Pre-2000s Television on Blu-ray

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Minkin
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:13 pm

Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#76 Post by Minkin » Fri Jul 25, 2014 3:26 pm

I'm ecstatic that this is finally coming out, on bluray, in the correct aspect ratio, and uncut, but sheesh - they really skimped on the extras. 3 hours of decidedly unexciting extras for your $270. At least you get that hotwheels cars + vintage trading cards. Apparently there will be a set without the extra BS later in the year, and probably another limited edition set every year after (judging by the endless rehashes of Casablanca/Clockwork Orange/Wizard of Oz/etc). I hope more extras are announced, as I had heard that West/Ward/Newmar had recorded commentaries (perhaps that will be in the next iteration/rehash). I suppose the price is better than 3 seasons of Paramount shows (which retail at $120 each), but I wish a little more effort was put into this rather than garbage being thrown onto the set, like this:
Hollywood favorites stars and producers recount their favorite Batman memories.

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aox
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#77 Post by aox » Fri Jul 25, 2014 4:46 pm

The extras are paltry and the price is absurd.


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eerik
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#79 Post by eerik » Tue Jul 29, 2014 5:15 pm

UK pre-order for Batman is up, the same "limited edition" boxset as North America gets, same expensive. :(

Why can't Warner also offer another, regular edition without the "collectibles"... 13-disc, three-season, 120-episode boxset of Batman is as expensive as 21-disc, ten-season, 236-episode boxset of Friends.

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#80 Post by EddieLarkin » Wed Jul 30, 2014 7:08 am

eerik wrote:UK pre-order for Batman is up, the same "limited edition" boxset as North America gets, same expensive. :(
It has been reduced now. £110 for UK residents, or around $155 delivered to the US.

hanshotfirst1138
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#81 Post by hanshotfirst1138 » Thu Jul 31, 2014 8:58 am

To be fair, even most shows which were shot on film back in the day were edited on video, so very few of them would have HD masters.
matrixschmatrix wrote:The Twilight Zone sets aren't cheap but they are absolutely among the best TV show sets I've ever purchased- multiple audio options (original and remastered), newly recorded commentaries from surviving cast members and experts (without losing the older commentaries), radio play versions of the shows, beautiful PQ, recordings of Serling giving talks about the show in the 70s- if Paramount were putting that much effort in, I wouldn't blame them for the high MSRPs. Even the Lucy set, which is certainly solid, looks like it has mostly recycled material (the only commentaries are leftovers from Criterion's laserdisc, sheesh).
I wish that they'd so the same for The Outer Limits. I managed to pick up the DVD boxed set on eBay, but even the SD DVD version are OOP.

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eerik
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#82 Post by eerik » Thu Jul 31, 2014 11:12 am

It is now Amazon exclusive in the UK. Hope for a regular wide release, perhaps?

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Minkin
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#83 Post by Minkin » Thu Aug 21, 2014 6:18 pm

Well, of all the random shit, Lionsgate is coming out with The Avengers Season 5 on Blu-ray in November. Yes, season 5 only. Were the previous seasons shot on tape? rights issues?

The good news is, like their Little House on the Prairie releases, its very affordable, and will hopefully be correct aspect ratio/decent enough AV quality. Extras are likely to be poor though (but at $29.99 MSRP, I wouldn't expect something like Twilight Zone quality). I still will probably hold off on this on the hopes that Network will pickup/release the entire series in the UK as part of their spate of ITV blus.

Speaking of Network, I came across this Supermarionation boxset on their website. Includes the recent documentary film + select "key episodes" from Gerry Anderson's television shows. I'll add this set to the "single episodes" section on the first page. The set seems a bit excessive. They will hopefully release everything separately at some point.

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#84 Post by EddieLarkin » Thu Aug 21, 2014 7:00 pm

Seasons 1 to 3 of The Avengers were indeed shot on video. Most of Season 1 is now lost. Season 4 was shot on film, and was the first season to feature Diana Rigg. Season 5 was the first season to be shot in colour, which may be the reason why Lionsgate have gone with that one first. Season 6 as well, though Rigg had left by that point. Most DVD releases of The Avengers seemed to focus only on the two Rigg seasons, though I believe everything that exists has been released at some point.

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Minkin
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#85 Post by Minkin » Thu Aug 21, 2014 7:46 pm

Well that makes more sense then (damn UK shooting on tape and losing most of it). Though its stupid that they're skipping season 4, just because "oooh, its black and white."

All excitement for this release has now been dashed though:
tvshowsonDVD.com wrote:The info Lionsgate has provided to retailers says to expect this release to be in widescreen video, with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio... No extras are mentioned by the studio info
I hope this is a mistake on all three parts. I'd highly recommend nobody preorder this until reading a review first (I expect to add this to the "Shame list").

