For your viewing pleasure ...

[chicoartist]

Hi guys,

Here's a few quick grabs from a couple of films we're working on ... just couldn't resist ...

Enjoy!

[Franek Grabowski]

I know the colour sequences, but are you working on original film, which should give the highest quality?

[chicoartist]

Originally Posted by Franek Grabowski

I know the colour sequences, but are you working on original film, which should give the highest quality?

Hi Franek,

Copied below is a little handout I send out with each DVD:



Almost all of our films were sourced from original film and/or archival masters and transferred directly to the DVD format (no video “generation” in the duplication sequence) via Betacam SP. In this process, we contract professional film labs to make a master DVD directly from the original films or archival masters (at a cost of about $500 per footage hour), and we then use our “master” DVD to burn your copy in our own DVD towers. The result is the highest possible quality and faithfulness to the original of your disc, bar none. If you’re wondering, that’s why your image is so clear compared to all those old videos you have!

Not to disparage other vendors of military films (Lord knows I’ve bought my share from them in the past!), but most of them buy “master” video versions of documentary films from places like the US National Archives. It’s much cheaper to obtain government films this way. From there, the vendor will make a “master” DVD from the video, and then burn your DVD disc. You can see that right off the bat you’ve already lost a generation of quality from the original or archival master reels held by the archive. The difference in quality is amazing when compared side-by-side.

For best results, we highly recommend that you play these discs in relatively newer stand-alone DVD players. Luckily, they are not expensive, and you probably have one already. Some DVD/VCR combo machines may have older DVD technology that might have problems playing our DVD-R format discs. Problems in this range usually amount to periods of “pixilation” at some point during playback. Other problems may be format problems resulting from newer high-aspect ratio (length vs. height) TVs. Please check your format controls if your picture appears “stretched out”. Luckily, in the many hundreds of DVDs we’ve sold, problems such as those I’ve mentioned above have been extremely rare, but they do happen on occasion. Again, thanks for your purchase, and happy viewing!

[Franek Grabowski]

Now, that is good! Perhaps you could post a full size sample still from one of the DVDs, could not you? I am always a doubting Thomas!

[chicoartist]

Originally Posted by Franek Grabowski

Now, that is good! Perhaps you could post a full size sample still from one of the DVDs, could not you? I am always a doubting Thomas!

Don't doubt ... you might miss out on some good stuff!

I'll leave you with this: the 355 FG color footage we are dealing with is 16mm Kodachrome ORIGINAL film from our archive that we had professional transferred by telecine to Betacam SP for editing.

Wade