DVD of Rifftrax Version?

[scallenger]

I noticed they started making DVDs of some of the Rifftrax-ed films (like Little Shop of Horrors and Night of the Living Dead). Does anyone know or does anyone think they will eventually (or soon) make a DVD for this one? I think it would be as easy as the others since I am pretty sure there are no royalty rights or whatever they are called for this film since it is so old and obscure. Would love to have this on a official Rifftrax DVD.

[torgosPizza]

I am sure it will come out, but if it does, it won't be for at least 6 months. DVDs have quite a bit of a process they have to go through to become a physical product; thats why we offered the Download to Burn option for PLANET OF DINOSAURS - it allows you to have a DVD now

[scallenger]

Alrightie Darn, I really would like to do the download-to-burn option but I still need to acquire a DVD burner, heh. Maybe someday soon, or when I finally get a good computer! Maybe I'll just get the VOD in the mean time, since you said it'll be at least about 6 months regardless.

So count me in as being interested in a official Rifftrax DVD for this one when the time comes!

Btw, on a side note, I recommended this film to be rifftraxed a long time ago. I wonder if they caught the thread at one point?

http://forum.rifftrax.com/index.php/topic,5441.msg151613.html#msg151613

[scallenger]

Speaking of DVDs... which version of the currently released DVDs does this Rifftrax work on?

This old fullscreen version from GOODTIMES video:

http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Dinosaurs-Mary-Ann-Appleseth/dp/B00005OSKQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1242887995&sr=8-2

Or this widescreen special edition from RETROMEDIA:

http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Dinosaurs-20th-Anniversary-Widescreen/dp/B000TJBNB2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1242887995&sr=8-1

Or both? The Rifftrax page doesn't link to either of these amazon.com links, like it usually would.

[Piobman]

The widescreen special edition is the only one that will work.

[M.gunnerQuist]

I discovered that the Netflix version I rented is not compatible.

[torgosPizza]

I discovered that the Netflix version I rented is not compatible.

Yeah, that should actually be noted in the product copy. I'll fix that ASAP.

[PontiusFeeb]

The Goodtimes version from Netflix went out of sync a half a dozen times or so, but not too badly. The movie was always longer than the rifftrax (some extra pain to endure), so it was just a matter of pausing the rifftrax a few times.

Easily one of the best rifftrax ever.

[Mr Atoz]

I just got the Rifftrax Dvd version in the mail - video is terribly choppy. It's hard to believe they're releasing it this way...or does the Retromedia dvd (used for the mp3 download) look like this? If it looks fine, I'd rather have gotten that and mixed the audio myself.

[Invisible NanoGhost]

My copy of this DVD arrived in the mail today too.  I only played a little of it, and the video didn't seem choppy to me.  At least, not in the first five minutes.

A much more noticeable issue is that it's a widescreen film, but the DVD is showing it in standard-definition aspect ratio (4x3), not widescreen.  Which is to say, everything looks taller and thinner than it should.  This is true for both versions (with and without rifftrax) that are on the DVD.  I compared it to the .mpg version that I bought and downloaded a few months ago, and the download was widescreen.

Btw, it's nice to have both versions.

[Piobman]

For the record... I purchased the original special edition DVD (non-rifftrax version) and it looked just fine on the dvd player. Sounds like they encoded it differently based on your guys' experiences for the rifftrax one.

[Mr Atoz]

If you're playing the dvd on a PC, the choppiness isn't as noticeable, but it's constant on a dvd player-TV, as described in the "VOD Choppy" thread. Play at 58 minutes (for 30 seconds) if you want to see some extreme judder. Ironically, the action of the dino's look much more normal than the people. I also got VOODOO MAN and that plays perfectly, so it's not my equipment.

[Piobman]

If you're playing the dvd on a PC, the choppiness isn't as noticeable, but it's constant on a dvd player-TV, as described in the "VOD Choppy" thread. Play at 58 minutes (for 30 seconds) if you want to see some extreme judder. Ironically, the action of the dino's look much more normal than the people. I also got VOODOO MAN and that plays perfectly, so it's not my equipment.

There was another thread about the "judder" with the VOD file. The thread pretty much ended with the mod saying its the best they could do. I'm guessing they're using the same vod file to create the DVD... causing the judder. When looking at the vod file, the reason for the judder was because it was encoded as 3:2 pulldown. This is in fact different from the mpeg source! For the most part, you don't do a 3:2 pulldown unless you're planning on showing something at a different frame rate. I inquired about why... and got an odd answer stating that ripping the mpeg from the original dvd may have been part of the cause. This doesn't really make any sense to me. If you have an mpeg stream from a DVD, you do not need to re-encode anything unless you're trying to shrink down the file size. But in the end you should not need to change structure of the original file if its going from DVD to DVD! I've still not heard a valid reason as to why they have it encoded this way.

Since it all points to the same VOD file problems... there is NO easy fix for this. You have to completely scrap the original mpeg video stream and use the one from the bought dvd. It can be done whilepreserving the original menu.. but it does require a bit of advanced dvd structure modification to do so properly. (that or you'll need to buy a fancy program like DVDremake) so that you can replace the movie while keeping the original menus. It will mess up any chapter points (if the dvd menu has that though!).

As for the skinny picture, I have no way of verifying... but it sounds like its one of two scenarios. Either the mpeg "flag" is incorrectly set to 4:3 where it should be set as 16:9.... or it was encoded incorrectly. The latter can't be fixed easy... whereas the earlier one can be fixed by simply setting the correct flag with any simple freeware program.  This will force you to rip the video file off the dvd though... causing you to lost any menu structure. Its possible the dvd has 4:3 menu encoding and used a 16:9 movie. You can see how problems are likely to occur if that was the case. Just speculation... but I'm guessing the problem is one of those things.

In the end... it would just be easier/cheaper to re-author it yourself with the bought mp3 version to fix the problems.

[CHF01]

3:54      Commence countdown phase five
                     1:50

4:54      No, only floating debris
                    2:50

8:57      Mr. Baylor, we have just come out of subspace
                    6:53

17:07      And they may be the only means of communication I have left
                    15:03

27:39      How are we gonna get away from something that big
                    25:58

35:34      Good, take Mr. Baylor with you
                     34:35

44:27      Jim doesn't think the stockade will do any good
                    43:34

42:39      You all?  Why not we?
                    51:51

1:00:13      His footprints disappeared!
                    59:34

1:08:38    Where are you going?
                    1:08:00

1:16:56      Go ahead and run Lee, you've got a whole damn world to run in.
                    1:16:30

GOODTIMES video sync lines, if anyone wants them. You will have to add in some blank space to get things to sync. If anyone needs those times, send me a PM.