Quantum Leap in High Definition!

feldon30

feldon30

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Jul 13, 2005
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So we had a false alarm in 2012 on Netflix, and we've had some discussion about Blu-Ray in the past, but it looks like Quantum Leap is finally available in High Definition transferred from the original 35mm film. There's a catch: They're only available if you are willing to Stream or buy the episodes individually. I've checked and the episodes on Netflix, Vudu, and iTunes seem to be full HD.

The episodes, at least the ones I've checked, are really crisp and clear and full HD quality, AND unlike the DVDs, the music seems to be complete. I confirmed that Disco Inferno, Good Morning Peoria, and M.I.A. have the music intact.
 
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All five seasons are available for purchase with music intact on the US iTunes store, I'm just downloading season five right now! :)
 
Well... going back and watching Genesis part II, at least in the version I downloaded, they've omitted all the scenes about the questionnaire that all the pilots were supposed to take. The recut episode opens with Sam peering into the cockpit of the X2 and Al unintentionally sneaking up on him. They cut any mention of the questionnaire. The episode also has the season 4 saga cell and title sequence. AND I just noticed that it's zoomed/cropped to 1.78:1 rather than 4:3 ratio.

I'm guessing that Universal just scanned whatever version was sitting in the box after the last time it was cut together for syndication.

jg1981, can you confirm that Genesis on iTunes is uncut?
 
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quantumleaps04e01-leapback-01.jpg


quantumleaps04e01-leapback-02.jpg


quantumleaps04e01-leapback-03.jpg


quantumleaps04e01-leapback-04.jpg
 
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So most of the episodes look quite good, although sometimes the film grain is quite evident. There are also darker scenes where things get out-of-focus due to the narrow depth-of-field. Also there are generational issues where some of the clips in the intro sequence look like they're a 3rd or 4th generation optical print rather than being struck from the negative. If someone took their time, they'd go back to the negative and have a really clean version of this. It really stands out to me because of course this clip is used in the intro of EVERY episode starting with Another Mother.

quantumleap-intro-opticalgens1.jpg

quantumleap-intro-opticalgens2.jpg


So far I've only found two things that really jumped out me as problematic. First up, Deliver Us From Evil (the first evil leaper episode). At the end when Zoey and Alia leap out and time is reversed, they clearly used a video mixer effect which does not scale well...

quantumleaps05e07-evilleaper-distort.jpg


Worst of all though is for a few frames during the leap-in in Hurricane, the entire leap effect gets tinted green. Also the saga cell in this episode has an awful lot of gate jitter (the film wobbles up and down in the gate). Again, the vast majority of the episodes look good-to-great, but on some of these things, Ziggy did a rush job!

quantumleaps04e03-hurricane-greenleap.jpg
 
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It's just strange that some of the season 1 episodes start with the season 3 opener. I suppose if someone had all the VHS tapes of how these episodes originally aired, they could piece them back together. Personally, I'm a techie kinda guy and I'd be inclined to go back and add the corrected special effects for Sam leaping and Al opening the imaging chamber door to the earlier episodes as best as possible, but then that would be revisionist history wouldn't it!
 
feldon30 said:
Well... going back and watching Genesis part II, at least in the version I downloaded, they've omitted all the scenes about the questionnaire that all the pilots were supposed to take. The recut episode opens with Sam peering into the cockpit of the X2 and Al unintentionally sneaking up on him. They cut any mention of the questionnaire. The episode also has the season 4 saga cell and title sequence. AND I just noticed that it's zoomed/cropped to 1.78:1 rather than 4:3 ratio.

I'm guessing that Universal just scanned whatever version was sitting in the box after the last time it was cut together for syndication.

jg1981, can you confirm that Genesis on iTunes is uncut?
Click to expand...

No, it's exactly the same issue on iTunes for Genesis Part II. I mentioned it in another thread, but I don't think my post has been approved yet.

It's widescreen, got the wrong opening titles, and I hadn't noticed the edits, but I'd say they would be identical as well.

I tried emailing Universal, because I think they should be offering the original two hour versions of Genesis and Lee Harvey Oswald ... even aside from the other issues with Genesis Part II, but they emailed back and said they don't have anything to do with it ... which is weird.

But overall the HD digital episodes are great! I just went back to the DVD to rewatch Genesis.
 
feldon30 said:
It's just strange that some of the season 1 episodes start with the season 3 opener. I suppose if someone had all the VHS tapes of how these episodes originally aired, they could piece them back together. Personally, I'm a techie kinda guy and I'd be inclined to go back and add the corrected special effects for Sam leaping and Al opening the imaging chamber door to the earlier episodes as best as possible, but then that would be revisionist history wouldn't it!
Click to expand...

Which season one episodes does that happen in? I haven't noticed any dramas in season one apart from Genesis Part II.

I agree about re-creating the effects (and saga cells) from scratch would create a much improved viewing experience. As they've done with all the effects on Star Trek TNG. However ... I don't think it will ever happen. And I think they have done something to improve Sam's leaps/Al going through the door effects, because when the DVDs came out, I recall the pictures for those shots being grainy as hell.
 
jg1981, I apologize for your posts got held up so long, but you are now a certified poster and you won't have that problem again.

