Amadeus has long been one of my favorite films of all time. Thus, when I found it on sale at Best Buy for only $10, I snapped it up. Much to my dismay when I popped it in my DVD player, I found the quality of the transfer to be so bad that it might as well have been a VHS video I was watching.

Does anyone have any idea why this DVD is so crappy? I suppose it may have been from the early days -- in which case, I hope Orion (are they even still in business?) is planning a re-release.

You must be watching a different Amadeus DVD than I own. While hardly reference quality compared to today's releases, Amadeus features a fairly good anamorphic image transfer with realistic colors, solid detail, and good shadow delineation. Factor in the age of this print, 16 years, and you have a pretty nice DVD (although some are still bothered by the "flipper" consideration).

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"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -H. L. Mencken

Amadeus was one of the early titles, hence it is a flipper, but I have never heard anyone complain about the video quality before. Maybe you need to calibrate your tv's video aspects?

Thanks for your comments, I'll take a more critical look at it. But I have a DVD containing some original "Star Trek" TV episodes, and they look much better than "Amadeus" -- and the print is obviously much older.

I'm not a true DVD-phile, and thus I don't know what you mean by "flipper" factor. Could you elaborate?

Strick-

A "flipper" disc is one where the movie is split between both sides of the disc. About halfway through Amadeus, you have to turn to disc over to watch the other half of the film.

Many of the early DVD titles, like laserdiscs, were flippers. Many of them have since been re-released (such as Se7en) in a better format but some, like Goodfellas and Amadeus have not.

Personally, having to get up and flip a long film like Amadeus or Das Boot has never bothered me as I invariably have to take a leak by then anyway. http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/smile.gif

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"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -H. L. Mencken

While I don't own Amadeus, I have seen it on DVD as one of my friends owns it. Although it may not be reference quality, the video by no means is as bad as you make it out to be. IT is very good.

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"The earth does not belong to people; people belong to the earth. Everything that happens to the earth happens also to the sons and daughters of the earth." -Chief Seattle.

What kind of DVD player do you have, because I have heard that some players give a bad picture back. In addition, do you use the S-VHS input for picture, or do you have a digital transfer. If not, then this can be your problem as well. Because I have excellent picture on my Amadeus.

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"A word is dead when it is said, some say; I say it just begins to live that day."

I would agree with other posters. Not reference quality, but very good nonetheless.

I don't mind flippers either. Never understood people who say "don't buy this it's a flipper!" You have to get up sometime(s) anyway. http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/smile.gif

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by eXcentris:
I don't mind flippers either. Never understood people who say "don't buy this it's a flipper!" You have to get up sometime(s) anyway. http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/smile.gif</font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I think it boils down to the fact that most of the "flippers" are from the very early days of DVD, and as such contain mediocre non-anamorphic transfers as well as little in the way of extras. Amadeus, with its above-average image and decent array of extras, is an exception to that rule.


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"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -H. L. Mencken