Dallas To Get Remastered In HD

[Mustard]

I was always under the impression that they changed back to film editing by the episode "When the fat lady singeth", when Linda Gray left.

"The Fat Lady Singeth" is the episode when Nicholas goes over the balcony (Season 11 DVD finale). Linda Gray left in the Season 12 DVD finale, the episode called "Reel Life".

 

[Garry]

I was always under the impression that they changed back to film editing by the episode "When the fat lady singeth", when Linda Gray left.
Because that last episode of that season looked sooo much better than the ones before and that better quality then remained throughout the last 2 seasons.

That episode was indeed edited in the original 35mm process. Digital technology was advancing by the following season so those episodes were edited digitally hence the improvement in quality.

With the last season i always had a problem, because the colors looked really strange, as if it was recorded in black and white and then later artificially colored. It looked a litte off and unnatural to me, especially the faces were kind of brownish sometimes.

Were you watching the Region 1 or Region 2 DVD's?

 

[Mustard]

That episode was indeed edited in the original 35mm process. Digital technology was advancing by the following season so those episodes were edited digitally hence the improvement in quality.

Were you watching the Region 1 or Region 2 DVD's?

So Seasons 1-9 and 14 DVD were edited in the lab? Season 10 DVD was edited down to video on a new computerized process. And Seasons 11-13 DVD used a new digital process in the editing? Is that right?

 

[Garry]

It sounds like, perhaps, those film pieces may have been preserved, which is how they can now make (hopefully) pristine prints of S10 thru S13, but @garry can probably explain that detail.

They retained most of all the original film elements. However you'll notice when watching that some very brief shots are upscaled from the duplicate masters. This is because of excessive print damage or missing film elements.

So Seasons 1-9 and 14 DVD were edited in the lab? Season 10 DVD was edited down to video on a new computerized process. And Seasons 11-13 DVD used a new digital process in the editing? Is that right?

Seasons 1-9 and 14 were all edited on 35mm. Seasons 10-12 were edited electronically from 35mm on to video master. 13 was edited in a higher quality digital process.

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

Were you watching the Region 1 or Region 2 DVD's?

I was actually refering to the episodes i recorded from german TV at the time, so a PAL version.

"The Fat Lady Singeth" is the episode when Nicholas goes over the balcony (Season 11 DVD finale). Linda Gray left in the Season 12 DVD finale, the episode called "Reel Life".

Yes, sorry, mixed the titles up!

 

[Chris2]

In fairness to Katzman and Lorimar, by the late 80s, most US filmed TV shows were being edited on video (though the Lorimar shows edited on video looked worse than their peers from other studios). The TV series ”Fame” pioneered this method in the early 80s as a way to save money when the show moved from NBC to first-run syndication. But everyone else quickly got on the bandwagon. It was short sighted, because it made it so much more expensive to upgrade those episodes to HD later on. They have to go back to the original film elements and reconstruct the episodes, unlike the shows edited on film, where they can just rescan the final print.

Paramount had to go through all kinds of expense to reconstruct the later episodes of Cheers (the earlier seasons were edited on film) and all episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” The latter had disappointing sales on Blu Ray, so Paramount hasn’t shelled out to upgrade the other 1990s Star Trek series, which can only been seen in SD.

”Murder She Wrote” was a holdout, and was the last US series to be edited on film in 1996.

 

[Garry]

J.R. Wants Gary's Voting Shares.

 

[Rove]

J.R. Wants Gary's Voting Shares.

The colours in this clip are amazing. Everything is enhanced. The timber furnishings and wall panelling is deep and rich. It's how I've always envisaged Southfork to be displayed....including the porcelain dogs in the display cabinet.

Yes, for me it will be somethin like seeing it for the first time again. Even the seasons after that, while the storylines are getting worse and worse, it will still be awesome to be able to enjoy them in that gorgeous quality like never before, can't wait!

I agree with you @Matthew Blaisdel . Regardless the depreciation of quality in those latter seasons of Dallas I'm looking forward to re-visiting it. As my personal DVD collection of Dallas finishes at 'Swan Song' it's like I'll be watching it for the very first time.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

I was actually refering to the episodes i recorded from german TV at the time, so a PAL version.

German TV!

Well whatever you do don't mention the war. I mentioned it earlier but I think I got away with it!

 

[Brian Kinney]

German TV!

Well whatever you do don't mention the war. I mentioned it earlier but I think I got away with it!

