15 Scandal

Message

Michael Kerpan · #26 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 9:56 am

Yes, there is a background noise -- but I am pretty certain it is an almost unavoidable feature of the source material. I will take background noise over "noise reduction" any day. (Many times noise reduction finagling negatively affects the tonal quality of the sound -- which I find far moreunpleasnt than the signs of aural aging).

This is an old movie -- and an not especially well-preserved one (Shochiku tended to not take as good care of its negatives, etc. as Toho did). This DVD marks a major improvement over the prior Panorama one (which was, itself, happily much nicer than the Mei Ah Kurosawa series). Until and unless film preservation techniques get vastly better (and Shochiku chooses to use them on this film), this DVD is pretty much the best version you are likely to see of this film.

Matango · #27 Post by **Matango** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 11:22 am

I still wonder if Eureka did the "audio restoration tools were used to reduce clicks, pops, hiss, and crackle" Criterion thing.

peerpee · #28 Post by **peerpee** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 11:56 am

Yeah, we did. If you look in the booklet, Mitch Clyman did it. We tried many things, but opted to leave more of the damage in than make the whole thing sound boxy and dull.

The materials we received from Shochiku sounded much worse.

Matango · #29 Post by **Matango** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 12:00 pm

ok, thanks for the info.

Michael Kerpan · #30 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:20 pm

peerpee wrote:We tried many things, but opted to leave more of the damage in than make the whole thing sound boxy and dull.

The materials we received from Shochiku sounded much worse.

You made the right choice, in my book. ;~}

Shochiku's worst sound "restoration" mistake (that I've encountered) is their ghastly wrecking of Ozu's "There Was a Father" sound track. I've heard another version (a very bad copy of a broadcast of a very ppor print) that sounded much more normal (even if old and abused).

Lino · #31 Post by **Lino** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 2:22 pm

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=59780

Arn777 · #32 Post by **Arn777** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:27 pm

My copy also has the same picture break up that Anton reported higher. I am mostly disappointed by the persistant combing, as shown on the last screen capture posted on DVD Beaver (although minor, there is a lot of it, mostly during medium or establishing shots, strangely). I am wondering why, as it is the first time I notice combing on a MoC dvd.

peerpee · #33 Post by **peerpee** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:59 pm

The materials provided by Shochiku were 1080i HD (interlaced) and it proved impossible to make a progressive encode from this (we tried very hard, but it was spewing out hundreds of bad frames).

No such problem with THE IDIOT, which is progressive.

Similar materials for VENGEANCE IS MINE rendered progressive imagery brilliantly (after much tweaking).

Arn777 · #34 Post by **Arn777** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 8:17 pm

Thanks for the clarification Nick. I was planning to get the Idiot anyway, but am glad you confirm it is progressive, and you did a great job with Vengeance is mine. I had a marathon MoC weekend and had no problem with the other non-progressive transfers I watched (Metropolis and Spione) hence my question re Scandal.

To go back to the film, unlike Cox I tremendously enjoyed the beginning and slightly lost interest as Takashi Shimura's character grew in importance.

nyasa · #35 Post by **nyasa** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 5:43 pm

Further to Arn77's post, I've just watched Scandal this evening, and the combing was very evident throughout: more in keeping with a cheap public domain release than an offering from a premium label.

I'm a big fan of MoC, but four of my five purchases have had quality control issues. Sunrise was missing the booklet (which Eureka swiftly supplied when I contacted them); Tartuffe arrived (brand new from Bensonsworld) in a case that appears to have been recycled - the transparent plastic is scuffed, and there are the remains of an old price label in the top right-hand corner of the front cover; Spione (bought from Play) has a badly wrinkled cover; and now this weakness with the transfer of Scandal.

Like most here, I've been impressed by the direction of MoC's growing catalogue, but all too often the actual product has left me disappointed.

Apologies, Nick, because I admire what you're doing, but having experienced four irritations out of five releases, I thought I should voice my concerns.

Hashi · #36 Post by **Hashi** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 3:12 am

One question for people here. Am I missing something, but why do people watch (or at least sound like they watch, if you don't, then ignore all this!) interlaced discs with forced film mode (eg. force weave) and see all that combing? Combing is just terrible to watch even when it's minor, very distracting. I watch interlaced discs with forced video mode (eg. force bob) so I get no combing. In most cases the automatic setting on my player works good enough to recognise the mode so forced mode is not even needed. Ok, some curved shapes might not be always that sharp in video-mode but at least no hideous combing effects.

peerpee · #37 Post by **peerpee** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 5:32 am

nyasa wrote:Further to Arn77's post, I've just watched Scandal this evening, and the combing was very evident throughout: more in keeping with a cheap public domain release than an offering from a premium label.

I'm a big fan of MoC, but four of my five purchases have had quality control issues. Sunrise was missing the booklet (which Eureka swiftly supplied when I contacted them); Tartuffe arrived (brand new from Bensonsworld) in a case that appears to have been recycled - the transparent plastic is scuffed, and there are the remains of an old price label in the top right-hand corner of the front cover; Spione (bought from Play) has a badly wrinkled cover; and now this weakness with the transfer of Scandal.

Like most here, I've been impressed by the direction of MoC's growing catalogue, but all too often the actual product has left me disappointed.

Apologies, Nick, because I admire what you're doing, but having experienced four irritations out of five releases, I thought I should voice my concerns.

Hiya nyasa,

Sorry to hear that you've been left disappointed by your bad experiences. Obviously, you shouldn't have received damaged cases or wrinkled covers, but once the finished product leaves us for the various suppliers' warehouses we don't have anything to do with it. So I thank you for bringing this to our attention. A good quarter of everything I order online is similarly affected with dirty boxes, ripped cases, broken clips, etc. -- warehouses are dirty places -- and we'll look into ways of keeping our product intact as they travel between them.

Glad that you swiftly received your SUNRISE booklet, and we will send replacement sleeves and/or boxes for your TARTUFFE and SPIONE. If you are unable to force weave the interlaced SCANDAL disc or view it on a CRT, we'd be willing to swap it for another MoC title of your choice.

Hope that clears up your grievances, and hopefully your future experiences will be sound!

GringoTex · #38 Post by **GringoTex** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 7:52 am

Hashi wrote:One question for people here. Am I missing something, but why do people watch (or at least sound like they watch, if you don't, then ignore all this!) interlaced discs with forced film mode (eg. force weave) and see all that combing?

Wow- thanks, man. I've experienced combing on a few MoC (and other) releases, and after reading this, I checked my dvd player settings. It was set on "film mode." I switched to "auto mode" and all combing has disappeared!

We really need a "Technical FAQ for Idiots" thread stickied somewhere.

Gregory · #39 Post by **Gregory** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:45 pm

I normally choose to play R2 releases on film mode to eliminate both jagged edges and the flickering effect (stationary images wiggling slightly, which is very noticeable right off with the opening credits). With one non-progressive R2 disc I had to choose between those problems or combing. To me they were pretty much equally bad.