1991 Series To Be Released On DVD

This review gives the dvd release a grade of B. Wonder how some people here might feel about that rating.lol
On a side note, the Best Buy in my area ordered 8 copies which I believe is pretty good number since they only carry one copy of each of the MPI releases. Of course they stated that the store has yet to receive them and in fact it has yet been sent to their warehouses. Go MGM.

http://www.eclipsemagazine.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1535&page=3

The B seems as if it was awarded to the series itself rather than the DVD set. Unfortunately there are no references whatsoever to the technical credits. 

On a side note, the Best Buy in my area ordered 8 copies which I believe is pretty good number since they only carry one copy of each of the MPI releases. Of course they stated that the store has yet to receive them and in fact it has yet been sent to their warehouses. Go MGM.

My Best Buy ordered only 1, but now it's MINE.  

The B seems as if it was awarded to the series itself rather than the DVD set. Unfortunately there are no references whatsoever to the technical credits. 

You mean MGM did not send advanced screeners to the critics? lol Now that would have blown me away.

Midnite I am very envious. Good for you. Anxious to see what grade you will assign. lol

I just received my set yesterday.  I have never seen the revival series, I'm not sure why because I absolutely loved the original and I believe at least the curiosity factor would have gotten me to tune in but I did not.  That said, I'm now curious and have read several of the posts on this thread although not all.  I believe it's been said that the DVD is in widescreen, which I know to be the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.  Mine is not, at least not the first episode which I am not completely through yet.  It must be a two hour pilot because I'm at 55 minutes and it hasn't gone to the second episode yet.  I'm no expert in proportions of screens but it seems to be of good quality.  I'm just interested in seeing the same characters (and some new ones) portrayed by different actors.  Also, they had the introduction of Barnabas in the first half hour where of course in the original he doesn't appear for almost 10 months.  If anyone is interested I can give an update on the quality of the DVD's in future episodes but the picture quality seems very good at least to this untrained eye.

Murph

The opening credits on the regular series episodes are windowboxed at 1.33. If the rest of the episodes and the pilot are not showing up widescreen on your TV, then it means your player is setup incorrectly.

Go to the setup menu somewhere and change your output to 4:3 Letterboxed and that will fix it.

Your DVD player is set to 16x9 TV mode, and I assume you have a standard TV, not a widescreen set. What's happening is all widescreen shows are being stretched to fill the 4x3 set, which makes everything look tall and elongated. Once you've got it set to 4x3 mode, the black bars will appear and the image won't look distorted any longer.

Here's a couple review links- DVD Talk and Amazon user feedback.

DVD Talk: Dark Shadows The Revival - The Complete Series

Scroll down to the bottom for the user reviews.
Aamazon: Dark Shadows The Revival - The Complete Series

Thanks Darren,

I'll do what you suggest.  What I don't understand is I have other DVD's that are widescreen and they are shown with the bars at the top and bottom of my screen.  That is unless I haven't watched a widescreen in over a year since I've had the player.  I do remember watching several movies widescreen on my DVD player, maybe it wasn't this one.  I'll have to check it out.

Thanks again,

Murph

Movies that are 'scope' or 2.35 would show up with black bars, even if your player was set incorrectly, (ie: any of the widescreen versions of the Lord of the Rings, Star Wars films, or any John Carpenter film), but anything with a 'matted' or 1.85/1.78 ratio (ie: Goodfellas, Godfather, any Cronenberg film) would not show any bars. Regardless, everything would be stretched and distorted.

I recently found my in-laws had their settings incorrectly set this way during a visit, and happily fixed it for them.

My copy arrived today. Will probably be next week before I get a chance to have a look at it, though.

