So I got my Dr. Katz DVDs the other day. As I mentioned previously, I'm a big fan of the show and have been waiting for a legitimate DVD release for quite some time. Since this doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon, I went ahead and got a bootleg of the entire series from eBay.
The series is spread across five DVD-Rs, each labeled and packaged together in a single DVD case with printed artwork. I was slightly dismayed to open the case and find four of the five discs stacked one on top of the other, without any sort of protection. Luckily, save for a few minor scuffs, the DVDs arrived unharmed. What a bad idea, though. Also included is a computer print out of the contents of each disc, with details for each episode. The guy definitely used rough draft mode here, but whatever.
The DVD menus are minimal. Each entry includes either a screenshot from the episode or the show's title page and an episode number (which corresponds to the printed episode guide). The background is some default graphic from whatever burner was used. No frills, but it's easy enough to find the episode you're looking for.
The quality of the video varies with each episode; it ranges from OK to pretty piss poor. Granted, I've only watched about five or six episodes so far, but I've already noticed drastic differences in quality. At best, there are obvious digital artifacts visible, probably due to some compression (AVI?) on the source files. Here and there, there is the kind of glitching you see with a weak satellite signal. On the other end of the spectrum, one of my favorite episodes (with David Cross as one of the guests/patients) is pretty terrible. It looks like it was sourced from a worn VHS copy and then digitally compressed. The audio is also pretty bad with this one, with lots of noise and hissing, again likely attributable to the VHS source. The worst detriment by far, at least in terms of annoyance, appears in a few episodes where the audio falls out of sync with the video. This really bothers me. And though it's not as bad as when this happens with live-action video, you'd be surprised at how important it is for animation. Even in “Squigglevision” the characters mouths are pretty tightly timed with the audio, and when it's off it is extremely distracting. Watchable, I guess, but very annoying.
Overall, I'm glad I bought this thing. It's great to see the show after so long, and I'm sure there are at least a few episodes I missed. The quality is not great, but it is a bootleg afterall. Hopefully, if whoever owns the rights to the show finds out that dorks like me are willing to plunk down the cash ($30+) for poor quality bootlegs, they'll wise up and release a proper set of DVDs for this awesome cult show.
3 comments:
hey, i know what you mean about the audio sync. I've got a good collection of Family Guy going and that happens sometimes. It's just horrible to watch, I have to turn it off sometimes.
Maybe there is a good torrent source for Dr. Katz, I might have to give a try.
Nice blog. Here are mine:
http://xiping.blogspot.com/
http://china-usa.blogspot.com/
http://usa-pet.blogspot.com/
http://joke-humor.blogspot.com/
http://bwi-airport.blogspot.com/
Have a nice day!
hey dude. yeah, im having almost an identical problem like yours. we got my dad, a huge dr. katz fan, a set of bootleg dvds of dr katz that sounds identical to yours. some episodes are great, and some suck some major ass. whoever the guy was that made these even mislabeled em and gave us 2 season 1+2 discs. but i agree; maybe someday, the morons will finally put out a complete set. they do, however, have atleast season one at target. i've seen it.
i am, however, still searching for a decent dr. katz torrent......
Post a Comment