Sesame Workshop/Shout! Factory Deal

[minor muppetz]

I hope the main program doesn't include any of those made for YouTube videos as part of the main program, though I can't think of any off-hand that involves counting (well, "Can You Telly How to Get to a Billion Views" and "Counting the Yous in YouTube", but I can't see those used as main program material).

I wonder if they usually take the clips from a raw source tape or if they usually take them from an episode. Sometimes segments look the same from release to release, in terms of quality and edits, and sometimes they don't.

Releases of classic content tends to look really good when officially released (even with bad interlacing on HD upgrades, though the coloring itself looks beautiful), and uploads of rare segments from fans who were given episodes from the vault look really high quality. So I wonder why the colors and brightness don't always look that great in Awesome Alphabet Collection and 50 Years of Sunny Days, did they think the brightness doesn't look as good as I think it does? Did they think the segments look better in a darker color saturation?

 

[CoolGuy1013]

I hope the main program doesn't include any of those made for YouTube videos as part of the main program, though I can't think of any off-hand that involves counting (well, "Can You Telly How to Get to a Billion Views" and "Counting the Yous in YouTube", but I can't see those used as main program material).

I can think of a few, but they’re not that bad, and most of them don’t even focus on a specific number anyway (which given this DVD’s companion, each number will probably get 3 segments each with no bits about counting in general). Some of them would also seem really out of place (especially holiday-themed ones), so I think we’re safe.

 

[LittleJerry92]

It seems to me the coloring was meant to restore classic material on the DVD releases (muchso like the 40th DVD which I actually liked how the segments looked on that one); some instances they just don’t come out all that great.

Where credit is due with Awesome Alphabet I was actually very happy to have a DVD release of “Rebel L” uncut (it was worth the eight year wait from its first release).

 

[minor muppetz]

It seems to me the coloring was meant to restore classic material on the DVD releases (muchso like the 40th DVD which I actually liked how the segments looked on that one); some instances they just don’t come out all that great.

Where credit is due with Awesome Alphabet I was actually very happy to have a DVD release of “Rebel L” uncut (it was worth the eight year wait from its first release).

Yeah, that one looked great on the release (though I feel there's some interlacing or something in Billy Idle's eye movements at the beginning).

 

[Oscarfan]

Then why the heck would they just hand over a sample of Letter B from Count It Higher? I would at least imagine they’d still have the original master for the segment on its own.

Does it matter?

 

[LittleJerry92]

I mean, if I’m being honest, it’s a little bit of a downfall for me as a big lover of the original Beatles song and its full parody with Jerry’s intro and I’d rather watch it on.... well, the Count It Higher video if I want to see it with the fake music video captions and it just feels a little lazy (and frankly out of place) to just take it from a home video instead of a master source but alright.

 

[LittleJerry92]

My opinion is if I were to see a Sesame Street clip from a PBS recording or a Sesame Street official channel upload with the logo on a DVD release where it just feels like clips were directly dumped from YouTube uploads, that would make me raise a few eyebrows and be hesitant on future DVDs. But eh

 

[D'Snowth]

I mean, Jerry's got a point, and in fact, this is one of the reasons why I was a trifle disappointed with 50 Years and Counting compilation. For my personal collection/library, yeah, I appreciate having it, but the clips placed on the set are almost like watching 240p or 360p YouTube videos on a TV, which only draws more attention to the lack of quality of the clips. It does kind of feel like because DVDs are evidently a dying media, they really don't care or aren't putting much effort into their releases . . . maybe that's the case, maybe not, but it seems like when it comes to DVD releases, you would want to use the best possible source you can: even if, as has been in some cases, the master material is damaged or unusable, and the next best thing is syndicated or third generation prints and material, as what has happened with a specific episode of M*A*S*H on DVD (and for DVD, the episodes were taken directly from the original film negatives and digitally remastered).

 

[LittleJerry92]

My complaint with the Letter B source mind you again also goes back to past issues I’ve had with Shout somehow using YouTube sources with certain bonus features (and one episode for a re-release) on their Mst3k volume box sets. I find it a little strange that the workshop would just hand over the Count It Higher source but whatev’s.

 

[Oscarfan]

The 50 Years DVD does look awful, because really you're looking at an SD version of something produced in HD. That said, the copies of certain bits on there are inexcusably bad.