New Timeless Media & Millcreek Releases (1 Viewer)

[docdoowop]

Looks like a nice set coming for those who can't/won't buy the individual TMG Western releases.

Wagon Train DVD news: Announcement for The Classic TV Western Collection | TVShowsOnDVD.com

 

[Bob Hug]

Timeless Media's "Classic TV Western Collection" is now available for pre-order at Amazon for $27.99.

Amazon.com: Classic TV Western Collection: Your Store

 

[Doug^Ch]

I just received Laramie the Complete 3rd Season in color vol.1 from DVD Pacific. I watched the first episode and did a quick sample from the rest of disc 1, because of reported dialogue syncing issues and delay of the release to fix the problems. So far I have not noticed the dialogue issues, and the audio sounds fine, but the video quality is not very good at all. Wagon Train looks beautiful, but TMG appears to have dropped the ball on Laramie. Unfortunately at least on the first disc, the picture is to my eye blurry, faded and strangely jumpy. The picture also, if you can understand what I'm trying to say, does not quite fill the screen in that there is a 1/2 on each side of the frame that appears to be like the edge of a projector screen. It is like they filmed a picture on a screen and were too far back, and mistakenly filmed beyond the borders of the image. I could live with that issue, but the blurry, jumpy picture is pretty tough to take. I'm hoping that the other discs are better than the first.

 

[Bob Hug]

Doug, see this other thread on "Laramie." It appears that tape masters for the show were a victim of the Universal fire and that Timeless had to secure alternative print sources.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...mie-delay.html

I'll be interested in your comments on the other discs in this set after you've had a chance to watch them. I almost purchased this set recently, but opted for the "Wagon Train" mega set instead. Looks like I may have made the right choice. There's a single episode of "Laramie" that will appear on the upcoming "Classic TV Western Collection" from Timeless and that may be at least a gauge for those, like me, that are contemplating the purchase of "Laramie."

 

[Doug^Ch]

Thanks Bob, I had missed that other thread. That Information completely explains what I saw last night when I previewed my set. I guess its still better to have this flawed set then no set at all, but it is kind of disapointing none the less.

 

[borisfw]

I got my Laramie set from Sam's club over a month ago. It had the sinc issue on all discs. I called in for the replacement discs and received them weeks ago. Watched the whole set and, as mentioned already in this thread, the video quality is not good at all. At least the replacement discs fixed the sinc issue. I will say that Timeless was very easy to deal with on replacing the flawed discs.

 

[smithb]

For those with the recent Laramie sets, have you seen the M-Squad or Texan releases? If so, how would these compare in video quality to them?

 

[Doug^Ch]

I found M-Squad and the Texan to have better video quality than Laramie, but that could be just me. I can tolerate marginal B&W video much better than bad color video.

 

[Bob Hug]

In addition to updating their TV pages for the upcoming Shout! Factory sub-licenses of series like "Ironside" and "McHale's Navy," among others, Mill Creek is also showing a new release slated for July 14, titled "1,001 Classic Commerials." Covering 16 & 1/2 hours, I have to believe that this is the largest collection of television commercials that is available on DVD. Details here:

Mill Creek Details Page

 

[Charles Ellis]

Although I have a lot of DVD commerical sets, I am definitely getting this one- I'm hoping they'll have stuff that I either saw and don't have on DVD (Ann Miller's "Great American Soups" ad- where is it on DVD?) or have never seen before. The SRP of $14.98 isn't bad, although I could get it on certain sites for even less! If they only had a listing of the ads in question.........

 

[DeWilson]

Do you think it really has 1,001 Classic commercials? I wonder from which other video company the commercials are duped from

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

I will be there buying it when released. Not long ago I picked up Mill Creek's 3-disc set "Cold War Hysteria" which has over 40 documentaries - over 17-hours worth. Many are available for download free various places but I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that they must have used the actual 16-mm films. The bomb blast project films can be had in better condition but the Civil Defense and Cold War shorts look great even on a 1080p HD set! In fact, "A Day Called X" looks like it was shot yesterday. Well worth the $9.99 I paid for it.

Eric

 

[Regulus]

I was pretty well pleased with Cold War Hysteria, which I picked up with several other titles during a DeeDees BOGO sale earlier this year. I'll probably pick up 1001 Commercials along with a few other titles whenever they have another Sale, or better yet, I'll get it whenever it makes its way to a Wally's Bargain Bin where I will snatch it up with a "Dealer Card"!

 

[DeWilson]

I'm glad "Cold War Hysteria" looks decent I'll have to consiter getting it
- I got the 150 EPISODE "Scifi TV" box and the quality was all over the map!

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

Like I said, bomb test footage shorts were not the best and can be found better other places but the Civil Defense shorts looked great. A couple iffy ones but overall a nice package for the price and anyone interested in the Cold War era. They even included the complete 1962 movie "This Is Not A Test" but due to compression, looked OK and can be had slightly sharper on Alpha. Their box sets are a mixed bag - we call them "fillers". They fill in spots (place markers) until we find better copies of the ones we like. A sampler of sorts and again, well worth the money considering. Sometimes you get some gems, others stinkers. Early TV collections are going to be mixed especially since not all were shot on film but often shot kinescope and looked terrible when new!

Eric

 

[DeWilson]

Kinescopes I don't mind, it's when they use Nth generation copies from VHS that makes a set uneven.

 

[Bert Greene]

I was rather pleased with another recent Mill Creek collection, entitled "The Way West," comprised of old public-domain b-westerns. They've released several volumes of such westerns, but this particular one seemed to sport some better-than-average print quality. If anyone wants a big batch of 50 creaky old b-westerns, in very watchable shape, it's a good collection to pick up.

As for Timeless, I'm really excited about the news for a best-of "Tales of Wells Fargo" collection. I've always particularly wanted to see some of those last-season episodes, when the series was expanded to an hour and shot in color. I once brought up the topic of the series with Dale Robertson at a little collectors show, and he got pretty animated as he expressed his frustration at having relinquished (sold?) his rights to it. Great guy, though. I'd also love to see his "Iron Horse" series on dvd!

 

[borisfw]

Picked up the Tales of Wells Fargo set at Sam's Club yesterday for 29.88.The set has 46 episodes on 6 dvds.The sixth disc has an interview with Dale Robertson. Havn't watched any episodes yet.

 

[Tim Tucker]

I've seen it at Sam's as well. Let us know about the quality of the set.

 

[Gary OS]

I thought I saw that set the other day at Sam's Club. I mentioned it to Bert Greene just yesterday. I'll have to go in and take another look tomorrow and see if I want to pick it up. Thanks!

Gary "I don't remember ever seeing this show on reruns, so it's basically going to be a blind buy for me if I decide to try it out" O.