Visual Artifacts Found in SpongeBob

[President Squidward]

If that's true than why would advertise TTG's 100th episode or whatever that was? I remember them advertising that a while back and I never understood why. I remember seeing Gumball and We Bare Bears advertisments too.

Can't hate them too much if they're willing to advertise their shows on occasion.

It's not Nickelodeon's choicr airing ads for other networks. Your cable/sattellite provider inserts ads like those for a minute (like for me DirecTV airs Nickelodeon promos on CN). It's very hard to explain why TV does that but I hope I cleared things up :P

Yet Nickelodeon hates CN and wants nothing to do with them.

last time i checked theyre besties on twitter

 

[Original Raw and Uncut]

Now come to think of it, whenever I watch tv on older CRT TVs, It actually does have the weird VHS effect, unless I'm using component.

 

[Original Raw and Uncut]

The VHS effect is absolutely horrendous in this episode, look at Patrick's outline, dear neptune.

 

[LARRY22]

The VHS effect is absolutely horrendous in this episode, look at Patrick's outline, dear neptune.

That is very interesting. I think that's an older rip of the episode SGOD, because I saw the episode air on my TV a few days ago, and while it had the VHS effect, it wasn't as noticeable as it was on Nickelodeon's website.

 

[a_load_of_barnacles]

VHS tapes and tapes in general do not use pixels, in fact old CRT monitors did not either. They used horizontal lines behind something called a shadow mask to display the picture. So that is what the effect looks like. But I doubt this is the main cause, that is probably interlacing. Every wonder what the "p" after 720p or 1080p means? It doesn't mean pixels, it means progressive. What television programs are transmitted as is an interlaced signal (like 720i or 1080i). This means that the signal is spilt into horizontal lines (like CRTs) and is transmitted with usually every other line, with the image usually stretched out. This is done to save space in the transmission. This creates something called visual artifacts on the screen, something that may be more noticeable on a television broadcast as most are done using interlacing methods. Now the effect appearing on the DVDs and on Nick.com may have to do with them using the interlaced video, on them storing the footage on tapes that use horizontal scan lines to display images. I hope this clears up any confusion!

 

[Original Raw and Uncut]

Wasn't season 2 more colorful in earlier airings. That's what I've heard

There were several topics based on that theory

 

[BenPaz: Act Zero]

The VHS effect is absolutely horrendous in this episode, look at Patrick's outline, dear neptune.

I'm gonna be honest here


I see nothing wrong with this image or any of the other "VHS effect" screenshots posted in this topic. They look normal to me

 

[Original Raw and Uncut]

I'm gonna be honest here


I see nothing wrong with this image or any of the other "VHS effect" screenshots posted in this topic. They look normal to me

Look at Patrick's outline

 

[BenPaz: Act Zero]

Look at Patrick's outline

I was on mobile when I saw that image and the effect was not apparent. Being on pc I can see it now.

 

[Original Raw and Uncut]

Two episodes from season four on DVDs have VHS quality through and through - Best Frenemies and Bummer Vacation and I always wondered why, because on TV those episodes looked perfectly normal if not better.

The Original Fry Cook and Night Light also have the VHS effect

 

[Original Raw and Uncut]

I'm gonna list episodes where the VHS effect is very noticeable:
Nature Pants
I Was A Teenage Gary
Procrastination/ I'm With Stupid (no ::dolphin noise: :)
Sailor Mouth (It's so bad, that in certain airings, it makes the episode look like it used cel animation instead of digital ink and paint)
Artist Unknown
Krusty Love
Jellyfish Hunter and the Fry Cook Games
The Algea's Always Greener and Spongegaurd on Duty
Just One Bite (Deleted scene versions)
I have never seen the VHS effect in any season 3 episode beyond Idiot Box


Rare Post-Movie examples:
Have You Seen This Snail (Certain scenes, like when Spongebob is crying in the kitchen)
Night Light & Original Fry Cook have weird VHS quality in certain airings too

The VHS effect is nowhere to be found in S6/S7/S8, I'm guessing the studio equipment went 100% digital by then. The VHS effect was in it's abundance during the latter half of the second season. It's painfully obvious why it's gone now, since the show has been in HD since mid-2012.

