Kultur DVDs of 1980s Vids WARNING

[Natalia]

For those of you who, like me, are slowly tranferring your VHS tapes into DVDs (either dubbing non-copyright items or purchasing commercial DVDs to replace the tapes), here's a serious warning, to save you grief and dollars:

If you really care about the quality of your collection, DO NOT give away your VHS tapes of the following programs, all of which were originally issued as tapes by Home Vision & have recently been re-issued as DVDs by Kultur, as the SHARPNESS & OVERALL IMAGE-QUALITY ON THE DVDs IS INFERIOR TO THAT OF THE TAPES:

* ABT Don Q (Harvey/Baryshnikov)

* ABT at the Met

* ABT in San Francisco (absolutely awful fuzziness, compared to the tape!)

* Romeo & Juliet, Royal Ballet (Ferri/Eagling)

* Kirov Classics (this one is a bit sharper than the above four but still not as sharp as the 1991 VHS tape, orig issued as 'Mariinsky Ballet - formerly Kirov' with Paquita on the cover)

Of course, in the case of DVDs that were created with digital imaging (recently-filmed DVDs), there is no problem. All of those DVDs are more brilliant, sharper than any VHS could ever be. The problem is with DVDs that are reissues of the mid- to late-1980s tapes.

I played selected portions of the tapes and DVDs at home, leaving no question in my mind as to the poor image of the DVDs, in comparison.

Just trying to help before you toss out some great tapes! )

Natalia

p.s. I'm tempted to post warning reviews in the sales sites (Amazon, etc.). You cannot believe the lousy quality of these DVDs, compared to the original tapes!

[chrisk217]

Natalia, I know what you mean. I recently transferred my vhs tapes, recorded mostly from tv, and the ABT Don Quixote looked better after my home transfer than as a commercial DVD (I'm talking about the region2/PAL dvd, btw)

Part of the problem must be that the ABT dvds are DVD-5s and not dual layer (DVD-9) as most commercial DVDs. I imagine they do this because it's cheaper but for dance the resulting bit rate is too low and the image quality suffers.

btw, if you scroll down to the technical info, amazon.co.uk sometimes notes if it's a dvd-5. This, usually, is an omen of a mediocre/bad transfer.

I have also thought about writing amazon reviews (mainly to warn for video editors with attention deficit disorder but also for bad transfers), but ultimately I think the performances are what matters most. However irritating the DVD, I don't want to turn people away from great performances.

[Natalia]

Thanks for these tips, chris!

Well...all I have to say is "Thank goodness that most 1980s/90s commercial videos were not coated with this 'macrovision' stuff!" Only twenty or so of my 1,000-plus videos are affected.

It's still going to take me a while before all of my videos are converted to DVD but, hey, gotta start somewhere!

NN

[Jack Reed]

May I suggest that the knowledge the two of you have about these videos both as to content and reissue quality is so valuable it really would be a good thing to post on Amazon, as Chris suggests. Why not say both parts clearly - these are great performances but the image quality is worse than VHS, or whatever - and let people decide for themselves whether to spring for the discs now as stop-gaps or wait for better transfrers. (It reminds me of the reissue problem in classical recording; I've always been a picker and chooser there.) Whatever you do, thank you for posting here about it. You've saved me some considerable anger and frustration, I'm sure, and for others too.

[shulie]

Those Kirov Classics are horrible quality. I bought two of them (Giselle, Cinderella) because they were sold really cheap around here- but I guess I got what I paid for.

Bad bad picture and sound quality, faded colors, blurry pictures, menu in Russian (!).... oh well...

[chrisk217]

Those Kirov Classics are horrible quality. I bought two of them (Giselle, Cinderella) because they were sold really cheap around here- but I guess I got what I paid for.

Bad bad picture and sound quality, faded colors, blurry pictures, menu in Russian (!).... oh well...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

shulie, I think Natalia refers to another DVD by the name of Kirov Classics. Its has Chopiniana with Assylmuratova/Pankova, Markitenka, the Paquita grand pas, the Fairy Doll pdt with Lazhnina etc. The image is good (perhaps it may be lacking only compared to the video tape which I have not seen, not perfect but not horrible either) Anyway, I felt the need to clarify this, as it has really great performances.

Can you tell us more about the DVDs you bought? I assume Cinderella was with Komleva.

[Natalia]

The set to which Shulie refers (I think) is the same red-and-black-cover group to which RG referred in another thread as being of rather poor quality. It's the set that includes the Kirov Sergeyev 'Cinderella' starring Komleva, among other titles.

chrisk217 is right - the 'Kirov Classics' with the acceptable (somewhat sharp) resolution is the performance that includes a slew of ballets, including Assylmuratova in 'Chopiniana,' Makhalina in 'Paquita,' Vinogradov's version of 'Petrushka,' etc, etc.

Glad that this was of help, Jack. I wrote a short review for Amazon.com.

[shulie]

Exactly, natalia! That is it!

It is the DVD which is being marketed off as "Bolshoi" but it in fact is a Kirov production with Gabriella Komleva.