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What the heck is up with Smallville Season 1? Major mastering error (1 Viewer)

Marc Carra

Supporting Actor
Joined
Aug 31, 1997
Messages
767
Sam, I believe it does.

If the single episodes and 'Play All" chunk were sharing the same file on the DVD, then the audio streams for each title would not be different, would they?



By cloning all titles to the hard drive, except title 1, you are left with a complete DVD, coming in at just under 4 gig. The "play all' feature won't work , but you can play each episode individually since Titles 3 through 6 are intact and are the separate episodes.

You can also try to cloning Title 1, and leaving out 3,4,5,6. Again you are left with all four episodes, only playable using the "play all" option on the disc. This clone comes in at just under 4 gig as well.

If only four episodes were spread across a dual layered, how is it possible they can all be 'cloned' in less than 4 gig? Any no, CloneDVD does not employ any sort of compression.


Since I own the DVD set , this temporary clone was just to prove the duplicity on the content.

The episodes ARE on there twice, on my version anyway.


Marc.
 

Kami

Screenwriter
Joined
Jan 2, 2001
Messages
1,490
Marc, why not take some screenshots of this horrible compression? No sense on arguing over these details.
 

Bryan_Bortz

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Aug 10, 2003
Messages
156
"Just his disc"?

How? When they make DVDs they make one, and replicate it thousands of times. The replication prossess could not degrade the bitrate, or put the episodes on the disc twice and reprogram the menus...

-Owl
 

Sam Davatchi

Senior HTF Member
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Sep 15, 1999
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SamD
Marc, then take a properties of the VIDEO_TS folder and see how big it is. Maybe it is on a DVD-5 only and the whole thing is supposed to be under 4.3 GB. I really doubt that they have mistakenly encoded it twice. It’s such a big mistake. Anyone who has made this mistake or “decision” should be fired.
 

Marc Carra

Supporting Actor
Joined
Aug 31, 1997
Messages
767
Sam, the VIDEO_TS file is almost 8 gig. I'm at work right now so I can't give you the exact numbers, but it's close to 8 gig. Since there is hardly anything else on the disc, and the 4 episodes total less than 4 gig, there's no other explanation other than the duplicate episodes. Strange stuff.


Marc.
 

Adam Tyner

Screenwriter
Joined
Sep 29, 2000
Messages
1,410
Could this why there's haven't been any reviews? No review copies were sent out because of problems?
As Randy noted, screeners have been distributed, at least in some capacity. A site I'm associated with received a set on Friday as well, though it hasn't been reviewed yet. Presumably a short lead-time is the culprit behind the lack of reviews.
 

David Lambert

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Aug 3, 2001
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Okay, I'm watching my Costco-bought copy now.

I watched the animated menu sequence and saw that it was a bit low-res. Nothing a little anti-aliasing wouldn't fix up, but noticable. I started to think that maybe Marc might be onto something.

Don't get excited Marc, because I then jumped straight to Disc 1, #3...the football game in the rain. No dice...it looks GREAT both on the big HDTV and on the small PC screen.

I kept watching until the opening credits finished (and I don't know what happens next, because I've never seen beyond episode #2...more on that in a moment). Then I switched back to the pilot, and watched for quite some time before starting to write this.

No problem whatsoever. I did freeze-frames various points where pixelation OUGHT to be a problem, and was unable to find anything worth noting. Very smooth, very nice looking.

So then I grabbed my copy of the Canadian release, playing them split-screen and syncing them up so I could compare.

The 5.1 sound on the Canadian release kicks the ass of the 2.0 sound on the Season 1 set. That's not surprising, though. Too bad it's only 2 episodes.

But visually these are identical, as far as I can see. The new one's a bit less bright, but nothing serious. Otherwise, pixel for pixel it's the same gorgeous transfer we importers have raved about for the past 14 months.


I'm sorry this isn't much help to you Marc. It sure seems like any problems are on your copy...I'd get it exchanged immediately. As far as addressing the "duplication of the files", I won't do that. I don't know enough about the authoring process to speak with knowledge on that matter. And frankly, it's academic, since if my copy has that same duplication of files, it's not affecting the quality of the feature at all.