 

[Niffy01]

If you take a look at the PAL versions of these episodes, you notice they do not have this distracting problem. It seems like the copies Nick has were transferred using composite. It is most likely the PAL copies are SCART transfers, or the raw copy from the studios.

Comparison - https://imgur.com/a/b4LVK
The pictures also show the show the multi-coloured outlines on the NTSC copy.


Sources:
Nautical Nonsense (PAL)
Nick.com

 

[LARRY22]

If you take a look at the PAL versions of these episodes, you notice they do not have this distracting problem. It seems like the copies Nick has were transferred using composite. It is most likely the PAL copies are SCART transfers, or the raw copy from the studios.

Comparison - https://imgur.com/a/b4LVK
The pictures also show the show the multi-coloured outlines on the NTSC copy.


Sources:
Nautical Nonsense (PAL)
Nick.com

Where can the PAL copies be found online?

 

[ExtraAbsorbent]

If you take a look at the PAL versions of these episodes, you notice they do not have this distracting problem. It seems like the copies Nick has were transferred using composite. It is most likely the PAL copies are SCART transfers, or the raw copy from the studios.

Comparison - https://imgur.com/a/b4LVK
The pictures also show the show the multi-coloured outlines on the NTSC copy.


Sources:
Nautical Nonsense (PAL)
Nick.com

Yeah, I noticed that too. I also have PAL copies of a couple episodes.

 

[Original Raw and Uncut]

I'm confused, so the PAL versions are the raw copies that DO NOT have the VHS effect?

So the clean versions of the episodes are the original studio prints

 

[LARRY22]

I'm confused, so the PAL versions are the raw copies that DO NOT have the VHS effect?

So the clean versions of the episodes are the original studio prints

Yeah I'm very confused too. Apparently some copies don't have the moving dot effect, and others do? Does that mean there are sources without it? If that's the case, I'm very curious as to what source doesn't have it.

Does Amazon, or iTunes, and Hulu, and Nickelodeon (the channel), and Nick.com have this problem?

EDIT: I wonder this because I don't want to watch SpongeBob with the distracting VHS effect, knowing there are better and cleaner looking copies (Copies that don't have SpongeBob as pale yellow in S2).

 

[Original Raw and Uncut]

Yeah I'm very confused too. Apparently some copies don't have the moving dot effect, and others do? Does that mean there are sources without it? If that's the case, I'm very curious as to what source doesn't have it.

Does Amazon, or iTunes, and Hulu, and Nickelodeon (the channel), and Nick.com have this problem?

EDIT: I wonder this because I don't want to watch SpongeBob with the distracting VHS effect, knowing there are better and cleaner looking copies (Copies that don't have SpongeBob as pale yellow in S2).

I actually enjoy the VHS effect, it makes the episodes look old and nostalgic. But I see where you're coming from

 

[LARRY22]

I actually enjoy the VHS effect, it makes the episodes look old and nostalgic. But I see where you're coming from

Yeah, I see where you come from too, but I'm definitely one of those people who looks at the tiniest of details. :P

Question- Is there a source to watch better copies of episodes, or are there no clean copies on the Internet at this time?

 

[Original Raw and Uncut]

Yeah, I see where you come from too, but I'm definitely one of those people who looks at the tiniest of details. :P

Question- Is there a source to watch better copies of episodes, or are there no clean copies on the Internet at this time?

No, unless you have the episodes on DVD, amazon still looks VHS-ey

 

[Niffy01]

Where can the PAL copies be found online?

If you don't want to buy the DVDs, you could record them from a stream.


Be warned though, Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy III has a less noticeable VHS effect in the PAL copy.