Expert: Mary Sue Fitzgerald - 11/2/2004

Question
This is a copy/paste of a post I tried elsewhere.

Can you tell where I can find out if this DVD is defective or if this is the way it is supposed to be ?

The DVD is entitled :

VAN HELSING ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S EDITION

People who complain about the acting in this movie are thinking of acting they've seen elsewhere that they expect to have handed to them like a gift-package full of actor's mental acrobatics  Same with people who say there is no character development.

There's a CRISIS BIG-TIME in EVERY SECOND of this film.  Plus, there' so many GREAT CGI's, who wants to see the dynamics of psychological gymnastics anyway.  It wouldn't add to what you're being presented with, breath-taking second by breath-taking second.

The ACTING is good because there not heaps of it being done.  It's not that the acting is INFERIOR -- it's that it's held in abeyance as a contributor to the overall effect of this SMASHING film.

Dumb, those comments.

NOT the reason for this post, that just makes me angry.  Yeah, well.  Yeah, well, no, I mean.

ANYWAY -- my Ultimate DVD is so DARK in color that you can barely see the people on the screen.  Like the first scene in PARIS -- all you see are a few what looks like headlights -- you can't see the halg-finished Eiffel Tower, or the Catherdral.  (If you get real close to the screen you can just make out these things.)  The whole DVD is much too dark.  You can hardly see any of the eggs, hardly and of the action in Notre Dame with the bell, etc., almost none of the flying the babies do once they're hatched, etc.

Yes, I tried every setting.  PLUS, none of the SAME scenes are dark like that when seen in ANY of the Special Features.  When they play as part of Special Features, the colors are normal, like at the movies.  Trust me, I saw Van Helsing 4 times in theaters, I KNOW what it SHOULD look like.

My TV set is only a few months old, and I never ONCE had to adjust ANY controls, every picture has been super good, clear, wonderful rich, perfect color tones, never any tint, contrast, or brightness adjustment needed ! ! !

But WHO DO I WRITE TO about this.  ARE ALL THE UTLIMATES like that.

It's the same with actor commentaries on the MAIN FEATURE.  

HELP, I love this movie.  I still watched it a couple of times in the 2 days I've had it, plus one of the actor commentaries running instead of the real soundtrack, what's happeneing here ?  I never heard of this problem on a DVD before.

I was thinking --  is this because there are a LOT of BIG SCREEN TV's and home theater systems now and once it's "blown up" to the large size, these people need "concentrated colors" to begin with.

You can tell what I mean if you ever had a 35mm slide projector instead of prints when you took color snapshots.  The tiny cardboard slide are much deeper in color if you hold them up to a light to see what the subject is than when the projector lamp projects them on a home movie screen.  

Is that the reason ?

Thanks for any help.

I think if I spend $50.00 to buy an Ultimate Collector's Edition Van Helsing I shouldn't sit around writing emails about it, I should just watch it.  But it's too dark; I hope I am not still trying to solve this mystery problem in another 400 years and few hours !  

Answer
I am not sure about that, I have seen one from the video store that I rented, but I do not remember that one being as dark as you say. It is a very dark movie, but I could make out the actor's and actresses in it pretty well. I would suggest calling the store or wherever you bought it and see if they can replace it. (If you already haven't done that)? But did you check the DVD case and see if their was a number on it or maybe a website where you could go, for example if it was Universal Pictures maybe they have something. I am not sure what movie company made the movie, but I would try that and maybe email them or look online for a help number, if you have already exchanged it from where you got it and the second one is doing the same thing. I am sorry I couldn't be of more help  to you. I hope it is not all of them myself because I would really like to have that DVD also.