It Takes A Thief (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by Neil Brock

I think that going by your images, the retail one looks softer and also the print is starting to turn red and that's why her face looks more pink.

At least, Tina's hair coloring looks more like it was back then.

 

[Jack P]

There was one episode that did indeed look like it was starting to 'turn red' from what I saw in my marathon of the first eight episodes. I would not characterize these as battered 16mm from VHS dupes as the worst case scenario suggested, but neither is it anything exceptional. Good thing it was made available for half price because I never would have paid anything close to full price for this.

 

[Ron Lee Green]

The reviews are rolling in at amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2ZTS4PEMUKKFU/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B005DKS1Z8&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=#wasThisHelpful

 

[Jack P]

I can buy the argument that this release is a disappointment to diehard fans, but claiming Universal is one of the worst studios out there for DVD is IMO a bit over the top. Universal at least licenses stuff out to multiple companies who make sure we *get* a higher percentage of their catalog on DVD and they have come a long ways from the days when they were the king of one and done releases for vintage shows. Ultimately, I guess the real problem is that there wasn't more recent remastering done of the episodes in the time period when shows like Dragnet, Adam-12 etc. were at least brought up to a higher level of visual quality so that even older masters of those from the 90s look much better.

 

[vnisanian2001]

Universal isn't the worst studio for DVD, Fox is. Whoever is currently running Fox Home Entertainment need to be fired and blacklisted from the industry, as it turns out none of them know the differences between realistic/reasonable and unrealistic/unreasonable.

 

[dhammer]

I just got my set and am not happy with it. I haven't even viewed the episodes yet. The box the DVDs came in is damaged on all sides. Here's what gets me, the outer box was fine. They shrink wrap it to a piece of cardboard. It leads me to believe that whoever shipped it knew it was damaged and sent it anyway thinking the customer won't mind. They sent it to the wrong customer. I have sent many DVD's back over the years for this reason. It Takes A Thief is too expensive to accept damaged. Let me mention that the It Takes A Thief DVD packaging/box is extremely cheap quality. I felt like the box was going to collapse in my had. They should have made more sturdy packaging.

 

[borisfw]

Received my set yesterday . Can't comment on the episodes yet because i haven't had a chance to check them out . But i can say that the packaging stinks . A cardboard cube . Not sure what they were thinking . It wouldn't have been too bad if the seasons were in normal dvd cases inside the box . So you could take them out and store them . But the dvd cases are small cardboard foldouts . They won't fit in well on a shelf with other dvd cases . At least it seems like they included both versions of the pilot . I hope the episodes are in better shape then i'm hearing online .

 

[cajunhillbilly]

well glad I couldn't afford this at this time. Will wait until it drops way down in price to get it

 

[AndyMcKinney]

They shrink wrap it to a piece of cardboard. It leads me to believe that whoever shipped it knew it was damaged and sent it anyway thinking the customer won't mind.

That is normal packaging procedure for Amazon (US). Almost everything I order from them is shrinkwrapped to one piece of corrugated cardboard.

 

[dhammer]

That is normal packaging procedure for Amazon (US). Almost everything I order from them is shrinkwrapped to one piece of corrugated cardboard.

I'm fine with the shrink wrap. In fact, that usually protects it better during shipping. It is poor quality assurance when the people who package these items see it is damaged and send it anyway.

 

[SimonTemplar]

Does anyone know how this compares to the r4 Madman set of Season 1? Presumably they have used better prints.

 

[Neil Brock]

Does anyone know how this compares to the r4 Madman set of Season 1? Presumably they have used better prints.

I hear that the Madman set is much higher quality.

 

[PatrickGoodluck]

I was wondering the same thing and that's the reason I've held off buying this box set. Although, if the prints are complete and uncut, quality takes a back seat for me if there are no alternatives left.

 

[Richard Kaufman]

I never care about the packaging for DVDs or boxed sets. Long ago I removed all my DVDs from their boxes and began storing them in binders from Case Logic. Each binder holds about 96 DVDs and takes up very little space. My enormous collection went from a monster down to one large bookcase and all the DVD cases are stored in the attic. The only original "box" kept out is the egg from the Alien blu-ray set--it's much too nice for the attic.

 

[Jack P]

To me, packaging is a big deal because half the fun in having a TV on DVD collection is being able to arrange the titles on my shelves according to my own particular arrangement which is chronological. Shows that debuted in say the 1965-66 season are then followed by shows that debuted in 66-67 and so on down the line. It's like having TV history unfolding on the shelf. Bad packaging can mess the dynamics of that in addition to harming the discs potentially (the only one where it was impossible to keep them in the case was "Car 54 Where Are You?" I keep the discs out of it but I still leave the empty case on the shelf!)

 

[smithb]

Does anyone know how this compares to the r4 Madman set of Season 1? Presumably they have used better prints.

I hear that the Madman set is much higher quality.

No screen captures yet comparing R1 with German and Australian releases? Mine should come any day but I'm tempted to just send it back unopened and go with one of the other regions if they are better.

 

[HenryDuBrow]

There's an older thread here somewhere with captures from the German set, as I recall they looked pretty good, so if the new release looks as good as that there's no problem. If not, I'll probably go with the German release as its content seems more interesting than the Australian.

 

[Ron Lee Green]

Here's the link to the German site with screen caps:


http://www.dvd-forum.at/review/5534-dvd-ihr-auftritt-al-mundy-1-staffel-teil1


Here's a screen cap from the German site compared to a screen cap from Antenna TV.

Quite an improvement!

 

[Bob Gu]

I commented on the R2 German Season One set in the older "It Takes a Thief" thread, about the two shorter versions of the pilot, a 64+ minute version and a 63 minute version with a German only track. The R2 64 minute version is the same as the pilot on the Complete Series R1 set and looks to be the exact print to me in exactly the same picture quality, except that the music still plays on the end credits on the R2. The 63 minute version on the R2 set told the story better as it was a different cut with different scenes added and other bits left out. After looking at more episodes on both the R2 S1 set and the R1 S1 set, they look exactly the same to me in picture quality. (see edit below) The runtimes on the R2 set are shorter due to PALness. The German releases stopped with S2 Part 1 and I don't have that. I doubt that Universal would have provided Madman with different better prints. From online descriptions I don't think the Madman set has the 75 minute broadcast pilot version, but does have the 98 minute feature version that also is on the R1 S1 set. Didn't anybody on the board buy the Madman S1 release? So I think this R1 Complete Series set is the best we are going to get with "It Takes A Thief". EDIT: I have compared more episodes: German S1 vs E1 S1 and now I am running into episodes where the German release has better color, framing, and sharpness. Toddr2 has the Madman release of S1 and says it is better than the E1 based on the screenshots on this thread and that Madman is releasing S2 and S3 in March 2012.

 

[Ron Lee Green]

Amazon has stopped selling it at the time of this posting (9:00pm).

My guess is that too many people were sending it back because of damaged boxes, missing discs, poor video quality, or maybe they read the poor reviews and just don't want it.

Here's what the page says when I went there: Item Under Review While this item is available from other marketplace sellers on this page, it is not currently offered by Amazon.com because customers have told us there may be something wrong with our inventory of the item, the way we are shipping it, or the way it's described here. (Thanks for the tip!)

We're working to fix the problem as quickly as possible.