R4 Texas Chainsaw Massacre Spec Ed

Well, it had to happen. Australia finally got a great edition of a cult classic which seems to be the best around.

It is DEFINITELY anamorphic PAL , which means about twice the scan lines of the R1 NTSC counterpart... I have only had a quick look at it. Some edge enhancement on the bright daylight scenes, along with minor motion artifacts. The night scenes look much better. I'd be interested in doing a side by side comparison with the R1 version, actually. May borrow a friends. I will post here when I get to have a proper look. Unfortunately, if I had it yesterday I could have watched it.

So what does it have?

2 discs

Disc one is the film (1.85:1, anamorphic, PAL), with the same commentary as the US one. Transfer rate is at about an even 7Mbps. Stereo surround sound mix.

Disc 2 has the 75 minute TCM Doco "The Shocking Truth", plus the goodies on the R1 sped ed (Deleted scenes, alternate footage, "Killing Kirk" outtakes, blooper reel, props and sets, film and production stills, posters and lobby cards).

And how much for all this goodness? Well, I paid about US$14 for it locally. To get it shipped anywhere on the planet, you can try places like EzyDVD. I can't seem to find it listed at the other Australian online stores that ship internationally. With international shipping I'd expect it to be somewhat more expensive.

Hmm, looking at this more in depth review, it isn't the best transfer. I will let everyone know what I thought when I get to see it.

I just got my copy of this in the mail on Friday. I've had a quick look at the menus and the picture quality, but haven't sat through all of it yet.

I must say that Michael D review you linked to was a disappointing read...you'd think image quality on TCM couldn't get any worse, but it appears it has on this DVD.

Still, I'll reserve my judgement till I've actually viewed the full feature.

But seriously, as long as the motion artefacts aren't distracting in any major way, I'm not gonna complain...its sort of to be expected that TCM will look fairly shit...



The extras are an absolute godsend too. Particularly looking forward to watching the documentary. Only shame is the sequel trailers are missing (would have loved to have seen a glimpse of TCM2...but I just watched Leatherface: TCMIII last night and it was pure SHITE so I guess it's no biggie)...wonder why they did this? In fact, even trailers for TCM itself aren't there, which is most strange...they would have been really interesting.

I disagree with MichaelD's review as I have seen the previous R4 releases of TCM and this new one is by far the best. Sure, the image aint the sharpest but thats what ya get with a film of this age and low budget.

Age is no excuse for the pathetic digital problems they have put in it. It has VERY bad motion artifacts, and VERY bad interlacing problems (as shown in his review).

To be honest though, I watched the film as a viewer not a DVD technical reviewer and nothing bothered me. The image and audio looked more than acceptable.

MichaelD has not viewed the R1 disc and according to what Force Video told me, the new R4 SE release is based off the same source material. Its basically the exact same disc in PAL with the additional second disc.

Right... So it was based on a non-anamorphic NTSC version, which they majically converted to anamorphic PAL, which basically has twice the resolution. And they didn't even convert it from NTSC to PAL properly, looking at those interlacing problems. It looks like they grabbed the wrong frames, not the full frames, but the merged ones (3:2 pull down for the 24fps to 60hz conversion).

Plus, I REALLY REALLY HATE motion artifacts...