Ozzie & Harriet (1 Viewer)

[SuperClark]

I have seen many episodes on yt great show. Ricky was in my all time fav western Rio Bravo.Elvis was offered the role oi 'Colorado but stupid Col Tom Parker turned it down.

 

[Tony Bensley]

I have seen many episodes on yt great show. Ricky was in my all time fav western Rio Bravo.Elvis was offered the role oi 'Colorado but stupid Col Tom Parker turned it down.
View attachment 140572

To be fair, Elvis Presley was inducted into the army in March 1958, and RIO BRAVO (1959) was shot that summer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Bravo_(film)#Production

As it was, Elvis had already been granted a 60 day deferment in December 1957, so he could shoot his scenes for King Creole (1958). I'm pretty sure the U.S. Army wouldn't have granted him another one for RIO BRAVO! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Creole#Production

CHEERS!

 

[Lecagr]

Four discs is a real disappointment in so many ways, especially when B&W shows like Season One of Highway Patrol (don't know about the other seasons) had only four episodes per disc!
The tenth disc had only three episodes on it.

Even if MGM decided to put an extra episode on the last three discs (five total episodes), to save a few bucks on the extra disc, it wouldn't as bad as....

Well, I'll wait to see what happens, though, as I've been wrong before.
Hopefully, these releases will prove me wrong, and happily add to my score.

I'm not thrilled either with the number of discs in these Ozzie And Harriet sets, it sounds like MPI is going to put as many as 10 episodes on some of these discs. Putting too many episodes on the discs can result in occasional playback problems/freeze ups in the video. This has happened to me with other DVD's that have too many episodes crammed on to them, for example the SWAT DVD set from Mill Creek and the Dan August set from VEI.

On the positive side, it sounds like the Ozzie And Harriet DVD's from MPI are going to have uncut episodes, they are being advertised as "complete episodes" which I assume means they are all uncut, at least I hope so.

 

[SuperClark]

I just bought seasons 1 and 2 on ebay,total price shipped is 42.60.

 

[greenscreened]

I'm hoping for a new, separate, O&H DVD Review thread, so the pros and cons can be grouped together and discussed, instead of split between the existing two threads, as this is a much awaited, long overdue release.

 

[greenscreened]

I'm not thrilled either with the number of discs in these Ozzie And Harriet sets, it sounds like MPI is going to put as many as 10 episodes on some of these discs. Putting too many episodes on the discs can result in occasional playback problems/freeze ups in the video. This has happened to me with other DVD's that have too many episodes crammed on to them, for example the SWAT DVD set from Mill Creek and the Dan August set from VEI...

This is why I want to buy them from Amazon or Target, which may make up the bulk of the online purchases.
If there are any inherent problems, they would have multiple complaints, and be less hesitant for a full refund, as opposed to store credit for a different item from other merchants, if in fact any of them had that policy in the first place.

 

[Gary OS]

I'm not thrilled either with the number of discs in these Ozzie And Harriet sets, it sounds like MPI is going to put as many as 10 episodes on some of these discs.

And, as best I can tell, these aren't the run of the mill 22 minute episodes more modern shows run at. These are 25+ minute episodes, especially if any original commercials are being included. So that's even more information being crammed onto the discs. I just think 7-8 episodes of that length should be the absolute tops for a single dvd.


Gary "I'll be shocked if holding that much info per disc doesn't diminish the quality a bit" O.

 

[The 1960's]

And, as best I can tell, these aren't the run of the mill 22 minute episodes more modern shows run at. These are 25+ minute episodes, especially if any original commercials are being included. So that's even more information being crammed onto the discs. I just think 7-8 episodes of that length should be the absolute tops for a single dvd.


Gary "I'll be shocked if holding that much info per disc doesn't diminish the quality a bit" O.

Gary I think these will look great. I'll be waiting for you to tell me so.

 

[smithbrad]

Putting too many episodes on the discs can result in occasional playback problems/freeze ups in the video. This has happened to me with other DVD's that have too many episodes crammed on to them, for example the SWAT DVD set from Mill Creek and the Dan August set from VEI.

