Mill Creek rereleasing Universal shows... some on Blu (1 Viewer)

[Sa5150]

Very much looking forward to millcreeks doing much more blurays .I have the Stooges ass well .

From a few sources , The Japan blurays of Gamera are 1080I also . Not 100% sure on that . It somewhere posted in the bluray.com forum .

I will try to find it . I wish they would do 1080p with the AIP dub , Some of the Godzilla movies need that too . I hate the International English dubs , The AIP'S were best in my opinion .

 

[albert_m2]

I have been watching Rockford on Netflix and enjoyed it so much, that i recently got the complete DVD set and this weekend, I put one in and what disappointing difference in quality compared to what Netflix is showing.

 

[Sa5150]

The netflix looks better ?

 

[albert_m2]

Yeah, to me, the look a lot better than the DVDs in the complete series set.

 

[Kevin EK]

I picked up the Mill Creek Miami Vice Season 1 set.

"Hit List" is the same syndication cut that was on the original Universal DVD set. It is missing the same "parachute pants" line that was cut before. So that tells me the people who remastered this did not go back to the original negatives. If I didn't know better, I'd say they were using a different source. I just don't know what that source would be at this point. And if somehow, Universal did cut the original negative just to remove that exchange, I can't imagine why they would have done so.

This says to me that if we ever see Blu-rays of Miami Vice from Mill Creek, they'll just provide better PQ of the syndication cuts of the episodes - which profoundly depresses me. I had hoped we'd see something more substantive.

Also, there are no subtitles on the Mill Creek DVDs, where the Universal ones do have them.

At this point, I'd recommend staying with the earlier DVDs - unless and until Mill Creek generates Blu-rays. If they do that, a case could be made for checking the PQ and possibly picking them up on sale.

 

[bronson]

Kevin EK: I know you´re a hardcore "Miami Vice" fan like myself. But I got to admit it´s your own fault that you purchased the Mill Creek Season 1 set.

First of all everybody knows that Mill Creek is a crappy company. Second, it was clear that there´ll be no English subtitles because the Mill Creek discs were announced without any subtitles.

By the way, I don´t know an episode by the name of "Hit List".

Did you mean "Calderone´s Return"?

 

[Tony Bensley]

These days, I only buy Millcreek if it's Blu-ray, due to their tendency to cram the same amount of material, regardless of disc format! The higher capacity the Blu-ray format affords makes artifacting and PQ much less of an issue!

CHEERS!

 

[Kevin EK]

I appreciate the encouragement and take my medicine with a smile. I knew Mill Creek's rep, but I couldn't find anyone to tell me if the full version of that episode was included. Since it was only 10 bucks or so, it was worth it to me to find out what they had done. I love the series anyway and was very hopeful that a full remastering meant that they'd gone back to the negatives, which should have given us the complete versions of "Hit List" and "Heart of Darkness". Sadly, such was not the case.

I realize it was clear from the announcement about the release re the subtitles, but I checked anyway out of habit.

Regarding the Season 1 episode titles, the actual names of these episodes as originally aired on NBC in 1984 were:

-Miami Vice (Pilot episode had no individual episode title when it aired as a 2 hour premiere movie. It was retitled in syndication.)
-Heart of Darkness
-Cool Runnin'
-Hit List (retitled once in a 2 hour broadcast in 1985 as the first hour of "The Return of Calderone" and then retitled for syndication as "Calderone's Return pt 1") (Some sites show it as "The Hit List", which is incorrect. The title was just the two words, as a stylish touch.)
-Calderone's Demise (retitled once in a 2 hour broadcast in 1985 as the second hour of "The Return of Calderone" and then retitled for syndication as "Calderone's Return pt 2")
-One Eyed Jack
-No Exit (at one point this one had the title "Three Eyed Turtle" for reasons I cannot fathom)
-The Great McCarthy
-Glades
-Give a Little, Take a Little
-Little Prince
-Milk Run
-Score (retitled "Golden Triangle pt 1" for syndication)
-Golden Triangle (retitled "Golden Triangle pt 2 for syndication)
-Smuggler's Blues
-Rites of Passage
-The Maze
-Made for Each Other
-The Home Invaders
-Nobody Lives Forever
-Evan
-Lombard


The first year of this show had my favorite eps of the whole series. There were a few good ones in the second, third and fourth years, but they never consistently hit this kind of quality again. Mostly due to Michael Mann having moved on to Crime Story, Manhunter and other ideas after that first year. Hit List is one of my very favorite eps of the series, as are No Exit and Rites of Passage. The whole two parter of Score and Golden Triangle were also good works.

I'll probably pick up a Blu-ray set if they do it, just to get the good episodes in the best possible quality. It just depresses me that the complete versions of a couple of these episodes are apparently lost to us now.

 

[JayHink]

Kevin EK: Nobody else was offering input here on this release, so I very much appreciate the review/information.

Please don't hesitate to add more as you go along. Mill Creek occasionally surprises me with a release.

I have the original MV releases & readers like me appreciate all the info we can get!

 

[Kevin EK]

Had an interesting experience this evening with the Mill Creek Miami Vice S1 DVD set.

