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| john lyons Senior Member  Co-founder of Vinegar Syndrome 1188 Posts 1/08 |  Posted - Mar 17 2008 : 9:16PMAround 3 weeks ago, I viewed a copy of Alpha Blue Archive's release of A Woman's Torment and The Tiffany Minx. That double feature might be the worst looking "official" DVD release I've ever seen for any film(s). The transfers are muddy, obviously both taken off VHS (and in the case of Minx, it looks like a 10th gen VHS), and are full of bleeding color, dropouts, tracking lines, and of course soft and muddy images. And you can own all that for the low low price of $25 SRP!!! My DVD-R bootleg of the Vienna Aktionists short films looks better and this "authorized" DVD from ABA! Of course, one can only assume the worst picture and sound quality, but ABA is not alone in abominable looking DVDs. When picking up a DVD from Video-X-Pix, you can be rest assured that you're gonna be shown a tacky "Video-X-Pix" bug every 10 minutes or so. You can also be sure that colors will bleed, blacks will be grey, and transfers will be generally dark and desaturated. You might even experience the delight of getting the DVD of The Debauchers which looks like it was shot by handicam off someone's wall. All this for only $30 SRP!!! Caballero DVDs are especially fun as sometimes they have layering transition problems which make it impossible to rewind, fast forward, or backtrack through previous chapters! Not to mention the assortment of usual dropouts,soft pictures, and WORST OF ALL, cuts made simply to make movies run under 90 minutes! Al this for only $25 SRP!!! VCA usually looks alright but just remember that more than any other company, VCA loves to cut up movies. Of all of the releases available in their "classics" line, I'd venture a guess that only 5 or 6 are fully uncut. By why would one want to see an uncut versions of: Barbara Broadcast (cut by 7 minutes!), Cafe Flesh (cut by 5 minutes!), or Raw Talent (cut by 11 minutes!), or Naked Came the Stranger (cut by 14 minutes!), or The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann (cut by 11 minutes!), just to name a few. All this for just $30 SRP!!! Nu-Tech looks alright, but keep your ears perked up for their occasional "stay tuned for our coming attractions" v.o. that comes on at the tale end of some of their discs (note: this is a result of their using master tapes for their DVDs made for VHS releases dating back to 1981!). For just $29 SRP. Arrow usually has uncut movies but the amount of [video] noise on their discs could deafen an entire concert hall [sarcasm]. Just $35 and a disc is yours! I could go on, but I think my point is made. And my question? Why should I or anyone else spend $20-30 on an "official" DVD that was made from an old and possibly cut VHS tape? I don't know but I just don't see the point. So MOD knows, I'm not proposing going to bootleg sites because, while they are MUCH cheaper and offer same, if not sometimes better, quality on many titles, they look like shit too. What I am saying is that the people who watch these films need to start pushing for GOOD RELEASES OF THEM! We all remember that Media Blasters did a few a year or so back, but frankly, the 5 titles they releases were pretty bad movies (except Devil and Neon Nights), famous or not! When will companies like that start taking on more obscure titles that deserve good releases. That's my plea. [Link] |
BlackSix  All-Star Member pornography wasn't sex but fantasies of an impossibly hospitable world 12377 Posts 9/07 | Posted - Mar 18 2008 : 12:19AM [Link] |
| maltedecker All-Star Member 369 Posts 5/07 | Posted - Mar 18 2008 : 4:17AM [Link] |
| john lyons Senior Member Co-founder of Vinegar Syndrome 1188 Posts 1/08 | Posted - Mar 18 2008 : 12:45PM I'm just basing my post on how much companies charge on their sites, etc. It's not the price that hurts me for I'd happily pay that much for remastered editions of any of these films but for a DVD to sell an official bootleg quality copy of any movie, why would I want to buy at all unless it's from a bootleg company where the bad quality is assumed. [Link] |
| caroline-NL Member 543 Posts 3/07 | Posted - Mar 18 2008 : 4:19PM [Link] |
| maltedecker All-Star Member 369 Posts 5/07 | Posted - Mar 19 2008 : 4:30AM [Link] |
| BlackSix All-Star Member pornography wasn't sex but fantasies of an impossibly hospitable world 12377 Posts 9/07 | Posted - Mar 19 2008 : 4:31AM [Link] |
| john lyons Senior Member Co-founder of Vinegar Syndrome 1188 Posts 1/08 | Posted - Mar 19 2008 : 2:30PM [Link] |
| caroline-NL Member 543 Posts 3/07 | Posted - Mar 20 2008 : 9:55AM If they cant do it right, why arent they sublicensing it ? If they dont have masters anymore, then they should at least use the beta tapes ( quality is a little better as VHS ). Edited by - Caroline-NL on 3/20/2008 9:56:52 AM [Link] |
| sdc Member 236 Posts 4/03 | Posted - Mar 20 2008 : 3:33PM I'd hoped the Media Blasters' range would set a precedent that others would follow, but should really have known better. [Link] |
| Flash Golden Age Classic 11017 Posts 5/01 | Posted - Mar 22 2008 : 12:33AM [Link] |
