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Cheezy Flicks Jesse James Rides Again
Topic Started: Mar 1 2014, 10:57 PM (1,380 Views)
LaneCarson
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Jesse James Rides Again (1947) is a good western serial (I think by anyone’s estimation) - what sets it apart (for me), is that Jesse (Clayton Moore) is a “good shot” right from the start and when there’s a shootout, people actually get shot (unlike in a lot of serials).

I’ve always retained a certain interest in the mastery efforts of others and thought I’d check out Cheezy Flicks rendition of this serial. I was well aware that they merely port VHS tapes onto DVD (a la AC Comics) but was nonetheless interested to see how well they were doing same.
I offer the following observations … I’ve always (across a decade) refrained from critiquing others’ mastery efforts and will again be observing same:
Disc One contains the first seven episodes mastered from an original (though obviously well viewed) VHS tape. In terms of its rendition: its in about the 480i to about 530i range (well short of the 1080p required of big screen TVs) - its been relensed (to remove tape lines which occur at the bottom if the screen) but does not appear to have undergone any digital restoration or enhancement.
The chapters on Disc One are complete and can be individually accessed … I mention this because things change on Disc Two.
On Disc Two there is no individual chapter access. Its just a continuous run of the remaining chapters of this 13 chapter serial. And it begins with Chapter Seven - yes, you get Chapter Seven twice: at the end of Disc One and again at the start of Disc Two. The chapters on Disc Two have been edited as well - there is no “Republic” Intro Card on any of the Disc Two episodes. Also that same Republic Card which closes out the last episode of the serial is also missing.
(I don’t know about you but I absolutely love that Republic Card - the music swells and (way back when) I always knew that I was in for an exciting, action-packed time …)
its missing on each of the Disc Two episodes.
Chapter 12 presents another issue - its 14:20 long instead of 13:17 - courtesy of a faulty (tape) original - at one point the source tape is actually rewound (fast-back) whilst the DVD is running. Yep, you get those familiar tape rewinding lines plus everybody moving backwards!
Just a few observations
Trev



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Colorist
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I've often wondered about this serial. Seems to me that it's set more in the South than the West, what with riverboats, cotton and levees and all. The Black Raiders seem more like the Klan, but maybe that's just me.
Not exactly a serial, but there was an episode of BUFFALO BILL JR. called "Hooded Vengeance" where they actually DID fight the Klan! They even use terms like "Grand Dagon!"
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Laughing Gravy
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Cheezy Flicks really lived up to their name with this one, eh?

"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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panzer the great & terrible
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The James brothers lived in Kansas and Missouri, Colorist -- not in the West -- and they were a few years before the Klan. Missouri is on the Mississippi River, so the steamboats and cotton are historically accurate, if nothing else in the movie is.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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Steve Colt
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My copy doesn't have the chapter 12 issue that was mentioned. It does have the disk 2 menu issue. The menu is there if you push the menu button, but all the chapter titles are invisible except for the one you have highlighted, and then it starts playing chapter 7 unless you choose a chapter quickly. Weird but usable once you know the rules.

Overall it's an okay product. Maybe this serial deserves better, but you can't argue with the price.
Hey, wait for me!
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LaneCarson
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Steve Colt: check your PMs
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LaneCarson
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Anyone else who feels they are missing something with their present print of Jesse James Rides Again?
Trev
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rodney
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I'd have figured that the laserdisc would offer the best transfer of this one.
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LaneCarson
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A Laser Disc player hooked up to a 52 inch LCD can be a disappointing experience.
On the surface, it should be OK - both Laser Disc & Blu-Ray are uncompressed digital streams. But its quite clearly not the case. The problem lies in the bit rate sampling, with Laser Disc specs indicating less than 1% of that achieved by Blu-Ray. To be fair, Laser Disc is 1980s technology. Perhaps because of the technical limitations of the 80s, it just never took off. It was better than VHS and looked good on a 26 inch CRT. But the discs were large, weighty and needed to flipped over or swapped out. Later models played both sides and the sound was much, much better than High Fi Stereo VHS (perhaps reflecting the fact that there were quite a few Hi-Fi systems now hooked up to those 26 inch analogue TVs)
But on today’s big TVs, the all important thing - the picture - is OK at best (probably in the range of 520i to 640i).
Technology pioneered in the early days of Blu-Ray called “upscaling” allowed the humble DVD to be “enhanced” when played on a Blu-Ray player, providing a better picture on big TVs. Variously described as “interpolated line”, this technology has filtered back into DVD mastery software. This emerging software is now capable of delivering DVDs at 1080p when played on a humble DVD (not necessarily Blu-Ray) player. Compared to the Laser Disc attached a big TV, the results are significantly better.
So 1990s DVD technology is still “hanging in there”
Trev
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JazzGuyy
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Actually, LaserDisc is not a digital format. It is an analogue format that used frequency modulation for recording its information. Fairly late in its life the soundtrack part of many LDs was digital but not the video, though many disc claimed digital mastering -- which merely meant that the master used to create the LD was digital. Many people have assumed over the years that because it was on a shiny disc that used pits like a CD that LD was digital but LD preceded CDs and preceded a digital format.

It is possible to convert an LD's signal to a digital format using any of several video editing software applications. That result can look decent on a modern big screen TV and only a little worse than a DVD if the software upscales decently. The native resolution of LD was between 400-420 lines of resolution. NTSC DVD is 480 and PAL DVD is 576 so LD was reasonably close to DVD. VHS tape was about half that of an LD though it eventually improved to around 330 lines of resolution, which is still fairly poor. Super-VHS, which never caught on, was roughly equal to LD.

There are a lot of gray market Republic serials out there that were taken from LDs. I believe more than one of the Cheezy Flicks DVDs were created this way.
Edited by JazzGuyy, Mar 11 2014, 05:06 PM.
TANSTAAFL!
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LaneCarson
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Great
A nice information packed addition to the thread
Trev
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turan38
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JazzGuyy
Mar 11 2014, 05:04 PM
It is possible to convert an LD's signal to a digital format using any of several video editing software applications.
It should be added that a hardware interface is required to convert the analogue LD or VHS signal to a digital one that can be recorded by the computer. Software alone can't do it. While some computers may have a video board that can accept analogue video input, the more common approach is to have an external hardware interface.

I remember laser discs - I still have 200 of them sitting on a shelf with no idea what to do with them. A few of them are keepers - they were either never released on dvd/blu-ray or else have special features that legally can't be ported over to the dvd/blu-ray releases.
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JazzGuyy
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That hardware device is fairly cheap though I wouldn't buy an $8 one. It is just a simple connection device where you use a stereo audio cable and a composite video cable out of your LD player into the little translator device which connects via USB to your computer where you can then use video software that can create DVDs or files that can be streamed from your computer. It is a fairly simple process (I have done it many times) but time consuming since it has to happen in real time. With a decent video editing program you can easily edit out the side breaks.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_pg_2?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Avhs+to+dvd+conversion+hardware&page=2&keywords=vhs+to+dvd+conversion+hardware&ie=UTF8&qid=1394716857

Some of the devices are sold with software but you don't need those if you already have video software or you can find several free products on the Internet. While the devices are sold for converting VHS to DVD, they also work for LDs.
TANSTAAFL!
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LaneCarson
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Just reiterating, if there are any readers who purchased the CheezyFlicks rendition of Jesse James Rides Again and were disappointed, then feel free to contact me via PM (top right of this screen) or email (lanecarson@mac.com). A gratis provision of the serial is always available subject to a couple of conditions
Trev
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rodney
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Cheezy Flix got most of their masters from grey market dealers at a couple of east coast film conventions.
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