I checked mine last night and it played fine.

I've got the pixellation issue too. I'm wondering if Sony is using their ARccOS protection on the DVD, that can cause some problems on some players. I can't check the DVD myself right now, but I do know the ARccOS protection can really mess with the DVD structure, have unreadable sectors and whatnot.

Mine played fine as well. Overall a pretty decent package IMo. The video was at times way to dark but everything else on the set was well done.

I watched mine today and did not see any problem with the video at all! Guess I can dump my superbit version now.

And there's another one...

I'm wondering if the people who are saying they watched it and it was fine have actually looked specifically at the start of Chpt. 19 (for example) at the close-up of the book to see if the image gets pixelated. If you haven't specifically checked that spot, it would be great if you could do so just to verify. Thanks!

There's too many people with this issue for it not to actually be an issue, to at least some degree...

(Please note: I tried it on three different dvd players -- the same issue on all of them.)

Maybe the pixelation was present on the answer print.

If you have to "specifically" watch closely at that part, why does it even matter? I watched mine and I didn't notice anything wrong with it, but I also wasn't looking for anything.

It's not just at that part -- it's on the majority of the chapters. Perhaps different people's eyes work differently when it comes to noticing it, but I can *easily* see the issue when watching normally (as can others who have posted here). I wasn't looking for it when I first watched the movie, yet saw it.

Perhaps, for some reason, it's not noticeable to your eye -- but if it is on your disc regardless, then that is one more step closer to finding out if it is an issue on all pressings or just some. Perhaps you are okay with having a defective disc, but the issue is highly noticeable to me (and others), and I'd like to have a disc that doesn't look like that. If it's definitely not on your disc, then that's also a clue as to what's going on.

Disc replacement program, anyone?

I only checked out Chapter 19, but the pixilation was visible on my TV.

rotfl

pixellation is there, and not just at the start of chapter 19. It lasts less than a second though.

I'm going to make a backup copy to see if its the disc or the encoding.

well, i was one that said i didn't notice anything the first time through. let me categorically deny that i wasn't wrong. which is to say i was wrong and put it back in and noticed pixellation on chap. 19 and every chapter thereafter.

oh well, it doesn't bother me if i didn't even notice it, but it is stupid to have it.

backup has it too, so it's an encoding issue not a disc issue.

If that's the case, it would seem likely that it is on all DVDs and not only some.

Which makes me not wanting to trust any reviews anymore, it's really odd that reviews don't mention it (DVD Talk review even calls the DVD "utterly free of glitches"). Just as with the Jungle Book lines-artifacts issue.

I'm glad I checked this thread again. I was about to take mine back to the store (and this would have been a nightmare to explain to them). If its an encoding issue, then I guess were stuck with it. Unless there's a disc replacement program. Anybody hear anything about a replacement program?

How about some screen caps of these bad dvds so we can compare with the Superbit?

Are you for real? Haven't you seen enough in the preceding pages?

Anyway, I rented this piece of caca and there doesn't seem to be any pixilation issue on my copy at the start of Chapter 19. I am watching on a rather high-end Denon player in progressive mode and my TV is a rear-projection model that resists many artifacts. I don't know if that makes a difference.

But I was absolutely flabberghasted at the sight of the first image in Chapter 17 (a view of Dracula's Castle). It is so dark it only becomes half-visible in Torch Mode and really visible in its entirety by upping the brightness and contrast controls to the maximum. When I compare to the finely graded and detailed picture on the Superbit, I could kill!

At first, I thought that this screen shot by Davy Mack was exaggerated but it's actually flattering:

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/1025/img2457ps4.jpg

I perused just about every chapter and I will not watch the film in its entirety. It is just too heartbreaking. My absolute favourite special effect - Harker's coach going down a hill in profile under a beautiful starlit sky (at 9:43) - has been totally obnubilated by darkness and only shows a streak of indigo sky sandwiched between two layers of black molasses. The greenish light where it shouldn't be is sickening in the brides' chamber. The total wilting of Lucy's magnificent garden and the disappearance of the subtle pastel shades of the dresses are just depressing. The crypt scene where moonlight has been replaced by what can only be described as "black light" makes Lucy's wedding dress look like burned toast - as if she hasn't suffered enough...

It's just a total misfire all down the line. I will only watch the extras from now on. This transfer reeks. It's evil... EVIL!

Well, I guess it's good to see at least that just about everyone has the issue on their disc (even those who said they didn't, but then saw it when they checked). (Good in the sense that maybe it'll make getting the studio to replace the disc easier...?) Makes me think all the discs must have it.

I guess it's not a surprise that it hasn't shown up in the reviews, since nobody noticed the issue until after I posted about it and asked people to check their discs. (Although, I'm not sure how close reviewers are supposed to examine dvds, but I guess none noticed it at least the first time they watched it? Maybe some reviewers will add the issue to their review now...)

Here's hoping someone can notify the studio and they can do a disc replacement, as it's certainly a real issue -- and I don't think it's crazy to feel that it's not an acceptable flaw. I'd like to have a new SE disc of the movie that doesn't get pixelated at the start of every chapter.

OK--these were taken from PowerDVD on its original video setting:
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/PDVD_000.jpg

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/PDVD_001.jpg

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/PDVD_003.jpg

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/PDVD_004.jpg

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/PDVD_005.jpg

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/PDVD_007.jpg

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/PDVD_008.jpg

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/PDVD_009.jpg

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/PDVD_010.jpg

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/PDVD_011.jpg

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/PDVD_015.jpg

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/PDVD_016.jpg

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/PDVD_018.jpg

But even these might not be all that accurate, depending on what you're using: I'm looking at these caps on an CRT monitor, and they look excessively dark. When I look at them on a widescreen LCD monitor, they look much more vivid and closer to what it looked like in PowerDVD. Judge for yourself.

And thanks RD1973 about the easter eggs; probably would have never found them if I didn't read about it--some neat stuff there. I really wish they had expanded the featurettes and bonus features; I could watch hours of that behind-the-scenes footage (especially the effects work).

Thank you so much for those screen caps, Green Vulture.

BTW, this is what my favourite scene looks like on the new DVD. It used to be a lighted coach going down a hill in front of a beautiful starlit sky, whose every single star looked like a bright, shiny diamond:

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/PDVD_003.jpg

Thanks! When I heard they were putting out this dvd with extras I wanted to sell my Superbit so I could buy this one. Lucky I waited, because I won't want this new dvd free.
I bought the new UP IN SMOKE and that transfer was improved and I also bought BUGSY and that transfer was not improved so I felt duped. From now on I'm waiting before I double dip.

Always, always a good idea.

That shot from the new transfer does not look at all like that when I view it. The stars are very clearly there. Overall, I think this new transfer looks great. However, I am watching on a 50" plasma TV, so maybe that has something to do with it. Also, I do have a problem with the actual changes that were made to some colors (the mist-Dracula is now green, for instance). Still, I greatly prefer this DVD to the original that I bought years ago (the horrible bare-bones release, not the Superbit).

The mist-Dracula has ALWAYS been green. This is one thing they DIDN'T change. And I can get the stars to appear too but only by sacrificing the colour saturation and turning the original vivid blue into blue-grey.

Actually, the only scene in the new transfer I find acceptable and even lustrous is the scene of Lucy in bed surrounded by her suitors and trying to bite Quincy in the neck. Miraculously, that scene has some shadow detail that is lacking everywhere else in the transfer.