I can think of no reason that the number of episodes on a disk or the amount of compression would cause playback problems or freezing of video. More likely it was a manufacturing or player issue. Neither Mill Creek nor VEI are widely known for the quality of their production. Playback and freezing issues are some of the more common complaints against them.

 

[Lecagr]

And, as best I can tell, these aren't the run of the mill 22 minute episodes more modern shows run at. These are 25+ minute episodes, especially if any original commercials are being included. So that's even more information being crammed onto the discs. I just think 7-8 episodes of that length should be the absolute tops for a single dvd.


Gary "I'll be shocked if holding that much info per disc doesn't diminish the quality a bit" O.

I think the episodes will probably look fine, don't really expect that to be an issue, my concern is for potential freeze up problems during playback because of too many episodes on the discs. Don't have much longer to wait to find out with seasons 1 and 2 scheduled for release in two weeks.

 

[smithbrad]

I can understand the frustration on the episode count per disk. For the longest time 8 half-hour or 4 hour long episodes was the standard, but then things started to shift a bit and we started seeing more 10 and 5 episodes per disk. Especially, with smaller distributors with lesser quality material. However, I've also seen CBS do 5 episodes per disk (e.g., Bonanza) and it looked fine. I think the quality of the encode and source material has more to do it then the extra content. MPI isn't exactly big, but lets hope their encoding and source material is up to par, because that will likely make the difference more then the episode count.

 

[smithbrad]

I think the episodes will probably look fine, don't really expect that to be an issue, my concern is for potential freeze up problems during playback because of too many episodes on the discs. Don't have much longer to wait to find out with seasons 1 and 2 scheduled for release in two weeks.

I've seen no technical reason for that assertion. However, if you can point me to something that provides a technical basis substantiating that conclusion, I'm happy to be proven wrong.

 

[Lecagr]

I can think of no reason that the number of episodes on a disk or the amount of compression would cause playback problems or freezing of video. More likely it was a manufacturing or player issue. Neither Mill Creek nor VEI are widely known for the quality of their production. Playback and freezing issues are some of the more common complaints against them.

I have four DVD sets from VEI, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Petrocelli, and Dan August. Dan August is the only set of the four that gives me occasional playback issues/freeze ups because VEI cheaped out on that set and crammed too many episodes on the discs. Made it a four disc set when it should have been a six or seven disc set.

 

[The 1960's]

I have four DVD sets from VEI, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Petrocelli, and Dan August. Dan August is the only set of the four that gives me occasional playback issues/freeze ups because VEI cheaped out on that set and crammed too many episodes on the discs. Made it a four disc set when it should have been a six or seven disc set.

I have Cannon, Petrocelli and Dan August and never experienced any freeze-ups.

 

[Lecagr]

I have Cannon, Petrocelli and Dan August and never experienced any freeze-ups.

I don't have freeze ups with Cannon or Petrocelli, but have them occasionally with Dan August because of the over compression/too many episodes on the discs.

 

[The 1960's]

I don't have freeze ups with Cannon or Petrocelli, but have them occasionally with Dan August because of the over compression/too many episodes on the discs.

Understood. Dan August looks just terrible. But I'm not so sure if it's the cramming of episodes per disc or simply the lousy non-remastered prints. Perhaps both?

 

[smithbrad]

I have four DVD sets from VEI, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Petrocelli, and Dan August. Dan August is the only set of the four that gives me occasional playback issues/freeze ups because VEI cheaped out on that set and crammed too many episodes on the discs. Made it a four disc set when it should have been a six or seven disc set.

That's VEI for you. There are many complaints generally about VEI products. I'm not questioning you've had issues, I'm just referencing that it is likely due to their manufacturing process not the episode count. I've received VEI disks that still had a glue like odor and tacky feeling on the disks. They played fine, but I have to wonder whether they were given adequate time to dry before being packaged.

