eclipse the best of luck with their release, and I look forward to the next volume in the series, and hopeful additional series after that.

Enjoy!

 

[BrianHass]

Thank you Jeff for your time and effort with the above post. Very informative and will hopefully bring others around to give this release a fair chance.

Now to my comments...
I will admit that there is some issue with unfocused video during long shots, (close-ups look fine) and the audio isn't of high quality, but I have been waiting years for this release and I'm having a blast watching the episodes. The price is fair and knowing the quality of this release I would certainly purchase again. In fact I will be preordering the second volume when made available. I have mostly been watching in the original Japanese with subtitles, mostly because I'm used to Anime and like to listen in the original language. But I did watch an episode with my 2 year old this morning with the English dub and I thought it was fine. The monsters get him very excited, and when Ultraman shows up he cheers, "There he is!" We're having a lot of fun together. Don't miss out because of the bad reviews. I have well over 1500 dvds so I know good quality from bad, and I still say purchase the set if you have a desire. Would I buy again if we did get a higher quality release? Yes I would. But this is all we have for now. So Enjoy!

 

[Dan Szwarc]

Jeff, your post was very enlightening. Would you possibly post it on Amazon?

By the way, the link in your sig is mal-formed..

 

[TonyD]

that should be published

i dont think jeff's site exists anymore as a functioning site. too bad.
this write up would be a great new jumping in point.

http://laserrot.com/

 

[Michael Alden]

Great post Jeff. I was on the fence about whether or not to buy the set or rent it and after reading your comments I put my order in today.

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

Sorry, but my DVD player plays hundreds and hundreds of DVDs with no motion-blur issues. If this isn't happening on all players (and it's happening on lots of them), it's still a flawed pressing, and far from BS. Lots of people are reporting freezeups and other glitches. Also, yes, I'm aware that subtitle track 2 only comes on when the soundtrack switches to Japanese. But, unfortunately, during some of these parts no subtitles come on. On one of the eps on the first disc, the first few minutes are in Japanese, including the opening credits, but there's no subtitles. Also, at least for some of these "missing dub" scenes, they were never cut, and were most certainly completely dubbed, such as the first episode. The claim of these scenes never being dubbed in the first place is rubbish. Complete dubbed versions are out there if you know where to look.

There are all sorts of problems with this set, for many users, and the set should be recalled and repressed, and this time BCI might want to make more extensive use of a check disc. And no, I'm not anti-BCI or anti-Chaiyo; I really don't care who puts this out. But I do care if they put out a defective product, which this most certainly is.

 

[Jeff Krispow]

Yup… you got it! Definitely a blast watching it again, isn't it? And not only do I think the standard retail price is fair for this, but thanks to Amazon it was a complete steal… $20 (50% off)!!! Woohoo!

Brian is absolutely correct about some issues with unfocused video during long shots and such… but hey, wasn't that always one of those "charming" things about the show we always loved? (Well, a future focus-puller has to get start somewhere, right?) Anyway, I did forgot to mention that in my "mini-review" above… plus the fact the overall image definitely leans a bit towards the soft. But I assumed that most of us here would already realize that this is how the show should look. This IS how the show was filmed, and the DVD does accurately represent the quality of the Japanese restorations. I can't imagine anyone ever being able to produce a better-looking, sharper or cleaner version of this show. (Okay, sure, we all know they could artificially "fix" it in post via standard unsharp mask filtering edge enhancement techniques, but would any of us really enjoy viewing the show if it were tainted in that matter…?)

What a lot of people seem to forget is that this is 1966 Ultraman we're talking about… it looks and sounds the way it looks and sounds, and that's all there is to it. 40 years later, folks have to understand that the show is a victim of its own production qualities. Which apparently most of us here at the HTF do realize.

