Bewitched S.3 episode fixes with Mill Creek? (1 Viewer)

[David*P]

Is there a possibility of getting Mill Creek to correct the mistakes Sony made on Season Three which are as follows:

In the episode "My Friend Ben" when Samantha zaps up the tankard of ale, there is one frame mysteriously missing from the Sony release which is demonstrated in the middle screen cap with the ball of light (thanks to Brett*H who captured this I presume from the Columbia House video tape release).

At the end of that same episode Sony blacked out the very end which was a freeze frame on Samantha's worried face with the words: "Part 2 Next Week" over layed.

Also missing on the Sony DVD release is the opening tag recap from "Samantha for the Defense."

All of these elements were present on the Columbia House video tapes, so who do we need to talk to and how do we contact them?

 

[moviebuff75]

I doubt it. Their other shows are the same as the Sony releases.

 

[classicmovieguy]

I think Mill Creek would be working with the masters provided them by Sony...

 

[UniversalPhan]

Mill Creek will not remaster or correct these episodes. If they did, the prices for these sets would be much higher. They are doing a simple video transfer with the current versions. Additionally, the picture quality problems are a result of Mill Creek jamming too many episodes on these DVDs, which is resulting in video degradation.

 

[cwilli]

Mill Creek will not remaster or correct these episodes. If they did, the prices for these sets would be much higher. They are doing a simple video transfer with the current versions. Additionally, the picture quality problems are a result of Mill Creek jamming too many episodes on these DVDs, which is resulting in video degradation.

I was thinking of purchasing the Gidget tv show from Mill Creek. Do you know if any degradation has occurred with the cramming of too many episodes? If so, I will see if I could still purchase the Sony version.

 

[UniversalPhan]

The thing is is that I've played around with blank DVDs, making backups of my own boxed sets, and DVDs are only designed to hold so much content. Once you start adding more video content to DVDs, the video quality tends to degrade. At most, DVDs are only designed to hold about four hour long episodes, two two-hour movies. Once you pass that threshold, the more video content you add to that disk, the more the picture quality suffers. At most, Mill Creek should have stuck to around 8 episodes per DVD.

Now, I've tested this with two releases from Mill Creek. I purchased the Gamera Blu-ray trilogy release, which had two movies on a single Blu-ray disk and OI purchased the Bewitched Season 1 & 2 combo set. They crammed 12 episodes onto a single DVD, not to mention that DVDs aren't designed for that kind of storage capacity.

Not only do you get anti-aliasing problems but you also get picture degradation because the disk copying process needs to squeeze the video in order to fit onto a single disk. Even Fox Home Video has never been that careless as they have been able to fit eight episodes onto their MASH TV series DVDs without any video degradation. The only reason Mill Creek did this was to save on production costs. I just don't have any respect for Mill Creek releases any more, and I had planned on purchasing more of their releases, but not after seeing the picture quality on Bewitched.

 

[David*P]

That sucks. I wish a reputable company like Image Entertainment had the rights to Sony's shows so that they would get the releases they deserve.

 

[DeWilson]

They crammed 12 episodes onto a single DVD, not to mention that DVDs aren't designed for that kind of storage capacity.

Dual-Layer can account for the extra space, and 150 minutes (6 half hours)per layer isn't too much of a stretch space-wise Besides, these discs are being marketed as low-cost items for the casual viewer, not the collector.These re-issues are nothing more than the DVD version of "syndication".

 

[TVonDVDJunkie05]

I just don't have any respect for Mill Creek releases any more, and I had planned on purchasing more of their releases, but not after seeing the picture quality on Bewitched.

What did you expect, Mill Creek is a budget outfit, they specialize in 'value releases' (i.e. cheap crap) whose main attraction is the low price they sell for. If you care about about great picture & sound or bonus features then look into acquiring the original releases as these releases are not for you. I have purchased a few series from them (Highway to Heaven, 3rd Rock & Cosby Show) but I don't think I will be purchasing anything else in the future. I am still ticked off about The Cosby Show releases they put out, which suffer from the same problem as your Bewitched set (2-disc sets, with 12 episodes crammed onto each disc). The previous Carsey Werner releases were all 3 disc sets but for some reason they decided that The Cosby Show was not worthy of such quality so they downgraded it to a 2 disc set with subpar audio & video quality.

