Hi sebastian…can u point me the link where i can read this all information (English plz)…i just bought the MGM versions and now it seems i am going in for a double dip 
i dont know if there’s any english information available. i have most of that from the restoration sheets I attached to the first post in this topic and the rest from a german forum where the head of TLE Films responded to the fans.
well if you already have the MGM SE you’re a bit fucked. that dvd is certainly top notch but it just seems like its gonna loose in comparison to the upcoming Paramount (Germany only). at least the extras are the same. but i think you can sell the MGM SE pretty easy on ebay. but i’d just wait till it comes out, if I were you
I know what u mean and i sure am gonna wait till it comes out but the thought of that box and i start drooling 
Hello there! 
[quote=“Sebastian, post:20, topic:49”]c) the quality (i’ve seen pictures already) beats the MGM by several miles[/quote] Well, I think that’s a bit of an overstatement. Here are the screenshot comparisons that were posted at cinefacts.de:
[/URL] [url]http://img348.imageshack.us/my.php?image=restore1013xx.jpg
![[url]http://img348.imageshack.us/my.php?image=restore1013xx.jpg](http://img19.imageshack.us/my.php?image=restore4013fw.jpg){kind=link}
As you can see, the screenshots from the MGM release (middle) actually look slightly worse than the original (top). They seem a bit blurred, perhaps because they tried to eliminate the grain in the picture. The company contracted by Paramount has just cleaned up the damage (bottom), but the image quality is about the same as the original. Which is how it should be, by the way.
Nevertheless I don’t think the differences warrant a statement like “beaten by several miles”. If you look at other SW releases you’ll see far worse things. 
What puzzles me about these screenshots is the fact, that the black bars on top of and below the actual image differ in colour between the MGM and the other two shots. It almost looks as if they were taken by different methods or different software. But if that actually were the case, these screenshot comparisons would be utterly worthless. I don’t know what to think here. ???
b) the German DVDs WILL feature the longest cut ever seen, they reportedly found something as close to the original script as never seen before.Er, what exactly is that supposed to mean? It may be longest cut ever released in Germany, but the movies have been available in uncut form for several years on video and/or dvd in other countries. The MGM UK dvds notwithstanding.
TLE Films said they discovered material that is closer to the original script as anything that was there before, including the MGM SEs. Both films will be remastered in 24psf 1080 High Definition
quoting TLEFilms’ Thorsten Kaiser:
zum anderen konnten wir Elemente der Uraufführungen (die sich fast strikt an das Original Drehbuch halten) lokalisieren, die neben einer sogar noch erheblich besseren technischen Qualität auch die Möglichkeit einer Präsentation der kompletten Fassung von beiden Filmen in der Uraufführungsfassung ermöglichen
translated: they could retrieve elements of the original screening (being almost strictly close to the original script), which not even has better technical quality but also gives us the possibilty of presenting both films in their complete version in their premiere cuts.
now this could also be regarding the dubbing, that’s why i posted a question to Thorsten Kaiser, i’ll post a response here as soon as possible
Ah, now I see what you mean! 
But those “elements” that message is referring to are simply the better preserved version of the film with the old German dub from the 60es they unearthed. And the comment about “being closer to the original script” just refers to the differences between the old and the newer German dub from the early 80es, nothing else.
You just misunderstood that comment of his. Though I grant you it really IS confusing. I had to read it several times before I understood myself what it meant when it was originally posted. ;D
yeah. but i found out something else:
the MGM for a few dollars more is cut, and the Paramount one will be uncut (it’s a scene with fistfights or something)
That’s correct, the MGM dvd is cut. Interestingly enough, the earlier VHS versions of the movie available in the UK were uncut.
The scene in question is sometimes referred to as the “extended beating scene”. You can read more about it here[url]http://dave-75.tripod.com/FAFDM.htm[/url].
yeah. so we’ve sorted that out 
bottom line:
MGM vs Paramount
extras: tie
image quality: paramount
audio quality: paramount (restored original mono of english and german)
packaging: tie (matter of taste, although the wooden box is a plus for paramount)
version: paramount (Fafdm: totally uncut)
[quote=“Sebastian, post:29, topic:49”]bottom line:
MGM vs Paramount
extras: tie
image quality: paramount
audio quality: paramount (restored original mono of english and german)
packaging: tie (matter of taste, although the wooden box is a plus for paramount)
version: paramount (Fafdm: totally uncut)[/quote] As an addition to your list you should also add the following category:
overall playback compatibility: MGM
Right now it appears, that the playback problems that have surfaced on the recent Nobody discs (mainly on computers) will also be present on the Dollar dvds by Paramount. And that’s an indisputable drawback for that release.
Other than that your list sums it up quite well. That is, IF they (Paramount) deliver. We should probably wait and see how the final product turns out, you never know what can happen. The fiasco about “Nobody is the Greatest” being cut is a good example of what can go wrong. 