From some of the stuff I've read elsewhere, it seems that some people expect this to look as "perfect" as the Star Trek set does… because it was filmed at about the same time. So it HAS to look the same, right? It's not even worth getting into how utterly ridiculous such comparison is. Yeah, both were filmed at about the same time, but every production and their inherent qualities are vastly different in nearly every way imaginable… *Ugh* Just thinking about this is beginning to give me a headache again.

Whatever. The basic thing is this -- if folks understand that Ultraman is what it is, they'll also enjoy the DVD set for what it is… not for what it could never possible be.

'Nuff said.

 

[Gary Seven]

Thanks Jeff K. for that informative post. I just logged on today and found it. I am enjoying watching these and even find the effects and such well done given how the show was produced. I'm now even further astonished to find out it was filmed in 16mm. Given the source, they do look amazing.

Having watched these many times in my youth in the dubbed version I'm watching the original Japanese with sub-titles and do find the stories skewed more to the adult side. In many cases, the stories actually make more sense. I highly recommend that fans watch the series in Japanese with sub-titles as more dialogue is translated via sub-titles as opposed to when it is dubbed, not all is. An example of this is in the first episode when Hayata is lifted into Ultraman's ship, the scene where the people are looking and one runs to get his camera, is translated more fully as opposed to the dubbed version where the people are mostly silent. The dubbed version is the way it was always presented so it was interesting to see the sub-titles tranlate all the jargon the people were muttering.

So far, I have made it through about 13 episodes and while I cannot comment on the audio switches (since I'm watching in original Japanese), the only glitch I have encountered was on the first episode when Ultraman throws the creature in the water. The disc freezes for a second (not a layer switch) but proceeds on. I returned the set to the store and got another one and had the same problem in the exact same spot. However, it was less severe so determining this must be a manufacure defect, I have kept it. The other pauses I have encounted on the sides played thus far (two actually) have been layer changes.

As I stated before, for any Ultraman fan, and at 20 dollars, this set comes recommended.

 

[Erik Smith]

First off, let me say that I'm VERY happy to have this in my collection, as I also loved this show as a kid. Like Jeff said, it looks and sounds pretty good for a 40 year old TV show shot on 16mm.

That said, I'm still suspicious of it... especially with the English dub:

If the show was edited down to make room for more commercials, why are there many episodes that are entirely in English? Wouldn't they ALL have footage cut? It doesn't make sense.

I knew that Episode 14 "The Pearl Oyster Protection Directive" had a large opening section without the English dub, so I compared it to my videotape (that I purchased at a comic convention about ten years ago). The opening scene was also in Japanese, and then switched over to English! However, it switched over to English while they were still in the store and the shopkeeper was in mid sentence. On the DVD, it did not switch over to English until the next scene, when they left the shop and were walking down the street. Hmm...

It really makes me wonder what they used as the source for the dub, knowing that Tsuburaya holds the original DAT recording of the English dub.


I also have to wonder why BCI has made no mention anywhere I can find that they inserted scenes that were edited for the English audience. Wouldn't this be a selling point, if this is what they did? Couldn't they also have split the episodes via branching into three options: "Subtitled", "Dubbed" & "Dubbed - Uncut"?

Just a few thoughts. I'll try to do some more comparisons between the videotapes and the DVD set.

 

[Radioman970]

That's interesting. Someone will have to closely compare a bootleg set with this one.

 

[Erik Smith]

I'll do some more in depth comparisons, but I won't be able to until this weekend.

If anyone can point me out some specific spots on the discs where it switches over to Japanese, it would be a great help.

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

No, not nearly 'nuff said. Not until BCI owns up to the problems with this set and offers replacement discs that have been more strenuously checked.

 

[Paul_Scott]

just a heads up- Borders has this for $14.99. My store had to special order it, took a week, but I picked it up today. I was going to netflix one of the discs before I opened it, but for $15, its really hard to complain if its 1/2 way decent.

I remember paying $25 over ten years ago (almost two tanks of gas

) for a Video Search copy of the first four or five episodes on VHS. I can't believe this would be any worse.