The Avengers and The New Avengers OOP on DVD. The Saint and The Persuaders!? (1 Viewer)

[Osato]

It's been revealed in the UK that the B&W Rigg season will be released on Bluray in November although this comes from a journalist source and its not yet clear if November is for France , the UK or both.
It's also a possibility that Network may handle any UK release as part of their ongoing huge deal with Studio Canal.
Studio Canal have a rather poor reputation for reliability so if Network were put in charge there's a good chance the releases may even be right first time .

Hopefully a blu ray release, using the new Optimal remasters from the 50th anniversary set, is in the works for a US release.

I know that Network in the UK issued The Persuaders! on blu ray and that there was plans for The Saint as well. Nothing has happened on this front though. In addition, the sets are locked to Region B UK, so if you are in the US you need to find a mod blu ray player to play the discs....

Hopefully something happens someday.

 

[Harry-N]

I'll wait for a proper US release and rely on my DVDs until then. I cannot abide PAL speed-up.

Harry

 

[mongosito]

Hopefully a blu ray release, using the new Optimal remasters from the 50th anniversary set, is in the works for a US release.

I know that Network in the UK issued The Persuaders! on blu ray and that there was plans for The Saint as well. Nothing has happened on this front though. In addition, the sets are locked to Region B UK, so if you are in the US you need to find a mod blu ray player to play the discs....

Hopefully something happens someday.

Networks record for Bluray presentation is unsurpassed. The Persuaders and Space 1999 look better that many cinema films do and way better than the Star Trek Blurays.

One would hope that none of the masters used for the 50th Anniversary set would be used as they all have issues to varying degrees mainly related to the sound quality.

Not sure if it works on a genuine Region A player but my multi region Panasonic purchased here in the UK will play many Studio Canal discs even when set to Region A .
Once the disc refuses to load you press STOP then MENU takes you straight to the MENU.
I don't get this with any other Blurays - only those from SC.
I think someone with an Oppo tried it but it wouldn't work on theirs.

I'll wait for a proper US release and rely on my DVDs until then. I cannot abide PAL speed-up.

Harry

As you don't have PAL on Bluray it won't be an issue .
Alternatively as The Avengers /The Persuaders etc were all shot for broadcast on British tv it could be said that the speeded up version is actually correct as apart from the US everybody in the world only ever saw the speeded up version for over 40 years until the Blurays were released.

 

[Keith Cobby]

I can recommend the Network retro-ACTION blu-rays. These are 3 volumes of sample programmes with fantastic image quality. My favourites are the Danger Man and Invisible Man episodes.

 

[Harry-N]

As you don't have PAL on Bluray it won't be an issue .

I used the term PAL and realize that I shouldn't have. What I don't want is anything encoded at 25fps. That results in the film running too fast making everyone's voice sound too high.

It's a moot point anyway, since I'm not in the market for hacked players, or universal players for that matter.

Harry

 

[mongosito]

I've had all 3 Retro Action discs for quite sometime . It makes you want to see more of these series complete on Bluray.
The Baron was the biggest revelation as the dvd's were sourced from poor prints as the series has had no new prints or any kind of restoration ( bar that one episode) for several decades. The Australian dvd's and broadcasts were from equally poor copies

 

[mongosito]

I used the term PAL and realize that I shouldn't have. What I don't want is anything encoded at 25fps. That results in the film running too fast making everyone's voice sound too high.

It's a moot point anyway, since I'm not in the market for hacked players, or universal players for that matter.

Harry

Like a lot of US discs many UK discs are not region locked so you might not need a modified player .
I think some modern UK stuff shot in HD may well be 25fps which is why the Blurays are 1080i and not 1080p but classic tv from the 35mm era should all be 24fps just as The Persuaders and Space 1999 and others are already.

Why are you not in the market for a universal player ?
Certainly makes things more interesting.