I watched the copy of "Smuggler's Blues" on the Mill Creek set. I noted some of it looked more like video than film, but overall looked okay. Then I watched the teaser and a few other moments of the Universal DVD set and realized this was a totally different transfer. The earlier Universal DVD transfer of "Smuggler's Blues" is almost unwatchable after seeing the better transfer. Many shots on the Universal set, particularly in the teaser, are way way too dark to see anything. The transfer for the Mill Creek set is notably brighter, but has the effect of looking like a VHS tape.

But then this gets more interesting - Hulu offers a much better transfer of this episode, and it may be based on the same one pilfered for this presentation.

 

[Worth]

The netflix looks better ?

Netflix has Rockford in HD.

 

[Ron1973]

Netflix has Rockford in HD.

And A-Team!

 

[JoshuaB.]

There aren't many 70s series I'd buy on BD, but Rockford is one of them! Seeing The Nice Guys recently (there's a nice nod to the series) has encouraged me to revisit the DVDs--I love S1 and its neo-noir feel!

 

[Hasslein]

The Quantum Leap season 1 & 2 set has been released. Has anyone confirmed if S2 has original music or not?

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Looks like the complete Sliders is coming on DVD, this time with the episodes in the correct order.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Sliders-The-Complete-Series/22442

No Blu on the horizon, though, since the show almost certainly suffers from the same problem so many 80s and 90s shows do, in that it was shot on film, edited on video, and remastering it in HD would involve too much work and money.

 

[Astairefan]

For those that like them, glad to see all of these shows are getting released. Is there any way to know whether the Munsters tv show is included in this deal with Universal (at least for a possible Blu release)? At this point, it seems like Mill Creek is the best shot that much of ANY classic shows have of getting released on Blu.

 

[MattHR]

I'd like to see them release Kolchak: The Night Stalker and The Incredible Hulk on blu. With the exception of Miami Vice, it looks like they're leaning towards genre series for blu.

 

[BobO'Link]

Looks like the complete Sliders is coming on DVD, this time with the episodes in the correct order.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Sliders-The-Complete-Series/22442

No Blu on the horizon, though, since the show almost certainly suffers from the same problem so many 80s and 90s shows do, in that it was shot on film, edited on video, and remastering it in HD would involve too much work and money.

The overall issue here is 87 episodes on only 15 discs. That's 6 ~45 minute episodes on most of the discs which *will* lead to compression issues. Mill Creek *always* cheapens out the product this way. I'm leaning towards a purchase just because the episodes are supposed to be in the correct viewing order but would much rather they add another 7 or so discs, and up the price a bit, to keep the per-disc episode count to 4 or less. Considering what it costs to produce a disc it shouldn't add more than ~$15 to the MSRP. But who knows if that'd even help as I've purchased some *single* movie re-releases from MC on DVD which suffer from over compression issues even though there's no need for that to have happened on those releases. It makes it seem that their DVD mastering/creation process is geared to over compression and no one seems to care.

 

[TVonDVDJunkie05]

For those that like them, glad to see all of these shows are getting released. Is there any way to know whether the Munsters tv show is included in this deal with Universal (at least for a possible Blu release)? At this point, it seems like Mill Creek is the best shot that much of ANY classic shows have of getting released on Blu.

The Munsters is not part of this deal at present, if Universal & Mill Creek continue their partnership then perhaps it might be part of a future deal?! These are the shows they have acquired the rights to release:

Airwolf
Coach
Knight Rider
Miami Vice
Quantum Leap
The RockFord Files
Friday Night Lights
Necessary Roughness
Sliders

It seems like a mishmash of old and new, not sure what the process was in determing what shows to aqcuire the rights to?!

Regarding The Munsters, not the news you are looking for but according to this Amazon listing Universal will be re-releasing the complete series on DVD in September: https://www.amazon.com/Munsters-Complete-Fred-Gwynne/dp/B01HDORSFK/

 

[TVonDVDJunkie05]

The overall issue here is 87 episodes on only 15 discs. That's 6 ~45 minute episodes on most of the discs which *will* lead to compression issues. Mill Creek *always* cheapens out the product this way.

I hear ya Bob, this is what I dislike about Mill Creek as well. You have the lower price on one hand which makes these releases more affordable but on the other hand they cheapen out on the quality side which totally turns me off from buying anything they release. I own a few of their Highway to Heaven releases, they all have 5 episodes per disc but the quality is still good and the shows are watchable. These latest batch of releases of Universal shows, they have taken things a step further and are releasing them with 6 episodes crammed into each disc- that is way too much IMO.

Another thing I dislike and which I strongly advise people be aware of before looking at purchasing any releases from Mill Creek is their weird practice of releasing 1 or 2 seasons of a show then abruptly stopping and moving on to a complete series set release. Initially I thought this might have to do with poor sales but apparently this is their normal business practice- the following statement on TVShowsonDVD.com (taken from the news article on the upcoming Friday Night Lights release) pretty much confirms it:

For fans hoping to get The Complete Series on DVD, we don't have an announcement for you right now. However, we'll remind folks that Mill Creek very often these days will plan their TV show re-releases to be "the early seasons" and then "the complete series," with no individual releases of the later seasons.

I would recommend NOT buying any season sets of shows released by Mill Creek, you are just wasting your money as 99.9% of the time they will not release all the seasons of show. You are better off waiting for them to release a complete series set, which they ultimately will. This practice is mind boggling to me, what is the point of releasing only 1 or 2 seasons of a show?!? Why don't they just move straight to the complete series release and forget the season sets completely as they will apparently be doing with Necessary Roughness & Sliders?!