The StoryTeller R2 DVD Released

[Douglas Fir]

I have the Region 1 release where they squeezed all nine episodes onto one disc and was just wondering if the Region 2 release is noticeably better quality?

To be honest although I wasn't blown away by the picture quality on the American release I still found it very watchable but I would consider getting the UK releases if they're noticeably better. So has anyone done an actual picture comparison of the two different versions?

Plus I'd like to think if the UK Vol.'s 1 & 2 do well Columbia TriStar UK may well think about releasing the Greek Myth episodes as Vol. 3... of course that's just wishful thinking at the moment but you never know!

 

[anathema]

Ok, I haven't actually seen the US release so I can't do a side-by-side comparison.

However, I can pretty much guarantee you that the UK release is vastly superior quality First and foremost, the series was shot in this country, and edited on 625-line PAL videotape. The US copies are 525-line NTSC conversions, and no matter how good that conversion is, it will always be inferior to the original PAL masters.

Secondly, if the US release put all 9 shows on a single disc (!), then they will have much much higher levels of compression than the UK release, which only attempts to fit 5 shows into the same space. Putting 9 25-minute shows onto a dual-layer disc is pushing the format to its limits, especially with noisy analogue videotape like this. (I personally would draw the line at 8


The picture does appear 'soft'. Given that the series was shot on 35mm film, this is almost certainly an artistic decision rather than a technical problem The whole show has a very stylised look to it, and I feel that the soft picture adds enormously to that.


I would recommend the UK release over the US one any day purely on technical merits of the video systems involved. PAL beats NTSC hands-down

 

[MuppetDanny]

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

Now you can read about it on dvdtimes.co.uk with cover art