I do know that for some reason US equipment is not always compatible with 50hz content where most UK equipment has been compatible with 50hz and 60hz for over 2 decades so for US buyers its not always as simple as just buying a multi region player

 

[mongosito]

Harry - I don't know if you were aware but speeded up voices was something that bothered SC when they were making the masters for the colour Rigg Avengers dvd's .
The individual series 5 dvd's that came out had been created with the sound pitch corrected UP by 4% instead of the correct 4% down so everybody sounded like chipmunks .
After a recall the episodes on the set were corrected but the current versions still include the original bodged up sound on the menus which makes for an amusing listen.
IIRC at least one Thorson episode remains uncorrected.

 

[Harry-N]

I'm not in a market for a universal player because I'm happy with the Region A player(s) that I own. It's not that important to me to be able to play discs from other countries particularly because of things like different frame rates, speed-up, etc. I just don't care to partake of that stuff. If US companies can't or don't acquire the rights to release them properly here, then so be it. I'll live with what I've got, which is, in the case of THE AVENGERS, perfectly playable DVDs that are mastered at the correct speed.

To my knowledge, the old original A&E DVD's have no problem with sped-up sound. Certainly nothing on the menus that I'm aware of. In fact the menu structure on those is all rather strange, coming out in the early days of DVD. IIRC, the discs just sort of play in order with the IN COLOR inro appearing before the disc opening. Then when you press "MENU", you can select the episode or chapter you're interested in. They're very strange.

But once you get them going, they're fine for viewing.

If Blu-rays in Region A ever become a reality at a reasonable cost, I'll be there.

Harry

 

[mongosito]

I'm not in a market for a universal player because I'm happy with the Region A player(s) that I own. It's not that important to me to be able to play discs from other countries particularly because of things like different frame rates, speed-up, etc. I just don't care to partake of that stuff. If US companies can't or don't acquire the rights to release them properly here, then so be it. I'll live with what I've got, which is, in the case of THE AVENGERS, perfectly playable DVDs that are mastered at the correct speed.

To my knowledge, the old original A&E DVD's have no problem with sped-up sound. Certainly nothing on the menus that I'm aware of. In fact the menu structure on those is all rather strange, coming out in the early days of DVD. IIRC, the discs just sort of play in order with the IN COLOR inro appearing before the disc opening. Then when you press "MENU", you can select the episode or chapter you're interested in. They're very strange.

But once you get them going, they're fine for viewing.

If Blu-rays in Region A ever become a reality at a reasonable cost, I'll be there.

Harry

I was referring to the restored dvd's in the UK from Optimum rather than the A and E discs .

But even with SC errors on the recent UK dvd's the A&E discs are now almost unwatchable in comparison . They are dreadful in places but they would be as they were sourced from the ancient 1992 remasters as were the first UK releases.

Once you sampled Rigg and Thorson on the new restored versions you could never go back to the A and E discs

 

[Harry-N]

...the A&E discs are now almost unwatchable in comparison...

I'm the first to realize that compared to modern remastering, the old AVENGERS discs from A&E leave a lot to be desired. But I'm still not tempted to delve into foreign remasters given the problems they present. Watching an old TV show should be a passive hobby and not something difficult to deal with.

I'm not about to spend money on a universal player - or multiple universal players so I can watch in any room - and then import foreign DVDs or Blu-rays, and then suffer the effects of speed-up on various releases. - And THEN realize that a home-grown proper release has come out. Unh-uh. Not happening.

If I want to watch an AVENGERS episode, I'd rather it be at the right speed and easily playable on all of my devices. The old mastering is NOT unwatchable. In fact, it's quite watchable.

Harry

 

[DVDvision]

Get the iTunes season 5, it's great, at the correct speed and you even can sample the new 5.1 remixes. I won't bother anymore with the DVDs either, the problems with all the releases were a disaster. The bonuses were great thought. But we still await for the ultimate documentary on the series, which sadly at this point won't happen.

 

[mongosito]

I'm the first to realize that compared to modern remastering, the old AVENGERS discs from A&E leave a lot to be desired. But I'm still not tempted to delve into foreign remasters given the problems they present. Watching an old TV show should be a passive hobby and not something difficult to deal with.

