"Leave It To Beaver: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review (1 Viewer)

[JohnMor]

Originally Posted by Lecagr



HOWEVER, I do have a few gripes about this set. As season 6 is my favorite, I wanted to check out a few of those episodes first. So I popped in disc 1 and began watching "Wally's License". At about the 2 or 3 minute mark where the family is sitting at the kitchen table, the scene cuts to June and the detail on her dress is glowing this blue, red, and purple color. MY GOD IT LOOKS TERRIBLE! Then I noticed the color is also in Ward's hair and his necktie too! I think the problem is, these episodes were restored and the image sharpened to a point where anything with a lot of fine detail is going to have this "rainbow effect". The folks who remaster black and white shows for DVD need to make sure that colors don't appear in the picture. Surely there must be a way to achieve this. I imagine this problem is prevalent thruout the DVD set, so before I watch any more episodes I'll turn off the color on my TV set first.


.

I watched that ep the other day, and just re-watched that scene after reading your post, and it does not have that effect on my discs. Total grey scale on mine. Very strange. I've watched about 1/3 of the eps so far and have come across nothing even remotely like that on my discs (thank goodness.)

 

[Gary OS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob_Ray

I agree. And having theme music playing on the menu takes any from the impact of the actual episode, making it seem redundant and anticlimactic. Menus should be SILENT!

Gotta agree completely here. I definitely prefer silent menus for the very reason you mention. Theme songs are a big deal for me when I'm watching any show I love, both opening and closing. And when I hear that music, or any music from the series on the menus, it takes away from the actual episode when I start it up.



Gary "small complaint though because this set is truly awesome" O.

 

[Rob_Ray]

Originally Posted by Gary OS

Quote:



Gotta agree completely here. I definitely prefer silent menus for the very reason you mention. Theme songs are a big deal for me when I'm watching any show I love, both opening and closing. And when I hear that music, or any music from the series on the menus, it takes away from the actual episode when I start it up.



Gary "small complaint though because this set is truly awesome" O.

That goes for movies too. One of the worst offenders for me is "The Sound of Music." When I put that one on, the volume goes down until I see the Fox logo, as that movie was designed for there to be absolute silence until the picture starts. Forget about the repellent anti-pirating ad. I don't want to hear a single note from the score until that opening scene.

 

[Lecagr]

Originally Posted by LeoAmes

"MY GOD IT LOOKS TERRIBLE! Then I noticed the color is also in Ward's hair and his necktie too! I think the problem is, these episodes were restored and the image sharpened to a point where anything with a lot of fine detail is going to have this "rainbow effect". The folks who remaster black and white shows for DVD need to make sure that colors don't appear in the picture. Surely there must be a way to achieve this. I imagine this problem is prevalent thruout the DVD set, so before I watch any more episodes I'll turn off the color on my TV set first."


I don't think it's a problem with the transfers and I doubt turning the color off on your set will solve the problem.


It sounds like your describing the moiré effect that is most noticeable on things like clothing with patterns on them. What's your setup like? Are you watching on a CRT with a DVD player hooked up via composite? Going to component video in the past on my SDTV largely eliminated that rainbow effect your noticing on things that have patterns on them like a suit, necktie, striped t-shirt, and even someone's hair.


Make sure whatever your setup is, that your using component or HDMI if possible. It will help, although I don't think it can be fully eliminated.

I'll have to check my setup Leo, it's just your basic hookup DVD player connected to TV. I'm not aware of any adjustments I can make other than turning the color off on my TV set, I did do that and it took away the "rainbow effect" in the picture. I still think the issue is with the DVD's themselves, but whatever it is, turning the color off on my TV does rectify the problem.


And I have to concur with those who prefer no music in the episode menus. I too feel it is unneccessary, but since Shout Factory chose to put music in the menus, I think they at least should have used the 6th season theme for the season 6 DVD.


One other problem with the DVD set is the 1st season episodes having the teasers after the opening credits. I'm keeping my season 1 set from Universal, and will play those discs when I watch season 1 episodes.

 

[LeoA]

Use the highest quality connection your DVD player and television supports and I think you'll see some improvement.