Good luck with your problem.
 

Kyle McKnight

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Mar 8, 2001
Messages
2,504
I'm torn between watching a couple eps of this, or listening to the new Outkast CD. Popped it in on my way home from Best Buy and was hooked. I think some superhero action may be the calling for tonight though.
 

Sven Lorenz

Supporting Actor
Joined
Sep 30, 2002
Messages
529
I remembered that my Player can display the video bitrate of the DVD and I checked the opening scene of episode 3 of Smallville again - the bitrate never drops below 5 MB/sec and is around 7 or 8 most of the time.
Then I put in one of the Alias DVDs and the bitrate (in the scene I checked) was around 5 MB/sec most of the time and only reached 7 or 8 during fast movements.
So there is no way that the episodes are twice on the Smallville DVDs.
 

Dane Marvin

Screenwriter
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Jul 21, 2003
Messages
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An alarmingly high number of people in this forum seem to get defective copies of DVDs. I'm proud to report that I've never received a defective disc (or set of discs), only a few DVDs whose actual program content left much to be desired. ;)

Passed up on "Smallville" today at $45.99 -- is that a good price? Anyone see what Best Buy or Wal-Mart's price is?
 

Paul-Gunther

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
May 23, 2002
Messages
146
$45 seems to be a really good price. I was able to get mine for $34 after tax, but that's only because I work for The WB (and no, contrary to popular belief, most studio employees do not get free DVDs). But of all the retail places I've seen, $45 seems to be the cheapest.
 

Andrew D F

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Feb 26, 2002
Messages
50
Marc,

I think you just got unlucky. I received my set today (Canadian release, from Future Shop) and the transfer looks absolutely marvelous.

You should return that puppy right away!

Andrew
 

Marc Carra

Supporting Actor
Joined
Aug 31, 1997
Messages
767
Yup, I'm beginning to think I got some sort of improperly mastered bootleg or something.

Since I got it for my birthday, I have no idea where it came from. I'm going to have to check with my sister and see where she got it. The fact that she got it almost a week before street date also has me suspiscious. Sounds like even the reviewers didn't get theirs that early. Somethings funny here. I'm going to go down to Walmart and buy another copy in the next day or so.


Marc.
 

Tony_Ramos

Second Unit
Joined
Sep 13, 2003
Messages
496
Does the Canadian release mentioned by David Lambert contain all Season One Episodes? are the extras the same?

And if so, why would WB put out a DD 5.1 mix in Canada and only 2.0 in the US?
 

Dan Rudolph

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2002
Messages
4,042
No. THere was a Canadian release of the pilot and first episode with 5.1 sound. The complete first season from Canada is identical to the US release.
 

Jonny P

Supporting Actor
Joined
Sep 5, 2002
Messages
649
My set looks great. No problems in the episodes that I looked at.

I would have to say that this is very much an underrated show.

People I know call it "Superman's Creek", but the cast is appealing and the show is incredibly entertaining -- in a cheesy/fun way.

My only hope is that season 2 is released soon!!!
 

Tony_Ramos

Second Unit
Joined
Sep 13, 2003
Messages
496
"People I know call it "Superman's Creek",


Well, if you talk to the executives who paid for the show they will tell you that the idea behind it wsa very much Dawson's Creek meets Buffy, hence the teen romance, angst, & parental issues intermixed with monster-of-the-week syndrome in the first season. Around the end of the first season however, the show really did "take flight" and clearly carved out its own identity. And the character acting has been superb throughout the series, combined with a consistent meta-narrative throughout the series that just keeps building and building.
 

David Lambert

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Joined
Aug 3, 2001
Messages
11,377
Tony, if you had followed the link I provided it does describe the disc there. Including the "Pilot movie" title, the episode count of "2", and a description that starts by saying "Contains the pilot & 'Metamorphosis' ". :D

As Dan explains, the release of "The Complete Season 1" is available in the same configuration in both the USA and Canada. For some reason that I never understood, "The Pilot Movie" was only available in Canada. Still is, for anyone who wants to order it. Link Removed sells it for US$16.99 plus shipping, for instance (that was my source), and they show it as "in-stock".
 

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