Topic: Questions re. Flight of the Navigator/Never Ending Story DVDs

[DVD4Me]

Hi, I'm new to this forum. Happy new year to one and all.

My questions:

(1) Having recently purchased a bigger tv, i settled down to watch Flight of the Navigator, the R2 release (cinema club) release. I was appalled by the quality which seems to be just a VHS transfer? How I missed this the first time round i do not know. Anyway, is there a remastered version of this movie available?

(2) Are Never Ending Story II and III available on dvd? A search suggests that there is a german release of II, but i can't see any reference to III. I'm surprised someone hasn't released the trilogy in one pack, unless i have missed it?

Thanks

[Dr. Hasslein]

Hello, happy New Year and welcome.

I'm not aware of an remastered version of Flight of the Navigator. But the quality of the DVD you own does not surprise me one bit. I once owed an R4 copy Mr. Saturday Night and that was without a doubt a VHS transfer. You could even see the tracking pop up here and there.

I believe here in Australia only parts 1 and 2 of The Neverending Story are available. The original is also on Blu-ray, it has no special features but it looks beautiful.

Your user name looks familiar, are you on youtube by any chance?

[Critter]

Wow, Flight of the Navigator! That brings back memories. I used to be scared to death of that film and now I don't remember why.

[DVD4Me]

Hello, happy New Year and welcome.

I'm not aware of an remastered version of Flight of the Navigator. But the quality of the DVD you own does not surprise me one bit. I once owed an R4 copy Mr. Saturday Night and that was without a doubt a VHS transfer. You could even see the tracking pop up here and there.

I believe here in Australia only parts 1 and 2 of The Neverending Story are available. The original is also on Blu-ray, it has no special features but it looks beautiful.

Your user name looks familiar, are you on youtube by any chance?

I just registered on youtube, but not as that username, so its probably someone else. Well, I haven't tried playing the original Never Ending Story on my blu-ray player yet, to see how it upscales, i doubt i'd upgrade to the Blu-Ray version if no extras.

Any thoughts on the Never Ending Story tv series? I think I had one volume on dvd at some point but never gave it a try.

As for Flight of the Navigator, I'll be trading that one in asap as its pretty much an unwatchable transfer, at least on a bigger tv.

[Dr. Hasslein]

There was a TV series? That's a bit scary.

What is your YouTube channel? I'll be happy to subscribe.

[Najemikon]

If you've just purchased a bigger TV, bear in mind you might also need a new DVD player.

My previous player, connected via scart to my LCD TV was suddenly unwatchable. I bought an upscaling Onkyo DVD player (about £60) that could be connected via HDMI and the quality was incredible.

That said there are a lot of older DVDs that are just out of date now. Non-anamorphic releases are especially bad because the TV essentially zooms them.

[DVD4Me]

There was a TV series? That's a bit scary.

What is your YouTube channel? I'll be happy to subscribe.

I don't think you would be, its nothing to do with DVDs and currently consists of one video of me singing a song.

[DVD4Me]

If you've just purchased a bigger TV, bear in mind you might also need a new DVD player.

My previous player, connected via scart to my LCD TV was suddenly unwatchable. I bought an upscaling Onkyo DVD player (about £60) that could be connected via HDMI and the quality was incredible.

That said there are a lot of older DVDs that are just out of date now. Non-anamorphic releases are especially bad because the TV essentially zooms them.

I took the opportunity to purchase a blu-ray player at the same time as the tv upgrade. I'll be keeping the old dvd plugged in as well though, as the blu ray doesn't do 4:3 via hdmi and doesn't readily play R1 disks.

[Najemikon]

I took the opportunity to purchase a blu-ray player at the same time as the tv upgrade. I'll be keeping the old dvd plugged in as well though, as the blu ray doesn't do 4:3 via hdmi and doesn't readily play R1 disks.

Keep the idea of an upscaling DVD player in mind. I found the quality of even my Region 1 discs was improved greatly, even better than playing them through the Blu-Ray player.

Regards the screen format though, can't your TV switch between the modes easily?

[DVD4Me]

I took the opportunity to purchase a blu-ray player at the same time as the tv upgrade. I'll be keeping the old dvd plugged in as well though, as the blu ray doesn't do 4:3 via hdmi and doesn't readily play R1 disks.

Keep the idea of an upscaling DVD player in mind. I found the quality of even my Region 1 discs was improved greatly, even better than playing them through the Blu-Ray player.

Regards the screen format though, can't your TV switch between the modes easily?

Its a Sony and forces the 16:9 format on 4:3 content, the 4:3 option is missing via HDMI connection, although it seems it may be possible by adjusting video settings on the bluray player, just haven't got round to trying it yet but will have a go today.

[Jimmy]

I'm sure a Sony can do that via the menu. If my chinese clone can do it an higher quality brand certainly can too. Check the video setting on your reader it's the way I control those things my TV being non HD.

[DVD4Me]

I'm sure a Sony can do that via the menu. If my chinese clone can do it an higher quality brand certainly can too. Check the video setting on your reader it's the way I control those things my TV being non HD.

A google search yielded the following solution:

"The first important settings are in the "Video Settings" section. The first control here is an aspect ratio control, which the manual and on-screen displays are very vague about. The "Screen Format" setting can be toggled between "Fixed Aspect Ratio" and "Original", and dictates how standard-def 4:3 content on BD (usually old bonus features) and DVD is displayed. The correct setting is "Fixed Aspect Ratio", which plays these clips back without video distortion (with side-bars on the left and right). The strangely named "Original" setting distorts them to 16:9."

So i can now play 4:3 dvds correctly. Playing import (R1 to me) dvds is a slightly different issue, as far as i can see there is no easy way, without purchasing an alernate remote control, so I guess I'll still be keeping the old player connected to play the (limited) R1 dvds I own.