Talk:Them Ain't Big Eye Ants

Adding to "collection"

I might be really dumb, but cannot see how to add this to my online collection - can anyone tell me how to do this? Ta! Dr Rx

Squished videos

I'm sure that all 7 of those videos that I listed are 'squished', you can compare them with their online versions. Trust me, I'm a DVD geek :) Perhaps I should have been more specific about the Homestar Runner videos. They should be 4:3, but they used 16:9 versions with black bars on the side, and then put them in 4:3, resulting in squished videos. I actually went through each video and made a list of how each one appears

Non-anamorphic (widescreen video with black bars on top and bottom)

• The Mesopotamians
• With The Dark
• I'm Impressed

16:9 videos in 4:3 aspect ratio (squished)

• Tubthumping
• Bastard Wants To Hit Me
• Spoiler Alert
• Cloisonné
• You Probably Get That A Lot
• Experimental Film
• 200 SBemails

The rest are shown correctly, whether they are 4:3 or 16:9. The only one I'm not entirely sure about is Shadow Government. The YouTube version is non-anamorphic 16:9, and the DVD is 4:3, but the DVD version looks better (notice the moon looks like a circle on the DVD and like an oval on the YouTube version). -Joltman 20:14, 16 December 2012 (EST)

Upon a closer inspection (I only previewed each video for a few seconds originally), I can confirm that "Experimental Film" is definitely being shown at the same incorrect aspect ratio as "200 SBemails" - which does, indeed, look like 4:3 framed in 16:9 shrunk to 4:3 again (ultimately resulting in an almost 1:1 size picture). With the lack of quality control on this DVD I'm not quite sure what went wrong in comparison to past releases... I assume this was more of a low-budget homemade production and the best sources weren't rounded up for each video (even when they were readily available, like the "Venue Songs" DVD). Oh, and "The Shadow Government" definitely was made in 4:3, that's always bugged me. Nice to have a high quality source on that video, at least. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 22:17, 16 December 2012 (EST)

Joltman, you got a hilarious response here! http://tmbgareok.tumblr.com/post/38341744143/as-a-dvd-geek-i-was-a-little-annoyed-by-some-of-the -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 22:08, 19 December 2012 (EST)

Looks like they are sending out replacements to fix the problems: —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.78.243.175 (talk) 13:28, 19 December 2012

Hello everyone--John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants here.

It has come to our attention that the DVD of Them Ain't Big Eye Ants has a number of harsh technical flaws. In our rush to get it into production we didn't have a chance to check the authored disc, and working under the assumption it would be fine we inadvertently shipped an inferior product.

We are going to reship a properly authored DVD to everyone who ordered the bundle. It is unclear how quickly we can make this happen, but we will do it as quickly as possible without throwing quality out the window again.

Our very real apologies, and we thank you for your understanding. Have a great holiday and we hope to see you on the road in 2013!

John F., TMBG

Cool. Hope they treat it more delicately! :] -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 13:40, 19 December 2012 (EST)

Should be getting them soon! "Them Ain’t Big Eye Ants is now in production and probably will be mailed next week" (posted April 13) -Joltman (talk) 17:51, 14 April 2013 (EDT)

Ha!

Availability?

I guess I was a little too slow ordering this DVD, because I went to the TMBG Merch store, and it's not there anymore. Was it only for a limited time, and not announced when it would go out of availability? Will it be returned to the store soon? --My Evil Twin's Twin 01:11, 29 January 2013 (EST)

I assume they took it down while they're fixing the problems with it (see the other comments on this talk page) and will have it back up once the new, fixed copies are done. --Self Called Nowhere 04:25, 29 January 2013 (EST)

Fixed version

Just got my fixed version and checked it. It did technically fix the issues, but it's not really ideal.

I'm Impressed is no longer duplicated after The Mesopotamians, and there are no more squished videos. However, the way they fixed it is that all widescreen videos are now non-anamorphic. This includes the two Strong Bad videos, which are 4x3 in a 16x9 format that is non-anamorphic, meaning they are shown in the correct aspect ratio, but they are windowboxed, even on a 4x3 TV. So in short, the good news is no videos are shown in an incorrect ratio. The bad news is, some videos are actually lesser quality now, since they have been downgraded from anamorphic to non-anamorphic. -Joltman (talk) 15:09, 11 May 2013 (EDT)

Yep, less than ideal - but at least it's consistent, I guess. They definitely dug out better quality sources for some of the videos, though the framerate seems choppy here and there on recent ones (and "Tubthumping" looks interlaced). It's the best we're going to get, and comparatively it's much less messed up than the last version. Did yours also come with a copy of the 4 Tracks from Join Us CD? -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 15:34, 11 May 2013 (EDT)

Actually, I did get an extra CD, but mine was The Spine, so perhaps they included a somewhat random bonus CD. -Joltman (talk) 15:47, 11 May 2013 (EDT)

Also, it might be worth pointing out that the packaging is basically identical for the original and fixed versions (technically, the colors seem a touch different, with the new version looking a little darker, but not something you would notice without comparing them). The only difference I can see is in the matrix on the disc, with the original version having MWK3742 and the fixed version having MXD2508. Do these matrices match up with everyone's copies? -Joltman (talk) 16:02, 11 May 2013 (EDT)

The faulty version is back with a vengeance! When I ordered the T-shirt and free DVD bundle, it was this version I was sent. It is probably the worst-mastered DVD I have ever seen in my life! The aspect ratio issues are one thing, but I was more appalled by the video quality - almost every video has pixellation/jaggies issues characteristic of badly-reencoded Quicktime files. The stuff from Venue Songs is worst, appears to have been literally ripped badly from the DVD as poor quality MOV using iMovie or something. As it was technically a 'free gift' I feel as if I've got no recourse, but as it was advertised on the shop I'd argue it was technically a bundle and a purchased item and I shouldn't have got the faulty version. ~SirDarrell

bonus discs

just making a new heading to organise this somewhat. here's a list of the known bonus discs:

• Join Us (Four Advance Tracks) (CapitalQ, Selfcallednowhere, CJSF, [1])
• The Spine (Joltman)
• Prevenge (Promo)^[1][2]
• The Spine Surfs Alone (Nosaj56)^[3]
• Man, It's So Loud In Here (EP) (Inunaota4a, radjose)^[4]

feel free to update as necessary. haven't got mine yet. -Apollo (colloquia!) 19:13, 11 May 2013 (EDT)

Seems like they were just clearing out random stock (although the Join Us Four Tracks was never sold on the site, as far as I recall). Very cool! -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 22:16, 11 May 2013 (EDT)

I got Join Us (Four Advance Tracks) as well. Anyone up for a trade (The Spine Surfs alone)? -- CJSF (talk) 23:57, 13 May 2013 (EDT)

I got The Spine Surfs Alone with my replacement copy and I'm keeping it since it's one of their best EP's and I didn't have a physical copy of it. -Nosaj56 (talk) 16:01, 15 May 2013 (EDT)