Topic: Will anyone do a comparison?

[luke795]

I would like to see how the shorts look on the new vol. 5 boxset compared to older releases.
How will the Shemp shorts that were never released and the Joe Besser short get compared?
Will they be compared using TV airings?

[locoboymakesgood]

xraffle usually does excellent screen shot comparisons with the older DVDs. Hopefully he'll have time to do it this volume.

[xraffle]

Unfortunately, I cannot do screen shot comparisons anymore for two reasons. First, the difference between this new set and the older DVDs is not as big as it was in the previous sets. This is because the later shorts weren’t as bad looking on the older DVDs as the earlier shorts. The second reason is I sold most of my older DVDs while they still have some value to them. So, I don’t have access to the older releases like “Three Little Pirates” and “Mummies Dummies.”

To be honest, I received my DVD yesterday afternoon, but I haven’t had a chance to watch it at all yet. I’ve been extremely busy with midterms, term papers and work on top of that. My life will probably be like this for the next few months, so I apologize for this.

[ThumpTheShoes]

Bend your eyeballs around this screencap from the official Columbia vhs release of Monkey Businessmen:


Is that really what used to pass for quality during the vhs days?

Now, wreck an oyter with this grab from the new, remastered dvd:


This really is the biggest jump in quality for any of the shorts from one official release to the next. If there's any more anyone wants to see, list them here and I'll bung up the screen grabs. Otherwise, it is like Xraffle says, there's not that much quality difference (between dvd releases) to show for most of these shorts.

[falsealarms]

THREE LITTLE PIRATES with and without those old infamous "lines" in the picture?

[ThumpTheShoes]

Here's three comparison shots from Three Little Pirates. Top image is from the dvd release titled "All the World's a Stooge", the bottom from the new remastered dvd release.










When watching old films on home video, I do like a little character in the picture-- film grain, occasional speckles, or even some dirt now and again. I can even deal with reel change dots on vintage stock. But I will never miss those ugly scratches on this picture. Three Little Pirates now looks like it's s'posed to!

[falsealarms]

Nice work -- thanks for the shots.

[luke795]

I'd like to see Fright Night, Sing A Song Of Six Pants, Squareheads of the Round Table, & Mummy's Dummies.

[ThumpTheShoes]

First up, Fright Night. The top image in each pair is taken from the Sony dvd release titled "Spook Louder", the bottom from the new remastered set:

[ThumpTheShoes]

Next, we have Mummies Dummies. The top image in each pair is taken, again, from the Sony dvd release titled "Spook Louder", the bottom from the newly remastered set:













What you miss in an image comparison, here, is the audio for the remastered short. There is more of a "gramophone" effect, or persistent hiss, especially in reel 2-- but the sound, overall, is much broader and fuller, with better sibilance and tone.

I mentioned before that this short, on the previous release, had a ridiculous amount of noise reduction applied to it but I'm not 100% sure that's the case. It may have been muffled sound introduced during the duplication process, a problem with the film scanner, or any number of other technical problems. Older telecine machines and film scanners had their own special quirks when dealing with the transfer of flim soundtracks.

Bottom line: the new remastered version of this picture is just mahvelous!

[ThumpTheShoes]

Sing a Song of Six Pants. Rather than go back to the Columbia vhs for this comparison, I've opted to compare the new release to one that has, literally, dominated the video market for over 20 years. The first image in each pair below is taken from the Goodtimes dvd release called (can you guess?) "Simply Hilarious". The bottom image is, well.. you know.













Nearly every public domain release of Stooge pictures has stolen Goodtimes' version of this and the other 3 "popular" films. One would think that, now, those 20 year old video masters could be retired, but I have a feeling that they will continue to be released and re-released well into the future, on much higher definition video formats.. looking just as scratched, and dupey as ever!

[donman7]

Sorry if this has been discussed already, but in watching SONY's Vol. 4 last night, I noticed a "splice"(!?) at 16:50 into "Dizzy Detectives". 
 
This is where Moe & Larry are coming out of the Trunk & Moe is dazed; with Larry asking if he's alright.  During this short sequence, you can see a 'jump' or 'splice' (or ?) that does NOT appear in the old Videos of this Short.
 
I noticed this 'glitch' also appears in the Columbia "Cops and Robbers" DVD from 2002.
 
Could this small portion of the film deteriorated over the years & even SONY couldn't fix it??
 
Has anyone else noticed this??  The glitch is pretty obvious.
 
I welcome your thoughts.
 
Thanks!
 
Don

[ThumpTheShoes]

Lastly, here's Square Heads of the Round Table, a title that is not, altogether, easy to type. 

The first image in each pair comes from the Columbia/Sony dvd release called "Stooges in History". The bottom image is... the one below it! 













Black levels are very good and "saturated" for bothe releases, and each has fairly fine shadow detail. The new transfer (as is the case with all the other pictures compared, here) does open up the frame for just a tad more visual information. Improvement, though in this case, very slight.

[falsealarms]

Wow, I'm surprised at how much better FRIGHT NIGHT looks. I didn't think that one was in bad shape earlier, but it's come a long way. Moe's bangs seemed unusually short in that one.

[ThumpTheShoes]

Sorry if this has been discussed already, but in watching SONY's Vol. 4 last night, I noticed a "splice"(!?) at 16:50 into "Dizzy Detectives". 
 
This is where Moe & Larry are coming out of the Trunk & Moe is dazed; with Larry asking if he's alright.  During this short sequence, you can see a 'jump' or 'splice' (or ?) that does NOT appear in the old Videos of this Short.
 
I noticed this 'glitch' also appears in the Columbia "Cops and Robbers" DVD from 2002.
 
Could this small portion of the film deteriorated over the years & even SONY couldn't fix it??
 
Has anyone else noticed this??  The glitch is pretty obvious.
 
I welcome your thoughts.
 
Thanks!
 
Don

Now that you mention it, it does stick wayyy out doesn't it? The jump-cut does look rough on the "Cops and Robbers" release, with emulsion damage and geometric distortion surrounding the splice. I wouldn't rule out an actual cut to the negative, but I think a splice that rough would probably have been done a long time ago, such that it would have shown on dupe prints or the video releases.

If the frames are damaged, but present, on the negative, I'd think they could be scanned and treated like a lab dissolve (which are problematic to scan due to thickness/focus issues) and doctored using software like scratchbox.

Something I'm unclear on is whether Sony is using safety neg for these transfers or are they going back to the nitrates which, as I understand it, have been carefully stored and are in perfect to near-perfect shape.

[archiezappa]

Nice work, Thump!