I'm not about to spend money on a universal player - or multiple universal players so I can watch in any room - and then import foreign DVDs or Blu-rays, and then suffer the effects of speed-up on various releases. - And THEN realize that a home-grown proper release has come out. Unh-uh. Not happening.

If I want to watch an AVENGERS episode, I'd rather it be at the right speed and easily playable on all of my devices. The old mastering is NOT unwatchable. In fact, it's quite watchable.

Harry

Of course it is when you've not seen the restored versions.
The main issue I had with the A&E discs was the inconsistency . Some sections were clean and looked almost flawless yet other sections within the same episode could look awful.

Watching a tv show should be a passive hobby "in your opinion" but there are those who are a bit more into it than that so multi region hardware is an essential piece of equipment if you want access to everything that interests you.

I have a huge number of dvd's and Blurays of material not out in the UK yet and tv shows are the main ones that I wouldn't have .
Here in the UK multi region playback for dvd's is almost nothing with the majority of players hackable by a few key presses on the remote - and the ones that are not that simple usually cost around £10 for a firmware update remote from ebay .

Multi region for Bluray is completely different and its truly only for the most dedicated collectors - mainly due to the cost of the upgrade being about £100 and the fact that over 70% of US Blurays are region free anyway .

Warner , Paramount and Universal Blurays are all region free ( unless licenced to other labels) whereas their dvd's are all region coded .

There's not a single Hollywood studio that region locks every Bluray release

 

[Harry-N]

I've noticed a trend that whenever the subject of multi-region players or importing DVDs/Blu-rays from other countries comes up, the loudest advocates of such are almost always from the UK. And that makes sense since, I believe, such multi-format players are much easier to get hold of in Europe and other parts of the world.

Here in the US, we've got Hollywood dictating what we can and cannot see, how we see it, and what we can do with it. Now, there are certainly ways around that, but it takes time, effort, and a seamy back-alley mentality to pursue some of those options. Many of us here in the States would rather not go those routes. And I, especially don't want to because of fear of speed-up.

In the early pages of another thread here, "HDVISION" put up a video of THE AVENGERS to demonstrate wide-screen transfers and compared them with the standard 4:3 version. The voices in those videos sound so odd to me that I couldn't watch them - both very chipmunk-y.


Harry

 

[DVDvision]

Oh yeah that's because I used the Pal masters for this demo.

 

[smithbrad]

I've noticed a trend that whenever the subject of multi-region players or importing DVDs/Blu-rays from other countries comes up, the loudest advocates of such are almost always from the UK. And that makes sense since, I believe, such multi-format players are much easier to get hold of in Europe and other parts of the world.

Here in the US, we've got Hollywood dictating what we can and cannot see, how we see it, and what we can do with it. Now, there are certainly ways around that, but it takes time, effort, and a seamy back-alley mentality to pursue some of those options. Many of us here in the States would rather not go those routes. And I, especially don't want to because of fear of speed-up.

In the early pages of another thread here, "HDVISION" put up a video of THE AVENGERS to demonstrate wide-screen transfers and compared them with the standard 4:3 version. The voices in those videos sound so odd to me that I couldn't watch them - both very chipmunk-y.


Harry

Not sure about that statement "loudest advocates of such are almost always from the UK". I'd bet you would be surprised at how many within the US have gone the multi-regiom route, whether it be the more expensive Oppo route or the bargain basement approach provided by players like Phillips. Many of the approaches really do not take up much in the way of time or effort to setup. There can be many reasons for going with this approach: price (e.g., Star trek series), quality (some international releases are of higher video/audio quality), disk format (single sides vs. dual sided disks), availability (disks not even released in the US), and even extras. The biggest issue seems to be releated to PAL speed-up. Many either have no issue with it or find it tolerable to achieve the other benefits.

As for the "seamy back-alley mentality" comment aimed at those that have gone this approach, I think that is a bit uncalled for. It is perfectly understandable if it doen't fit your needs and/or you are tired of getting the same type of reply about multi-region options, but there is really no need to use that type descriptor because some of else find it a more than worthwhile approach to fullfill our hobby wishlists.

