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Sunday, March 26, 2023

Son of a Glitch!

I stumbled across the following comment (left in response to my 1/08/2023 post):





Naturally I had to investigate.

First I had to rip all three distinct Blu-ray versions of "The Human Factor," to see if the file sizes were different between them (depending on the size of your screen, you may need to click on the image below to read the numbers):

Predictably, the Mediumrare file is identical to the Via Vision file (since the former used the latter's disc masters). The Kino file (the O.G. from 2018) is slightly larger, and for the life of me I can't figure out why. The technical specs (video and audio bitrates, etc.) are identical across all three (again, you may need to click on it to actually read it):


Step #2 required me to spot-check each file at the 40-minute mark in question (the target section was 39:59 through 40:10). First, the Kino version from 2018:

...which looked just fine. But when I checked the 2020 Via Vision file, my fears were confirmed: there is indeed a glitch at 40:03 that affects the lower quarter of the frame (right when the desk nurse starts to speak):

Not surprisingly, the same glitch is present in the 2022 Mediumrare file:

So... yeah, this kinda sucks. But to put things into a bit of perspective, this is one very minor error that only lasts a second or so (this is nothing like the "Soldier" audio debacle, which Kino ultimately fixed). If that's the only thing wrong with the Via Vision and Mediumrare editions (other than the gripes detailed previously in these pages), I'm not going to light a torch and storm the castle. I assume Via Vision did some sort of additional compression when they used Kino's masters (which may account for the slightly-smaller file size), which may have introduced the glitch (which then carried over to Mediumrare's release). But honestly---- I have no idea. This isn't exactly my area of expertise.

Thanks to "Anonymous" for bringing this to my attention.