[78-L] Video Formatting issues on the Feinstein DVD -

[Michael Biel]

From: Steve Ramm <steveramm78l at hotmail.com>
> Thanks for your comments Sammy. I guess what my concern was - and is - is
> that the AVERAGE consumer with a standard TV - over 10 years old will but
> the DVD and have problems. Trust me, Amazon or PBS Home Video are not going
> to explain how to adjust the DVD player. And the buy is stuck with it.
> PBS puts out hundreds of DVDs like this. So does Warners. And NONE have this
> issue. So I was trying to help the company making them. It is NOT PBS Home
> Video but Hudson East.
 
This was exactly my point.  The idea that DVD buyers were the ones who
had invested in new wide screen home theater set ups with surround sound
was ludercris and ignorant.  It is the Blu-Ray buyers who MIGHT have. 
The DVD buyers are the ones who have been "left behind".  The DVD is the
BUDGET item, now that no VHS cassettes have been made for five years. 
The AVERAGE customer buys DVDs.  Some would still buy VHS if they could.
 The premium customer she described will buy Blu-Ray if it is available,
and will condescend to DVDs if there is no Blu-Ray.    

Now my TV sets are not as ancient as is Steve's, but most are high
quality 4x3 cathode ray sets around and less than ten years old. I have
only one 16x9 flat screen set, a small 19-inch which is my secondary
monitor sitting on top of my main monitor.  I use it for comparisons
like I would for the discs in question, and for my second recorder when
I am recording two things at once.  (I bought it because my earlier
small set went POOF!)  But the set it is sitting on is a high quality
35-inch cathode ray 4x3 set, and so is Leah's.  My other two sets in my
kitchen and video storage room are high quality 25-inch 4x3 cathode ray
sets, and Leah's secondary set is still a 13-inch cathode ray 4x3 until
it goes up in smoke like her prior one also did.  My computer monitor
and Leah's two computer monitors are flat screen 16x9 because our
computers are also newer.  We replace hardware only when we have to, and
in this regard I don't think we are that unusual.  

Our investment has been in software. We each have well over a thousand
DVDs each and thousands of videocassettes.  We have a few Blu-Rays and
examples of the short-lived HD-DVD.  We also have many players and
recorders, partially because we use them a lot and we need to make sure
we have things that can play our recordings.  But our monitors only get
replaced and upgraded when necessary.

> THAT said, the Producer/Director (it is a SHE) is sending me a Press screener
> that should work. She said that if it does and buyers get the commercial version
> and it doesn't play, the company will replace Disc One with a press screener.
> I should have my copy in next 2 days and will let you know.

I am ASTONISHED that they sent REVIEWERS letterboxed discs when they
decided that the sale discs would be anamorphic!  Actually, I DO like
anamorphic discs better, but I do know how to handle and view them.  But
do they have data that shows that REVIEWERS have not updated their
equipment to a LESSER degree than their regular customers?????????  I
would think that professional reviewers would be the first to upgrade.
 
> Again, I was looking at this from the point of the normal nostalgia consumer
> (not a teckie) who the program is aimed at.   Steve Ramm 
 
Again, I want to emphasize that I was VERY ENTHUSIASTIC in my original
postings about this series that they windowboxed all the old 3x4 film
and TV clips. (Steve, please tell them that.)  I have been disgusted
with the usual PBS technique of cropping off the tops and bottoms of all
old 3x4 images because of a misguided phobia  their programs MUST be
totally widescreen and never have black bars at the sides.  The
Vaudville and Broadway documentaries were RUINED by this, as have all
the recent Burns series.  Luckily the original Feinstein series in 2003
was prior to the PBS widescreen requirement even if inappropriate, and I
praise very highly this current Feinstein series for being brave enough
to buck the PBS phobia against blank side edges within their programs. 
Maybe other producers will now be brave -- or understand what the
problem is.  Too bad the people responsible for the DVD didn't follow
thru because they don't seem to understand their market.  

(By the way, the Europeans reading this must think we are crazy.  They
switched over to 16x9 sets LONG before we did in the U.S. and have a
system of automatic processing that will provide the proper shaped and
sized picture every time.  Our system in the U.S. is totally screwed up,
but they had solved the problems in Europe even before the first 16x9
sets hit the U.S. stores.  The Europeans even had a system 25 years ago
that could automatically start and stop your timer videorecorder at the
proper times even if there is a last minute scheduling change in the
broadcast!)

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com