I wish a reputable company like Image Entertainment had the rights to Sony's shows so that they would get the releases they deserve.

There is no reason why Sony couldn't have re-released these series themselves just like Universal & Warner Bros. are doing with their series. The fact that they licensed out their content to the likes of Mill Creek who is going to flood the market with low quality crap, indicates to me how much Sony really cares for their library of classic series.

 

[UniversalPhan]

Actually, I did expect better from Mill Creek. Just because a company is releasing budget priced merchandise doesn;t mean the quality has to be cheap and pathetic. I'm sorry, but if you work for a company, even if you're releasing budget priced merchandise, you still have a responsibility to deliver a quality product. It's really not rocket science.

Take a look at Shout Factory. They are releasing quality merchandise and at a budget. Also, Mill Creek Entertainment has proven that they can release budget priced DVD sets and still maintain decent quality standards. Take a look at their Blu-ray releases, take a look at their previous DVD releases. I recall picking up such DVD sets as Hunter Season 1 and 2, which had 4-5 episodes per DVD and they still maintained quality on the DVD pressings.

But, Mill Creek's releases for Bewitched really suck. I hate to be blunt, but I will not recommend any of their DVD sets at anyone I know and I'll post reviews on the subject and post about it on my website. My dad always told me that you get what you pay for. In Mill Creek's case, it's inferior DVD releases. I simply won't trust any Mill Creek release for the near future.

 

[MatthewA]

Mill Creek will not remaster or correct these episodes. If they did, the prices for these sets would be much higher. They are doing a simple video transfer with the current versions. Additionally, the picture quality problems are a result of Mill Creek jamming too many episodes on these DVDs, which is resulting in video degradation.

That's disappointing to hear. I purchased seasons 3 and 4 of Married...with Children and they appear to be uncut with the original theme music intact (no original logos, though). However, the disc-cramming is pretty bad, and the motion seems kind of off.

 

[UniversalPhan]

I know. Many people don't realize that yoou just cannot cram as much video content as you can on a DVD without the quality suffering. Even DVD burning software, when you are cretaing a video-disk, warns you when you start passing a certain threshold, that video and audio quality will begin to suffer when you start adding content beyond a certain a capacity.

The reason I noticed a difference is because I have a 32" HDTV and I noticed the difference in quality between a normal DVD release from Universal and the DVD releases from Mill Creek. Even compared the quality playing each on my 20" PC monitor. Mill Creek cut corners and their releases suffered as a result.

 

[Ron1973]

I know. Many people don't realize that yoou just cannot cram as much video content as you can on a DVD without the quality suffering. Even DVD burning software, when you are cretaing a video-disk, warns you when you start passing a certain threshold, that video and audio quality will begin to suffer when you start adding content beyond a certain a capacity.

The reason I noticed a difference is because I have a 32" HDTV and I noticed the difference in quality between a normal DVD release from Universal and the DVD releases from Mill Creek. Even compared the quality playing each on my 20" PC monitor. Mill Creek cut corners and their releases suffered as a result.

I used to try doing that when I was making DVD-R recordings of Hee Haw. I tried to squeeze 6 episodes per disc and it looked crappy. I've went back to doing 2-3 per disc to save quality.

 

[TVonDVDJunkie05]

But, Mill Creek's releases for Bewitched really suck.

Why don't you buy Sony's releases of the show, they released a complete series set at the end of last year that sells for $40-50, the per season cost is much lower than what Mill Creek is selling their sets for and it also contains some bonus features.

I recall picking up such DVD sets as Hunter Season 1 and 2, which had 4-5 episodes per DVD and they still maintained quality on the DVD pressings.

That may have been an exception because other shows like 21 Jump Street & Renegade contained 6-7 episodes per disc while The Commish & Wiseguy contained 5-6 episodes per disc. Also, a lot of their animated releases contain 10 or more episodes per disc, cramming as much into a disc as they can is standard practice for them. At the end of the day, it is what it is and its up to each individual to decide whether to accept the lower quality in exchange for a cheaper price.