Coaxial < Composite (Yellow video cable, Red & White audio cables) < S-Video (A circular plug that carries video and Red & White audio cables) < Component (Red, Green, & Blue video cables and Red & White audio) / HDMI (Single rectangular shaped cable that carries everything).


If your just using composite like I'm guessing you are and your equipment supports a superior connection method, even just going up to S-Video (A cable will run you less then $5 probably) will improve the image quality and reduce this rainbow effect your noticing. You want to go up as far as you can, I wouldn't be surprised if your TV has component connections even (Any HDTV will and most SDTV's over the last decade or so of production usually have them) and I'd be surprised if your DVD player couldn't at least do s-video.

 

[David Von Pein]

I recently purchased a new Panasonic DVD player (S58 model), and I was very surprised to find that it doesn't even have an S-video jack.


It doesn't really bother me, since I'm using the component connection anyway, but I was just surprised by the lack of an S-video connector on a 2010 DVD player.


Is S-video on the way out or something?


~shrug~

 

[LeoA]

Probably, it doesn't serve much of a purpose in the HDTV age as people continue to abandon their standard def CRT's.


Was it a upscaling DVD player? Maybe they just assumed anyone buying it was buying it for it's upscaling capabilities to hook up to their HDTV and figured there wasn't much of a need for it.

 

[Lecagr]

Originally Posted by LeoAmes

Use the highest quality connection your DVD player and television supports and I think you'll see some improvement.


Coaxial < Composite (Yellow video cable, Red & White audio cables) < S-Video (A circular plug that carries video and Red & White audio cables) < Component (Red, Green, & Blue video cables and Red & White audio) / HDMI (Single rectangular shaped cable that carries everything).


If your just using composite like I'm guessing you are and your equipment supports a superior connection method, even just going up to S-Video (A cable will run you less then $5 probably) will improve the image quality and reduce this rainbow effect your noticing. You want to go up as far as you can, I wouldn't be surprised if your TV has component connections even (Any HDTV will and most SDTV's over the last decade or so of production usually have them) and I'd be surprised if your DVD player couldn't at least do s-video.

Thanks Leo. I'll go to my local electronics store and see what they have. My TV is standard def, so when I play these black and white high def discs thru my standard def TV, perhaps that causes the rainbow color effect in the images on the screen. At least I can turn the color off on my set and that takes the rainbow effect away also. Whenever I'm in the market for a new TV, I'll probably look to purchase a HD set.


I can understand if studios like Shout Factory want to incorporate modern technology in their TV show releases. But in the case of Leave It To Beaver, using 2010 high def technology in a 1950's/60's black and white show is not the greatest idea. This isn't Star Wars we're talking about here. Remastering the LITB episodes in standard def would have been perfectly adequate in my opinion.

 

[Jack Platt]

(Issue has been corrected. Ignore this post.)


Jack

 

[Jack Platt]

Have you guys seen a lot of scenes that are not included in other versions?


Jack

 

[Jack Platt]

Here is the link to Shout's homepage:


http://www.shoutfactory.com/


There is info on Beaver there.


Jack

 

[Jack Platt]

What has been the cost of the complete set that you have seen?


Jack

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Jack Platt , check out the last several pages and you'll see a long discussion on the different prices that were available when the set was first released.


Did you have a purpose--in post #49--of quoting David's post #19 (the e-mails between he and Stu about the teasers)? I can't find any new comments.

 

[Jack Platt]

Originally Posted by Mike Frezon , check out the last several pages and you'll see a long discussion on the different prices that were available when the set was first released.


Did you have a purpose--in post #49--of quoting David's post #19 (the e-mails between he and Stu about the teasers)? I can't find any new comments.


Hi Mike!


Thanks!


I was trying to link to the Shout Factory Board from the URL link above. But I use the Web of Trust (WOT) plug in for Internet Safety when browsing, and it is blocking the site because there is a banner ad that comes up that WOT does not like.


So what I tried to do, was to just go to www.shoutfactory.com's home page, which does not trigger the WOT warning.


