I Spy - Remastered? (1 Viewer)

[michael_ks]

Thanks, Wayne for the valuable input you provided on the "I Spy" sets--looking forward to getting these. And for the record, I agree with you on "The Outer Limits".

 

[Corey3rd]

are these single sided DVDs?

 

[BobSchneider]

Hey dont feel too bad your not the first person Mr Hankie gone off on for minor reason, but you do have a valid question, atleast in my books . Yes I think I Spy holds up very well, it a high quality show with excellent stories, great leading actors (robert clup and bill cosby) and does a nice job drama with some comic relief mixed in for good watch. I currently own all three seasons Image's first dvd printing of the show, While it true they could have done a better job cleaning up the prints and used a higher resolution video and sound capture, it still very watchable set, and by far not my worst dvd set (Crime Story S2 by far the worst set I own). At the online price of 12.99 a season it a insane deal and I think you be glad you pick one of TV greatest buddy drama's. Thats my to cents. Oh BTW I serious doubt a Blurry ray oops Blue ray release would help much on the video quality because most of the show was shot with small 16mm cameras primary used by tv news crews and much of that was done with hand held cameras using techiques devolped by the show's Cinematographers Fouad Said and Fleet Southcott . But I Spy is so much fun I can live with it

 

[Hank Dearborn]

My complaint was that the first show I watched and actually the first DVD I watched, was an episode that had a minute and a half of fight scene cut. The cut was obvious and I went back to my VHS tape of the episode which I had gotten from a Washington DC station in the early 80s that ran the show complete and the scene was there. So somewhere along the way, the current owner of the show, the Peter Rodgers Organization, mastered the show to tape using film prints that may have been edited. I timed out the episodes on the DVDs and some come in at over 51 minutes while others are anywhere from :30 to 2:00 shorter. I have not had time to compare any of the other episodes yet but I would be shocked if there were not edits in other shows.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Single-sided. There are as many as 6 episodes on some of the disks. Season 1's 28 episodes are on 5 disks.

 

[Bob Hug]

Six episodes of a show made for an hour-long timeframe on a single side? That gives me a little cause for concern. I have seen five hour long episodes on a few DVD releases from Sony (1970s Greatest Cop Shows, Best of Charlie's Angels) and those looked OK, but the addition of a sixth episode, I don't know. Have you watched any of the six episode discs yet, Wayne? Just curious if there is any marked decrease in the a/v on those. Three to four episodes on a side is pretty much the norm for hour long shows.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Yeah, when I first saw that, I was concerned, but I spot-watched a couple episodes on the first 6-episode disk and the quality was quite good - at least as good or better than the previous 4-episode disks, which I thought looked good. There was definitely no drop-off.

I think compression ability has changed on disks and the limits of what can be put on one disk and still maintain good quality. Somebody else may confirm or refute this, but that's my understanding.

 

[Bob Hug]

Thanks, Wayne, that's a bit more reassuring and, frankly, given the selling price, I shouldn't be complaining. Under $40 for all three seasons of the series is pretty much a no brainer; I'll pick this up at DD's semi-annual sale if they have it (hopefully, next month).

 

[Paul_Scott]

Wayne, what size and kind od display are you watching these on and from how far back? I can't remember the ep I saw from the old set ( it may have had Barbara Steele in it) but color fading and print damage such wasn't the problem, compression artifacting was. There was very little stability in the image- backgrounds especially would crawl and flicker along with severe aliasing on fine patterns like car grills, stairs, clothing patterns. I was viewing on an XGA projector(1024 x 768) @ about a 53" size from 6 feet back. Had I been watching this on a 32" crt tv from the same distance, they would have likely been acceptable.

 

[FrosteyV]

Picked up all three season today at Best Buy for 12.99 per season. To my untrained eye, the quality is excellent with my Upconvert DVD player on 37" HDTV.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

I have an older HD set, 46 inch Mitsubishi (WT-46807) CRT Rear Screen that I watch from about 8 feet away. I'm playing disks on a Panasonic blu-ray (DMK-BD30), but it's hooked up via component not HDMI so there's probably no upconversion (like I said, it's an old HD set), and I have the video input set at 480p (when I want to watch a blu-ray disk, I actually have to switch the input to the DTV 1080i input since I only have one HD input - this set was before HD DVDs were even on the horizon).

I'm noticing a little aliasing on seersucker suits in the new Perry Mason set, but not with the I Spy set. That could be the limitations of my presentation, but I still think Image did a good job with this show and am quite happy with it. Like I said, there are many color TV series sets I have from show 10-20-30 years later that don't look as good.