I just put the “Nobody is the greatest” disc into my drive and unfortunately have to say that it does indeed have problems. Seems to be interlaced and thus watching with computer will produce very serious ghosting when deinterlaced. If I have understood it correctly, with PAL dvds the only reason interlacing should and would happen is when the source used has been interlaced (or is NTSC) and since the source is film in this case this shouldn’t happen, at all. So either they (who made the transfer) didn’t know what they were doing, were too lazy to push couple of buttons (or pressed too much ) or just didn’t care. 
In any case I’d say it’s totally unacceptable… and I’m very disappointed. 
http://www.sundances.net/nobodyg.jpg[/url]
[url=http://www.sundances.net/nobodyg2.jpg]http://www.sundances.net/nobodyg2.jpg[url]http://www.sundances.net/nobodyg.jpg[/url]
(Looks good, doesn’t it. ) Every single frame with movement will produce that kind of an effect.
![http://www.sundances.net/nobodyg2.jpg[url]http://www.sundances.net/nobodyg.jpg[/url]](http://www.sundances.net/nobodyg2.jpg%5Burl%5Dhttp://www.sundances.net/nobodyg.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
I’m not sure how much the interlacing affects the picture quality when vieving through TV though… or how it will affect on NTSC configurations since NTSC needs to make it into 29.997frames per second by combining some of the frames and causing interlacing…?
EDIT:
Oh and please feel free to move this to the thread about the Nobody discs if this would be better there.
Also, the Paramount disc seems to be noticeably cropped from the bottom when compared to the UK disc. Otherwise the framing is about the same (although Paramount may be losing on all sides, but this might change a bit from scene to scene).
That’s exactly what I was referring to, Sundance! And it is also the case with “My Name is Nobody”.
The problem is that Paramount for contractual reasons used a certain studio for the mastering of the discs. While the people who did the restoration and cleanup of the movies demanded a progressive encoding for the discs, the mastering studio could fulfill that demand, but and here’s the catch: their equipment (as ludicrous as it sounds) is not capable of setting the required progressive flag on the discs, which tells the player how to display the content. The result can be seen on the screenshots that you posted. Apparently there are a couple of steps that can be performed with certain software players to overcome this problem. This has been a topic of hot debate on several German message boards.
Though there has been no official confirmation yet, it has been hinted at that this problem will also be present on the dollar discs as Paramount will be using the same mastering studio. :-\ And I completely agree with you, it is very disappointing.
BTW, congratulations on your website, Sundance! Very professional and well thought out.
yeah they had problems with the setting of the FLAG (the thing that tells your player how to do it).
reportedly appears on a number of players and devices that can’t cope with it…
I sure hope they learn from that andd make the Fistful stuff flawless… but it also seems like this is not a mistake by TLE Films but by the company that did the mastering and authoring of the DVDs
I own the baby now (the 4 disc set) and I can confirm that Fafdm is compeletely uncut now (MGM is cut) and the quality is gorgeous. The extras are great and the packaging (although german and not really special) is nice, too.
As said before, it is a high def master (looks slightly better than the MGM discs) and they completely restored both the german and the english original mono tracks. the MGM 5.1 upmix (untouched) is also included.
a must-buy, and those who own the MGM, should consider selling :-))
[quote=“Sebastian, post:34, topic:49”]a must-buy, and those who own the MGM, should consider selling :-))[/quote] Quite a bold statement, if I may say so.
What about the interlacing/progressive problems that are known from the Nobody discs, has Paramount eliminated those?
I’ve also heard that the MGM disc of FAFDM had a few (minor) cuts more apart from the extended beating scene. What about those, are they absent (the cuts) from the Paramount release?
How did they handle the 5.1 audio upmix in the extended video?
I haven’t read anything about the interlacing thing. My Software DVD player (an old Win DVD) did have minor problems which i could manage by changing settings, and my cheap ass dvd player on my cheap ass TV didn’t have any problems either.
the beating scene is there in full lenght. I dont know about any other scenes. if you can tell me some, i can check if they are there but as far as I know, this thing is uncut. Prior to this one, I only knew the various German TV versions and I noticed quite a few minor additions with Fistful of Dollars.
I haven’t tested the 5.1 upmix yet. Once my reviews go online, you’ll be able to read it all. So far i’ve watched fistful once (with the german dub).
Did you get the set with the watch? If so, what’s the watch like? Is there a chip in it that plays the music?
no i did not get the set with the watch, the watch only comes with the wooden box, which isnt shipping yet. i only got the 4 DVD set for press reviewing purposes.
the watch supposedly is a real replica and will most likely even play the melody from what i’ve heard
Reviews for the first Dollar DVD are online in both languages. I really put a lot of effort in the review, I hope you dig it.
Sebastian, what do you mean by “But the English dub is just not as good”?
Do you mean the sound quality, the synchronisation, or don’t you like the actual script?