Little House on the Prairie: building the best possible collection (1 Viewer)

[Mike Frezon]

We are not talking about any big deal here...but I got an e-mail this morning from Amazon that my copy of the Season 7 Blus have shipped. But they won't be here until Tuesday...despite an earlier e-mail predicting a Monday delivery.

Hello Mike Frezon,

"Little House on the Prarie..." has shipped.


Details


Order #xxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

Arriving:
Tuesday, December 29




Shipped to:
Mike Frezon



Total Before Tax:
Tax Collected:
Shipment Total:


$24.99
$2.00
$26.99

 

[Ethan Riley]

Mine arrived today. It exists. I have it. I'm very grateful for it. Except...no slipcover! !

 

[turtledove]

Wonder if anyone has done any screen captures comparing the exact same scenes between the season 7 dvd and bluray versions. (I didn't see any on other web sites which have threads covering the Lionsgate LHotP re-releases).


There is some idle speculation (on other message boards) which asserts that the season 7 blurays might be mastered from the streaming hd versions. Though nothing proven definitively (yet),

As the episodes are under 3gb for the streaming versions there is no doubt at all that the Blurays do NOT use those as a source

 

[Tony Bensley]

As the episodes are under 3gb for the streaming versions there is no doubt at all that the Blurays do NOT use those as a source

Hi Gerry!


I'd say it's more likely that the HD Streaming and Blu-ray versions each derive from a common HD digital source master.


CHEERS!


Tony

 

[Gary OS]

Mine arrived today. It exists. I have it. I'm very grateful for it. Except...no slipcover! !

As did mine!



Gary "will be diving into this tomorrow" O.

 

[t2smith]

As the episodes are under 3gb for the streaming versions there is no doubt at all that the Blurays do NOT use those as a source

I agree since one of the season seven episodes is 2.9 GB in HDX on Vudu and 8.2 GB on the Blu-ray.

 

[Ethan Riley]

I sampled several of the episodes...they sure look like blu-ray quality.

 

[Mike Frezon]

My discs are supposed to arrive tomorrow...BUT, I just got an e-mail from Amazon that I am being charged the new price (just posted today?) of $22.49.


That's $7.50 less than the original pre-order price of $29.99. No, it's not as good as the Blu price on the earlier seasons...but if we can get the final seasons for $22.49...


Nice.


I'll be curious to do some A/B comparisons when I get the Blu discs in my hands.

 

[Mike Frezon]

And...I wish Lionsgate would announce Season 8 on Blu before the Season 8 DVDs are released on January 19th.


It would be nice to know, for sure, that they are coming before I cancel my pre-order of the Season 8 DVDs at my sweet pre-order pricepoint of $17.99 (they are currently @ $19.78).

 

[turtledove]

I think the corner cutting taken by Lionsgate for season 7 indicates that we will get season 8 and 9 on Blu too.

They've thrown them together quickly and as cheaply as possible in response to the loud noises we've been making about how we're so desperate to have them on Blu we don't mind paying a bit more or having a few corners cut.

As long as the picture and sound deliver that's the priority and it certainly looks like that's what Lionsgate have done so hats off to them for listening.

We can manage with static menus and no slipcovers.


I cannot see Lionsgate pulling the plug a second time - that would surely be a bigger PR disaster than before.

 

[Mike Frezon]

My Blu discs actually arrived today:

Here's what everyone needs to realize up front. I have no way to do actual screen grabs from either the DVD or Blu discs. What you are about to see are images taken on my iPhone of a couple of random scenes from Episode 1 of Disc 1 "Laura Ingalls Wilder - Part 1."


The DVD image will come first, followed by the Blu. First the menus for each disc:

Then...from the opening titles:

From the scene in which Almanzo purchases his property:

And here is an evening interior scene at the Ingalls home:

Honestly, I don't think there's much you will be able to tell from these images. There are just way too many variables involved for them to allow for any kind of real comparison.


Here's what I can tell you from my own viewing.


The resolution is night and day. The image on the Blu disc was very obviously a high-def transfer. There was no question.


