The Twilight Zone

There was a company that was making all of the TW avaliable, in order, on DVD-Rs, but I don't remember the URL for the site - and they cost $100 more than if you just bought the current Image releases.

If you search for threads on the TW from over the summer, someone actually compiled a list of the episodes in order, crosslisted with what disc each episode was on.

That was Another Universe, which is the same company that is dealing with issues stemming from problems during the sale of My So-Called Life for double- and triple-charging credit cards and being slow to credit those back, or to issue refunds for cancelled orders when their "exclusive" MSCL set made it into stores first.

AU no longer offers the Twilight Zone thing, nor does the company that was going to produce it for them. It's gone.

You might find some copies floating around on eBay. Be aware that they don't play in every player.

I would just get the existing sets. The episodes are all stand-alone, so seeing them in a particular order does not enhance the eperience a single bit.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Twilight-Zone-Season-2-Blu-ray/14184

 

Season 2 of TZ on BD

 

"Submitted for your approval ... a marketing plan that will either drive you batty or broke (while waiting for the complete series on BD.")

 

I don't blame Image for mercilessly milking us TZ fanatics, but the Definitive series sets left me at a point of satisfaction that will not budge until the complete series is released in one edition on BD with a price point below $130.

Luckily (for me) I have developed a very high resistance to buying most of the shows I like until prices drop, so although I was tempted around the holidays to buy the first set, I never got around to it, so now I'm just going to continue to wait until the BDs drop to where I think they're in my "buy" zone.

2 months after the first release, now the debate on what can be done for the videotape ep, just waiting for the price to fall on amazon

Nothing can be done for the taped episodes except an upconversion to 1080i (they can't even do a 1080p upconversion I believe because of the frame rate).

As I've mentiioned before, They made Kinescope masters on the 6 VT episodes which were used in syndication for decades, Not sure if those were done in 35mm and then reduced to 16mm,or 16mm mastered.

Can a kinescope be that good though? Whether it's shot on 16mm or 35mm, it's still someone filming a monitor that, while probably state of the art for the early 1960's, is a piece of junk by today's standards. The videotape episodes on the DVD weren't great but, unless there's something special about the TZ kinescopes, I can't see a kinescope being better at all.

somone mentioned in another thread about the restorations done on the early Dr Who's most with video, the fact that lowery does do video restoration gives some hope, although all info on images site and blu ray.com doesn't go into everthing yet, i would hope that they offer the versions both ways, video and kinoscope of the six ep. 

I don't. These shows were made on tape and that's how they should be presented. Besides, a kinescope isn't going to give better image quality than the original videotaped source anyway, just a lower-quality, tape-to-film transferred image.

It would be alot easeir to transfer the kinescopes to HF than upconvert the video tapes.

 

And on that subject, what is the current state of those masters - did they do any work on them for the DVD season sets?

 

It may be a technincal issue that opts them to use kinescopes than the VTs - I'm sure someone will find out the answer soon - consitering the press release makes NO MENTION of the VT episodes.

 

It's not rocket science to upconvert a videotape source. It's going to yield a superior picture going with the original videotapes (at probably a lower cost) then transferring old film that was shot pointed at a monitor 50 years ago.

Ok going back 25 years to my broadcast engineering courses, the basics of magnetic tape, remember we are not talking the most forgiving format, this isn’t betamax, u-max, what we are probably dealing with is 2” Quad, and as the years progress, the thought that the same operating systems that will actually be able to play the masters are fewer and fewer. That is why the Kinescopes were originaly created, so that as a series went into syndication or for later broadcast on the other coast for shows with live feeds, so that they could be presented.

 

The problem is unlike dealing with film, where 1080p is a possibility, dealing with a 50 year old magnetic analog tape, and bringing up to modern standards, 1080i is fine on those 6 episodes, as long as they are done correctly. But as I think most of us at one time or another have dealt with some form of video tape we know its downsides, it stretches, humidity plays hell with it, what kind of shape are the original masters in? What are the solutions in the digital age for a dinosaur from the early age of video? That is one of the reasons I brought up the possibility of including both the VT version and the Kinescope version. Think of some of the original films done in 3D, you have a 3D version and a flat version,  that is the way I view these 6 episodes.

 

Either way I would like for these to be as they originally aired, in the best possible condition possible, for “Night of the Meek” this means I want to hear Merry Christmas at the end.

 And I wait on a decent pre-order price on amazon. 

I wonder, if kinescopes are all they have, if something like the Vidfire process used by the Doctor Who Restoration Team on those releases could be brought into play. It wouldn't be the same as the master tapes, but it would do a better job of replicating the experience.

Was that process also used on the "I Cladius" box set re-release, because that video looks exceptionally better than the original release?

Those six TZ episodes have been shown "on tape" in syndication for years, so they don't just have the kinescopes to rely on. At the very least, they have copies of the tape masters.

Wouldn't have been necessary, as "I Claudius" was a standard BBC studi-based drama, for which the videotape masters still existed. VidFire (and its American equivalent, LiveFeed) are really only for use on telerecordings/kinescopes (i.e. film copies of tape masters), so wouldn't have been used on Claudius.

 

As I understand it, though, Claudius did undergo restoration by the BBC, so it has some work done to it over and above simply blasting it with noise reduction.

Season 1 Blu is currently below $64 on amazon

I suspect that many of the dropouts on those VT shows were introduced downstream when the mastertapes were being replicated for syndication in the 80s. The smoking gun being how "Night of the Meek" (the only one of the video 6 who's syndication print is a kiniscope) looks a bit better than the other five.

 

Dropout repair usually requires digital restoration repair since wetgate can't be used on the tapes. Unfortunately Image doesn't seem to have considered that when doing the original transfers for dvd, hence all the mistakes.

 

I saw "Night of the Meek" in syndication in 1988-89, and the copy I saw was definitely shot-on-tape, so at least by that time, all six taped shows were making their way into at least some syndication markets (I do recall seeing snippets of the same episode as a kinescope on Sci-Fi Channel many years later).

The five season bundles are the old box special at Amazon... $152 for the whole series on blu.

That's a good deal for the BR collectors

The standard box set at Amazon's Deal of the Day is $91.99 U.S. here

Great price for an outstanding set.

"There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition. And it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call...The Twilight Zone."

And I thought I did pretty good paying about $45 for each set but you definitely can't go wrong when it averages out to about $30 for each season.

Yeah, I know the feeling there

Travis, hope you get the releases on your list in '12.

I got all of mine at $45 each, too, and was delighted to be able to do so.  This is a superb deal.  Hell, I think it's lower than I bought the DVD seasons for back in the day.

have all of the "bugs" been worked out of these sets, yet (and/or fixed versions/exchange program started)? I've stayed away from the TZ Blu sets partly because of the issues with the (I think) first two sets and have been out of the loop since.

As far as I know, it was only disc 4 of Season One that had problems. It seems like the problems discs have either been pulled or they've gone through the stock but I guess there's no 100% way to know. That being said, if you have a problem, I know Image was replacing discs and also Amazon was allowing returns. At this point, I think you're fairly safe from getting stuck with a bad disc.

Have a happy New Year, Jeff!

In view of my long-standing and ongoing customer-ship the least amazon could have done was wait a few more days until I get paid.

I happened to see the blu-ray deal on amazon yesterday or the day before (can't recall), but I couldn't believe it. I'd been waiting because even at 50% off ($250) it was more than I wanted to spend. Seeing it dropped another C-note was more than I could resist!