Hi Everyone, I’m new around here. Thanks for having me.
I have a question about the current Crowd Fund for Season 14. I’m intrigued about the surgically enhanced episodes, but I don’t know much about them, and what’s been done already as far as surgically enhanced episodes, either. Is there a list of what’s been done so far? Did a quick search on Gizmoplex and saw they did some for last Turkey Day Marathon, but I couldn’t find the actual surgically enhanced episodes to watch by themselves. How will we be able to view these episodes? If these episodes were offered as a digital download, that might be something that seriously interests me as a perk, but it doesn’t seem like that’s the case.
If I recall correctly, the picture quality is improved and it has been adjusted to fit better into modern tv screens as opposed to the 4:3 aspect ratio of the old episode styles. Someone will correct me if that’s wrong.
Last I checked, they were definitely on the Gizmoplex to watch. The first one was Pumaman, but I admit I can’t remember which ones they did and which ones were done by the unofficial AI enhancement project. I’m not promoting one over the other. I’m sure each one has its own merits.
Maybe they’re only available with the pass? I’ll admit I never got the pass because I’m willing to wait for the physical media. Maybe the version of Pumaman on there is the surgically enhanced version? I don’t see any indication that that is the case when I search for it.
I talked about it a bit in my Pumaman tribute write-up. Basically they’re just high definition upscales with richer colors, while the black on the bottom has been minimized to zoom in as much as possible without losing any image during the theater segments.
I don’t like them, so I never sought them out, so I can’t help there. But I know they showed a bunch last Turkey Day, and am thinking they might show them off again this year.
Hercules Against the Moon Men is a classic ep begging for enhancement. That one is so blurry and grainy that Hayden Christensen finds it coarse and irritating … and not just because of the sandstorm…
I like the surgically enhanced idea, hopefully they create a separate area in the Gixmoplex where all the surgically enhanced movies are highlighted. I understand purists who only want to watch the show how it originally looked, but modern TVs are far less forgiving than those old 4:3 boxes, so a little added sharpness and improved color is nice.
i very much enjoyed the SE episodes, Pumaman was the first. than we got turkeyday marathon with
Sword and the Dragon,
Starfighters,
Catalina Caper,
Horror of party beach,
Warrior of the Lost World
City Limits
Parts:the clonus horror
Mitchell
My first guess was that the Surgically Enhanced classic episodes were focused on non-Gizmoplex release, either for eventual Blu Ray or even Free Ad-supported Streaming Television (FAST).
While I’d prefer keeping the shape of the original image, the improved color and HD quality scans are very nicely done.
You can crop a fair amount off the bottom of a classic MST3K by eliminating all but the curved seat tops, but you’d still need to lose a bit off the top of the picture to hit the modern 16:9 ratio.
But if you just crop the seat backs, it’ll fill a noticeably bigger part of your TV screen. Not a bad compromise, in my opinion, but the best thing is the improved picture quality. The MST3K AI Upscale project is also working on enhanced image quality, and hasn’t yet been stamped out like the short-lived “MST3K Cinema Edition” channel from a few years ago.
)
