8mm Forum: A contrast and a rant

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Topic: A contrast and a rant

Graham Ritchie
Film God

Posts: 4001
From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006

posted December 27, 2009 09:48 PM

Years ago before video tape and DVD the only way to watch movies "bigger than TV" other than going to the cinema was with 8/16mm etc, films were and still are very expensive, so you put up with the odd dud print. Those days are now long gone Video Projecting and DVD... now Blu-ray has changed all that. I remember years ago a friend of mine bought a 16mm feature from the US it was discribed as good condition, it cost him a lot of money and took a long time to get here.. well the print was red, so much for the "good condition" this was not the first time he had been caught out so he gave up on buying films and bought a video projector and a DVD player instead. I remember a 16mm feature "Oliver" the musical in Scope that was for sale from someone in Aussie, I was told it was also in very good condition.... it was lucky for me that I asked about the colour, the following reply was that it was red [Roll Eyes]

if a film is stated that it is in good condition then I expect the colour to be as well.....I did not buy it. There are a lot of good people you can deal with out there in film land [Smile]

but I would say there are also a few that are less than honest as well and that alone can be enough to kill off the interest for some in film collecting.

Graham.

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Steven J Kirk
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 873
From: Southern England
Registered: Apr 2008

posted December 28, 2009 03:11 AM

Buying new pre-recorded VHS tapes was often worse! The times I changed tapes at shops because my machine wouldn't track it properly, jumps and glitches, those drop-outs that showed as white bars flashing across the screen. One time, NO recording on the tape, just white noise! The last couple of years I've been binning them. Only a few left now. Don't get me started on my laserdiscs with the brown patches on them. Binned.

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VistaVision
Motion Picture High-Fidelity

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Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted December 28, 2009 09:34 AM

Steven ...

I remember Kevin faulkner mentioning this as well, but I have over 200 laserdiscs and none of them have any brown patches. Was there something in the manufacture of them in the UK that caused this browning?

The only problem I ran into was my earlier laserdisc player left "scratches" (not visible ones, but it caused statiic to the picture near the end of each side.

I have noted, however, that a few of them have warped over the years.

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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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Kevin Faulkner
Film God

Posts: 4071
From: Essex UK
Registered: Jun 2003

posted December 28, 2009 11:19 AM

I think that was a problem with European made Laserdiscs only. I think now I have got rid of all my spotty brown discs and replaced with with US or Japanese pressed versions.

As for the problem of crap prints I think this is a problem more with 16mm and I wonder if it's more a case of sellers giving descriptions from memory of the last time it was projected instead of doing a check before selling. I too have had red prints but the seller swears blind they are superb etc etc.

I still say that some of these sellers should be listed on the forum as a warning to others. If they are not members of this forum then there's nothing to worry about from the writers point of view. If they are members then maybe it may make them give more honest descriptions and at least an oportunity for them to have their say.

i have had 3 16mm features from Derann recently and they have been absolutely mint with superb colour which hashelped restore my feelings about collecting 16mm again. Yes guys I'm collecting 16mm over super8 [Eek!]

Kev.

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GS1200 Xenon with Elmo 1.0...great combo along with a 16-CL Xenon for that super bright white light.

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Joe Taffis
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1592
From: United States
Registered: Jun 2003

posted December 28, 2009 01:53 PM

Mike, thanks for the reply. Good to know [Wink]

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Joe Taffis

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John Whittle
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 791
From: Northridge, CA USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted December 28, 2009 01:56 PM

There were lots of problems with US laserdiscs as well. The problem was refered to as "laserrot" where the refelective media would corrude and thereby not be "read" or reflected by the laser.

This was tracked back to "inclusions" in the manufacturing process before the polycarbonate coating. The orginial manufacturer (LaserVision) had the problem at both US and Japanese factories.

This was later corrected and to their credit Pioneer USA would exchange any defective disc for a replacement for several years.

But there are still bad discs out there so be warned to screen anything on arrival. If it hasn't gone bad by now, chances are pretty good it will last.

By contast, the same problem didn't happen with DVDs inspite or many "knowlegeable people" trying to claim they did. But with billions of DVDs produced, if we had the same defective problem in manufacture, there would be millions of defects today.

As with film, only time is the true method of checking these problems.

John

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Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted December 28, 2009 02:44 PM

Yay! Always great to hear from John. Hope all is well with ya!

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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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Rob Koeling
Master Film Handler

Posts: 399
From: Brighton, UK
Registered: Jun 2003

posted January 04, 2010 07:35 AM

Michael,

I am planning to put some footage together on a dvd to get some replacement footage for a few films I have, from this Italian guy (Marco). If you have a PAL dvd of Scrooge, I can include the footage you need, so he can print that too.

I have the dvd's I need for the replacement footage for my films. Now I need some software to extract the scenes I need. Has anyone a suggestion? (I'm a Mac user).

- Rob

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Michael O'Regan
Film God

Posts: 3085
From: Essex, UK
Registered: Oct 2007

posted January 04, 2010 09:32 AM

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the offer but, I don't have this title on DVD. Hopefully the original seller will send me the replacement footage in the not too distant future.

-Mike

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Bill Phelps
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1482
From: USA
Registered: Jan 2009

posted January 05, 2010 06:21 PM

Michael...I saw the 1935 Scrooge in 16mm advertised in the new 'Classic Images' although I don't have it with me so I can't tell you to much....I remember it was at the very bottom of the page and it seemed really cheap. (maybe bargin is a better word)

I just happened to think about it so I thought I would post.

Bill

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Barry Johnson
Master Film Handler

Posts: 358
From: United Kingdom
Registered: Jul 2003

posted January 06, 2010 06:44 AM

Yes,I'm with Kev on this one.I too have secured some of the most fabulous 16mm prints from sources like Derann.The prints are unbeleivably- spliceless!.One really does need to know what sort of vendor you are dealing with.
Even greater peace of mind comes from BluRay and video projection.

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Standard8 rules!!

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Michael O'Regan
Film God

Posts: 3085
From: Essex, UK
Registered: Oct 2007

posted January 06, 2010 12:39 PM

Bill,
Thanks for the thought - I don't really want to buy another print just for the titles.
[Smile]

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