That might not be the best way to express it, but that's what it looks like. Periodically in SotW (and its co-feature TAV) the image jumps forward a second or so and then drops back to where it should be. The audio doesn't seem to be affected.
I sure did! I'm preparing a review of this disc for the relaunch of my DVD Up Close review site. The video quality on SotW stinks. The opening credits look crisp and mint, building my hopes up and then, the ax fell. I can't really blame Anchor Bay completely though. This may have been the only workable print they could get their hands on. And it may have been a dupe rather than a camera negative.
shareYou guys have to remember that these are Romero's 2 rarely seen films and I'm surprised there are any prints at all of them. The only thing I hate about these are that they are not shown in the correct full frame ratio as they where shot on 16mm. I'm glad I still have my VHS copy's.
shareWhat I wonder is if Jack's Wife/Hungry Wives/Season of the Witch and There's Always Vanilla were cropped for the original theatrical releases.
I wasn't surprised that prints still existed- what would surprise me is if the original 16mm camera negatives still do. Season of the Witch looks like it's a dub pieced together from different prints.
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I finally got around to watch SOTW for the first time a few nights ago, and was very confused that Anchor Bay would list on the features that this film was "enhanced for widescreen TVs." I started watching it on my bigscreen with the 16x9 setting on, but the image looked funny and not right so I switched it back to full frame and it was better.
As for the "choppy" condition of the print, well, Anchor Bay did include a disclaimer before the film warning viewers that the condition of this film is not very good. It was about the quality of an old faded VHS tape, but at least they 'fessed up to it, which is more than a lot of other semi-reputable DVD releases do.
This is very hard to read, isn't it?