The Honeymooners bit rate blues

Last year, I got 4 of the Columbia House DVD Volumes of The Honeymooners
Classic 39. Yes, they were 19.95+tax and shipping a pop but at the time
there was no word on if they would ever be released in stores.

Fast forward to now, and getting the entire classic 39 episodes from
Paramount for 35.00. Fantastic! Only...

They cram 8 apx 26 minute shows on one dual layer disc and the result?
Clothing and wall texture lags behind when there's movement, camera
shake or panning and the overall image is softer then the Columbia House
discs which put 6 episodes on a dual layer disc (and the texture of the
clothing and walls keeps up with the rest of the picture).

If only this set had 6 instead of 5 discs to hold all the episodes and
put 6 or 7 episodes per disc instead of spreading the bit rate so thin
on each disc with 8.

Kudo's to Image for keeping it 6 or 7 episodes on each of thier Dick Van
Dyke Show discs (which except for some print issues look great).

It's funny, M*A*S*H also has 8 shows per disc but for the most part
look good. The Honeymooners has a lot more camera movement (and
sometimes shake) in thier shows, especially when the camera follows
Jackie Gleason around.

Mike

Michael Rogers

Michael Rogers <> wrote:

> Last year, I got 4 of the Columbia House DVD Volumes of The Honeymooners
> Classic 39. Yes, they were 19.95+tax and shipping a pop but at the time
> there was no word on if they would ever be released in stores.
>
> Fast forward to now, and getting the entire classic 39 episodes from
> Paramount for 35.00. Fantastic! Only...
>
> They cram 8 apx 26 minute shows on one dual layer disc and the result?
> Clothing and wall texture lags behind when there's movement, camera
> shake or panning and the overall image is softer then the Columbia House
> discs which put 6 episodes on a dual layer disc (and the texture of the
> clothing and walls keeps up with the rest of the picture).

Out of curiosity, why did you stop getting them from Columbia House
after the first 4? Was it a price too high, or was there some other
reason? Are all 39 available through CH, and are they uncut?

John Simons

Is it possible to call C.H. and talk to a real person anymore? Anybody got a
phone number that doesn't require an account number to continue?

John

JMas493

They seem to forget to send them to me, I called once and got 2 more
volumes after the first 2 but after those 2 volumes I heard about the
release coming and did not care if i got new CH volumes or not. I do not
know if they have any volumes beyond 4, perhaps they discontinued when
the retail set was announced.

Mike

John Simons wrote:
>
> Michael Rogers <> wrote:
>
> > Last year, I got 4 of the Columbia House DVD Volumes of The Honeymooners
> > Classic 39. Yes, they were 19.95+tax and shipping a pop but at the time
> > there was no word on if they would ever be released in stores.
> >
> > Fast forward to now, and getting the entire classic 39 episodes from
> > Paramount for 35.00. Fantastic! Only...
> >
> > They cram 8 apx 26 minute shows on one dual layer disc and the result?
> > Clothing and wall texture lags behind when there's movement, camera
> > shake or panning and the overall image is softer then the Columbia House
> > discs which put 6 episodes on a dual layer disc (and the texture of the
> > clothing and walls keeps up with the rest of the picture).
>
> Out of curiosity, why did you stop getting them from Columbia House
> after the first 4? Was it a price too high, or was there some other
> reason? Are all 39 available through CH, and are they uncut?

Michael Rogers

>They cram 8 apx 26 minute shows on one dual layer disc and the result?
>Clothing and wall texture lags behind when there's movement, camera
>shake or panning and the overall image is softer then the Columbia House
>discs which put 6 episodes on a dual layer disc (and the texture of the
>clothing and walls keeps up with the rest of the picture).

Is this a function of a low bitrate? The Honeymooners eps I've seen are
kinescopes filmed off TV screens, so the image quality may not be very good on
them. Wasn't early video sort of smeary anyways?

Remove "moc" to reply.


Whoever says "Nothing is impossible" has never tried to slam a
revolving door.
- Willy Walker

Sydney Assbasket

> Is this a function of a low bitrate? The Honeymooners eps I've seen are
> kinescopes filmed off TV screens, so the image quality may not be very
good on
> them. Wasn't early video sort of smeary anyways?
>

This compilation of The Honeymooners consists of the 39 episodes that were
preserved on 35mm film. Unlike the "lost" kinescopes, image quality of these
on DVD should be razor sharp. I haven't purchased this particular set, but
it indeeds sounds like a compression issue.

