I torrented a few episodes from 1337x, but they are quite compressed/low-quality. Is this the best there is or is there a higher quality version hidden somewhere? It wasn’t originally filmed it at such a low quality, right?
Yes, that is the quality of the original presentation. If anything it looks worse because it has been converted from film to a digital signal, as well as being stretched to be a bit larger than normal. Lmk if you young whippersnappers have any questions about this, I grew up watching this on VHS back in the dark times 👴
Some was 16mm but probably mostly shot straight to vhs:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096657/technical/?ref_=tt_spec_sm
And the bbc was notoriously bad at not losing archival footage of tv shows
I remember the VHS we watched was presented as a compilation of episodes with a new introduction and interludes so my guess is there was some kind of professional reproduction of the episodes themselves
Yeah I’m not saying they didn’t edit it, but rather the master footage they were editing was on vhs or similar. I guess it’s probably quite likely they would’ve had some sort of better quality magnetic tape rather than vhs come to think of it though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It probably was broadcast at piss-poor quality, usually 520p
Mr. Bean only exists at 576p DVD quality. It probably wasn’t shot in high quality film, so no HD releases have been released.
It was made for British TV in the late 80s maybe.
It wasn’t going to be done on 35mm with movie making kit. What you see there is probably the best it’s going to be.
this is a screengrab from the best quality amazon prime has, think it’s all the same videotape