Jack

 

[David Von Pein]

[SIZE= 14px]SEASON 1 "TEASER" UPDATE:[/SIZE]


FYI -- I've now noticed that there are a total of seven episodes in Season 1 where the teasers have not been reversed. I had originally only noticed one. But I've checked every episode now from Season 1 in the Shout! DVD set, and there are seven shows that have the teaser/preview in the place where it should be--before the opening credits.

Those seven episodes are: "Music Lesson", "The Perfect Father", "The State Vs. Beaver", "Beaver Runs Away", "Party Invitation", "The Bank Account", and "Lonesome Beaver".

This is a real mystery to me. I can't figure out why in the world the people who were responsible for remastering these episodes would have decided to reverse the order of the teasers and opening credits for about 80% of the first-season episodes in seemingly willy-nilly fashion, while choosing at the same time to leave the teasers where they should be in the first place (at the very beginning of the show) on 7 of the 39 episodes. It doesn't make a bit of sense. It almost looks like somebody at NBC Universal was being deliberately spiteful.

~big shrug~

 

[Joe Lugoff]

Just for the record, I don't get it either. All things have explanations, and I'd like to know the explanation for this. I can't imagine what it could be.

 

[LeoA]

Carelessness from Universal when doing the transfers and carelessness from Shout Factory for not catching it or deciding not to take any steps to correct it on their own. That's the only explanation there could be.


Someone with the right software could've fixed this problem in a few minutes with the transfers Shout was provided, so I hope they never defend it by pulling the old line that they just put what Universal gave them on the disc and they noticed it but it was out of their hands to do anything about the transfers. But I suspect that will be Shout Factory's explanation anyways if they ever publically comment on it beyond stating that's how they were from Universal on the prints that were used for the transfers (Which I believe Brian Ward has already stated).


Universal and Shout Factory did a pretty poor job in not catching that error. Thankfully it's a relatively minor flaw and a good bit of care went into the set otherwise, but it still should not of happened.


Gotten behind your tv set yet Lecagr? Somehow my tv the other night was set to the composite video input from my DVD player as I was watching a episode of I Love Lucy last night and several of the outfits being worn by the cast were really showing that effect you noticed. I switched to s-video and it was 100% gone (Should've took some pictures to post here to demonstrate to you this). If you have s-video inputs or better yet, component inputs available on your television and DVD player, I can't stress enough that a $5 cable will be a great investment for you that solves that particular problem and also improves the picture quality in general. Just make sure your television and DVD player have the appropriate inputs before purchasing a cable that you may not be able to use.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

I don't see how the introductions got in the wrong place in the first place! Are other scenes in the wrong place, too?

 

[Lecagr]

Shout Factory is a good company, if not for them some classic TV shows would not have seen the light of day on DVD. But sometimes in my opinion they tend to rush their products out on to the market instead of taking time to dot every i and cross every t, as a result imperfections sometimes occur on the DVD's. So I'm not surprised the LITB set has a few issues although I didn't anticipate there being a problem with the 1st season teasers. A common problem with DVD's is inconsistent audio levels in the episodes. But the episodes do seem to be uncut and overall the set is excellent so no reason for the LITB fan to not buy this set.


Leo: Thanks for the information, I appreciate it a lot. As far as I know, there is only one audio/video input on the back of my TV. I'll pull the set out and check the back again. For right now I'm content to turn the color off on the set when watching black and white DVD's as that seems to take care of the problem. I will check my local electronics store to see if they might have some alternate audio/video cables I could use and connect to the TV.

 

[David Von Pein]

[SIZE= 14px]FUN BEAVER TRIVIA:[/SIZE]

I noticed something kind of cool in the fourth-season episode "Teacher's Daughter", with this kind of stuff being discernible probably only because of the excellent video quality that can be found on these DVDs:

There's a scene that takes places in the corridor at Mayfield High School which has the camera focusing on a list of students on a bulletin board. Included on this list are several members of the LITB cast and crew (in one form or another, with a few variations in some of the names).

The show's producers and writers were having a little bit of fun when they included these names on that list of "students":

Barb Billing
Theodore Dow
Robert Mosher
Joe Connely (Joe's real last name has two Ls, however)