The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I was wondering when the new restoration of King of Jazz 1930 with Paul Whiteman would be released. So I looked on Ebay and Amazon and there it is. For about $20 you can get the 2 DVD Blu Ray restoration of this almost lost film from 1930. If you have never seen it, it is not a movie with a plot, but is a series of songs and dances, and comdedy skits. Obviously a lot of it looks silly and dated to us today, but what a time machine to look at the tastes of 1930!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/King-Of-Jazz-D ... SwkxRatajq

Got my copy a few weeks ago. Some sections were better restored than others. Still looks and sound better than my old VHS copy!

colmike1 wrote:Got my copy a few weeks ago. Some sections were better restored than others. Still looks and sound better than my old VHS copy!

Should I list my BetaMax copy that I got shortly before VHS became so popular (at the expense of the beautiful Beta Recordings)? Might be quite a collectible! I am going to order the DVD. I refuse to switch to Blue-Ray until I am sure that It is going to stick around unlike my Sony and Toshiba BetaMax players and tapes.

My copy arrived about a week ago... have not had a chance to watch it yet.

Blu-Ray is already dead. It's all about 4k streaming now, buddy!

Only if you live in q city with reliable high speed internet. Blu rays are far fr9m dead.

Discs sales and rentals declining 25% over the past two years isn't death, yet, but that's fine. There's always shellac. I sometimes plug in 8-tracks while doing yardwork, too.

Streaming services increased by 30% over the same period.

Someday pickers might roam the rural regions hunting for DVD players, the same way Charles McCarn and his pals found lots of springwound phonos that had survived unnaturally longer, in the areas finally brought electrification through the TVA.

I've seen parts of the restored version of the rhapsody in blue section on you tube and it looks more like rhapsody in minty green. I know that a two colour film process was used for this film and that it is impossible to accurately depict the colour blue using this system. However period prints (also viewable on you tube) show a much better representation of the blue colour.

As these were Technicolor prints (which don't fade) I assume that when the original prints were made a blue dye was used instead of the green for the printing matrices. This would achieve the desired result without affecting skin tones.

It's just a pity that the restoration process didn't also achieve this effect. A sadly missed opportunity and a glaringly inaccurate representation of what would of been viewed by the original cinema audience. You would of thought there would of been a clue for the restorers in the segments title....

S-B-H

Blu-Ray discs aren't dead at all. Most streaming sites have an awfully low bitrate that is a lot worse than an average BR disc. Btw. there are also 4k Blu-Ray discs. If you really want to talk about latest trends, it's all now going towards 8k.

And yes, the Rhapsody in green is really shame. Once again, it appears that no one bothered to do proper research before starting to work at it.

It is a shame the color was not correctly restored. I found the video on you tube and just stream it to my TV for free. I