Quality of the DVD's

[Tezmyster]

I have been searching through the forums but have not found much, if anything related to this topic, so here goes.

I finally received my copy of MSCL from AU yesterday (I live in Australia), upon putting them into my DVD player however I received a bit of a shock. The quality of the video is terrible, speeds up, slows down, and can't hold the picture at all. It's like watching an average quality video file on the computer. Comparing this to the video's I taped when there was a MSCL special on about 3 years ago, and the videos have smooth presentation, and are much easier to watch.

The audio is another story again, sure I only have Dolby Pro Logic, but I would still expect the sound quality to be as good as the taped videos, sadly it's not and there is a constant run of quiet dialog with loud background noises. Not to mention the fact that the music sound track sounds like it's been dubbed off an old tape before being put onto the DVD.

Overall the DVD's are almost unwatchable, video constantly jumping, and audio being pathetic. I am hoping that someone else has had similar problems but judging by the posts in this forum I doubt it. For interests sakes I have a JVC DVD player (it's actually about 4 years old now but still), that is multiregion and has successfully played DVD's from my own region 4, as well as regions 1 & 2 with no problems at all. This is the first DVD (I've so far tried disk 1 & 2 from the set) that have experienced any problems.

Does anyone have any suggestions on where I could go to from here? I would hate to have to deal with AU again since it took from March last year (I think that is when I ordered them) to finally get them, but if that is the path I have to do, that is what I will do.

Thanks
Terry

[fnordboy]

For Sound and Image Quality please post in these threads.

Dolby Issues:

http://www.mscl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1840

Quality Issues:

http://www.mscl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1573
http://www.mscl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1676&start=0
http://www.mscl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1813&start=0

As far as your playback problem. Australia is PAL format correct? The problem maybe that your havng NTSC to PAL conversion problems. Make sure your player or tv is set for the correct playback format. Otherwise try out the disc on someone elses player, maybe there is a player conflict or you have a defective disc (though i havent heard of any of these yet).

[Tezmyster]

As far as your playback problem. Australia is PAL format correct? The problem maybe that your havng NTSC to PAL conversion problems. Make sure your player or tv is set for the correct playback format. Otherwise try out the disc on someone elses player, maybe there is a player conflict or you have a defective disc (though i havent heard of any of these yet).

Correct, Australia does use the PAL format. But as stated this is not the first DVD I have ordered from the US, and it is the only one which is causing problems. The only other option I have to play it back is in my PlayStation2, which cracks up and won't give a proper image (presumably because it can't handle NTSC).

The problem I am having is not with the playback, but rather with the quality of image after it has been played back. Perhaps the problem lies in the NTSC -> PAL conversion, that is something I may have to check at a friends place this coming weekend. But overall that still leaves the problem of the audio, which as stated is less then satisfactory. I'll try changing the speaker outputs (as suggested in one of the threads you linked to) to see if that makes any difference tonight.

Thanks.

[Spartacus]

People have reported moire patterns and other issues, but nothing like what you are reporting. Good thing you live right down the block from AU!

Spartacus
http://www.anotheruniversesucks.org

[blueone]

From what you've wrote it seems like a problem with your player. I have seen another version of this problem. I remember I tried the first disc in the set at a friend's place where it skipped back and forth and as well as refusing to stay in the main menu for long before it just quit. However, in my and other players I've tried the set on there are no problems at all.

Even today's players have minor problems and especially since you bought your player 4 years ago being a first generation dvd player I can almost guarantee it's the player and not the discs.

[Tezmyster]

Even today's players have minor problems and especially since you bought your player 4 years ago being a first generation dvd player I can almost guarantee it's the player and not the discs.

That still doesn't explain why other regional discs don't have a problem but this one does. Either way I'll test it this weekend and let you know how it goes.

Thanks.

[fnordboy]

That still doesn't explain why other regional discs don't have a problem but this one does. Either way I'll test it this weekend and let you know how it goes.

Any luck?