Edit

Season 4 is coming out in the UK from Studio Canal. I'm hoping that at 57 quid, this will have actual special features+ great AV quality. I'm getting conflicting reports from the bluray.com report about the aspect ratio-saying that the HD masters are in 4:3, so Lionsgate would have to further zoom in on them to get to widescreen (which, I wouldn't put past Lionsgate). So, I'd still say wait it out until you find out whats going on with this thing.

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vsski
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#86 Post by vsski » Fri Aug 22, 2014 2:03 pm

I actually collected all US DVDs of the Avengers series when it first came out in the US, as I'm a big fan of the series.

EddieLarkin is correct that the first three seasons of the show were shot on video, but all episodes were wiped. What has survived is two complete episodes and one partial one from Season 1 (the one with Ian Hendry) on 16mm film telerecordings or kinescoping, in other words putting a film camera in front of special TV screen. Season 2 and 3 (with Honor Blackman and others) have survived largely intact, but also only with 16mm film telerecordings. So as expected the quality of these episodes is poor and the DVDs not only show sub-par picture quality, but also many picture drop-outs inherent in the original elements. Beginning with Season 4 (Diana Rigg as Emma Peel) the episodes were shot on 35mm film, and beginning with Season 5 all were shot on film and in color.
Season 6 saw Linda Thorson as Tara King and then in 1976 a reboot come out as The New Avengers with Gareth Hunt and Joanna Lumley as Patrick Macnee's partners.

All seasons and surviving material was published on DVD, in the US by A&E, in the UK by multiple labels over the years.
Initially in the US A&E published the series by broadcasting year, beginning with '67 which were the first color episodes, typically in box sets of 2 DVDs with 6 to 7 episodes per box set and 2 to 4 volumes per year and with little extras. As some of the older seasons came out a few more extras emerged, but never as much as in the UK on the Optimum releases. Eventually the US also published a Complete Emma Peel Box Set, but never a complete series one. All discs are OOP although most are still available from different sources.

In the UK initially the same strategy was used and Contender Entertainment (now part of EOne) published them by broadcast year. The Studio Canal / Optimum reissued them by Series with extras and eventually box sets of the Emma Peel as well as the complete series emerged.

To my knowledge none of the DVDs ever had the episodes in anything other than fullscreen (but I don't own all of the UK ones so can't be sure).

And for those who wonder how the broadcast year correspond to seasons:
Season 1 - 1961(26 monochrome episodes, only 2 survive completely)
Season 2 - 1962 (26 monochrome episodes)
Season 3 - 1963/64 (26 monochrome episodes)
Season 4 - 1965/66 (26 monochrome episodes)
Season 5 - 1967/68 (26 color episodes)
Season 6 - 1969 (34 color episodes)

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#87 Post by EddieLarkin » Fri Aug 22, 2014 2:15 pm

I've heard also that the only current HD master is in 4x3. Perhaps the widescreen statement is simply referring to the fact the discs themselves will be 16x9, like all Blu-rays. What worries me more is the tvshowsondvd link states that all 24 episodes are being spread across 3 Blu-rays. That's around 7 hours per disc, which is ridiculous. No wonder the MSRP is only $30.

Hopefully SC are going to do them properly, with Season 5 to follow soon.

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#88 Post by EddieLarkin » Sat Oct 18, 2014 7:08 pm

The entirety of the Gundam series to see home video release (possibly Blu-ray) in North America, starting Spring next year, via Sunrise and RightStuf. Mobile Suit Gundam (43 episodes & 2 movies) and Turn A Gundam (50 episodes & 2 movies) will be first.

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Jeff
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#89 Post by Jeff » Tue Nov 04, 2014 10:51 pm


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aox
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#90 Post by aox » Wed Nov 05, 2014 10:49 am

Very good read. Thanks for posting that. Anyone following the story over the years knew that basic legal issues, but it was really nice to read a little more detail.

Was there ever a similar article detailing the hell The Wonder Years went though with it's music rights and how a lot of those issues got solved?

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#91 Post by EddieLarkin » Tue Nov 11, 2014 5:01 pm

Murdoch wrote:Sailor Moon complete series, uncut and uncensored, coming to Blu-Ray/DVD this summer. Hulu will also be streaming the uncensored series starting this Monday, adding two episodes each Monday. I've been meaning to rewatch the series for some time now so excuse me while I yell excitedly into my pillow.

Image
Ahem, that is all.
If you were intending to pick this up, it may be worth reconsidering as the picture quality is dismal. And that's not even down to the fact that it is an SD source. In this set of comparisons here, the mouse over image is the Japanese DVD (which looks the same as recent sets released in France and Germany), compared to the Viz Blu-ray/DVD.

It's been kicking off on Viz's Facebook and they claim that they did not get the same source from Toei that the Europeans got (despite the fact the French and German versions came out within the last year, and are still currently being released), but in fact got this. That is a set of comparisons between what Viz is claiming is what they had to work from (mouse off) and the actual Japanese DVD (mouse over).

