Andy Mangels, cartoon DVD wizard and the mad genius behind the RGB DVD sets post on PC to clarify that the slow, surreal playback on some episodes/discs from the set, are not because the came from PAL masters;
I can guarantee you that they are not, and I don’t know why Paul thinks they are different.
I spent 10 days at Technicolor going through over 600 1″ Master NTSC tapes, finding the most complete and best set of ORIGINAL masters I could.
These are 100% from NTSC masters, and AS ORIGINALLY AIRED, unless the labels were lying. Some of the ABC shows even had the original commercials in place.
Best,
Andy Mangelshttp://www.AndyMangels.com
Which then begs the question, is it a problem with the encoding the discs themselves? Is it a problem with the whole disc or just certain episodes? Are those episodes affected consistent in all sets? As usual, the comments are there for everyone to help provide feedback.
Not logged in 
I still haven’t checked the disc Paul was talking about yet, but if they’re NOT PAL masters.. then what’s the deal with the sluggish audio and video? Is it a mastering error?
It’s a bummer for the people who bought these, but seriously – when there’s a problem with DVDs out of the box (especially one widespread) the company putting them out usually replaces them for free. It just sucks right now trying to go through in chronological order and watch them.
Ah…I just noticed that he posted that in the other thread. That will teach me to read everything. Maybe the comment hadn’t been approved or something?
Anyway, I skimmed through at least 3 episodes or more from each disc and found nothing similar to this. All of the bad ones that I’ve found are on volume 4 – disc 2. There might be a few more, but I’m guessing that it could be something with the disc?
I haven’t noticed anything at all just yet. Of course, I’ve been watching mostly episodes from volumes one, two, and three.
I’ve found something else out.
On volume 4 – disc 1 the episode lengths are 22-23 minutes and on volume 4 – disc 2 they’re up to 26 minutes. “If I Were a Witch Man” is the only episode that runs close to normal at 23 minutes.
The one thing I have noticed is on Vol.4 Disc 2 is the music for the intro drags quite a bit on mine!
I noticed vol. 4.2 is having trouble as well on the title sequence being a bit slow, but other than that I can live with it.
Yep.. That’s what I see.
Vol 4, Disc 2.. all of the episodes are pretty slow. You can tell in the theme song, and any places that use music with a regular beat.. you can tell it is off.
I sure hope Time life will let us send back any lagging or skipping discs separately instead of the Entire set, then I would be worried about the new discs having problems on different discs
Anyone having trouble with discs messing up? My Volume 1, Disc 3 stopped toward the end of “Sea Fright”, pixellated, froze and went back to the main menu. During the next episode, “The Spirit of Aunt Lois”, it plays the opening until they go to catch Stay Puft and the gang and pixellates, freezes, and then goes back to the main menu. That is on my television DVD player. When I put it in my laptop, no problem. Also, it’s not a fluke because I put the disc back into my DVD player hooked up to my TV and it did the same thing in the same places. Suggestions? anyone else having this problem? The rest of the set is awesome!
After reading these comments I checked mine out. I have only gone through the first 6 episodes so far and it is awesome but I noticed a problem with the music in the intro for all episodes on Volume 4 Disc 2. I didnt check the episodes b/c I want to watch them in order, but does anyone know if it lags during the shows too? Other than this problem I have been very happy. Hopefully if the problem is big enough they may fix it and let us trade the disc in. Sounds like the problems are isolated with this one disc so should be an easy fix.
Disc 2 (Vol 4) appears to be the only one with trouble. (And EVERY episode on it.. has the problem).
Beezer, your problem is definitely related to your DVD player and not the disc. Granted the DVD drives in computers are much better at reading the data. Perhaps you need to clean your laser on the DVD player.
I am glad that it is an isolated incident. Do you think we will be able to contact someone (TimeLife) about it and see if it is something they might look into replacing?
Grrr…I tried Volume 1, Disc 3 on another DVD player (since that’s cheaper than buying a cleaning kit since I haven’t had problems with other DVDs) and it paused and got choppy during the “Aunt Lois” episode, but played through the whole thing. During “Sea Fright”, it got choppy again in the same placewhere it normally stopped and went back to the main menu. The last five minutes of the episode were then choppy. It started about the time Ray scolds Slimer for being out right before they try to ambush the pirates. There aren’t any blemishes, scratches, or fingerprints on the disc. I’ve been playing the episodes through without fastforwarding, or using chapters or anything to see if they work normally. No one else had problems with this disc? I’m going to try on two more DVD players that I have and see what happens on those and report back….