 

[mongosito]

Speedup is generally not an issue on Bluray so it's an irrelevant argument and cannot be used as a genuine reason not to go multiregion .

As far as I am aware all the British Bluray releases of tv shows made on film have been issued in 24p so there is nothing to support the "speedup" myth here.

There may be more modern series ( could Sherlock be one of them) that were made at 25fps so the Bluray is 1080/50i as it would be the correct speed .

 

[smithbrad]

Speedup is generally not an issue on Bluray so it's an irrelevant argument and cannot be used as a genuine reason not to go multiregion .

As far as I am aware all the British Bluray releases of tv shows made on film have been issued in 24p so there is nothing to support the "speedup" myth here.

There may be more modern series ( could Sherlock be one of them) that were made at 25fps so the Bluray is 1080/50i as it would be the correct speed .

True, in that speedup is not an issue for 24p blu-rays, but not necessarily the only argument against going multi-region with regards to blu-rays. I have many non-region 1 DVD's for the reasons previously listed that have provided plenty of incentive to go that route, as well as the fact that players are still abundant to do it and there seems no way to turn it back at this point.

On the other hand, more blu-rays are region free than DVD's, and there have only been a few instances where i felt the need for a region free capability. Also, my Oppo 83 that I spent for the Mod no longer works based on a firmware change. that tells me it isn't as stable yet from a player perspective, so i don't want to put alot of money into that option yet.

 

[mongosito]

True, in that speedup is not an issue for 24p blu-rays, but not necessarily the only argument against going multi-region with regards to blu-rays. I have many non-region 1 DVD's for the reasons previously listed that have provided plenty of incentive to go that route, as well as the fact that players are still abundant to do it and there seems no way to turn it back at this point.

On the other hand, more blu-rays are region free than DVD's, and there have only been a few instances where i felt the need for a region free capability. Also, my Oppo 83 that I spent for the Mod no longer works based on a firmware change. that tells me it isn't as stable yet from a player perspective, so i don't want to put alot of money into that option yet.

My current multi region Bluray recorder has a firmware based hack but I was told that if an update from Panasonic became available that downloading it would remove the multi region feature although the hack supplier issues update discs for £10 if you want to keep the player updated and MR.
I chose the firmware option over hardware because my recorder also has the UOP disabled for BD and dvd so I can skip warnings and trailers etc and get to the menus and main feature much quicker.

But Harry seems to be using speedup as his main reason for not going multi region on Blu which is why I said its not a valid reason

For starters his inability to play Region B means he cannot access The Persuaders Bluray set nor any of Networks 3 Retro Action discs - and they're all 24p

 

[Harry-N]

Not sure about that statement "loudest advocates of such are almost always from the UK". I'd bet you would be surprised at how many within the US have gone the multi-regiom route,

No, I think I can guess that there are a lot of people in the US and Canada with our hobby who will indeed go to great lengths to get what they want. And there's nothing wrong with that if that's what you want to do. I wasn't implying that it's a Euro-only thing, just that whenever these discussions come up - and they come up often, our fine folks across the pond are usually heavily in on the discussion. And it's just because they have it different over there. They can easily go into a store and find multi-region players, multi format TVs, etc. Over here, we've got more hoops to jump through.

As for the "seamy back-alley mentality" comment aimed at those that have gone this approach, I think that is a bit uncalled for. It is perfectly understandable if it doen't fit your needs and/or you are tired of getting the same type of reply about multi-region options, but there is really no need to use that type descriptor because some of else find it a more than worthwhile approach to fullfill our hobby wishlists.

That language was a bit harsh, I admit, and I didn't mean to disparage those who do go multi-region. My point was simply that I can't go to a Best Buy or HH Gregg and buy a multi-region player. The MPAA has effectively shut down that option here in the US. And I'm speaking largely from the DVD point of view; Blu-ray is another animal entirely.

And yes, PAL speed-up, wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head, is like nails on a chalkboard to me. I cannot stand it and I'm very sensitive to it, so I hope you can understand my hesitation to tread in those waters.

Harry