I received two copies of THE MAGICIAN from the Warner Archive, one for me and one for a mate, and both copies appear to suffer from weird combing and motion-blurring artifacts. I tried them on my Samsung Blu-ray player with LCD, and also on a plain vanilla DVD player on a CRT, and they play funky on both setups. I've seen a copy of the TCM broadcast, and it plays just fine, so it ain't the telecine, it's gotta be the authoring of the DVD files. Something went wrong in the settings somewhere. I also got OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS and OUR MODERN MAIDENS, and they play just fine, thank god.
Changing the progressive setting on the DVD player doesn't help; it plays messed up no matter the setting. If you play it at 1/8th slow-mo speed, every few frames it does the chow-chow-chow, like the cats in the old commercials, back a frame and forward again. It is not my setup that is causing the problem; the authoring of this DVD is defective.
Don Freed at the Home Theater Forum has noticed this problem as well, and apparently more titles are affected than just THE MAGICIAN:
"I have a question about the new WAC DVDs of Prisoner of Zenda (1922) and The Magician. On both of these discs, whenever anything moves horizontally in the frame, there is a very definite video stutter about twice a second. It sort of looks like a freeze frame and is constant throughout the discs. Prisoner of Zenda is worse than The Magician. I have viewed both discs on a variety of players and HDTVs, so I doubt if the issue is the playback equipment. Anyone else seeing this problem? Thanks."
"Mike*HTF" on the same thread says BEAU BRUMMELL is likewise affected, and that the WA didn't respond to his emails about the problem.
Bethany Harrison on the same thread said:
"To me it sounds like the discs were telecined to an interlaced format, but have now been de-interlaced without removing the pulldown."
But there may be hope...
I sent the following email to the WAC two days ago:
"To whom it may concern:
Several of your silent films appear to have been defectively authored. The offending titles that have turned up so far:
THE MAGICIAN
THE PRISONER OF ZENDA
BEAU BRUMMELL
I can attest to the problem with THE MAGICIAN, as I ordered two copies from you. Both copies suffer from strange combing/motion-blurring artifacts when run at normal speed. When played at 1/8th normal speed you can see the source of the problem: every few frames the picture goes backward a frame and then forward again, and weird lines are apparent. The TCM broadcast of THE MAGICIAN played just fine, and I believe the same telecine was used for the Warner Archive release, so the problem must have been caused during the DVD authoring process.
Other posters on the Warner Archive discussion thread at the Home Theater Forum have noticed problems with THE MAGICIAN and also the other two titles listed above. We have tried these titles on multiple setups using different DVD players and televisions. Getting a replacement copy of any of these isn't going to solve the problem; these titles will need to be checked and re-authored, as they are definitely defective. I urge you to find out what the problem is and nip it in the bud before any future silent film releases are affected; the fans are the ones spending their hard-earned cash for these long-awaited treasures, and they deserve product that isn't defective. The word will be spread on various forums about these defective titles in hopes that notice will be taken and the titles will be fixed. I will be sending a separate email requesting to return the defective copies of THE MAGICIAN.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey Nelson"
And received the following reply today:
"Hi Jeffrey,
Thank you for your input. I have escalated your issue to my supervisor. She can follow up with the proper department within Warner Bros.
If you have any other questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us again.
Regards,
Rainell"
And in response to my separate refund request, I got:
"Hello Jeffrey,
Thank you for your recent order.
Please accept my apology for the defective DVD's The Magician you received on both orders. I have requested a credit $29.92 plus tax. You should see that in your account or on your statement in 5 to 7 days.
I have forwarded this matter up to Corporate to look into this defective DVD. I have also let them know that you would like to buy this DVD in the future once they have fixed it.
Please accept my apology for the inconvenience that this may have cause you.
If you have any other questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us again.
Regards,
Tracy"
I must say that's a bit more encouraging of a response than I anticipated. Hopefully the WB will make good.
I'd highly advise anyone considering the purchase of these three titles to wait until they've been fixed.
