Legends of the Silver Screen Charlie Chaplin & Buster Keaton

Rating:
Summary: Buy the Image/Kino/Warner DVD's
Review: I knew that the "Legends of the Silver Screen" DVD's would be awful, but what's worse is that they simply stole transfers from other companies. "The Kid" is from the old CBS-FOX laserdisc (later a DVD from Image Entertainment). While the great transfer is obvious, the nearly 2.1 mbs bitrate makes the image totally blurry. The General and Steamboat Bill Jr. appear to be from Killiam prints released by Republic on laserdisc (both are very blurry). Tillie's Punctured Romance isn't terrible, but it too is obviously from another company's laserdisc.

AVOID this 2-disc set. Get the Image Entertainment DVD for The General and Steamboat Bill Jr and the Warner/MK2 DVD for The Kid. I think Image Entertainment has a DVD of Tillie, but I'm not sure. If they do, it'll at least have something better than 2.1 mbs!

Rating:
Summary: Charlie vs. Buster
Review: In one of my college classes recently we watched a Charlie Chaplin film, so when I saw this box set at WalMart (for $5.50) I knew it was too good to be true. These four movies are absolute classics; they can never be replaced by the movies of this day and age. If you're the type who can sit through a silent movie... this is definitely for you.

Rating:
Summary: Very bad picture quality
Review: Watching these DVDs is like watching a tiny mpeg blown up to fill the screen. The compression artifacts are annoyingly apparent and it's like watching the video through a curtain of debris.

"The Kid" isn't as bad in quality as the other three shorts are, but the picture is still a bit blurred nonetheless.

I'm going to take pjmccart's advice and get the Warner/MK2 copy of "The Kid" ... or maybe even the 2-disc Special Edition version.