However, that increased resolution also made something else evident. There was very little, if any, restoration done on these episodes. There were numerous film scratches, hairs, dings, etc which were obvious--artifacts that I do not ever recall seeing during the earlier seasons.


That's something I can live with.


If I can get the last three seasons in this condition, that's fine. Getting the first six seasons in such beautiful, restored condition is a beautiful thing.

 

[turtledove]

As the Blurays are static menus too it's disappointing they couldn't even be bothered to include the stills that the dvd menu has.

As these later seasons were always destined for HD viewing on broadcast or downloading it would seem strange if the level of restoration was any different to the earlier seasons.

 

[Mike Frezon]

A quick note about the Season 7 DVD menus.


As you can see from my image above, on disc one "episode order" takes you all the way down the first page and then onto the second. On later discs, I had to be careful because the first episode was at the top of the left page and then the next episode was at the top of the right page...and so on.


One has to be alert when navigating the Season 7 DVD menus...

 

[t2smith]

Honestly, I don't think there's much you will be able to tell from these images. There are just way too many variables involved for them to allow for any kind of real comparison.


Here's what I can tell you from my own viewing.


The resolution is night and day. The image on the Blu disc was very obviously a high-def transfer. There was no question.


However, that increased resolution also made something else evident. There was very little, if any, restoration done on these episodes. There were numerous film scratches, hairs, dings, etc which were obvious--artifacts that I do not ever recall seeing during the earlier seasons.


That's something I can live with.


If I can get the last three seasons in this condition, that's fine. Getting the first six seasons in such beautiful, restored condition is a beautiful thing.

I can probably live with this release even though it would've been nice if they put more effort into it. I guess it shows how little I know about film restoration. I assumed the film was scanned into high definition computer files, and then cleanup was performed on the high def files, and then those files were used as a source for Blu-ray, Digital HD, and DVD releases. I know wet gate scans are performed on some movies to remove scratches and other defects, but I always assumed that the 200 plus hours of Little House didn't get that level of restoration even in the earlier seasons.


If the season seven Blu-ray is showing scratches, hairs, and dings that weren't evident during the earlier seasons, it looks like Lionsgate only cleaned up the high def files for the Blu-rays one season at a time, and used high def files that weren't cleaned up as a source for Digital HD and DVD and counted on the compression of the two formats to hide the defects. I've already noticed from previous season comparison screenshots that the compression on Vudu removes/hides the film grain, so it probably also hides a lot of the defects.

 

[bmasters9]

I assumed the film was scanned into high definition computer files, and then cleanup was performed on the high def files, and then those files were used as a source for Blu-ray, Digital HD, and DVD releases.

In other words, you thought that Little House received the same treatment as was given to Paramount's remastered DVDs and Blu-Rays of original-recipe NBC Star Trek. Is that what you mean?

 

[t2smith]

In other words, you thought that Little House received the same treatment as was given to Paramount's remastered DVDs and Blu-Rays of original-recipe NBC Star Trek. Is that what you mean?

I don't know too many details of the Star Trek restoration other than a lot of special effects had to be redone, but if they digitized it, cleaned up any defects, and then used that one cleaned up source for Blu-ray and DVD, then that is what I mean.


All nine seasons of Little House have been available on Digital HD for over a year now, so it seems strange that the season seven Blu-ray is showing scratches and other defects that weren't on previous season Blu-rays. This leads me to believe that they used uncleaned digital files for all the Digital HD, and then cleaned up the files as each season's Blu-ray was prepped during the first six seasons. Then it looks like they used uncleaned files for the season seven Blu-ray, which means they either didn't perform any cleanup as they prepped the season seven DVD or they cleaned it up after it was converted to an SD file on the computer. Of course like I said earlier, cleanup might not be necessary for Digital HD and DVD since the compression hides many of the blemishes.


It just would've made sense to me to use one cleaned up, HD source for Blu-ray, Digital HD, and DVD, but what do I know?

 

[smithbrad]

Well, one of the biggest question marks has been why LG would stop the blu-ray releases after season 6 if all the prep work had already been done for all seasons in HD. What you are referencing could be exactly the reason they stopped and why even though in HD the latest season doesn't look quite is good. There was more work being done and the extra cost was no longer feasible based on previous sales.