 

[UniversalPhan]

TVonDVD, your logic there is faulty because I don't recall any distributor releasing any TV series with 7-8 hour long episodes on a single disk. Perhaps with half hour episodes, but not for hour length episodes. It just isn't done. The most I have ever seen is 4-5 episodes per disk. AND, it's not a matter of buying them from Sony, MILL CREEK is deliberately saturating the market with inferior product. To many consumers, DVD quality is everything.

While my expectations on picture quality are low, I do expect some moderate degree of quality when I purchase a DVD or a Blu-ray. With older shows like Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, I never expected to have clear crisp remastered video but I did expect some decent picture quality with their releases on these shows. The Bewitched release just failed to impress me and that the quality of the episodes only proved to strengthen my resolve to warn others not to purchase these releases.

The picture quality would have been better if they had expanded these sets fropm 3 DVDs per season to 4 DVDs per season.

 

[Dave Farley]

I know Mill Creek will just use the same Sony transfers but I was curious about two other Season 3 episodes and whether they're unedited or not. When it comes to TV shows, the episode run times are actually extremely consistent when the episodes are the uncut versions. If you look at run times on sets that are known to be uncut, you'll notice that episodes are usually within 1-20 seconds of each other. When you see large variances, it's a sign that something is missing. In the era of Bewitched Season 3, episode run times should be roughly 25:10-25:30.

For an example, read this review of Bewitched Season 4 and look at the run times and their consistency with one another:

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/bewitchedseason4dvdreview.html


On Season 3, we know from an above post that "Samantha for the Defense" is missing its teaser, which is a recap of the previous episode. That explains the short 24:20 run time. The teaser is available on YouTube yet it was stupidly left off the Sony DVD set. The teaser is roughly 1 minute long. Add that to the run time of that episode on DVD, and you get the near average running time of 25:20, which is correct for the era.




Here's my question. On Season 3, two other episodes, along with "Samantha for the Defense," are much shorter than all others. Episode 6-"Endora Moves in for a Spell" is only 24:19 and Episode 9-"The Short, Happy Circuit of Aunt Clara" is 24:55. I know that one of these episodes, "Endora Moves..." is on the Columbia House VHS releases, so if you have it, please check if you have the time. The episodes on this season set average 25:25. These two episodes run short, especially the Endora episode. "Endora moves in for a Spell" and "Samantha for the Defense" have an almost identical run time and we know that "Samantha for the Defense" was missing its 60-second teaser. What is missing from "Endora Moves in for a Spell" and "The Short, Happy..."?

Does anyone have the Columbia House release or an even older recording to check?

 

[TVonDVDJunkie05]

TVonDVD, your logic there is faulty because I don't recall any distributor releasing any TV series with 7-8 hour long episodes on a single disk.

Please re-read my comments, I was clearly referring to Mill Creek releases not releases from the major studios. I listed several hour-long series that Mill Creek released where some of the discs in those releases contained 5 or 6 episodes per disc and the 21 Jump Street complete series release contained discs with 7 episodes on them! The major studios as well as other indie companies like Shout! & VEI all put 4 episodes per disc for their hour long series releases. I thought 5 episodes was alot but these guys are really pushing it by putting 6 or 7 episodes onto a single disc.

MILL CREEK is deliberately saturating the market with inferior product. To many consumers, DVD quality is everything.

Mill Creek, as has been stated before, is a value based distributor which means they release things at a very low price. In order to charge as litle as they do, certain things are sacrificed and one of those things is picture quality unfortunately. Their target audience is people who don't care as much about quality but just want to buy it for as little as possible. As for them saturating the market, perhaps that is what Sony wants otherwise why would they give Mill Creek the distribution rights to these shows?!

 

[Mark-P]

Except that even Shout! Factory has succumbed to episode-cramming with their latest release: Big Valley Season Two.

 

[UniversalPhan]

Perhaps ... I know that every studio does it. But, Mill Creek does it to such an extent that it becomes detrimental to their own releases and it's so bad that it's giving Sony a bad reputation just because of how Mill Creek is treating their TV series properties.

 

[jcroy]

Perhaps ... I know that every studio does it. But, Mill Creek does it to such an extent that it becomes detrimental to their own releases and it's so bad that it's giving Sony a bad reputation just because of how Mill Creek is treating their TV series properties.

The question is whether Sony actually gives a damn about their tv on dvd reputation being tarnished in this manner.