Bill

> >
>
> This compilation of The Honeymooners consists of the 39 episodes that were
> preserved on 35mm film. Unlike the "lost" kinescopes, image quality of these
> on DVD should be razor sharp. I haven't purchased this particular set, but
> it indeeds sounds like a compression issue.

Yes, these are the classic 39 which were filmed and it's the lost
episodes (available on DVD from MPI) which were kinescopes.

It should be noted though that other episodes in the set seem to have
better sharpness then the one I first saw (Unconventional Behavior).

I just think that Black and white film makes texture and detail stand
out more and demands more bitrate than color.

Mike

Michael Rogers

>> This compilation of The Honeymooners consists of the 39 episodes that were
>> preserved on 35mm film. Unlike the "lost" kinescopes, image quality of
>these
>> on DVD should be razor sharp. I haven't purchased this particular set, but
>> it indeeds sounds like a compression issue.
>
>Yes, these are the classic 39 which were filmed and it's the lost
>episodes (available on DVD from MPI) which were kinescopes.
>
>It should be noted though that other episodes in the set seem to have
>better sharpness then the one I first saw (Unconventional Behavior).
>
>I just think that Black and white film makes texture and detail stand
>out more and demands more bitrate than color.

Hmm...could the problem be digital video noise reduction? Excess DNR often
causes floaty textures.

http://www.cinedrome.ch/hometheater/dvd/dnr/

Remove "moc" to reply.


Whoever says "Nothing is impossible" has never tried to slam a
revolving door.
- Willy Walker

Sydney Assbasket

> They cram 8 apx 26 minute shows on one dual layer disc and the result?
> Clothing and wall texture lags behind when there's movement, camera
> shake or panning and the overall image is softer then the Columbia House
> discs which put 6 episodes on a dual layer disc (and the texture of the
> clothing and walls keeps up with the rest of the picture).

This review is LIES. I hate the overall quality of DVD to begin with, and
it is true that they shoved way too many shows per DVD in this set, but
considering the quality of DVD MPEG2 video, and the age of these shows, this
is one of the best quality video DVDs I have ever seen, especially
considering all the bad reviews some trolls are giving it.

> If only this set had 6 instead of 5 discs to hold all the episodes and
> put 6 or 7 episodes per disc instead of spreading the bit rate so thin
> on each disc with 8.

Agreed, but it still is a very sharp, great quality set, considering this is
DVD.

The ONLY truth to the bad reviews floating around about this set, is that
the audio on the very first show on disc 1 is poor quality. Someone
obviously made a mistake and forgot to CHECK THE MASTER before pressing
these CDs and putting them into stores. However, it is still
watchable. Someone made a comment about a white line across the screen
for the entire episode, and they are full of ****. After fast forwarding
through it for a while, I think I see what they might be referring to, but
unless you are really looking for it, you won't even notice it when playing
it at a normal speed and enjoying the program.

Another bullshit review of this set says that the episodes were not put in
broadcast order, but in order according to themes. These people are on
drugs. The episodes ARE in fact in broadcast order. That is a FACT.

Being someone that works in video broadcast production, and someone not
thrilled with the poor quality of DVD overall, I consider this a GREAT
quality collection considering the limitations of DVD. I highly recommend
this set.

Gaylord Lescoulie

Gaylord Lescoulie wrote:
>
> > They cram 8 apx 26 minute shows on one dual layer disc and the result?
> > Clothing and wall texture lags behind when there's movement, camera
> > shake or panning and the overall image is softer then the Columbia House
> > discs which put 6 episodes on a dual layer disc (and the texture of the
> > clothing and walls keeps up with the rest of the picture).
>
> This review is LIES.

I don't lie, I call it like I see it. The compression is much better on
the Columbia House discs. The over compression is visible to me on many
episodes (especially Unconventional Behavior).

>
> Being someone that works in video broadcast production, and someone not
> thrilled with the poor quality of DVD overall, I consider this a GREAT
> quality collection considering the limitations of DVD. I highly recommend
> this set.

I recommend this set only because it's "The Honeymooners" and seeing
them in less quality than is possible for DVD still beats VHS and
broadcast versions.

Michael Rogers