I have not gotten to these episodes yet since I have been very busy but I’ll let you know if I have the same problems.
grrr. this is my Christmas present so i cant even test them out. this sucks.
Wow. Hmmm. So, I called Time Life after trying Volume 1, Disc 3 in 4 DVD players unsuccessfully. They asked me what season it was and I told them Seaon 1, but it was Disc 3 of Vol. 1. They didn’t seem interested in that. they just wanted to know the season. I hope they send me the right disc. Also, anyone else peeved, Ghostbusters is on sale for about $160 today, a week after it went on sale? Aggravating…but it seems to just be me. Sorry. Bah-humbug.
I used to watch All my DVD seasons & Movie in my PS2 in my room & left the dvd player on the main tv in the house but I experience problem much like Beezer’s choppy, pixally, skipping, pausing & stopping & going back to the menu, etc. I even traded in various discs at the movie stores I go to. I ended up by Torchwood Season 1 & it would just Never work in my PS2 thinking the Discs were a bad batch & played them in the Main TV’s DVD player & All was well. Since then I have been using the DVD player & Not my PS2.
Lesson learned.
I’m on VOL 2 Disc 3 “lights! CAmera! Haunting!” and so far things seem well.
but I think the episode “you cant take it with you” on vol 2 disc 1 After Egon throws the trap under the electricity in the pyramid device his speech is very fast & a little garbled anyone else notice this I think he says something about “I never thought it would work” but the audio is all scrambled but only his voice not the music or effects.
also in “No One comes to Lupusville” when Winston asks the little girl Lita if she can find the spare proton pack she seems to mouth the word “yes” but theres no voice, just wondering if anyone has had these & whether it may just be the way they were broadcast originally.
I too have seen this issue with Volume 4 Disc 2. It really sticks out during the intro.
Haven’t gotten to the “slow” episodes yet, but I’ll keep you posted.
As for the problem with Volume 1, Disc 3 – I have no problems to report. It played fine for me, without any hiccups.
Sounds to me like it may be the disc and not the dvd players.
You Can’t Take it With You, Egon was always just mumbling to himself.
I watched Venk-Man and it was VERY fast. It was over before I knew it.
Is it me or do some of the Volume 4 disc 3 episodes seem just slightly to fast? (like “Surely you joust” or half of the opening and closing sequences being off as well)
No problems with disc 3 of vol 1.
I checked my old tape for “No One comes to Lupusville” and it did the same thing, but it was from a teletoon broadcast a few years ago, not the 80′s.
Thanks to those who cleared up the audio question I had earlier, I suspected as much but I just wanted to see if everyone had the same.
I watch Vol 4 disc 1 & theyre all slower not just intro but the eps as well.
but I suppose its not as bad as it could be but then again for $170.00 I think I should be allowed to be picky.
Future Tense is probably the most sluggish after egon xrays the TV. but out of all “if I were a witch man” seems faster than the rest ending at 23mins where the rest end at 26mins
On Vol 4 Disc 2 The Halloween Door Special seems to be at the perfect speed But I’m on “Surely you joust/Kitty cornered” and it seems all the eps & Intros after Halloween door are sped up.
I’m wondering if there was a timing adjustments or something on these & They got switched when they burned the DVDs for shipping who know just a speculation.
I FIGURED IT OUT!!
They used the syndication package masters, which is why the Slimers are seperate and have the different ending and why the speed is messed up on all the 1989 episodes. The fifteen minute ones were sped up a bit to make room for commericals (otherwise there wouldn’t be any time) and the regulars are too slow so that all episodes that season were 26 minutes.
I figured it out when I checked “Partners in Slime” and “Slimers Curse” on my ABC taped VHS copies against the DVD versions (GBII and RGB for “Partners”.)
Thats why “Hallowe’en Door” is fine, and why they were still using the older “the real ghostbusters will be right back” bumpers instead of the custom to each episode bumpers with the dialouge “Ray: Hey there junior ghostbusters! theres a lot more action to come Slimer: And more Slimers too. Thats me.” The 1988 episodes also got a different ending since they weren’t aired whole, just the RGB portions.
I e-mailed them about this already too.
Sounds Like you Figured it out alright. Nice work Dr. Stantz.
I just realized how funny that sounds to say, nice name choice too…
Has anyone found heard from Time Life or someone in regards to this yet? I mean I know someone responded but I wonder if they will be correcting it or not.