Richard Walker, head of Fabulous Films, responds to DVD criticism
I just got these replies from personal communication with Richard Walker, head of production for Fabulous Films, to complaints about the MITM DVDs raised by us here and on Amazon, and he was graceful enough to share them with us!
Hie replies are in bold type.
Why are the releases in NTSC while region 2 should normally be PAL format?
DVD players nowadays have the capability to play NTSC or PAL DVDs, the region coding is the only regional part. We release most of our shows in the original format, and most of our shows are American.
Why are the shows noticeably interlaced causing lots of combing effects? (the lines visible in fast-moving parts of the image, especially when viewed on computers)
This will normally be down to the TV set, not the player of the disc, some older TVs aren't designed for playing NTSC discs. This never shows up on any of our players.
Why do American rating agency symbols and Fox Widescreen Digital TV logos appear on some episodes randomly?
This has been a massive headache..after we released season 1 in widescreen, we were told that all the seasons had widescreen masters. Seasons 1 and 2 were shot on 16mm then seasons 3-7 were on HD. So we thought let's release it all in widescreen. We order our masters direct from Fox and they have scoured the vaults and the only widescreen versions they have have the burnt indents in. They have plenty of 4.3 masters without but for some reason they were made like this and I have tried to access the original footage and this has proved impossible. We thought the indents were a small price to pay for having the benefit of the widescreen versions.
What it all boils down to is this: why couldn't someone go back to the masters on 16mm film and have them scanned?
The cost of doing this is huge, our view is don't mess with history, they were made and broadcast like this. We would have had more objection if we had messed with it.
Were compressed digital transfers meant for TV (syndication or streaming) used "as is" for the release?
All syndication masters were 4.3, these widescreen were only used domestically.
The transfers also appear to be on the dark side, making adjustments on TV and computer screen necessary to see details.
Nothing has been altered, we are working off the original broadcast masters. The first set of tapes Fox sent me were dreadful, it has been a huge battle to get out what we have.
And there's the lack of subtitles. I know there will be budgetary constraints and so on, but still.
I would love to but it would add a cost of £10,000 to each season. Season 1 has sold about 3,000 copies, to Season 4 about 500 copies. If season 1 had shipped 10,000 units on release of course I would have added subtitles. The DVD market is in massive decline due to all the online theft and file sharing, it means the real fans who actually buy the product are now denied all the bonus features they were used to enjoying..
I see people kind of waver between enthusiasm that the series had finally become available, and in widescreen, which is a very nice bonus, and disappointment that the image quality couldn't be better and that we are now likely to be stuck with these versions for a long time and in possible re-releases, as the sources get older and are becoming less likely to get marketed as expensive "deluxe" transfers with extras.
It is highly unlikely that Fox will ever release all of them in the US and it is highly unlikely they will present anything more than we have. They should have released them off the back of the broadcast and they would have sold well. Now it is an old show to them and of little interest and thus they won't invest anything into it, plus the music clearance costs in the US are astronomical. [As for possible extras, like interviews, gag reels and trailers], I made contact with all the key casts agents and got no support what so ever. I did try.
Hope this answers you questions, and enjoy the rest of the series!! Season 6 release has just been posted on Amazon.