| john lyons Senior Member Co-founder of Vinegar Syndrome 1188 Posts 1/08 | Posted - Mar 22 2008 : 6:31PM It's not a matter of even remastering these films for release (I'm a print collector and I own tons of 70s XXX on 16mm and 35mm and a great many of the prints I own are fading or have lines and splices), the sad truth is that very few of these films exist in nice clean negative form. That said, there's a big difference between releasing a DVD made from an ancient, poor quality VHS tape as so many of these companies do than at least re-transfering a print to a hard drive and at putting that out. I'm not saying that ABA should run a new HD transfer of "The Two Lives of Jennifer" and do their best to remove scratches and do color correction but since they have a PRINT they should transfer the print to a direct digital source instead of using an old VHS telecine master they made in the 1990s and used for their tape release of it. Cost of running a new transfer to DV? It usually costs $0 as long as they have a telecine which the definitely do. That's the problem I have with these companies which own prints but instead of doing even the most basic film to DV style transfer, instead opt to dump them from tape to DVD. And in the case only a tape master can be found, no company should have the nerve to charge more the $5 for it as that's about the same as it would cost to buy a used VHS of equal quality on ebay (which I've done and frequently get better looking copies than I can buy on "official" DVD for 3x the price). P.S. The XXX portions of Alice WERE transfered off a print (16mm I believe) which just looks like shit. [Link] |
| pil008 Member 138 Posts 12/04 | Posted - Mar 23 2008 : 7:25AM But for those companies who do care, they ace many problems. Back in the old days when the BBC broadcasting began they started to run out of space for all their tapes, so they junked thousands of hours of TV (including Quatermass and Dr. Who) assuming that it had no cultural worth and nobody would ever be interested in seeing it ever again. They were wrong. I guess this was the same attitude as many of those companies producing porn in the 60's, 70's and 80's (and probably right up to today) who saw no future worth in what they're producing and so took no measures to preserve the original negatives/tapes, etc. Companies looking to put out a DVD of a classic probably have to wade through stacks of degraded negatives, bad video copies, films cut for certain markets. In many cases the original film probably no longer exists (unless it's hidden in someone's basement). And as for remastering, a good remaster costs a lot, and it can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. This brings up another question for today's producers (and not just for porn) how long can digital information be preserved? Nobody knows. I guess it all comes down to the question: how badly do you want to see the film? I bought a copy of "The Final Duel" for five quid, just for the nude fight scene. The (remastered) image quality was crap, but at least I saw it. [Link] |
| backdoorman Senior Member Shake for me girl... I wanna be your backdoorman ! 2776 Posts 10/07 | Posted - Mar 23 2008 : 10:55AM [Link] |
| Robert Member My past is a foreign country. Most things are different there, including word usage. 503 Posts 12/06 | Posted - Mar 23 2008 : 12:29PM How Long Does Video Tape Last? CD and DVD Longevity: How Long Will They Last? Bottom line - 1 - 100 years depending. Most important factors - 1. Quality of the media (which you can't control and probably not even determine). 2. How the media is stored, moisture being the major culprit. DVDs are much easier to play/store moisture free than VHS tapes. But (ah...the big but) if the quality of the media is poor (which is usually the case with XXX tapes and DVDs) then careful storage won't help much. [Link] |
| Yankey Doodel Member 283 Posts 11/05 | Posted - Mar 24 2008 : 5:58PM [Link] |
| BigBobxxx Senior Member 2681 Posts 5/04 | Posted - Mar 24 2008 : 6:48PM The sad part of all this is that, I'd dearly love to purchase Kay Parker movies that have been cleaned-up for re-release on DVD. I already own a well-done re-release of Taboo -- and boy was it worth it! One wonders, though, how many younger strokers are interested in the Golden Age porn, shot on film, that we geezers stroked to in real-time in giant single-screen movie palaces remaining from the 1920's and 30's? I'm sure that -- based on the re-cycled crap they've seen -- they think we're all crazy. [Link] |
| Robert Member My past is a foreign country. Most things are different there, including word usage. 503 Posts 12/06 | Posted - Mar 24 2008 : 10:03PM ~Robert [Link] |
| Flash Golden Age Classic 11017 Posts 5/01 | Posted - Mar 24 2008 : 10:19PM [Link] |
| BlackSix All-Star Member pornography wasn't sex but fantasies of an impossibly hospitable world 12377 Posts 9/07 | Posted - Mar 25 2008 : 12:15AM [Link] |
| backdoorman Senior Member Shake for me girl... I wanna be your backdoorman ! 2776 Posts 10/07 | Posted - Mar 25 2008 : 10:27AM [Link] |
| john lyons Senior Member Co-founder of Vinegar Syndrome 1188 Posts 1/08 | Posted - Mar 25 2008 : 11:51AM [Link] |
| backdoorman Senior Member Shake for me girl... I wanna be your backdoorman ! 2776 Posts 10/07 | Posted - Mar 25 2008 : 6:34PM  ^[Link] |
| BlackSix All-Star Member pornography wasn't sex but fantasies of an impossibly hospitable world 12377 Posts 9/07 | Posted - Mar 25 2008 : 11:13PM [Link] |
| tmc_rk New Member 1 Posts 4/08 | Posted - Apr 21 2008 : 1:39AM [Link] |
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