 

[BobSchneider]

I pick up the I spy sets at best buy yesterday for 12.99 too. Honestly the only real differences are packaging, disk menus and that the episodes now are broken down into chapters (but no scene selection menus). Is it a remaster of series (video and audio) the answer is no, the quality is basically the same as the original printing of I Spy. So honestly if you have the whole series though Imagine's original print there no real reason to pick up this new re printing of the I Spy series. But if you never pick up I Spy on it original dvd printing, at 12.99 a season, this is a insane deal to pick up one of tvs best buddy/action adventure -spy series ever made .


P.S. I think I'm going to return seasons 2 and 3 to best buy(save the $ for jag s6 lol), because Ive got all three seasons of the orginal image release and honestly after watching radom episodes of s1 I see NO noticable difference in the capture quality in the new re printed season sets. If your like me and have s1, s2 and s3 on images orginal release, you can pass on the reprint, but if you dont get reprinted season sets at the great deal of 12.99.

 

[JeffT.]

Once again I am not certain whether the previous Image Entertainment I SPY single disc releases are being discussed or the current complete season sets edition.

Are the episodes in this latest I SPY DVD release edited or are they complete (50 minutes)? While I realize we are talking about a $12 to $15 (bargain) proposition but this could (definitely) be enough to discourage me on the deal entirely.

Thanks!

Jeff T.

 

[Sam Favate]

They're not cut. I just watched episode 1 of season 1, and it's intact (and running 50 min or so). The picture quality is okay - I wouldn't put it on a par with the original Star Trek DVDs or even the Get Smart DVDs, but the picture is pretty damn good for a 40 year old show.

 

[Ron68]

My sets arrived today. I like the packaging, the artwork is stylish but I would have liked a listing of what each episode is about. I had to return the season 3 set because disc 3 was cracked from the center hole to the outer edge. The discs are very tight in the disc holder.

As for the series itself, I've only watched the first 2 episodes so far but I am really enjoying it. The episodes look pretty good, except for some vertical lines running through "A Cup of Kindness"

 

[Hank Dearborn]

Don't assume that 50 minutes or so is complete. Some episodes run about 51:20 so even at 50 they might be missing something, as I found with at least one episode, the first one I checked.

 

[BobSchneider]

Well honestly if I didnt have the first print of the series I would buy all three seasons at 12.99 price Best Buy selling them for. Yes, I agree the prints and captures are nowhere as good as Hawaii 5-0's, but they are still very serviceable great way to enjoy one of tv's best action adventure dramas of all time at your convenience and leisure. BTW Ive watch some of s1 episodes on both my panasonic upscaler and 480p though component on my old toshiba vcr/dvd combo and honestly I think it looks better on the toshiba at 480p , but I also think WWW and the Man from U.N.C.L.E. look better on the toshiba at 480p then upscaled to 720p go figure LOL. Look Jeff T get the seasons you wont regret it I Spy is a hell of allot of fun and you'll be happy you bought it.

 

[MishaLauenstein]

One episode that is known to be cut on the single releases is:
One Thousand Fine
My syndicated tape was 50' 31" (Teaser: 1' 34"; Theme: 53"; Act I: 12' 26";Act II: 9' 09";Act III: 14' 48"; Act IV: 8' 05"; Tag: 3' 05"; Credits: 26" (stopped early by TV station)).

On the DVD it's 50' 12" (Teaser: 1' 38"; Theme: 56"; Chapter 2: 12' 31"; Chapter 3: 22' 49"; Chapter 4: 8' 10"; Chapter 5: 3' 09"; Chapter 6 - End Credits: 1' 01")

Act III (Chapter 3) is missing 1' 15" which would bring the total running time to 51' 27"

The film is quite clearly damaged just as the cut happens, which removes most (all?) of the fight scene in the jungle.

Note: Timing differences between same sequences on Tape & DVD can be down to: tape speed, amount of black space between scenes, rounding to nearest second when calculating length. It's fairly obvious when there's something missing/extra, though.

I would like someone to post the length of One Thousand Fine on the new set.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Still 50'12" on the new set. And Kelly STILL doesn't go away with Susan Oliver, dummy.

 

[Hank Dearborn]

That is the cut episode I refer to. I have the episode from off-air with the fight scene intact from an early 80s run. Now since a lot of the episodes come in at around 51:25 or so, I'm wondering if the ones that don't are due to other minor edited scenes. This was the only one I saw a blatant cut on and since it's my favorite episode, I recognized it immediately.