 

[turtledove]

I would also say the episodes were all converted to HD files then cleaned up just as Star Trek was.

However , budget and time allowances mean that it was most likely extremely different levels of restoration.

A series like Star Trek TOS and its legions of fanatical followers means it's open to criticism and it has a constant level of exposure so they could afford to go the whole hog and clean it up to absolute perfection removing everything.


A show like Little House doesn't have that level of fanaticism that brings in billions in merchandise alone so unsurprisingly the restoration budget would be less and it was obvious from season 1 that the level of restoration was much lower but that didn't really detract at all. First off all the imperfections that remain are not that distracting , and the odd bit of dust or hair that has most likely been there since day one at least shows that film is the source for these - something Disney seem to go out of their way to hide.

And for a show set in the time period that it is and in the locations it is the odd sparkle just seems to suit it and not stick out like it would on either Star Trek restoration.

I doubt there was any deliberate move to reduce the amount of restoration on each episode.

It's quite possible that some episodes have simply suffered less over the years than some and look better while some that did suffer have not had the level of restoration needed to make them as perfect as they could be.


The old Imavision discs were quite appalling but the differences in quality between some episodes and others could be huge with some actually looking remastered and others still covered in 30 years of dirt

 

[t2smith]

Well, one of the biggest question marks has been why LG would stop the blu-ray releases after season 6 if all the prep work had already been done for all seasons in HD. What you are referencing could be exactly the reason they stopped and why even though in HD the latest season doesn't look quite is good. There was more work being done and the extra cost was no longer feasible based on previous sales.

I was thinking this might be the case, but I've read a couple reviews and comments from people who started noticing more scratches and other damage with the season five release. I've only watched the first three seasons on Blu, so I haven't noticed personally if any other seasons had a drop off in quality. I would've watched more on Blu, but my daughter wanted to keep going and at the time we would've had to wait three more months for season four, so I bought the entire series on Vudu and we watched the final six seasons on there. Then we started over watching the Blu-rays, but are only on season two.


I did quickly sample a couple later episodes of season seven and the quality looks great to my eye, definitely superior to DVD or HDX. I saw one comment from someone who said the last three discs run at about a 25% higher bitrate than the first two discs, but even at the lower bitrate of the first two discs, it is about double what you will get on Vudu and probably quadruple what you get on the DVDs. I will have to check out a couple episodes from the first two discs and see if the difference in quality is noticeable.

 

[turtledove]

Got my season 7 in the UK today.

No slipcover is no problem.

No HD audio is no problem. On a mono show of this vintage it's hard to tell the difference.


On the video front it's clear to me nothing has changed. The quality is superb with clarity and sharpness like we've never seen before. There are imperfections that some restorations would have got rid of but I didn't see anything that I've not seen on all of the first 6 seasons.


Standard for MOD it seems but unlike the first 6 seasons this new release is region free.

I checked one of the 2 parters and the correct Next Week Part 2 caption was there at the end of Part 1 as was the Last Week On Little House... at the start of Part 2.

There really is nothing wrong with this release at all. You can pick fault with some of the changes but RESUME is quite nice without having to go through all the startup process again like we did with 1-6.

Roll on seasons 8 and 9


I think some of the so called perfectionists that the Bluray market has brought out from the woodwork do the format no favours. They sit there analysing bitrates and other rubbish when all you need to do is use your eyes.

Who cares if some episodes have higher bitrates than earlier ones? They might need it. If the episodes look ok that's all that matters.

If they're not whining about slipcovers, they're whining about ratios or packaging and I've seen threads on other forums where there are 20 pages all concerned with where you can buy alternate cases to put your X Files discs in. The problem was the same with Lost In Space. You would think that half the population have claws for hands if they are so clumsy they can't take discs in and out of cases without damaging them. They spent god knows how many hours debating where to buy the cheapest version of a boxset then spend 20% of the total purchase price on getting alternate cases.

One guy complained about the episode guide for Space 1999 being on the reverse of the cover because he didn't want to remove the cover because he would damage it!!

And they wonder why studios just roll their eyes and throw in the towel.