🎄 Holidays! EXCLUSIVE! Merry Christmas, Darling: Carpenters Public TV Special and DVD
- Thread starter newvillefan
- Start date
Chris Mills
That was funny....like the dark vomited up
Has anyone outside of the US and Canada managed to get their hands on a copy of this DVD? I'm watching the 1977 Carpenters Christmas show thanks to YouTube. The sound is pretty good, picture quality is OK. I really love this show, gives me a nice warm and fuzzy feeling, or maybe the alcohol is starting to kick in! Merry Christmas to everyone at A&M Corner.
tomswift2002
Well-Known Member
I haven't received my copy yet. Hopefully it'll come tomorrow.
Rick-An Ordinary Fool
Well-Known Member
Wow just in the "Nick" of time. Enjoy, I plan to watch mine again tonight. "Happy Christmas"
tomswift2002
Well-Known Member
I'm still waiting to see it. Hopefully it'll be in this week.
tomswift2002
Well-Known Member
Most of what's on the internet comes from second or third generation VHS SLP copies. I know that there are some out there that have come from first generation Betamax and VHS SP off-air recordings that look really great.
That's why I put that "last third" part of the Christmas Portrait special, since I found it on a VHS tape I'd made from ABC years ago. It was taped in SP speed and still looked pretty good - basically a first-generation copy. Unfortunately, videotape at that time was extremely expensive and at some point I needed to reuse it for something or other, so the old Carpenters special was recorded over, leaving just that last third.
Someone else on YouTube has grafted my final third onto the rest of the special; you can see the edit point in his video as Georgia Engel is speaking about the angels.
This is my contribution:
Someone else on YouTube has grafted my final third onto the rest of the special; you can see the edit point in his video as Georgia Engel is speaking about the angels.
This is my contribution:
tomswift2002
Well-Known Member
Just looking at that now it is amazing just how much resolution and detail is in that VHS SP recording (of course YouTube has added some compression issues to the video, plus the video's been de-interlaced, but next to the other YouTube copies, it is the highest quality). I've got a copy on DVD and I can tell that it's a 2nd or 3rd gen VHS SLP copy, mostly due to the fact that a digital mid-1990's to 2000's "HiFi" popping on the top of the screen at the start and very low resolution. Of course I guess that when people think of VHS a lot think of the quality of SLP when SP was a lot better.
Rick-An Ordinary Fool
Well-Known Member
Is Karen "putting on" a performance when she is singing "Christ Is Born" regarding the way she embellishes the ending of phrases and words right before she takes her next breath? Do you think someone told her to do this as it would enhance the performance? When you listen to the actual recording it doesn't sound like how she acts it on this video. On the record it's sound softly like the way Karen sings but watching her perform it she accents the ending words abruptly with somewhat force. It's hard to explain in words.
tomswift2002
Well-Known Member
I just received the DVD today. I guess that means I got on either Orthodox Christmas Eve Eve or Orthodox Christmas Eve. (I always thought Orthodox Christmas fell on January 6, but I see by Wikipedia that it could be the 6th or 7th depending on which branch of the church you are looking at; apparently most are considering January 7th this year as the general Orthodox Christmas.). Of course there are also those who are not Orthodox, but celebrate Epiphany or Twelfth Night on January 6, so I guess I got the DVD within the Christmas season.
It's nice seeing these videos. The "Santa Claus" video from the Perry Como special does contain the 1984 version---but this seems to me to be a newer remix, as Karen's voice seemed more seperated, and tinier, as though her bass had been turned down.
"Christmas Alphabet" was also fun to watch and hear as I've never seen or heard it before. "Make Me Laugh", sure while it did have a winter montage to it, and Bonhomme was nice to see, to give the DVD a Canadian connection (Bonhomme, for those outside of North America, is the mascot for the yearly Quebec Winter Carnival held in either Quebec City or Montreal) I didn't really find it was one of their better performances, and aside from the ski jumper at the end doing a face-plant, nothing wanted to make me laugh about the song. And Karen and Richard didn't seem to jolly in the song either.
