Dead Talk Glitches

Glitches in Rhino's "Dead Talk Back" disc

Rhino's copy of the "Dead Talk Back" is rife with glitches - They are frequent, distracted from my enjoyment of the episode and are not seen on my home made copy. Rhino has informed us that these came from the master tape and they tried to clean it up as best they could. But frankly, they are not going to invest a lot into that restoration (and cut out their own profits) and I can understand that. Never the less, their silence on this as the set was released, and their slow response to fan letters (plus, there was no mention on efforts to locate a better looking master) shows a lack of professionalism and basic consideration for those who've shelled out their hard earned money.
��Here's a comparison between a frame in Rhino's and my home copy. This happens during Kraskers first monologue. Yes, it's only a frame, yet it offers a glaring example of the quality of the DVD.

Here are a few more moments from this scene (these were posted at the MST3K Message Board). As you can see, this goes beyond the normal bad looking film and cuts right into the shadowrama as well.

And that's not the end of it: It continues on like this - when the murdered woman is getting ready to go out; during a conversation with the photog's receptionist; as the cops speak after the big chase and even MST's end credits are scarred with these glitches. You might ask, if this is a matter of disintegration of the master tape, what can Rhino or the BBI do about it. Is it really their fault?

��I've read where companies and producers will scour the archives looking for decent copies of their shows. If the producer doesn't have one, they'll go to the network. They'll splice in better footage if need be to provide the best picture and extras for your buck. (Alan Spencer "Sledge Hammer" even went to the fans to see if any had decent copies of a commercial he wanted to add as an extra). And when they exhaust these avenues and still come up empty, they inform the public Before they buy the set!� With a recent SCTV release, fans knew the difficulty in acquiring the rights to a skit which included Led Zepplin music - and were informed that the rights would not be granted and the skit would be lost. We knew, right up front.
��Not every company puts forth this kind of effort, but they should. And we fans should call them on it when they fail to do so and attempt to sell us something of low quality. We earned that right the moment we opened our wallets and they took what was inside.
��Oh for a company with integrity and work ethic. Oh that we had an active creator like Alan Spencer from Sledge Hammer who was heavily involved with the production and quality of his shows DVDs. Or that our show received the same time and effort that was put into producing the SCTV sets. I am jealous after watching the low rated "Wonderfalls" release and seeing the obvious loving attention given to the set. Each episode looked pristine and each disc was packed with extras with no loss in picture integrity (about 200 minutes per disc) - how is it that Rhino can't fit 92 minutes on a single disc with the same clarity?
��Pop in Rhino's "Merlin" DVD - watch that scene when the thief runs from the shop and note the pixilation, matted blacks, loss of spacial definition and the general dark picture which obscures the shadowrama (and watching those seats can be half the fun as witnessed when Crow tries to bite the tether Van Patten walks on in "Master Ninja", or the joy in noticing that Mike is doubled over with laughter during the grocer scene in "Brute Man")
��I hold the BBI and Rhino accountable - The loss of a riff in the Home Ec short, the darkness issues with Merlin and Time Chasers, the Killer Shrew-up and of course, the loss of the Stinger for the Atomic Brain. The garbage is piling up and it's time to make a greater effort towards quality control and keeping the fans informed when problems arise. That would go along way towards restoring confidence in the company in my book.

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