I've had Mill Creek disks with four full+ movies on them. The compression made them look lousy but they played fine. I've had bootlegs with 10 half-hour shows on a single layer disk that would be similar to 18 episodes on a dual layer disk, looked lousy but played fine. My point being, you are focusing on one element (episode count) with one manufacturer and coming to a conclusion across the board that does not make logical sense, when there are other more likely scenarios. Especially, given that many other distributors are also doing 10 and 5 episodes a disk now. If it was as simple as episode count, don't you think it would be evident across all manufacturers?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I can understand the frustration on the episode count per disk. For the longest time 8 half-hour or 4 hour long episodes was the standard, but then things started to shift a bit and we started seeing more 10 and 5 episodes per disk. Especially, with smaller distributors with lesser quality material. However, I've also seen CBS do 5 episodes per disk (e.g., Bonanza) and it looked fine. I think the quality of the encode and source material has more to do it then the extra content. MPI isn't exactly big, but lets hope their encoding and source material is up to par, because that will likely make the difference more then the episode count.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that this is black & white content with fairly static settings/backgrounds in a 4x3 aspect ratio and monaural audio - all attributes that require less space overall.

A lot of us collectors reminded the peak period of DVD releases and equate more discs with higher quality, but in truth, when the going was good a lot of studios and home video labels used more discs than necessary because a higher disc count was seen as something an audience would pay more for. Take the same amount of data, split it over two discs, add twenty five cents to the manufacturing cost, but then up the retail price by $5 or $10 by virtue of it being a multi disc set. I used to work for a small label in those days and I can tell you that that happened all time as a standard industry practice. With sales and demand no longer what they were, companies have cut back on those practices because the higher prices now discourage more sales than an arbitrarily larger number of discs would bring in.

I totally get how a decade of that has left an impression among collectors that there’s a fixed number of episodes or discs that’s correct and anything short of that is a bad omen, but I don’t think that’s necessarily correct. I strongly suspect that these DVDs will look absolutely fine for DVD. The only thing that would have made a substantial difference in quality would have been releasing them in HD on Blu-ray but I’m not going to fault a DVD for being what it is.

I've seen no technical reason for that assertion. However, if you can point me to something that provides a technical basis substantiating that conclusion, I'm happy to be proven wrong.

There is no technical reason for a DVD with four hours of content to be more likely to freeze than a DVD with only an hour of content. In order for a disc to bear the DVD logo, the video and audio need to be authored/encoded within the established perimeters or specifications of the format. The laser in your DVD player doesn’t know if it’s reading a short episode or a long movie - the computer chips that decode the data into audio and visual content handle all of that.

Sometimes discs come dirty or are otherwise defective during manufacture, or are damaged in transit. Discs were never designed or intended to be an archival medium, and given enough time, they will fail. But there’s no technical reason for a disc with ten episodes to be more likely to be effective than a disc with four episodes would be.

 

[Gary16]

The TimeLife sets of the show are mostly five episodes to a disc and they look and play fine and they carry the MPI logo on the discs.

 

[Lecagr]

Understood. Dan August looks just terrible. But I'm not so sure if it's the cramming of episodes per disc or simply the lousy non-remastered prints. Perhaps both?

When watching Dan August, the colors generally look a little faded, episodes appear to be complete although I think they might be slightly time compressed, episodes run in the 49 minute range. These are probably syndication prints that VEI used to make the DVD's but on the positive side the episodes are complete. It really should have been a seven disc set with the pilot movie and episodes 1+2 on disc one, then four episodes each on discs 2-7. That would have been preferred compared to cramming everything on four discs.

Interesting thing about Cannon and Barnaby Jones, when VEI originally released these sets they had the proper number of discs, 31 for Cannon and 45 for Barnaby Jones. But later VEI re-issued these and reduced the number of discs, these are the sets that have over compression problems. So I'm glad that I have the original sets, not the re-issued ones.

The bad thing about Barnaby Jones is that the majority of episodes are the edited for syndication versions, most episodes are trimmed down to about 46 minutes. A re-issue of the series with all complete episodes would be needed but I imagine it's not likely to happen.