The StoryTeller R2 DVD Released

[MuppetDanny]

Note also that the series is being split across two releases. There's no date for the second disc as yet.

Oh! you noticed

 

[anathema]

I wonder if these are straight PAL copies, Or NTSC transfers?


And its great that there will be 2 Discs instead of one.

Yup, although I'd always expected it to be two discs, even in a single release.


The series was made on 35mm film. The transfers *should* be direct from the original prints. If they've been dumb enough to take the NTSC video transfers and convert them to PAL, the results will be appalling, and a complete waste of money.

Amazon.co.uk and Play both quote a total running time of 90 minutes. This is unlikely, since it would make the episodes just 18 minutes each! Blackstar claim a total of 120 minutes, which would make them 24 minutes long.

Amazon.com quote a total of 216 minutes for the US release; with 9 episodes, this makes them 24 minutes long again.

Unfortunately, this suggests exactly what we don't want: NTSC->PAL conversions (were they PAL transfers, the UK run times would be 4% shorter than the US ones). However, it's worth noting that the UK times given above are almost certainly rounded down (and probably supplied by Columbia Tristar, who also claim that the recent Muppet Show disc has a run time of 150 minutes instead of the 110 or so it actually contains!) and of course there's no consistency between the retailers...

 

[BlueFrackle]

Oh good.

i think


Now i need to sleep

 

[MuppetDanny]

The second volume of The StoryTeller DVD will be released on 17th May 2004 along with Mega Muppets: 4 movie box set (Muppet Movie, Muppets in Space, Muppets take Manhattan, Great Muppet Caper) on the 3rd May 2004

 

[anathema]

My copy of disc 1 arrived this morning The episodes all run to roughly 24 minutes, and having taken a closer look, it would appear that they were telecined and edited at 25fps: the UK discs are *not* a standards-conversion from the US ones. Which is good

Most shots are progressive 25fps; a few (oddly) are interlaced 50i, and most effects compositing appears to be 50i as well. I suspect that the US releases are probably standards-conversions from the PAL master videotapes, but I don't have a copy to check.


Picture quality isn't too bad; the prints are a little soft, although that's probably deliberate, and there's a little video dropout. There's also a lot of video noise, but I'm watching this on a computer monitor, which is absolutely the wrong environment to watch video, so it should look fine on a regular TV.

 

[MuppetDanny]

anathema

Was there anything else ? In the US print there was some kind of behind the scenes booklet of some sort ?

 

[anathema]

No, that's the lot. No extras on the disc, and the flyer in the box is just chapter listings and advertising.

 

[MuppetDanny]

No, that's the lot. No extras on the disc, and the flyer in the box is just chapter listings and advertising.

RATS! - I wonder if that would be in the second volume perhaps maybe "Greek Myths" episodes as a bonus too!?

 

[anathema]

There's also a cockup on the menus - "A Story Short" is listed as "A Short Story"...

 

[anathema]

Volume 2 is now up for pre-order on Play... Due for release on May 17th.