Jewels POB, Opus Arte

[whetherwax]

I have recently purchased this DVD. I am VERY disappointed. I was looking forward to my first Balanchine ballet (except for A Midsumer's Night dream, by Pacific Northwest Ballet which I love). I was keen to learn about the classical aspects of Balanchine's choreography.

The dvd seems to have bad production values, so that although one can see some of the dancing, any quick movements are blurred and lack focus. In fact the dvd causes some headache in the faster sections. It is as if they used a camera which could not record speedy movement. Some Amazon buyers have complained too. I wondered if any other Ballet Talk members had had a similarly disappointing experience?( It cost a great deal too.) Does the trust keep an eye on such things as well as policing youtube?

[James]

The same goes with me. I can't watch it without getting a headache.

[carbro]

We have a thread about POB's Jewels broadcast and dvd. The first couple of dozen posts are about the video formatting and region coding, but Helene posted the first actual review here, and you can follow the discussion about matters artistic and technological from that point.

[Andre Yew]

I discussed this on an A/V forum with the mastering engineer for the BluRay version (which has the same blurring problems as the DVD), and the motion blur is unfortunately inherent in the material given to Opus Arte. The original video was shot in a particular frame rate, and the conversion process they (whomever supplied the video material to Opus Arte) used for converting that frame rate to one suitable for our TVs introduces that blurring problem. OA does not have access to the original video, and therefore cannot correct that problem. I believe the problem has since been fixed, since the POB Swan Lake has none of these problems.

--Andre

[carbro]

Thanks, Andre. Let's hope that the Swan Lake transfer protocol, with its superior clarity, remains the standard. At least, that is, until the inevitable advances in technology.

[whetherwax]

Thank you all. A good lesson to reinforce the need to comb this site before any major decisions!! Mind you, the packaging says that the dvd is suitable for world wide viewing.

[4mrdncr]

I discussed this on an A/V forum with the mastering engineer for the BluRay version (which has the same blurring problems as the DVD), and the motion blur is unfortunately inherent in the material given to Opus Arte. The original video was shot in a particular frame rate, and the conversion process they (whomever supplied the video material to Opus Arte) used for converting that frame rate to one suitable for our TVs introduces that blurring problem. OA does not have access to the original video, and therefore cannot correct that problem. I believe the problem has since been fixed, since the POB Swan Lake has none of these problems.

--Andre

Thanks for the above confirmation of something I too encountered.

BTW: I had a similar problem converting some HD footage I shot to dvd; a bad moire was visible on portions of the dvd, but not in the original footage. (I assumed bad codec, and/or because HD doesn't appreciate missing frames when compressed to standard dvd format(s).) I also found that attention to frame rate was critical, not only for capturing the movement (with or without intended blurs), but of course for changes in stage lighting too. And if the original footage is also being converted from PAL to NTSC or whatever...

[Andre Yew]

Thank you all. A good lesson to reinforce the need to comb this site before any major decisions!! Mind you, the packaging says that the dvd is suitable for world wide viewing.

The package marking only tells you which DVD players are allowed to play the DVD --- it's a licensing thing, not a video quality thing. It's really too bad about the POB Jewels, because it's definitely a performance worth preserving.

--Andre