Imaging Chamber Door

The imaging chamber door effects are hit-or-miss in season 2. The quality of the footage is good and they seem to have kept film grain under control, but sometimes Al and the door are semi-transparent rather than a solid bright blown out white that we have come to expect.

The first episode to use it was Blind Faith. The door opens and closes without Al stepping back, and they make a big deal about the German Shepherd scratching at the floor where Al was. I looked ahead and they didn't use the effect for several episodes after that. It's used in Good Night Dear Heart (Al doesn't want to witness the autopsy) and that one is very solid white. It's used in Another Mother (13:15) and Sea Bride. Not sure when else it's used.

Saga Sells

Another Mother (S02E13) was the first episode to use the Saga Sell. It opens with Sam drawing on the chalkboard. It was voiced by Lance Legault and uses music either from or similar to the music in the pilot episode.
All Americans (S02E14) is similar, using the same music, but voiced by Deborah Pratt.
Her Charm (S02E15) introduces new Saga Sell background music which would continue through to the end of the series.

Wrong Title Sequence

Ok so the title sequences aren't so bad.

  • S01E01 - Genesis Pt 1 -- Season 4 Titles
  • S01E02 - Genesis Pt 2 -- this episode, as mentioned, is painfully edited, beyond even the syndication cuts, and uses a Season 4 Saga Sell and Season 3 Titles.
I checked the rest of seasons 2 and 3 and they seemed correct.


More screenshots...

Also here are some more screenshots of the streaming HD version. Would be curious to hear if you think they look the same as the Bluray or if the Bluray is an upgrade...

quantumleaps01e01-birddog.jpg

Genesis

quantumleaps01e01-sam1.jpg


quantumleaps01e01-credits.jpg


quantumleaps01e01-hologram.jpg


quantumleaps01e06-coloroftruth2.jpg

The Color of Truth

quantumleaps01e09-playitagain.jpg

Play it Again Seymour
 
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jg1981 said:
I tried emailing Universal, because I think they should be offering the original two hour versions of Genesis and Lee Harvey Oswald ... even aside from the other issues with Genesis Part II, but they emailed back and said they don't have anything to do with it ... which is weird.
Click to expand...

I've discovered myself somewhat recently that contacting Universal is futile.
I'd tried to write them detailing why a Blu-Ray release of the series with the original music would be appreciated and all I got back was an offer to replace my damaged/lost discs which I'd made a mention of.
(I posted the entirety of what I'd wrote in this thread:
http://www.quantumleap-alsplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6404)
 
I too would like to see a Blu-Ray release of the entire series in its completely original form,with the original voiceover intro's and all the original music restored. To this day I still don't own any DVD's of Quantum Leap due to my disgust over the original music being replaced. Thankfully I have most of the series on VHS that I taped during its original run.
 
I have season 1 on Blu-ray now. It looks pretty dang good. If anyone has any questions about it or things you'd like me to check, fire away!
 
Bingo said:
I have season 1 on Blu-ray now. It looks pretty dang good. If anyone has any questions about it or things you'd like me to check, fire away!
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Congratulations!!

Can you confirm that the Blu-ray has the Pilot episode restored as a 90 minute movie with all scenes restored? Specifically, right after the scene where everyone is at Peg's house having a BBQ, it cuts back to Weird Ernie interviewing the guys who are all claiming to have memory loss and the test is being called a "Trivial Pursuit".
 
feldon30 said:
Congratulations!!

Can you confirm that the Blu-ray has the Pilot episode restored as a 90 minute movie with all scenes restored? Specifically, right after the scene where everyone is at Peg's house having a BBQ, it cuts back to Weird Ernie interviewing the guys who are all claiming to have memory loss and the test is being called a "Trivial Pursuit".
Click to expand...
The pilot IS the full-length version, post-BBQ trivia and all. (92m42s running time.)

Additionally, "Play It Again, Seymour" now has the correct season one opening titles! I'm hopeful that means we're going to get a fully fixed series release when it's all out. :)
 
Thank you for confirming all this. According to another poster on the Blu-Ray forum, it's not lossless audio, but it is 448khz Dolby Digital 2.0 which is nice.

Quantum Leap Season 2 Blu-ray is now available for pre-order in Australia (Region B) to be released June 8, 2016 for $55 AUD which works out to $41.50 USD. The big question is will Season 2 have all the music intact?

 
You're welcome. :)

And I sure hope so. It'll be a pretty crushing blow if they turn out to have the music replacements.
 
The drawback of HD is, you pickup mistakes even more readily. For instance the duty roster in Lee Harvey Oswald is dated March 3, 1959 but he leaped into January 6, 1959. Also it's even more obvious when the dialogue was re-recorded to say something different as the mouth movements don't line up. I also wish someone had spent the time to motion stabilize the gate jitter (horizontal and vertical jiggling of the film as they transferred it) as the Season 4 opening really wobbles a lot from top to bottom.

Still, it's nice to see the high picture quality after so many years of only being one step above VHS.
 
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