FALCON CREST: A Proposal (1 Viewer)

Dear Warner Bros.,

In 1981, Earl Hamner and CBS presented FALCON CREST, a product you own in your vault, to television viewers all around the world. At the writing of this letter, 28 years will have passed since we first got a glimpse of that wine country region near San Francisco, better known to FALCON CREST fans as Tuscany Valley, California.

For many years, the medium of television has taken off on DVD in ways many industry insiders never imagined possible back when the video format first hit the retail industry so long ago. The result has been phenomenal. So many wonderfully entertaining TV series and specials have been released to the thanks of their fans everywhere. In fact, the medium of television has been the most popular product in the DVD/Home Video market for quite a long time.

Recently, you gave FALCON CREST your blessing in the countries of Germany, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland and Spain. But in its home country of The United States, where it originated, and in neighboring Canada, it again has been overlooked.

It stands to reason that with Dallas selling DVD sets in the United States like hotcakes, FALCON CREST would do as good if not better. Many fans of Dallas remained tuned in to FALCON CREST after it ended every Friday night during the time is spent on the air and these fans would probably buy box sets of FALCON CREST as well. Even Knots Landing and Dynasty fans are enjoying releases on DVD of their favorite shows. Why won't you release FALCON CREST to its fans in North America?

Fans of FALCON CREST in the United States and Canada have been waiting patiently for its premiere on DVD. We have been very vocal by asking, in fact BEGGING you to release our favorite series on DVD, but those kind and respectful requests continue to fall on deaf ears where FALCON CREST is concerned.

So again I come to you asking that you consider the series worthy of a DVD release in its native America, and neighboring Canada, so that the thousands of fans in the North America region who enjoyed it so many years ago will be able to do so all over again and share it with the next generation of fans, their kids and grand kids.

We are only asking that you give FALCON CREST, a vintage classic, this chance to be uncorked and shared all over America and Canada for fans of yesterday, today and tomorrow, to enjoy again and again.

Thank you for reviewing this proposal and we all look forward to the day when we will be able to order a case or two of FALCON CREST to toast this incredibly entertaining drama in the privacy of our own homes again, and share with our friends, the wonderful memories FALCON CREST has given so many fans around North America.

Regards,

Thomas Anthony Tagliente

good posting around falconcrest. I like to see that show released. However, i am more concern that shows get released but become stalled after one releases.

Why don't you just buy the European release?

You can't play the European box sets in Region 1 players.

Tom,

It's just my 2 cents on this, but if this show is important to you, you might want to look into getting a Region-Free player or look into the possibility of hacking your current player to enable R-Free playback.

I bought a hardware-modified Std player a few years ago and it's turned out to be the best home ent purchase I have.

I find it interesting when people make it sound easy to buy a Region Free DVD player. For folks that live close to a major city, they may be easy to find. For those of us that are somewhat removed from "the big city" it is far from easy. Every place I went when looking for one a year ago was full of clueless salespeople who had no idea what I was talking about. When I explained, they could not understand why I would want one. Rest assured there were none on the Delmarva peninsula (Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Eastern shore). Discouraged, I gave up and never got one.

Perhaps you could recommend an on line dealer that can help those of us not so lucky to find one locally.

Don't forget as well the higher price we have to pay for overseas DVD's. Another reason to think twice before buying.

Do a google search with your DVD player model number and hack code and you can break the region code in about 30 seconds.

Jack (& Tom)

Here's an online store that I've used with good results. The Cust Svc is good and they have answered my tech questions honestly. The guy that I traded e-mails with actually went "off the record" for me and recommended certain models that have been more prone to issues than others. We were trading e-mails about the hardware-mod R-Free players and not the "hacked" ones (where the user can enter a software numbered code from the player's remote control to convert/enable the R-Free function).

Here is the link to the site that I recommend:

Another site is here This one's also a good site but I rate their Cust Svc with communication lower than the 1st site. I've dealt with both sites and recommend the 1st store.

A quick price check of a comparable Pioneer upconvert player close to my model is about $100.00 less shipping.

These stores sell hardware-mod'ed players. I went that route since I wanted one without any (possible) future issue with playing RCE-encoded movies, etc. Most hacked players will play RCE's without problems but there have been a few reports online with issues from the hacked players where the user have to do workaround routines to get some RCE DVD's to play back without issues.

I have a hardware-mod'ed Pioneer model PIONEER DV-400V upconvert Std player. I've tested the R-free playback on known RCE-encoded movie DVD's and all have played without problems.

Regarding the 400V tech review, here's a quote from a tech lab that tested the 400V with regards to the PAL/NTSC conversion:


The lab tech's statement in bold is referencing that most Pioneers (perhaps all?) aren't "hackable" via a software code from the player's remote control.

I've been able to enjoy several R2/4 PAL sets with my Pioneer with great results. Some of my R2/4 sets are The Saint complete B/W set, 6M$M & Bionic Woman sets, Happy Days S1/2, Man in a Suitcase complete set, Rich Man Poor Man both books, and a couple of movies that weren't available in anamorphic releases in R1.

