Considered by many to be the weaker interpretation of Frank Herbert's novel, the miniseries is, to date, the most faithful. (I don't want to start a discussion of the upcoming movie, but I do not have high hopes for it based on publicity and early reviews (and the lack of greenlighting for parts 2 and 3(?)).)
TV budget aside, I think most issues that fans of the books have with this version were resolved in the extended cut that wasn't widely seen.
The U.S. DVDs are out of print, and the international Blu-ray releases are of the broadcast(ish) version and full of technical issues.
Additionally, there is the problem that this was filmed on 35mm, but the effects were finished in standard definition. (I can't remember where I read that originally.)
On HDBits there is a hybrid edit of the BD sources by DON:
So it sounds like a nearly director's cut version, but I did notice the runtimes are weird.
Part 1 is 2-3 minutes shorter, Part 2 is 2-3 minutes longer and Part 3 is 2 minutes longer than the DC DVD.
A user named Esmerillon on MySpleen has stated that:
Sigh, so the old OOP DVD is currently the best version.
I have no problem with BD's being downscaled and DVD's upscaled to make an ideal 720p version, but it sounds like this is more than a simple project when I initially considered tackling it myself.
Edit: Besides, no other movie can yet claim to have sequels covering books 2 and 3. With a young James McAvoy no less.
(This post was last modified: 2021-09-16, 07:23 AM by Doctor M.)
TV budget aside, I think most issues that fans of the books have with this version were resolved in the extended cut that wasn't widely seen.
The U.S. DVDs are out of print, and the international Blu-ray releases are of the broadcast(ish) version and full of technical issues.
Additionally, there is the problem that this was filmed on 35mm, but the effects were finished in standard definition. (I can't remember where I read that originally.)
On HDBits there is a hybrid edit of the BD sources by DON:
Quote:German Blu-ray has worse picture quality but it has English intro and credits and also 24 fps audio.
So I used intro, credits and audio from German Blu-ray and the rest of video from French Blu-ray.
There's few lines of hardcoded subtitles in both video tracks, French subtitles are lot smaller
so I used those and added forced subtitles.
Source has a lot of aliasing, but that's gone when resized to 720p. Fixed dirty lines on the left and right.
Few scenes are cut in both Blu-rays when compared to DC NTSC DVD.
They are: 4 scenes were shortened (4 min 40 sec) in Part 1 (cut dialog) and 1 scene (37 sec) in Part 2 (cut dialog). Part 3 wasn't cut.
So it sounds like a nearly director's cut version, but I did notice the runtimes are weird.
Part 1 is 2-3 minutes shorter, Part 2 is 2-3 minutes longer and Part 3 is 2 minutes longer than the DC DVD.
A user named Esmerillon on MySpleen has stated that:
Quote:If memory serves, the length discrepancy may be the result of a framerate conversion issue. That is, the German Blu-ray may be slightly slower and pitched slightly lower than it ought to be ... a sort of reverse "PAL speed-up" effect.
Sigh, so the old OOP DVD is currently the best version.
I have no problem with BD's being downscaled and DVD's upscaled to make an ideal 720p version, but it sounds like this is more than a simple project when I initially considered tackling it myself.
Edit: Besides, no other movie can yet claim to have sequels covering books 2 and 3. With a young James McAvoy no less.