Here is a not so kind review of the dvd.
DARK SHADOWS: THE REVIVAL DVD REVIEW

FYI
A reference to the dvd release and DS fan base.

http://jam.canoe.ca/Video/2005/10/14/1262211.html

I've watched part of the first disc, and while I will admit that I'm enjoying seeing the episodes again (I'm finding all kinds of things I appreciate more than I did during the last viewing, several years ago, not to mention more things to groan about), I'm thoroughly nonplused, not just by the artifical widescreen but by the poor video transfer quality. The picture resolution is no better than broadcast TV, and on my set you can tell a -big- difference between broadcast and your typical DVD image. It's murky and the colors are a bit washed out. I don't have any particular issues with the sound, as one of the reviewers did, but the substandard video is a boot to the head to unsuspecting buyers.

To rub salt in the wounds, during the opening credits of the regular episodes, the image goes to its proper aspect ratio -- but shrunk down, apparently for the "benefit" of those with widescreen TVs.

When you put in a DVD, it gives you two options: A) play all episodes or B) show individual episodes. That's it. Period.

I've got bootlegs with better picture quality and more options.

The best thing I can say about the release so far is that I've fallen in love with Joanna Going all over again. And I'm not so sure the missus would necessarily consider that anything to holler about.

I'm thoroughly nonplused, not just by the artifical widescreen but by the poor video transfer quality. The picture resolution is no better than broadcast TV, and on my set you can tell a -big- difference between broadcast and your typical DVD image. It's murky and the colors are a bit washed out. I don't have any particular issues with the sound, as one of the reviewers did, but the substandard video is a boot to the head to unsuspecting buyers.

What!? You mean MGM didn't digitally remaster each episode? I'm shocked! SHOCKED I tell you!!! You know, after reading your assessment of the picture quality and that of the review in one of the above links, I think I have an answer to the question "Why did MGM create a fake Widescreen print?". They must've seen how murky and grainy the picture was and thought "well, we're not gonna spend a dime cleaning it up so let's chop off 25% of the picture and that'll mean less murkiness and grainyness to look at. Problem solved." Genius! MGM can officially kiss my ass.

The best thing I can say about the release so far is that I've fallen in love with Joanna Going all over again.

Amen to that, brother! She's magnificent! I'm in the process of re-watching the series as well. Not off the worthless MGM DVDs (you couldn't pay me to watch those), but off of MPI's infinitely superior releases. Bravo to MPI for their fantastic tapes. I was very impressed with them when they originally released their "expanded special edition" versions and appreciate them even more now in light of MGM's sorry excuse for a DVD release.

Dan

What!? You mean MGM didn't digitally remaster each episode? I'm shocked! SHOCKED I tell you!!! You know, after reading your assessment of the picture quality and that of the review in one of the above links, I think I have an answer to the question "Why did MGM create a fake Widescreen print?". They must've seen how murky and grainy the picture was and thought "well, we're not gonna spend a dime cleaning it up so let's chop off 25% of the picture and that'll mean less murkiness and grainyness to look at. Problem solved." Genius! MGM can officially kiss my ass.

Actually, while the image may look grainy and murky, these were remastered in HD only a couple of years ago. It certainly looks like MGM didn't do any digital dirt removal or DVNR.

In truth, this is a problematic TV series for DVD. It's a really ugly looking series- all grain, muddy colors, smoke everywhere and almost no sharp surfaces. Its really a reflection on Curtis' visual style from the mid 80's onwards. There's so much diffusion and an extreme opaqueness to the imagery that there's not much detail and sharpness to the photography to begin with, and the low lighting and film stocks make the grain larger and unpleasant to the eye. To really evalute the clarity in this regard, the best judge is tight or medium closeups where facials details should be much more pleasing. TBH a genii couldn't make the 91 series look bright, colorful or sharp...

While you're joking, actually if MGM wanted to hide the grain and dirt of the image, it would have been best to release it in standard 1.33 TV shape or 1.78 without the anamorphic enhancement. When shown in the current format on a widescreen set, it will fill the screen and will reveal all the detail (if any) recorded on the dvd. A 4x3 set throws out about 1/3 of the image data on Anamorphic Widescreen (ie:16x9) discs.