They don’t really own it as much as they have the right to stream those seasons exclusively for the term of their contract, I bet. Like filmed elements couldn’t be reused because you’d essentially be using a clip they had exclusive rights to.
(Spitballing here)
If Netflix’s contract with MST3K is like those they have had with other content providers, it’s likely it goes for 5 years exclusivity after the end of the final season. For the Netflix era, 5 years would be next November, 2023, if my math is correct. Far too much time to make rescuing the door sequence worth it. So I dig what they did to fit in here.
You do realize that it’s also a far more complex process than the three man operation that Chris, Trace and Frank run with their live stream and that most of the millions in the MST budget goes to the film companies who own the movies they want to riff (and fulfilling pledge rewards)?
Which isn’t to say that they don’t care about sound balance, but I think some grace is called for considering this is probably the earliest an episode has gone from filming to mixing to air since the cable days almost 25 years ago.
If someone said “Hey, would you like a sneak peek of the first episode of MST3K’s new season?” you’d jump at the chance, wouldn’t you? Especially if they were soliciting your input as a backer on the experience afterwards so they can use that knowledge to make things better going forward.
I’m all for grace… just pushing back on the one comment who says fans will just accept it as the permanent sound settings like we accept the bad sound mixing for Mads Are Back.
You can see my comments man… I’m been accused of being an nuMST apologist for years now… . I’m a full supporter and gracious about it all. But it should not sound that bad in the final form. Excuses like ‘the mads are back are bad at it too’ or ‘they can’t do sound right cause they have to spend millions on other things’ aren’t valid IMO.
The riffing is the show. We have got to get the sound right if we want to get to Season 14 and beyond.
you don’t think the livestream audio was a major issue…
respectfully… that is the source of our disagreement. I’m telling you it was a major issue for me and it sounds like a ton of others. Perhaps it’s the equipment you listened on. I know folks have different setups and settings perhaps a ‘sound settings’ cheat sheet might help everyone. It’s something I’ve been thinking about… if there was a way to fix it on my end and then maybe I could share that with others who are having issues.
I have Samsung smart tv and soundbar, and mirrored the screen from my HP laptop via hdmi cable. I didn’t mess with the audio settings for this broadcast, just kept it in the default mode.
Maybe I’m lucky to have been in a smaller space, without much distraction, but I was able to listen and consistently catch the movie dialogue. It was quieter than I would have expected, but my main issue was (out of 10) the movie was at like 5-5.5, the riffs a 7-7.5 and the live new bits were a solid 9. So I didn’t feel like there was a massive problem with a single audio source, as much as a major discrepancy across each one.
My main issue was with the app. I was unable to airplay to my smart tv, and when I did get a connection, it was more of a “mirroring” than airplay, the frame of the video was substantially smaller, and the audio/video fidelity (regardless of balance) was rather poor. For the replay, I was able to airplay from the website, and the audio/video quality was as should be expected. But I could hear the differing layers being so far off level with each other.
There’s a poll up gauging how widespread the issue is and what platforms it was seen on. It could be a mix of platforms, apps, and personal home theater settings. So I’d say they’re being responsive.
I didn’t really have any sound issues that I could recall aside from Joel’s Audio being briefly low in the intro.
It’s not nearly as bad as Sci Fi’s premiere of The Projected Man which was unwatchable. If it can be fixed, it will be fixed, I’m sure.
It sucks to look forward to the first new episode of your favorite show in years and have it be a suboptimal experience, but I’m glad that the community overall makes it better from the top down. I appreciate your passion.
Some people have a distorted view of how much $6.5 million is in the world of TV and film making. For comparison, a single episode of Star Trek: Discovery has a budget of about $8.5 million.
