Comments for Quadruple Z

Comment on The Vampire Diaries: Quotable Quotes by Tabz

Tabz — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:22:48 +0000

Hehe I should have explained. Elena falls more in the Bella side of that line. The line should be Buffy’s not Elena’s.

Comment on The Vampire Diaries: Quotable Quotes by NYPinTA

NYPinTA — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:00:13 +0000

Damon does get some great lines.

I don’t get what you mean by mentioning Buffy in the same breath as Twilight regarding Elena’s line however. Buffy was by no means a “pathetic girl” whose life stopped because of a boy.

Comment on Review Snippet: Season 1 of the Vampire Diaries on DVD by Tabz

Tabz — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:24:18 +0000

Yay! Good to hear, Kevin! It was no Buffy of course, but I thought it was really entertaining and enjoyable.

Comment on Review Snippet: Season 1 of the Vampire Diaries on DVD by Kevin Bachelder

Kevin Bachelder — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:39:17 +0000

I was hesitant to watch this show as well but I kept hearing good things from people I trusted so I gave it a try And really enjoyed it!

Comment on Essay: Why Buffy may never be Blu. by John Pavlich

John Pavlich — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 09:12:18 +0000

@Bix – 1. While yes, plenty of other shows do not have this problem, Buffy’s post-production is a special circumstance, in addition to the less than satisfactory work that was put into the transfer in the first place. I’m simply suggesting that the extra space on the disc used for these crazy, animated menus and some of the more EPK-style featurettes could be better spent lessening the compression and making the episodes look just a bit better to counteract against the video format source material.
2. This is more of a semantics discussion, but let’s say you’re right. Perhaps it’s not VHS, but rather some better quality video format. Problem is, it’s still a poor image transferred from video, and not the original film negative. This is key, I feel. To do this right, and to make it worth it in the first place, Fox Home Entertainment should use the film format Buffy was shot on for their Blu-ray upgrade, not simply porting over the video resolution. That’s like using a copy of a copy to clean an image. Why bother? This goes for the 16mm seasons as well. Whether it’s grainy 16 or cleaner 35, both should be used for the process as they are both film and not third generation duplications.

Comment on Essay: Why Buffy may never be Blu. by John Pavlich

John Pavlich — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 08:58:35 +0000

@Alex – I’ve never had an issue reading articles on this site. However, it could be a browser issue you and your friends are having. Personally, I use Firefox, on a 16×9 widescreen monitor. I remember Internet Explorer having this problem all the time, which is one of the reasons I switched. Also, when I got my new monitor, I had to manually adjust my computer’s screen resolution and size to accommodate. Give those a try and see if that works. If not, you can always change it back, but I don’t think it’s something on this end, or else I would also be struggling with it. I would also suggest contacting the site’s owner, Tabz and telling her all about it. I’m sure she can help better than I can.

Comment on Essay: Why Buffy may never be Blu. by John Pavlich

John Pavlich — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 08:52:10 +0000

@ian – All of those points are brought up in the essay (editing in video, vfx in video, using the original film negative for transferring to Blu-ray). I agree with you that it was easier to bring Star Trek TOS to Blu-ray, because of being done on film, but all the work and extra updating of vfx were done because of the show’s classic, beloved status and it was done at that particular time due to the renewed interest in the material brought on by the new motion picture.

Comment on Essay: Why Buffy may never be Blu. by John Pavlich

John Pavlich — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 08:45:00 +0000

@leo – The important word to note is “may”. I talk about how Buffy “may” never hit Blu-ray, but I also mention by the end that it still “could” happen, just that some important changes needed to occur first in order to do it right.

The weird sentence you pointed out was a typo. I’ve now gone back in and corrected it so it makes sense. Thanks so much for catching it! I wear very thick glasses, so I sometimes miss a letter or two.

Comment on Essay: Why Buffy may never be Blu. by John Pavlich

John Pavlich — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 08:40:52 +0000

@Amanda – Thanks! “Sha’mon” just made my night!

Comment on Essay: Why Buffy may never be Blu. by John

John — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 08:27:20 +0000

@Mr.Floppy – I think it’s possible, sure. But, similar to Buffy, it’s a question of the format they decide to pull from as the source material, and how much money and time they’re willing to put into the restoration of that material, be it film or video. Much of The X-Files was initially a Canadian production, which often used different film speeds, frame rates and video formats from The States. Same goes for the UK. They typically run through film at 30 frames per second, versus 24 frames per second in America. This can give an awkward, sped-up feeling to the image, particularly during scenes with lots of fast motion and movement. For example, there are car chases in the first couple seasons of The X-Files that give off this effect. Luc Besson’s film, The Professional also occasionally has this problem. This probably means almost nothing for a potential Blu-ray transfer, it’s just something strange I thought of just now.

Comment on Essay: Why Buffy may never be Blu. by John Pavlich

John Pavlich — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 08:22:36 +0000

@Gospel X – You make a good point about BR/DVD Combo Packs, but I think it means that people buy those to have a wider range of options as to where the title can be played. But, as Blu-ray players become more affordable (I bought my Philips Blu-ray player for $97) and become the standard, default machine, I’m sure we’ll see less and less of these combo packs. Generally, they sell real well with Disney titles. You can put the Wall-E Blu-ray on in the living room, but the player in the Minivan is probably basic DVD, which is where that other disc will come in handy for the kids during a long car ride. You’re right that we don’t have DVD/VHS combo titles, but we do have DVD/VCR combo player machines.

Comment on Essay: Why Buffy may never be Blu. by Bix

Bix — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 18:07:38 +0000

“Coupled with massive compression techniques (squeezing four episodes of the show, special features and overly-flashy menus onto a single disc), this is why the eventual DVDs mostly look so, let’s face it, terrible. Too often, the episodes look like VHS tape quality, because they are VHS tape quality. Somehow, season four looks comparatively nicer, but that’s a mystery for another time.”

1. Plenty of shows do fine w/ 4 episodes, special features, and animated menus per dual layer disc. Buffy suffers, at least in S1 & S2, from the lighting and 16mm grainyness working together to make the picture look worse.
2. Not all SD videotape is VHS. VHS is a far cry from what is/was used professionally in broadcast circles. They probably used Betacam SP if analog or some form of a DV-based format (DVCam, Digibeta…) if digital.