this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2024
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I torrented a few episodes from 1337x, but they are quite compressed/low-quality. Is this the best there is or is there a higher quality version hidden somewhere? It wasn't originally filmed it at such a low quality, right?

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yes, that is the quality of the original presentation. If anything it looks worse because it has been converted from film to a digital signal, as well as being stretched to be a bit larger than normal. Lmk if you young whippersnappers have any questions about this, I grew up watching this on VHS back in the dark times 👴

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Some was 16mm but probably mostly shot straight to vhs:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096657/technical/?ref_=tt_spec_sm

And the bbc was notoriously bad at not losing archival footage of tv shows

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I remember the VHS we watched was presented as a compilation of episodes with a new introduction and interludes so my guess is there was some kind of professional reproduction of the episodes themselves

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah I'm not saying they didn't edit it, but rather the master footage they were editing was on vhs or similar. I guess it's probably quite likely they would've had some sort of better quality magnetic tape rather than vhs come to think of it though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

I'm sorry, I meant to respond about the lack of BBC archival footage, as it had to be archived to be able to compile it. You're right that it was probably shot straight to VHS.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Bingo. Same goes for pretty much any show from the 90s and beyond that didn't get an HD remaster. It's the same quality with older shows on any legit streaming service.