Why should we mention it? You let Thatcher deindustrialize the country, went into self-destruction with the Brexit disaster and have a clown as prime minister. Really, why should we mention the war? We're busy selling our cars to you and now it's "don't mention the monarchy" which I didn't...

Regardless the depreciation of quality in those latter seasons of Dallas I'm looking forward to re-visiting it.

Same here. I've never rewatched the latter seasons (S10-14) and missed a lot of episodes when they originally aired on TV.

 

[Seaviewer]

I still have such a TV in my bedroom. 4:3 footage on DVD fits perfectly.

So what you're saying is that DVDs are actually made for 4:3 TVs? That explains a lot. I hope that future TVs retain the ability to change the display format when it inevitably becomes necessary to upgrade. (I recently had to replace a perfectly good TV because many of the channels were converting to MPEG-4 sound. )

 

[bmasters9]

Here are the end titles from the final episode, in the apparent raw look before it was edited onto tape.

 

[Toni]

J.R. Wants Gary's Voting Shares.

I didn´t know the Ewing brothers´ eyes were so beautifully blue!!!

:love7:

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

Here are the end titles from the final episode, in the apparent raw look before it was edited onto tape.

How strange that they used the end music of the penultimate season for this.

 

[bmasters9]

How strange that they used the end music of the penultimate season for this.

Indeed, since on other final-season episodes, there was a final-season end-title track (IIRC).

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

How strange that they used the end music of the penultimate season for this.

They didn't. It certainly sounds as if it's from the previous season but it's actually a special one off version of the closing theme.

 

[TJP]

One (for me) very important question: do the remasters by any chance include the recaps before the opening credits? Cause i LOVE recaps!!!

The German version for streaming purposes does not contain recaps / teasers that remained un-dubbed for the original airing in Germany. The German edition, as you can see on RTL+, also edited out what had originally been edited in Germany due to the missing German audio.
This will most likely be different in the Blu-ray release as Warners usually keep the full episodes and switch to the original English audio plus subtitles whenever the selected language (audio) is not available.

All presentations in English language should be complete as far as I can tell since they digitized everything from the answer print and not a later print generation.
The worst thing that could have happened (but I haven't seen such scenes so far) might be that some elements were not available due to irreparable damage of the answer print. In that case, WB usually digs out the next generation of prints and scans these. The usually don't resort to the original picture negative for preservation aspects; they would only use the OPNs in case any other source was corrupted.

 

[Mustard]

So what you're saying is that DVDs are actually made for 4:3 TVs?

DVD can be used for any aspect ratio. What aspect ratio you watch something in depends on what the programme or film was made in initially. Films tend to be widescreen. If the programme was made in 4:3 originally, then yes, they should be watched in 4:3, otherwise you are stretching the picture. DVDs can do 16:9 and widescreen as well as 4:3, widescreen being done by using some slight letterboxing (i.e. small black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, to ensure that all the width fits on the screen). In the old days of VHS and more out and out 4:3 frames, films on VHS tended to either be full screen (thus missing a lot of the width), or they would be really letterboxed (i.e. huge black bars at the top and bottom of the screen in order to fit all the width on the screen, to the point where the actual film looked shaped like a letterbox rectangle on the screen).

With Blu-ray, the footage must be 16:9 at minimum, so putting 4:3 on Blu-ray necessitates pillarboxing on the footage itself in order to stretch it to 16:9. With DVD, 4:3 footage is full screen on a 4:3 TV (using 4:3 frame), and 16:9 footage is full screen on a 4:3 TV (using a 16:9 frame). Films on DVD will use widescreen on a 16:9 frame, and put small black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. On bigger TVs, you set the aspect ratio settings to 4:3 for 4:3 footage, and it obviously won't be full screen on a bigger TV.

 

[Garry]

Drama at the Ewing Barbecue.

 

[the-lost-son]

The whole HD remastering really is a fountain of youth for this groundbreaking series. These clips are marvelous, thanks for the frequent updates @garry

I personally never had any major issues with the picture quality during Dallas' first 8 years.
But I'm looking forward for season 9 (DVD10). The poor picture quality really spoiled the whole concept of a series about millionaires back then. It felt like being recorded with a camcorder in 1987. I know it was standard practice at that time. But I'd like to make a difference between a sitcom and a wealthy family saga. Dallas deserves and needs a decent picture quality.

So I'm thrilled already waiting for the first HD remastered look on Season 9 (DVD10).

What thrilling times... I never thought I'd see the day.