#it's so... Weird

[deadbeandrop]

camp lazlo and "The Machine"

i forgot i had written about this on the screenshot blogs' FAQ, so i think i'll make it a post with my updated conclusions as well... so, have you ever wondered what's up with the colors in the HD version of the show?

y'know...

...this?

the first time i had watched the show, it was in pretty bad quality, and i had chalked any color differences up to that. even when i did have access to a few HD episodes, i never really noticed it outside of slinkman being a bit... lighter, mostly due to the fact that everything else was so submerged in Gunk in the first place. as you can see, the "issue" affects almost exclusively the yellows, most notably seen in the sky, or in characters like slinkman or clam, or even in lumpus’s glasses, and characters' eyes in general losing their off-white tint due to this. a quick look at any streaming service that has the show will tell you that almost all "official" distributions have this issue, and often (in)consistently so, at that. it may very well be the only version these services have access to (considering how they often the resources they have access to aren't always the best, which leads to things like episodes out of order or incorrect subtitles). to say the least, it bothers me a lot, especially for someone like me who's very particular about this sort of thing...! (it's sort of the reason i put the screenshot blogs on hold for a while, aside from the fact that it's a bit of a time sink — the issue just stressed me out too much!)

so, what's going on, then? my friends and i had ended up speculating about it for a while, and we had a lot of theories — was it the result of an upscaling process done for streaming services? was it something technical, like issues with the video encoding? did someone in charge of the process simply fuck up? all of the above?! and... most of all, why???

now, i know very little about all the technical stuff, but i've come to believe the most likely explanation is also the most simple one, with a little bit of obscure knowledge on the side... in that, i think it makes the most sense if the colors are fucked up due to The Machine at cartoon network. see, this isn't just an issue with camp lazlo, and there are other CN shows that have been a victim of this too, such as billy and mandy.

and here's what mr. atoms has to say on the topic:

the shows had also both aired their "later" seasons around the same time, circa ~2007-2008, and it explains away a lot of those inconsistencies, too — "It’s also the reason that Mandy’s hair changes from pure yellow to light yellow and back again all the time." in most other shows, the effect this would have is likely a lot more negligible. as one of the main characters, mandy is pointed out a lot as it'd be something you'd notice the most. camp lazlo, on the other hand... is a show where the whole sky is colored a bright yellow.

...definitely one of the worst shows that could've been hit with it.

even so, "The Machine" application is not actually the only state these episodes are stuck in... or rather, i don't think so, at least...?

so as far as i know... (which certainly isn't everything,)

- in order to to accommodate for the transition period from box TVs to flat screen TVs, i believe that camp lazlo, was, in fact, a show that was produced in a widescreen format, so it could be aired in full on new TVs and crop to fit the 4:3 aspect ratio of older ones.

- i am not sure if this inherently means it was also produced in Full HD (1080p).

- as can be confirmed by old recordings (one of the only additional benefits of sites like WCO keeping the old versions around is stuff like this, as annoying as it is trying to find anything else...), both color corrected and un-corrected versions of at least part of the show have aired at some point.

- as far as i'm aware, there is NO version of this show in Full HD with un-corrected colors.

- however, what i do know is that there is a widescreen, non-HD (480p or 720p, i can't remember off the top of my head) version of the show with the un-corrected colors. if you have a bit of a keen eye, you might have noticed it used on foreign variations of the official cartoon network youtube channel for clips. (it had fooled me at first into thinking it was a secret, all correct colors, and Full HD version of the show, but unfortunately this isn't the case.) see, my friends and i went on a little hunt for it for a while, with that detail as our basis, and it is out there... just not on the standard american versions of those services. instead, we had to look at a whole variation of HBO's streaming service itself, HBO GO, of which's entire existence is still currently on the line due to the HBO rebrand. (we have rescued it from there, in case of it becoming lost media of sorts, but due to technical limitations were only able to get it by recording, and thus also still has the HBO logo.) the mere existance of this version is very interesting to me and raises a lot of questions that may also contradict some of my earlier statements.

- and finally, i haven't looked at every set of files there is (as from all the different streaming services) so i actually am not 100% certain if there's actually variation between THOSE as well, and if there is... the situation is even more confusing to me.

i don't know if there will ever be justice for this, or if any victims of The Machine have ever recovered from its Wrath. it's a topic i've gone over dozens of times trying to sort it out, because, i'll be honest... it sort of haunts me.

but there's your little information dump and speculation for the day

[teaboot]

We gotta stop aiming for unique and interesting baby names we gotta start naming every single infant straight-shot middle-of-the-road ass popular common unisex names like Alex and Sam. By the end of 2031 I wanna see 100% of kindergarten children named either Alex or Sam and you know what, let’s make ‘em all Smiths and Johnsons, too. In an age of digital tracking give your baby the gift of total functional anonymity within the panopticon

[mercurio-shadowz]

shadow is a gay parrot: the comic

(Y'ALL I HAVE NO CLUE HOW TO TITLE THIS I'M SORRY LMAO)

[tothechaos]

this is what every tiktok screenshot looks like to me

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

It's always so weird to come down from the biology heavens to see what the average person believes about animals, plants, ecosystems, just the world around them. I don't even mean things that one simply doesn't know because they've never been told or things that are confusing, I'm talking about people who genuinely do not see insects as animals. What are you saying. Every time I see a crawling or fluttering little guy I know that little guy has motivations and drive to fulfill those motivations. There are gears turning in their head! They are perceiving this world and they are drawing conclusions, they are conscious. And yet it's still a whole thing if various bugs of the world feel pain or if they are simply Instinct Machines that are Not Truly Aware of Anything At All????? Help!!!!!! How can you look at a little guy and think he is just the macroscopic animal version of a virus

[hundredsofsmallbirds]

it's not fucking omegaverse im just birds

[batcavescolony]

Katniss is such an unreliable narrator. She says "Then something unexpected happens. At least, I don't expect it because I don't think of District 12 as a place that cares about me" girl you deliver strawberries to the Mayor, you hunt and trade for the district, when you fell at Prim being chosen someone caught you, when you went to Prim people parted for you, when you volunteered EVERYONE stopped. Idk how to tell you but I think you're a pillar of the community.

[atalana]

the curse of adhd:

i will remember with absolute clarity, when the thought strikes me that i have a text to send someone, that this is the fourth time in three days i've attempted to send this specific text

i will forget, in the time it takes me to pick up my phone, that i picked it up intending to send a text

[egophiliac]

missed the mark by (looks at calendar) uhhh. hm. but I really wanted to do something for the 5th anniversary! happy five years to these idiots 🎉

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

guys is it weird for your 20 year old son to build your ex husband out of trash in your house after youve gotten divorced

[opiumvampire]

fuck w me

[zillychu]

AS I WAS SAYING!!!!!

[wanologic]

sorry danny, sam will never think you’re cool

[lithiumseven]

Jason: It’s your spleen! You lost an ORGAN Tim, you should have told us!

Tim: So? You don’t have your tonsils, that’s an organ!

Dick: That’s not the same and you kn-

Jason: Jokes on you, my tonsils grew back in the Lazarus Pit so your argument doesn’t even make sense!

Dick, now fully turned toward Jason: Your tonsils did WHAT

[bearloonz]

I think we as a society should bring back brotps. I think we should be weirder about characters being friends the same way people are weird about ships. Make those two characters who interacted once or twice besties. Make it difficult for them to get rid of each other even if they want to. Go nuts