New FRIDAY THE 13TH Cropping Issues

[Rakesh R.]

I was enjoying viewing the new uncut dvd version of "Friday the 13th" today. I thought the details and colors were really beautiful and was curious what other dvd sites thought about it. Well, I came across this review and was shocked to find out how much of the composition was cropped and compromised. I mean the zooming in this new version is just awful. Check out this review UGHH...-

http://www.horrordvds.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=734

[mark t]

Hmmmm....guess I won't be picking this up after all. it would be nice if Paramount could pay attention to all of the details for once....

[Scott Ruhl]

Hey at least you get the extra 2-seconds of fake gore, that's what it's all about right?

[mark t]

It would be, if i didn't already have the uncut DVD. I was looking forward to getting the BD disc because it looked so pretty.

[Jordan D]

well shit!
what a huge disappointment this is.
i picked it up during lunch and was looking forward to watching it tonight.
might be taking it back now since two seconds of additional gore isnt all that important.

[GregMolinaro]

Why exactly are the blacks (of the Blu Ray transfer) grey?

[Marshall Crist]

So, which foreign disc of this title should I buy instead?

[Troy Howarth]

It could be because I don't know the film so well - haven't seen it in years - or because I'm not a huge fan of it... but I gotta be honest and say, based on those frame grabs, it doesn't look like that much image loss to me. Yes, it's regrettable - but when people all of a sudden do an about face and say the restored footage isn't worth the fuss in light of a flawed transfer... I don't get it. People have been clamoring for these added seconds for years. They've been restored. Yes, Paramount f'ed up the transfer as far as framing is concerned, *but* you get an obviously superior picture quality (the blacks look black to me - perhaps the grabs don't read so well on some monitors?) and the elusive cut footage. It may not be perfect, but I guess I just don't understand why the restored footage is suddenly not so important.

[Don May Jr]

Originally Posted by GregMolinaro

Why exactly are the blacks (of the Blu Ray transfer) grey?

That's exactly what I was thinking. I don't have the Blu disc yet to watch it myself, but it sure doesn't look right. I wish I knew where these transfers were done... I'd call them and find out what happened.

[mark t]

Originally Posted by Troy Howarth

It could be because I don't know the film so well - haven't seen it in years - or because I'm not a huge fan of it... but I gotta be honest and say, based on those frame grabs, it doesn't look like that much image loss to me. Yes, it's regrettable - but when people all of a sudden do an about face and say the restored footage isn't worth the fuss in light of a flawed transfer... I don't get it. People have been clamoring for these added seconds for years. They've been restored. Yes, Paramount f'ed up the transfer as far as framing is concerned, *but* you get an obviously superior picture quality (the blacks look black to me - perhaps the grabs don't read so well on some monitors?) and the elusive cut footage. It may not be perfect, but I guess I just don't understand why the restored footage is suddenly not so important.

Well, when you've got the uncut DVD already, but you were hoping for a good HD transfer, and it's cropped that much, it becomes an issue. For me, anyway. I don't think that i'm too much of a snob when it comes to these things, but i don't see upgrading to the BD disc for a flawed transfer. If i didn't already have it, i might think differently.

[John Lyons]

Disregard my last post. The cropping sucks.

[Ryan Clark]

It's a damn shame Paramount fucked up the transfer. I'll probably still buy it eventually (mostly for the new extras), but this certainly makes me less excited about it.

[Matthew Cleary]

Definitely holding off on this one, unfortunately. It sucks because the quality is definitely there, but I guess that's all you can do.

The new DVDs are cheap enough to warrant grabbing them until I upgrade to a Blu-Ray player (if that ever happens) and there's a big difference over the box set versions, but with the zooming on the first one? Lame.

[Ray Kanne]

Not only is the film cropped the contrast seems to be set way too high as well. The review goes on about how much information you now see, like a window in the background and other useless tidbits but fails to adress that while the image is indeed brighter it's way too bright as all the blacks are now light grey. Not even regular grey but light grey. What a crappy job by Paramount. I'll be sticking with the superior Warner R2 disc for now.

[cworkman]

Speaking from the point of view of someone with a Blu-ray player and a large HD TV on which to watch the discs, there appears to be something wrong with the BD transfer in those screen grabs. While there is more detail in a couple of them, many appear to be dull and faded compared to even the 1999 release! I like my BDs sharp; not dull and inappropriately cropped.