ShoutFactory US-Release - just HORRIBLE quality, or did i get a bootleg?!

[Matthew Blaisdel]

I ordered the US-release of The Colbys recently and today it arrived and i'm in shock!
The discs feel cheap, the printing on the discs - the pictures of the cast - look very faded and discs themselves feel very poor and cheap.
And they stink - you know that it's a cheap and VERY low quality disc, when it stinks.
Then i started watching and i was SHOCKED about how much worse the picture qulity is - compered to our German release.
The first disc won't even play at all, my DVD player can't read it. The others seem okay.
But I can't even grab a single screenshot without pixel-thunderstorm.
The compression is one of the worst i've EVER seen in a "original" DVD release. So i wonder - did i purchase a bootleg?
Or is the US release really so abysmal and THAT much worse in quality, than ours from Germany?

 

[Willie Oleson]

But why didn't you buy the Criterion 4K blu ray release?

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

Because i wanted the complete episodes in their original speed, as the German releaase is faster because of PAL-Speedup and some episodes are cut.
I just thought that SOMEone on here would have pointed out how horrible the US-DVDs are in comparison, 10 years after release... but no.

If i knew, i could have spared some bucks, because that's really abysmal crap for a DVD-release, what they served in the US...
And don't you be so smug! Noone talked about 4k. But you don't have to ruin it FAR beyond bare minimum DVD standards, as Shout! clearly did man ...

So ... warning now for Colbys fans considering buying the US set 10 years afterr US release .... don't buy it, it's waaaay worse than the German release.
You're welcome.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I just thought that SOMEone on here would have pointed out how horrible the US-DVDs are in comparison, 10 years after release... but no.

I guess there's nothing wrong with their US DVDs....

Oh, and for what it's worth....I had to replace the German release with the UK release because a disc didn't play anymore.
Since I didn't approve of the font used for the UK release I put those discs in the German sets. I've outfoxed them.

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

I guess there's nothing wrong with their US DVDs....

You GUESS? Why??
How can you say that? How can you possibly say that?
The US discs are not even proper double layer 8GB discs, they are glued together.
The Bitrate per second of the German release is around 8 -9 Mbits, whereas the US release is crawling around at the exact half of it.

Before i post screenshots here, i want to know, what leds you to your conclusion. Do you own the US set? Did you compare them side by side like i did the last few hours?

 

[Willie Oleson]

Do you own the US set?

No but I know at least one person on this forum who owns it.

The COLBYS bootleg DVDs have been discussed a lot at the time of release. Personally I didn't believe it because what's the point of bootlegging such a niche product?
But now it looks like you've bought one those things.

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

But now it looks like you've bought one those things.

It looks like? If it for you looks like ... then please tell me what things exactly do i have to look for to see, that it's NOT the Shout Factory release.
If you say "it looks like" you must base that on something..?!
I just would like to know.
Anybody here who owns the original US Shout Release?

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

That"s what my set looks like. Legit or bootleg?

 

[Willie Oleson]

Anybody here who owns the original US Shout Release?

Don't invite people to your thread. Send for them!


@Mel O'Drama
@Ked
@Snarky Oracle!
@bmasters9

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

Thank you!
Somehow i really HOPE it's just a bootleg. As i ordered it via ebay, i'll lust claim back my money from paypal and that's it.

But if THIS really IS the US release... then it's ... like i said ... waaaaaay below the German picture quality release, like 80% compressed DOWN in picture quality.
It isn't even possible to make a single episodic-screenshot of this release without MASSIVE compression artifacts. It's just 35 or 40% of the size of the German released files per episode.

And even the German set is not perfect, it's just ... acceptable. The speed is 4% too fast (because of PAL-speedup) and it's partly cut .. some episodes are missing some scenes, so the German release is NOT complete! That's why I wanted the US set... to have THE COLBYS complete and in it's correct speed!

I've seen way better DVD releases of 80s TV-Shows in Germany than that, for example with Dallas Seasons 5-7 or Knight Rider or Robin of Sherwood with Micheal Pread or TWIN PEAKS on DVD (to name another Paramount/CBS show) in Germany. Those really looked fantastic, despite being DVDs.
So it's not a matter of the medium, it's a matter of the care that goes into a release and the source material. And - if you compare it to the German release - the source for THE COLBYS is clearly WAY BETTER from what got released on those Shout!-DVDs in the US - IF those DVDs that i got are legit.

But are they?

 

[bmasters9]

IMO, that's worse than Universal did with the DVDs of Emergency! here in America; the picture quality may be way off on the fourth- and fifth-season DVDs (and much of the third season), but at least the show is watchable.

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

IMO, that's worse than Universal did with the DVDs of Emergency! here in America; the picture quality may be way off on the fourth- and fifth-season DVDs (and much of the third season), but at least the show is watchable.

But did i purchase the originals or a bootleg? I just wanna know ...

 

[bmasters9]

But did i purchase the originals or a bootleg? I just wanna know ...

You didn't get a boot, that's for certain; Shout! just happened not to put all that much into it (then again, maybe that quality is how it originally was when it was on ABC from 1985-87).

 

[Willie Oleson]

Here's a shoutfactory release unboxing video:

Of course I can't comment on the playback quality of the discs but the images printed on the artwork are definitely not great.

Seems like those PAL releases are not to be sniffed at! Matthew Blaisdel!

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

then again, maybe that quality is how it originally was when it was on ABC from 1985-87.

I don't think so, for one, the German release looks WAY better, which couldn't be the case, because there never was any kind of remaster for The Colbys.

Plus, all what makes it so much worse has digital compression reasons, you can see a ton of digital artifacts in each and every still frame that are clearly the result of abysmal compression. The files of each episode are nearly just half the size of the ones on the german release.

Everyone who experimented with shrinking digital movie or episode files to fit double of it on a DVD will know, what i'm talking about.
And that's exactly, what shout did here. Compressing it nearly to digital death ... what a shame, that it wasn't released by Paramount/CBS in the US, like DYNASTY was, because then it would certainly look way better.

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

Here's a shoutfactory release unboxing video:

Of course I can't comment on the playback quality of the discs but the images printed on the artwork are definitely not great.

Seems like those PAL releases are not to be sniffed at! Matthew Blaisdel!

Okay, that's exactly how my set looks. So i DO have the original.... what makes it even worse
Yeah well .. i guess I'll just keep it anyway. As some kind of "bad example" of how to NOT release a TV-Show...