Actually if it is a player specific problem it is as much the disc's fault as it is the player's. Unfortunately, like most things, DVD manufacturers have a standard to go by but some cut corners where they can. So all players are not exactly alike.

something similiar:
I am a big anime fan. The Right Stuf, Inc. recently started releasing the series His and Her Circumstance (Kare Kano). The show has a lot of on screen japanese text and instead of putting "hard subs" (subtitles that re created as part of the screen image - ie can't turn them off) the company went the correct route and made the subtitles and the on screen text subtitles "soft subs" (can be turned on and off). They also pushed the subtitling technology to its limit by matching the font style and color with the onscreen text style. This of course made a lot of players unhappy. My Samsung player would completely choke on the disc, while my region free JVC plays it fine. My girlfriends Philips player plays it fine too, though both our computers cant play it. In this instance certain manufactures kept up on the subtitling specs that each player is supposed to have, while others didnt...<sarcasm>because hey its just subtitles who cares right?</sarcasm>.

Granted that was an easy to find reason for the multiple problems. But you might be in a similar situation with this disc. Just something in the encoding doesnt agree with your player.

Let us know how it goes.

[wend74]

ok so i know nothing about the tech stuff but you said other regional discs...these are region free is that maybe why these are playing up but region 1 don't?

[fnordboy]

ok so i know nothing about the tech stuff but you said other regional discs...these are region free is that maybe why these are playing up but region 1 don't?

There should be no reason why a R0 wouldn't work if R1s work. Unless there is something weird with the NTSC > PAL conversion with his player not recognizing a R0 as NTSC. But I really don't know enough about PAL/NTSC conversion to answer that right.

But isnt there something like PAL 60 and PAL 50? Could that have something to do with it, or am I just making that up?

[Tezmyster]

Any luck?

Actually if it is a player specific problem it is as much the disc's fault as it is the player's. Unfortunately, like most things, DVD manufacturers have a standard to go by but some cut corners where they can. So all players are not exactly alike.

yep, turns it was the DVD player after all. I just picked up a LG DVD Player/CD Burner for the PC this afternoon (early Christmas present). They are playing without an issue at all. Maybe it's time I put some cash aside and looked at getting a new DVD player.

Actually I rented "Monster's Ball" last night and it wouldn't play either, ended up playing it in the PlayStation2 (which doesn't do NTSC so it can't play the MSCL discs) in order to watch it.

Anyways, thanks for all the help everyone.

[MovieMac]

ok so i know nothing about the tech stuff but you said other regional discs...these are region free is that maybe why these are playing up but region 1 don't?

There should be no reason why a R0 wouldn't work if R1s work. Unless there is something weird with the NTSC > PAL conversion with his player not recognizing a R0 as NTSC. But I really don't know enough about PAL/NTSC conversion to answer that right.

Technically speaking, there is no R0 encoding, a so-called region free/R0-disc is encoded for all regions (R1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8 ), so it's pretty much impossible that this is the problem.

Concerning the format: region coding and playback format (PAL/NTSC) aren't connected in any way. The player chooses the playback format, no matter what's the Region code. Otherwise this would cause serious problems since Europe is PAL-land and Japan is NTSC-land and both are R2

[apexsensation]

I'm sure the problems I'm experiencing are the same as the rest of you, but I haven't seen it described the way I see it. I don't doubt that it's been mentioned here, but since I haven't been around since I received my DVD in early November, I'll mention it.

My DVD's (all discs) seem to have a pulsing or throbbing effect. They almost "beat" in perfect time throughout the episodes. I've never seen this on any DVD, and because of this, the quality is worse than the VHS tapes I have of the show. I was quite disappointed.

[andrewgd]

My DVD's (all discs) seem to have a pulsing or throbbing effect.

Try not having your dvd player connected through your vcr. That can cause a throbbing effect.

[fnordboy]

My DVD's (all discs) seem to have a pulsing or throbbing effect. They almost "beat" in perfect time throughout the episodes. I've never seen this on any DVD, and because of this, the quality is worse than the VHS tapes I have of the show. I was quite disappointed.

Have you tried it on another player? Doesn't sound like a disc issue to me. Possibly your player or the way you have your deck set up, not that your player is broke...just might have an incompatablity issue with the discs...happens sometimes with DVDs.