Product: Brideshead Revisited [VHS] (1982)
Rating: 5.0
The new DVD release is nearly perfect
"Brideshead Revisited" was never released on laserdisc, so all we have to compare the new DVD release to are our memories of the 1982 PBS broadcast and the 6-tape VHS release. I have both, and here are my notes.This DVD release was mastered from the original print and then digitally cleaned up - and it shows. Doing an A/B comparison (switching back and forth between the videotape and the DVD running at the same time), we see that the DVD image is much brighter and more detailed. In fact, so much so that at first it doesn't look "right." We're used to a faded, fuzzier image. But after about 10 minutes, you're completely absorbed and loving it. In the first episode alone, gone are the white specks on the otherwise black background of the opening credits, Charles' sofa now has a pattern that jumps out at you, and Hardcastle's car is a gleaming white. I am positive that THIS is the way things were meant to be seen, not the other way around. There will not be Brideshead "purists" who insist that the fuzziness and faded colors were the director's intent. Indeed, the notes accompanying the DVD say that it now looks better than when it was first broadcast 20 years ago. It does.So... is it reference-quality video? No. Is it better than an over-the air broadcast? Yes! Is it better than the videotapes? Yes!! There are still a few digital artifacts here and there (usually where shadows merge), but if you love the series, grab the DVDs. No one will be disappointed.