Author Topic: Dark, dark tent scenes  (Read 6604 times)

Offline Ellemeno

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Dark, dark tent scenes
« on: April 19, 2006, 02:51:26 am »
Can anyone tell me why my DVD is so much darker than the screen caps I see posted here?  Is it the DVD?  Is it my player?  Even when adjusted to supreme brightness, the tent and darkness scenes are so darn dark I can hardly make much out.  The YouTube 4 Nights in 20 Years is nice and bright on the same laptop as I watch my DVDs on. Does anybody else have this problem?

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2006, 02:56:36 am »
I've only watched mine on the TV with my DVD player and they tent scenes are both nice and bright. You can tell it's night time but you can see everything.  I can't imagine what the problem is, but Julie was complaining of the same thing.

Offline RouxB

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2006, 03:02:38 am »
Elle-have you tried playing it on a different system to determine if it's the DVD? You should return it if it plays like that on everything. I do notice on mine that the darker the room, the brighter the picture.

 O0

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Offline David

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2006, 07:31:59 am »
I was noticing the same thing. (How dark it was).  But then again, I was watching it in a brightly sun lit room.   I'll have to try watching it again at night with the lights off.    I think we were all spoiled by seeing it so many times in the theater!     ;)

Offline two_bloody_shirts

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2006, 07:38:32 am »
My captures were very bright because I lightened them considerably, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to see much.

In respect to the viewing quality, I would agree it's better to turn off all the lights in your room (at night) and watch the DVD. 
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2006, 09:22:33 am »
I found both tent scenes disappointingly dark, watching in a dark room at night. Actually, all of the "Wyoming interiors" seemed darker to me (e.g., Joe Aguirre's trailer office), but, on the other hand, the "Texas interiors" (Jack and Lureen's place at Thanksgiving) seemed about as I remembered them from the theater. I've been assuming there is nothing wrong with the DVD, just an artifact of the picture being shrunk down to the small screen.
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Offline houstonangel88

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2006, 09:32:21 am »
Well... the two tent scenes on my DVD seem a lot brighter than what I saw in the theaters. I can see a lot more stuffs.   I am very pleasantly surprised with that.  So I guess it depends on the DVDs.

Offline Flashframe777

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #7 on: April 19, 2006, 09:52:46 am »
Experienced the same trouble.  My solution was to go into the preferences of the DVD player in my computer and adjust the video color (which allows me to brighten or darken the screen), giving me lots of leeway.

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Offline twistedude

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #8 on: April 19, 2006, 10:11:37 am »
All THREE of my DVDs are hopeless, as far as the first tent scene is concerned, and all have been played on the best equipment in the world (my friend's not mine).  You can imagine what my friend thought "chickenshit" was the operative word! WHERE CAN I GET A GOOD ONE--I know they exist, and that some people see things they never saw in the theater...not me. It's all becoming a memory. Two are from amazon.com. and one from Barnes and Noble. One has the oSCAR thing on it, and two do not. All the are from Focus. Two say "heche in Mexico" on the outer cellephane..no amojnt of messing with brightless, lightness, contrast, etc--improved them--the black would get muddy,. and in the daylight scenes, the faces would look washed out. I KNOW some people have great DVDs, and see things they never saw in the theater...

WHYERE CAN I GET A GOOD ONE? ANYONE HAVE AN EXTRA GOOD ONE TO SELL? It's all becoming a moemory./ These photos are from the Oscar promo book...all I get to see is Jack'sd shirt when he takes his jacket off...

"We're each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?" --"Nine Lives," by Ursula K. Le Guin, from The Wind's Twelve Quarters

Offline cmr107

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #9 on: April 19, 2006, 03:48:16 pm »
Right when the DVD first came out a lot of people seemed to be having this problem with it being too dark. When I got mine I got scared and watched the first tent scene, figuring that would be the ultimate test, and it was significantly brighter than it was in the theatre. Sadly, I haven't had time to watch much more of my DVD than that (serious withdrawl here). I got mine from Target and it has the silver border, but I don't understand why that would make a difference.

Offline DeeDee

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #10 on: April 19, 2006, 03:53:12 pm »
Well... the two tent scenes on my DVD seem a lot brighter than what I saw in the theaters. I can see a lot more stuffs.   I am very pleasantly surprised with that.  So I guess it depends on the DVDs.



