Geist

No, I think you are.

As a consumer, you will always be sold what you are willing to put up with. If I wanted the series in VHS quality, I'd buy them on VHS. Or even better, tape it off Noggin for free.

I have a DVD player. I want the disks I purchase to have a DVD quality image. If that can't be provided, there are plenty of other ways I can spend my money.

They can shit on a plate and tell me it's black forest cake all they want, but even if thousands of people are happy with a fork full of crap, I'd rather starve.

Lastdaysofrain

The important thing about the show is content is what I'm saying. With all the controversy of people getting shows with replaced music, cut scenes, syndication edits etc we are lucky to get the uncut versions of the shows, with some great extras.

If the image looks like it looked when it airs on TV big deal.

I think that one of the drawbacks of DVD is that you get complete image nerds who obsess about being able to show off how great things look on their HDTV. THAT is missing the point.

Great show, all the content is there, the show looks no worse than it ever has on TV. You buy the DVDs to have the show, access to the episodes, some great commentaries etc. Not so that you can see the threads on Artie's PJs.

Gizmo

So as I understand, you'd rather this not be on DVD (Because I doubt Nick is going to spend a crapload of $ on a 10-13 year old show that not too many people remember) at all because of the picture quality? Wow. Good luck finding an official VHS copy without the stupid 'Noggin' icon on the bottom of the screen.

YourOlympicHero

When the episodes aired on Noggin, they looked exactly the same (see Page 2 of this thread).

We should be lucky they released this at all - and now you're calling for the picture to be remastered.

It'll never happen - get over it.

Tarantino

Just accept that it's going to be just like it was on TV and buy the damn set. If people don't buy it, Nick won't release other classic shows.

= J

sracer

I agree, content is paramount. However, do we know for certain that the discs are uncut?

Ummm, it wouldn't be a big deal if they charged public domain prices for public domain quality. The typical PD discs are a $1 a piece. Consider this:
Nick slaps together any old junk, expending minimal effort, and then "threatens" fans by saying, "you better buy any old swill we release if you ever have hopes of getting your favorite shows on DVD."

It is this cynical approach that gets many of us upset about the quality of Pete-n-Pete.

YourOlympicHero

The DVD video is straight from the masters. They've been damaged - oh well.

I don't think the inclusion of various commentary tracks and special features reflects "minimum effort".

It's not cost-effective for them to release more Rewind Collection sets if the initial releases don't sell well.

LBPound

Well it's certainly nitpicking, but the last few seconds of the two shorts have been replaced by the new Nickelodeon logo. Where there would have been a last shot or shots, there is now just a logo. Not a huge deal, but it's a little disappointing when you can download a full version from someone who had an old tape.

Geist

I'm not calling for anything. I'm saying if they don't know we're displeased, there is no incentive to put their best effort into their releases in the future. If Viacom sells the same number of copies whether they give a project a budget of $100,000 or $10 million, which do you think they're going to choose? I know this is something of a cult release and many people feel fortunate just to have them, but that doesn't mean it isn't sending a bad message.

So whatever. If some people don't care about image quality and are just grateful to have the show on DVD, even if it's the exact way it looked on Noggin (as shown on Page 2 of this thread), good on them. For me there are too many great releases coming out that I can spend the money on instead, especially if I can set the DVR to record the episodes off Noggin and burn them to disk without missing much, apparently.

And even if you own the set and are perfectly happy with it, what harm does it do letting the Nick people know you are unsatisfied with the video quality? It's a popular cable TV show, not some obscure '60s wuxia flick.

sracer

Minimum effort is subjective. For some DVDTalk members all that is required is packing the DVD in a tyvek sleeve, anything else is just gravy. So technically, they didn't make the absolute minimum effort. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that making the special features is less costly and less time consuming than tracking down better quality masters and transferring them.


True. But even you can see the difference between putting together a quality set and slapping together any old stuff laying around.
How will they be able to determine the CAUSE for poor sales? Is it because there is no interest in the title? Or, is it because of the poor quality of the release? We've seen this before.

The release of Pete-n-Pete smacks of some corporate beancounter saying "let's put out a set as cheaply as possible to gauge demand. THEN, if it sells well, we can invest money in a proper release of later seasons."

The lack of fanfare and review copies strengthens the notion of an "on the cheap" release.

YourOlympicHero

Noggin hasn't aired "The Adventures Of Pete And Pete" in over a year.

AcidBurnz1107

ok some1 on page 2 of this thread asked what are the sales numbers like....I would like to know offical numbers from nick,but i have been doing it this way. amazon.com has a best sellers list of dvds and such. well on the dvd bestsellers list earlier today around 3pm Pete and Pete was at # 36 and Clarissa was at #598?(sry i cant read what i wrote down lol). tHIS LIST HAS MOVIES AND TVS SHOWS THAT ARE ON DVD.sry for the caps. so i think so far pete and pete is doing well

sracer

Thanks for the comparison. Looks like that's simply the way the source material is now. Oh well, looks like I WILL be buying it after all.

Lastdaysofrain

Looking at those two screen caps it looks like the DVD HAS been cleaned up over the TV airings, but as previously said it looks like the source materials are damaged.

sureAV421

keep in mind that was a VCD rip that i took the screen from.