Frankly, I have a hard time believing it. It's a lot more believable that they would get the same master as the Europeans (especially since "the Europeans" are KAZE, owned by Viz's sister company, Viz Europe!) and then totally messed with it during their "remaster", and are just producing caps that are somewhere along the chain, claiming they are the original "source". Either that or the post house they used (Subatomic Digital, apparently) are the ones coming up with these caps to cover their own arses.

Either way, the set is a disaster and doesn't even pass for a DVD, let alone a Blu-ray.

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Adam X
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#92 Post by Adam X » Sat Nov 15, 2014 11:03 am

And if you were really curious, here's Kentai's unintended rant about the set.

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Minkin
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#93 Post by Minkin » Thu Nov 20, 2014 8:26 pm

Warner have announced a Batman Blu-ray set without the Hot Wheel car/trading cards/other crap; but it still includes the on-disc extras (all three hours of them...). Its only $30 cheaper than the other set - and the packaging is very uninspired (this version is supposed to be more shelf friendly). It comes out on December 16th.

You can pick up the German version of this lighter set from Amazon.de for around $90 USD (the only thing of importance in German is the printed episode guide apparently). I'm tempted by both of these, but I think for something like Batman, I'd prefer to have the ridiculous box (it even plays the Batman theme song when you press a button on the side!). I bet it will drop to less than $100 from some retailer within the next year anyway.

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colinr0380
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#94 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Nov 21, 2014 3:46 pm

I've updated the main post on the first page of the thread, but am also noting here that The Simpsons Season 17 on Blu is going to have three bonus Sideshow Bob themed episodes. One of the episodes, The Man Who Grew Too Much, is from season 25 aired earlier this year, so long past 2000, but the other two are:

Krusty Gets Busted, Season 1, Episode 12; and
Cape Feare, Season 5, Episode 2

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#95 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Sat Nov 22, 2014 8:05 pm

Are any of the pre-season 14 bonus episodes true HD, or are they upscales? I'm guessing the latter, since I haven't seen anything about them remastering the older shot-on-film episodes, but I've never actually seen any of the Blus either.

pet42
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#96 Post by pet42 » Sun Nov 23, 2014 6:55 pm

UFO (Complete Series) will be released next week in Germany from the label epix: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B00NMXE0N0

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Minkin
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#97 Post by Minkin » Sun Nov 23, 2014 8:36 pm

pet42 wrote:UFO (Complete Series) will be released next week in Germany from the label epix: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B00NMXE0N0
Unless I'm reading it wrong, or its a mistake - it says all 26 episodes will be on one disc. Thats about 20 hours worth of content on a single Blu-Ray. Are Epix the same idiots who put out the Defenders of the Earth blu-ray that did this exact same thing (or is this some odd German thing)? Either way, I'm putting it straight into the shame list, as this is just absurd, and there is no way this is either going to not be an upscale or a seriously impaired set. As it is ITV, I hope Network get around to it soon.

Speaking of Network, they've announced Season 3 of the Professionals. Still no word of Space: 1999 or The Sweeney (both of which were supposed to have further seasons come out in 2014).

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Minkin
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#98 Post by Minkin » Mon Nov 24, 2014 7:38 pm

Universal announced Battlestar Galactica - the 1978 series for Blu-ray - to be released in May, 2015. The press release included this worrying statement:
Newly remastered in 16:9 widescreen presentation for the very first time, Battlestar Galactica: The Remastered Collection features both pioneering series meticulously reformatted to be optimized for the HDTV viewing experience.
Fortunately, it says they will also include the 4:3 original aspect ratio version! This does sound like it will either take up a lot of discs or I might fear the 4:3 version will get a lower bitrate. It is stupid that the jump to blu-ray is causing the opposite problem as the old VHS/DVD era. I guess people hate black space of any kind on their television. If this somehow ends up being shit (which, given Universal's track record in the Blu-ray era, I don't have high expectations), there is a bluray in Germany from Koch.

hanshotfirst1138
Joined: Wed Mar 12, 2014 6:06 pm

Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#99 Post by hanshotfirst1138 » Wed Dec 03, 2014 11:46 am

It sounds like they won't be including the 4:3 versions when they do The Wire though :(. I'd be hard pressed to think of a more hilariously perverse irony than "reverse pan and scan." I'm assuming that like they did with Star Trek, they'll have to redo the FX from scratch? If the show was edited on video, they'd have to go back to the original elements too. Considerable expense, but I suppose that with a series with a cult fanbase this size, it's a worthwhile investment.

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Graham
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Re: Pre-2000s Television on Bluray

#100 Post by Graham » Thu Dec 04, 2014 8:29 pm

The Wire is post 2000.

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