While it's true the the PAL 4% speed-up affects some viewers, I'm one of the lucky ones that it doesn't affect me. The only place that I've been able to detect the PAL speedup is during opening themes of my TV/DVD sets. Once the main episodes begin, I can't hear the speed-up difference.

The PAL/NTSC conversion (video) is flawless on my Pioneer player. I've done the "blindfold" test several times with friends and none have ever been able to tell the difference between one of my PAL DVD's and an NTSC DVD. I'm viewing all of my player's output via HDMI into an NTSC Plasma display.

Jack, Tom,

Danny is right about locating most "hack" codes online and chances are that it's all you'll need to be R-Free. For me, it was just a personal preference to go with a hardware-mod unit as both online stores warranty the internal mod for the life of the player.

One thing that I forgot to mention earlier is that my previous Sony (std) player would not accept any of the online hack codes that I tried, and it didn't have the internal PAL/NTSC Converter inside the player. Things may have changed over the past 2-3 years but it used to be the case where the Sony std players did not have the Converters installed in their R1 players. Plus, the Sony's, from the online forums, have a reputation of being harder to hack than some other brands. Phillips players are reputed to be among the easiest to hack from my understanding.

Most all of the other major brands have the Converter inside the units.

Thanks for the links- I'll check them out...

To be honest, this is not high priority for me at the moment, but I would like to upgrade my DVD player soon- I'll keep these in mind-

Thanks again

Jack,

You're welcome.

For myself, I might start to look at some of the Blu-Ray R-Free players as they have advanced from the early hardware-mod'ed models that were only capable of playing BR Region's A & B, I believe. The only reason I might get a BR R-free player at some point is if the studios start to release older TV/DVD sets exclusive to BR. I don't see that trend happening in the near future though.

I bought a dvd player recently that I was able to make into a region free. its been working pretty good since then.

I would also recommend getting a region free and buying a copy of FC from germany. to support it.

Jacob

The German Falcon Crest DVDs are not only a different region, but they are also PAL format, so its a little more tricky than just changing the region code. I think you need a multi-system dvd player that plays PAL discs.

I was in the same predicament a few years ago. I purchased a TV series in PAL format from Australia. The discs were region-free, but PAL format, so they wouldn't play on my regular dvd player. I did a little research on the web and found a website that listed multi-system DVD players and where to buy them (I wished I saved the link because I can't find the site for the life of me now). Anyway, I got one at Best Buy for $50--a Toshiba SD3990. They don't advertise that they are PAL format on the box. It's like a big secret.

However, NTSC/PAL issues don't apply if you watching using a DVD player on your computer, so once you've overcome the region coding there should be no problem.

Ron is right in that you need to buy a player that has the internal PAL/NTSC Converter but most of the common brands (in US stores as well) have the Converter included in the player. The hack code enables the R-free (& PAL Converter) operation inside the player.

Be wary of the older Sony players as many of them mfg'ed for sale in R1 did not include the internal Converter. You'll be safe with a Phillips player from the info on the 'net forums. Oppo brand players are good bets as well.

Unless you're lucky enough to converse with a salesperson at a local Walmart, BB, etc, that is knowledgeable about the R-free stuff, you most likely won't be able to get confirmation about the technical aspect of the players on sale at those stores. I haven't talked with any B&M salespersons that knew about the R-free PAL/NTSC info. That's why I bought my player from an online store with the lifetime warranty covering the internal mod's.

Ron mentioned a 'net store link. For anyone interested, check my previous post on this thread for a couple of online store sites.

This post is not about where to find and purchase a PAL/Region-Free DVD player. This post is for the top brass at WB to see this proposal and see that FALCON CREST is a product people in America and Canada want to buy.

I do appreciate everyone's thoughts on the matter, but I do not want to buy an overseas release. I want the American release. Now if that means waiting until FALCON CREST is the final TV series ever release on DVD (which it looks like it very well may be), then so be it.

Again, thank you everyone for your thoughts, but many replies are far off the beaten path of where I hoped these would be. It's not about buying a DVD player to play European releases. It's about FALCON CREST being released here in THIS country!

Please read the post again.

Thank you for your support.

Tom

regardless if you have a dvd player that can do region free. I would suggest buying the FC from germany. the more that it sells the better chance that it would get released here in the US.

Jacob

Tom,

For my part, I apologize for taking the thread off-path. There has seemed to be a fair amount of mis-information about R-Free players out there so sometimes I post some info on it when I see a fan of a show waiting for an R1 release when their show is available in another region. I can relate since I'm a fan of the original "bionic" shows from the 70's and some seasons are available in R2/4 but none as yet in R1. That was the main reason that I bought my R-free player a few years ago with very pleasing results. However, I know that the overseas-region approach is not everyone's choice for their shows.

Sorry again and I'll post only FC-related info here.

Maybe they all thought that they could use one of the other 25 threads (use the search function, I'm not exaggerating) that you've started on the same exact topic.

Tom- Sorry as well for taking the thread in a different direction. Having had personal experience and frustration with the region-free DVD stuff, I felt that it was a little unfair to just tell you to get a region free player and buy the German DVD's- Sometimes things are easier said than done!!