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Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 12:47:21 -0500
To: hyperion@mit.edu
From: Kenneth Lu <kenlu@MIT.EDU>
Subject: Fwd: widescreen SFC info from jms
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Status: O

And more on the widescreen issue.  Short version: Seasons 4 and 5 are 
already in  widescreen, so for people like me who stopped taping 
because of this, get those VCRs reading for January 5, when Season 4 
starts!

Also, WB is going to correct all the mistakes that were made, and fix 
the audio quality problems.. . and JMS is personally going to go and 
watch all 110 hours of it (well, sans commercials, so that's "only" 
maybe 80 hours).. and look for mistakes.

Far more details below.

-ToastyKen

>Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 04:39:15 -0500 (EST)
>From: Erez Zadok <ezk@shekel.mcl.cs.columbia.edu>
>To: b5jms@cs.columbia.edu
>Subject: widescreen SFC info from jms
>Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
>Sender: b5jms-owner@cs.columbia.edu
>Reply-To: b5jms-owner@cs.columbia.edu
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>
>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>From: jmsatb5@aol.com (Jms at B5)
>Date: 14 Dec 2000 19:13:29 -0700
>Lines: 62
>
>Today I went to a meeting at Warner Bros. technical support, where 
>we went over
>the problems detected in the SFC widescreen airings.  I now have some answers
>and some information on this.  I have to say up front that the WB folks have
>been nothing but helpful and determined to fix the problems.
>
>In "Midnight on the Firing Line," wherein a teapot is shown instead of a
>starship when the audio indicates the latter...the editor explained that it
>resulted from a pause/freeze frame during assembly, and when he restarted the
>equipment, it jumped shots.  This will be fixed.
>
>In "Covictions," wherein a comp shot of several monitors doesn't show the
>surveilance footage, but rather shows just the original babcom logo...they had
>missed this on their list of comp shots, and will go back and insert 
>the proper
>footage now that they know the problem is there.  (They QC everything, but
>often with the audio down, so they had no way of knowing that they 
>were talking
>about camera footage, and figured that it was okay since there was 
>something --
>the babcom logo -- in the monitors rather than totally blank screens.)
>
>In "Inquisitor," wherein the west end/east end audio correction wasn't
>made...they were going off the original PAL audio transfers, which 
>in this case
>didn't work because we made that audio correction *after* broadcast and
>replaced the audio for that shot afterward.  They're going to go back to the
>revised 24 track audio and insert the proper audio.
>
>Here's what's going to happen beyond this.
>
>1) WB is going to go back to using *only* the original 24 track 
>audio stems for
>the dubs.
>
>2) Seasons 4 and 5 as it turns out are already in proper wide versions, as is
>season 1, so the only ones that need to be addressed are seasons 2 and 3.
>
>3) WB is going to run cassettes of the whole series in the new version and I'm
>going to personally go over every damn episode personally looking for any
>potential problem areas (such as comps that may not have been recognized as
>such by the WB editors).  It's possible that I may miss something here and
>there, because 110 hours is a LOT of TV to watch...but it'll certainly help.
>
>They were *extremely* helpful and apologetic at WB, and are determined to do
>everything they can to fix the situation as fast as possible.
>
>As for the audio...the audio transfers are being done directly off 
>the original
>clones (either the original PAL, digibeta or 24 track stems), and QC'd.  So
>what they suspect *may* be the problem is if the SFC is running the digital
>tracks through a dolby decoder.  If you try to decode Dolby that isn't there,
>on a digital track (which doesn't need Dolby because it's digital) it can make
>the audio crunchy or lead to drop-outs, pops and other problems.  I've sent
>word to SFC to have them check that at their end of things.
>
>So the situation is well in hand.
>
>  jms
>
>(jmsatb5@aol.com)
>(all message content (c) 2000 by
>synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
>to reprint specifically denied to
>SFX Magazine)
>
>
>
>
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