One interesting thing that I found with the DVD was that it was in anamorphic widescreen. I found this rather odd, since I could understand the widescreen for broadcast (or for Blu Ray if a Blu Ray had been considered), but for DVD, with the 2 times that things actually used the full widescreen area (and I'm not counting that red background) I'm confused why this method was chosen, other than the fact that this was edited in 1080i (with all the video upconverted from 480i) for broadcast, and then a down converted 480i video was exported from the 1080i edit. Although the majority of stuff, including the couple of photo's seem to have been done with 4:3 cropping in mind (sensible for broadcast so that stations could crop the HD video to 4:3 full screen for their SD channel if they wanted) for DVD or SD broadcast. And with that red background, I would've preferred that it had been kept as the background matte during the whole video, rather than just coming on for the interviews or photos, or removed and just had black, since the whole production didn't seem uniform. I think it would've been better to have encoded the DVD as a Full Screen 1.33:1 DVD rather than a 1.66:1 Anamorphic DVD.
It's nice seeing these videos. The "Santa Claus" video from the Perry Como special does contain the 1984 version---but this seems to me to be a newer remix, as Karen's voice seemed more seperated, and tinier, as though her bass had been turned down.
"Christmas Alphabet" was also fun to watch and hear as I've never seen or heard it before. "Make Me Laugh", sure while it did have a winter montage to it, and Bonhomme was nice to see, to give the DVD a Canadian connection (Bonhomme, for those outside of North America, is the mascot for the yearly Quebec Winter Carnival held in either Quebec City or Montreal) I didn't really find it was one of their better performances, and aside from the ski jumper at the end doing a face-plant, nothing wanted to make me laugh about the song. And Karen and Richard didn't seem to jolly in the song either.
One interesting thing that I found with the DVD was that it was in anamorphic widescreen. I found this rather odd, since I could understand the widescreen for broadcast (or for Blu Ray if a Blu Ray had been considered), but for DVD, with the 2 times that things actually used the full widescreen area (and I'm not counting that red background) I'm confused why this method was chosen, other than the fact that this was edited in 1080i (with all the video upconverted from 480i) for broadcast, and then a down converted 480i video was exported from the 1080i edit. Although the majority of stuff, including the couple of photo's seem to have been done with 4:3 cropping in mind (sensible for broadcast so that stations could crop the HD video to 4:3 full screen for their SD channel if they wanted) for DVD or SD broadcast. And with that red background, I would've preferred that it had been kept as the background matte during the whole video, rather than just coming on for the interviews or photos, or removed and just had black, since the whole production didn't seem uniform. I think it would've been better to have encoded the DVD as a Full Screen 1.33:1 DVD rather than a 1.66:1 Anamorphic DVD.
Murray
Well-Known Member
Mine was delivered today... finally! The Christmas season may technically be over, but you'd never know it around here... It's snowing, and -20 degrees outside 
, and my (artificial) tree is still up and decorated. 
I'm off now to watch the show. Happy day after Orthodox boxing day everyone!
, and my (artificial) tree is still up and decorated. I'm off now to watch the show. Happy day after Orthodox boxing day everyone!
happy new year!
tomswift2002
Well-Known Member
I was hoping that by now we would've heard of another DVD release for this Christmas season, hopefully releasing the entire specials.
Karen Carpenter Fan 2012
Active Member
I was so thrilled with this. My room mate ordered the DVD for me in late November but it didn't arrive until after new years! It was nice but short but I guess I need to be thankful that there was a 'new' Carpenters DVD release...
tomswift2002
Well-Known Member
It would’ve been really great had Richard’s “Toyland” been included.
jaredjohnfisher
Well-Known Member
Was this ever offered at regular retail?
theninjarabbit
Well-Known Member
No. I believe it was a public-television offering only.
Rick-An Ordinary Fool
Well-Known Member
I guess it doesn't hurt to ask...will there be a Christmas Memories 2 and would you buy it?
