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Bond 50 DVD Box set - picture quality issues.

GavSalkeldGavSalkeld
edited March 2014 in Bond Movies Posts: 66
As I am on a budget, I decided to get the Bond 50 box set on DVD, as it was under half the price of the Blu-ray set. I just got it in the mail today and to my dismay, I find that the movies have been crammed onto single layer discs. The bitrate is extremely low (hovering about 2/3mbps) so the quality is about half of that found on the Ultimate Edition DVDs from 2006, which was all presented on dual layer discs.

I think this totally unacceptable. Single layer DVDs were somewhat acceptable in the mid-90s, whereby (for example) Warner Bros. would release a movie on a single layer disc with one AC3 5.1audio track at 384kbps, no extras and no moving menus, so the disc capacity had more room to use for the movie's encoding. But the Bond discs have English AC3 5.1, English DTS, English mono, commentaries and extra languages in AC3, plus moving menus on top of that. I can see artefacts galore when I play this back on my HDTV.

Have MGM done this on purpose to make the DVDs look worse in comparison to the Blu-rays or something? Is it worth contacting someone about this? The picture quality on these discs is lower than the DVDs from 8 years ago!

Comments

  • FoxRoxFoxRox
    Posts: 12,258
    GavSalkeld wrote:
    As I am on a budget, I decided to get the Bond 50 box set on DVD, as it was under half the price of the Blu-ray set. I just got it in the mail today and to my dismay, I find that the movies have been crammed onto single layer discs. The bitrate is extremely low (hovering about 2/3mbps) so the quality is about half of that found on the Ultimate Edition DVDs from 2006, which was all presented on dual layer discs.

    I think this totally unacceptable. Single layer DVDs were somewhat acceptable in the mid-90s, whereby (for example) Warner Bros. would release a movie on a single layer disc with one AC3 5.1audio track at 384kbps, no extras and no moving menus, so the disc capacity had more room to use for the movie's encoding. But the Bond discs have English AC3 5.1, English DTS, English mono, commentaries and extra languages in AC3, plus moving menus on top of that. I can see artefacts galore when I play this back on my HDTV.

    Have MGM done this on purpose to make the DVDs look worse in comparison to the Blu-rays or something? Is it worth contacting someone about this? The picture quality on these discs is lower than the DVDs from 8 years ago!

    That is so strange! I don't know why they did that, and since I have Bond 50 on Blu-Ray, I didn't have this issue. The Ultimate Edition DVDs weren't even that spectacular either. I'm really sorry about that; you might want to contact the company or seller or something. Can't hurt.
  • GavSalkeldGavSalkeld
    Posts: 66
    The UE DVDs had their issues, but at least the encodes were great. What's more annoying is that the Bond 50 re-release seems to fix the UE errors (e.g. the red water in Thunderball) but the bitrate makes everything waxy and overly-smooth.

    The eBay seller is offering a 60% refund(!) because its opened. I am going to contact Fox via the phone number on the packaging but I doubt they will be helpful...
  • FoxRoxFoxRox
    Posts: 12,258
    GavSalkeld wrote:
    The UE DVDs had their issues, but at least the encodes were great. What's more annoying is that the Bond 50 re-release seems to fix the UE errors (e.g. the red water in Thunderball) but the bitrate makes everything waxy and overly-smooth.

    The eBay seller is offering a 60% refund(!) because its opened. I am going to contact Fox via the phone number on the packaging but I doubt they will be helpful...

    I don't understand why it's that way. At least if worst comes to worst you'll still get some of the money back. The best I can recommend if that's the case is to save up for Bond 50 on Blu-Ray, which the quality is awesome on. That really is awful though - I've never known anyone that even got the regular DVD set before you though.
  • GavSalkeldGavSalkeld
    edited March 2014 Posts: 66
    Yeah, there are no reviews of the DVD set anywhere. I have had a Blu-ray player for years but just could not afford the Blu-ray set right now. I think it is terrible that Fox/MGM have put out this sub-standard edition, seemingly because they feel that no one owns a DVD player anymore and so anything goes, quality-wise.
  • Ed83Ed83
    Posts: 1,181
    I'm sorry to hear of your bad experience with the new dvds. It really seems like they don't care about overall product quality but only about quantity and profit obviously. I saw a crazy special for the bond 50 bluray set at around $49 usd. This sold out quickly, but you might be able to find another similar deal in the future. Right now amazon has it at 160 which is definitely way too high. My advice would be to watch bestbuy, frys, amazon, walmart for sales on the bond blus. Most of the time they run around 5-7 usd. I have the individual blus in cases and also the blus in bond 50 set as an extra. I wish I could have gotten my hands on that super cheap bond 50 set and I would have gladly sold it to you for cheap. Good luck and I hope you find a great deal on these soon.
  • GavSalkeldGavSalkeld
    Posts: 66
    Thanks, Ed. Your generosity is appreciated. I have emailed Fox, but so far no reply, not even an automated one.
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