I have to agree.  It's not that bright, but much better than the theater.
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Offline sparkle_motion

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #11 on: April 19, 2006, 03:56:07 pm »
I have the silver border DVD as well. Mine is very bright. I have a POS TV, so I don't know if it has much to do with the TV.
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Offline YaadPyar

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #12 on: April 19, 2006, 04:07:51 pm »
Ditto on the very bright part...got my from Amazon.  Wathcing it on a 20" Sony Vega that's about 6yrs old, and I've adjusted nothing.
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #13 on: April 19, 2006, 04:08:26 pm »
Thoroughly baffled but nevertheless fascinated technophobe here.

Does anyone know--or know anyone who knows--about the technology used to mass produce DVDs? Is the production technology such that the quality of the viewed image can be as inconsistent as it seems to be in the case of these DVDs? Does it have anything to do with the quality of the physical disk onto which the data is burned (if I'm saying that correctly)?

Or does it depend on the equipment used to play and view the disk?

What most surprises me is to read that some people are finding the tent scenes brighter on the DVD than in the theater.
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Offline two_bloody_shirts

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #14 on: April 19, 2006, 07:30:16 pm »
Thoroughly baffled but nevertheless fascinated technophobe here.

Does anyone know--or know anyone who knows--about the technology used to mass produce DVDs? Is the production technology such that the quality of the viewed image can be as inconsistent as it seems to be in the case of these DVDs? Does it have anything to do with the quality of the physical disk onto which the data is burned (if I'm saying that correctly)?

Or does it depend on the equipment used to play and view the disk?

What most surprises me is to read that some people are finding the tent scenes brighter on the DVD than in the theater.

All good questions - but I seem to run into a brick wall trying to find info to answer them!  I am curious as well!  Could the lack of information possibly be attributed to prevention of film piracy?   :-\

You could try Wikipedia....
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Offline Ellemeno

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #15 on: April 20, 2006, 01:35:04 am »
I got one from that store in NY that Jenny went to.  And two from Amazon (wide- and full-screen).  All about the same.  Hmm.

Offline twistedude

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #16 on: April 24, 2006, 03:11:06 am »
UPDATE: Since I bought three, I've rented 3--they're all the same. I'm going to make a special trip to Target (not in my town) to get one--if they say on the phone thery have any left. Oh, it's also very important to me to have TWO--a widescreen and a fullscreen...I refuse to discuss anymore what I've NEVER seen, no matter how reliable my sourses...

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Offline Phillip Dampier

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #17 on: April 24, 2006, 10:08:44 am »
The problem here is going to be your television set.  The entire North American NTSC DVD distribution will be identical in quality.  It's not like videotape where there can be differences between tapes.  DVDs are completely digital and the image will be consistent no matter what batch they come from.  A theater with a bigger screen and dark interior will make a major difference, as will the brightness and contrast settings on your television set.  You will pick up more detail in a darkened room.  Additionally, the sharpness of the image will depend on the quality of your TV, the cable between the DVD player and the TV set, and sometimes the quality of the DVD player itself (because of filters built into the player).

In general an HDTV-capable set will render the best picture if you have a player with composite video out and have the right cables for that.

Many computer monitors are set to render images darker than usual because they are intended more for text than movie watching, so people who watch the DVD on their computer may find the image sharper, but still dark.

In the end, the majority of differences here are because of the TV set and its settings.
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #18 on: April 24, 2006, 12:03:35 pm »
Thank you, Phillip!

While my understanding of the technology is limited, my suspicion has been that the variation had to do with the equipment used to view the DVD rather than with the production of the DVDs. It's nice to know I was on the right track.
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Offline twistedude

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #19 on: April 25, 2006, 02:19:40 am »
I really LIKE looking at mud, honest (6th DVD tested today...)
"We're each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?" --"Nine Lives," by Ursula K. Le Guin, from The Wind's Twelve Quarters

Offline starboardlight

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Re: Dark, dark tent scenes
« Reply #20 on: April 25, 2006, 03:25:52 am »
honestly I really think it has more to do with your machines than the dvds. Digital is all bits and bytes, 0's and 1's, on the discs. they're all the same from one disc to another, unlike analog where quality can vary, depending on quality and age of the tapes. on digital if some of the bits are missing, you'd just get artifacts on the screen, or even losing picture entirely. Have you tried playing the disc you have at other people's tv sets and see how it looks?
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