Laurel And Hardy - 21 Disc Box Set ! (1 Viewer)

[TimothyJLahr]

Hello ,
I just received my 21 DVD Laurel And Hardy Collection Set and it is truly awesome. The box and the Dvd's and DVD cases are done with impeccable quality. The quality of the films themselves is the best I have seen. They probably could have done without the colorized versions of the films, as the quality of the (original) work is pretty bad(my opinion or course). I right away made a xcel spread sheet of all the films along with the DVD Volume it is on and then Alphabetized it. Now I have a nice guide to use when I want to access a particular film. I wish Hallmark would put together a North American version.
I have most of the Talkie shorts and some feature films on Video Tape. There was a TV show on a local channel here in Minnesota during the 80's that contained the Laurel and Hardy Comedy shorts. I don't know who did it or why, but I was diligent in taping every episode and even made sure and take many of the commercials out. Before I purchased this new 21 DVD set I was working on transferring those VHS Tape Films over to DVD. Wow was I in for a shock ! It is a huge pain in the a** to work with DVD recording ! There are all these formats ( DVD-R/RW,DVD+R/RW) and Titling/Chapter options. I started by messing around and simply dubbing a VHS Tape directly to a DVD-R . The DVD played fine in a modern DVD Player (but not in an older player). Then I did some rather basic Title Editing (added titles and titled the DVD disk,etc).The disk would not play on any of my other DVD players....only on the DVD Recorder I recorded it on ! It was not until I bought this new DVD Player that will play the PAL/Region 2 DVD's in the Laurel and Hardy Collection, that I could get the edited DVd's to play. Even the Multi-Region,Multi-Content player , however, would not play a copied DVD-RW with "animated" title chapters. I don't get it ....its like there are a bunch of different methods and formats , none of which work on other formats players. Remember the old days when you could make a cassette of your friends favorite music and give it to him or her as a gift. Try that now with Video content...its almost assured it won't work..Any thoughts?
Tim Lahr/Minnesota

 

[alan halvorson]

Are you using a PC or a standalone player/recorder? I use the later (Panasonic E80) and have no problem copying VHS or laser disc. The E80's hard drive and simple and limited editing and titling functions make it easy. My previous dvd recorder that lacked a hard drive was, indeed, a pain to use if you didn't want to record commercials or, in the case of LD, side breaks. So get yourself a hard drive! All my DVD-R discs have so far played fine on every machine I've tried them on, as did my previous DVD+R discs, so I can't answer why you're having problems.

I'm trying to recall the program that played L&H shorts in the 80's. Maybe you remember John Gallos, formerly Clancy the Cop, hosting a Sunday morning show that played L&H, the Marx Brothers now and again, and the Bowery Boys. Was this still on in the 80's? Might have been but my memory just ain't what it used to be.

 

[TimothyJLahr]

Al,
I am using a LG VHS-DVD Dubbing Recorder. I am sorta getting the hang of it now...I recorded a DVD-R disk with 4 L&H shorts (doing 4 individual Dubbing "sessions") and then edited them, inserting the titles of the shorts. The disk worked fine in the new player ! I will think about getting a unit with a hard drive or maybe upgrading my 2000 computer to a mdern DVD Burner capable one. I suppose then I could "digital convert and download" my VHS tapes to the hard drive and then edit them and burn them to a disk????
You sparked a memory when you mentioned John Gallos !!! He was "himself" , that is , not "Clancy The Cop" , and he played a bunch of Our Gang and L&H stuff...I remember that. The show I was talking about, however,was on Sunday morning (on a local affilate ..channel 23 out of St. Cloud)at 10:30 AM. It was quite a "polished" production with custom graphics and music and narration. They also played a few offshoot items such as: The Laurel and Hardy This Is Your Life episode, an Oliver Hardy Interview in the 50's, a Mae Bush and Charlie Hall Bio. That is why I want to keep these VHS Tapes and convert them to DVD to preserve them. Anyway, this show has Hal Roach credits all over the place,such as, before each short there is a large stylized "HR" (ie: Hal Roach) that rises vertically on the screen as a special Horned renditon of the classic cukoo intro is played. This show was in the mid 80's. I have to watch the credits and see who actually produced it. I would venture to guess the production episodes would be owned by Hallmark now. They would have to have records of the show somewhere.
I will do some research. By the way any of you belong to any L&H fan clubs????? I want to join one here in Minnesota. Whats the best one to join?
Tim

 

[Mark Zimmer]

What's the best source of the full set of the Dutch DVDs? I have a friend in the Netherlands willing to act as a front if need be.

 

[TimothyJLahr]

Hey by the way....
How come the 21 Box Set does not have english subtitles for the spanish/german versions? You can turn ON subtitles and it will show english subtitles for the ENGLISH speaking versions !!! But when you go over to the foreign language versions the subtitles aren't there > whats up with that????
Tim Lahr

 

[Cees Alons]

I didn't test this myself (yet), but you can choose the spoken language and the subtitles independently from the menue, can't you?


Cees

 

[Mario Gauci]

I have recently purchased Universal's 21-Disc "Laurel & Hardy" set and, until today, I was having a grand time going through the numerous shorts and features by my favorite comedy team.

Today, however, I experienced great disappointment while watching A CHUMP AT OXFORD (1940): the picture broke up several times during playback - to an annoying degree, in fact - and there were also lip-synch problems in the final moments of the picture. Curiously enough, the colorized version seemed perfectly okay when I checked it, but I'm not about to accept that as a substitute to the original black-and-white picture!! I was wondering, therefore, whether anybody else who has purchased the L&H set, or this individual title, has encountered similar problems with the video and audio.

I've still got 5 discs to watch from this set - PARDON US (1931), PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES (1932), THE BOHEMIAN GIRL (1936), SWISS MISS (1938) and SAPS AT SEA (1940) - so I hope they play fine... As for CHUMP, I guess I should write to Amazon and ask for a replacement - maybe I'll be more lucky second time around...

 

[Daniel Windsor]

I noticed a little bit of 'digital blocking' on CAO too (late on in the film IIRC). It was still there when I ripped the disc (for testing purposes of course).

It was very minor though.

Can you check you disc on another DVD player?

 

[TimothyJLahr]

I have not had any problems yet...I bought a multi-format/region player and it works great.
Tim

 

[John Hodson]

As reported in the main Software forum, the R2 set from Amazon is now £74.97, or $121 USD imported to the States including shipping...

 

[EricSchulz]

YIKES! What happened at Amazon.uk for these discs??? The set is now at 149.99BP, and almost all the single discs are now 15.99BP each! Shoulda gotten 'em while they were cheap...