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A Few Words About A few words about...™ Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Granada TV Series -- in Blu-ray (2 Viewers)

Robert Harris

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I've just had the pleasure of spending some quality time with MPI's new boxed set of Jeremy Brett's work as Sherlock Homes.

Many Holmes aficionados feel that Mr. Brett's work (1984-1994) as the titular Mr. Holmes was the best of the best.

I don't yet have an opinion, as I've never seen a frame before this evening, even having spent much of the past year with Mr. Brett in one of his earlier incarnations, as Mr. Eynsford-Hill.

My reasoning was simple. I had no desire to view what many felt was an superior series of entertainments either in standard definition, or via imported software, at least some of which is noted to be problematic.

So I waited.

The wait was worth it. MPI Home Video has been kind enough to supply a copy of the entire set for my perusal.

41 programs. 39 as parts of series, and 2 (The Sign of the Four and The Hound of the Baskervilles) as features produced for TV.

Hearing that there have been various problems with some of the imports over the past few years, it was with a deep breath and a large amount of hope that I placed Disc One in my Oppo.

Eleven discs later, I've come away with my "appraisal of the situation."

While I have yet to find out precisely what elements were used for mastering, and what was performed, the bottom line is simple.

Over forty hours of gorgeous content, and nary a problem in sight.

While I'll return and report a bit more on this very important set, I wanted to get something posted with immediacy to allow readers to know that "it's safe."

Neatly packaged, and attractively packaged, along with an accompanying booklet, the set of 12 discs takes up only a couple of inches of shelf space.

A class act.


Image - 5

Audio - 5

Very Highly Recommended.

RAH
 

Mark-W

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I really like Brett and I like Sherlock Holmes, but I have never seen the two as one. This set sounds like the perfect time to get introduced.
 

lukejosephchung

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Mark Walker said:
I really like Brett and I like Sherlock Holmes, but I have never seen the two as one. This set sounds like the perfect time to get introduced.
You're in for a treat...to my mind, Brett is the screen personification of Doyle's original character and this series was/is as good as it ever got for vintage Holmes translated from page to film...
 

bigshot

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The Spanish blu-ray looks fantastic too, and it is a fraction of the price. I suspect they used the same masters. No compression artifacting at all.
 

bigshot

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The Spanish set is region free and plays on my $100 Sony blu-ray player and costs MUCH less than the MPI version.
 

bigshot

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But I suspect you looked at Sign of the Four or Hound of the Baskervilles when you were rating and not the first season, which had significantly lower production values. It definitely doesn't deserve a 5 for image quality. But the blu-rays are an accurate representation of the original film elements.
 

Jacksmyname

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Thank you for the review, Robert. I've loved the Holmes character since I first saw Mr. Rathbone portray him waaaaaaaay back when I was about 7-8 years old (65 now).
Like many other fans, I've seen the Rathbone/Bruce films countless times over the years, and own the complete set on DVD and Blu Ray. I've also read all of the Doyle stories. Mr. Rathbone was my favorite Holmes, until I saw Jeremy Brett portray him about 3-4 years ago the first time. Now, I have two favorites.
I'm very pleased to read that this set, which I've had in my Amazon cart for a while now, is a winner. Thank you again, and thank you to MPI for doing this series the justice it deserves.
 

Jacksmyname

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JohnMor said:
I have never seen these. I was always waiting to "catch-up" on them as I'd heard nothing but great things about the eps in general and Brett in particular. This seems like the time. :)
You're in for a treat, John.
 

lukejosephchung

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bigshot said:
But I suspect you looked at Sign of the Four or Hound of the Baskervilles when you were rating and not the first season, which had significantly lower production values. It definitely doesn't deserve a 5 for image quality. But the blu-rays are an accurate representation of the original film elements.
According Mr. Harris' review, he looked at ALL of the 12-disc set...you're making an assumption not evident in his assessment...
 

Persianimmortal

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Thanks for the recommendation on these Mr Harris. I've long enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes books, but have tended to steer clear of movies and TV series depicting Holmes because I've had a pretty poor impression from those I've seen. So for a long time, I've been happy enough just to employ my imagination to bring the books to life. But this thread motivated me to sample some YouTube videos of Jeremy Brett's performance as Holmes, and I have to say, he looks and sounds extremely close to the Sherlock Holmes I know from the books. This may well be the definitive depiction of Sherlock Holmes on film, so I'm going to buy the set thanks to you :)
 

Oblivion138

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In viewing the Spanish set, there were a few problems I noted. One is that several episodes were fairly scrubbed of grain. Another was that the day-for-night sequences in The Sign of Four did not have the filter applied, and therefore appeared to take place in broad daylight...which makes it awkward as this is mixed with actual night photography, so it goes from afternoon to pitch black in the course of a couple of shots. And finally, the episode The Three Gables, from the final series, is upscaled from standard definition (apparently in the absence of the original elements). I would love to know if any or all of these issues still exist on the US set. On the one hand, I can't imagine MPI using different masters. On the other, I'm such a Holmes fanatic (and particularly a Brettian Holmes fanatic) that I can't bear the thought of not owning the best of the best.
 

Persianimmortal

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After doing some quick searching to find the best price, I too would like to know if there are any differences/corrections between the Spanish set and the new US set, given the Spanish set is less than half the price of the US one.
 

Kirben

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Exactly how is the complete series packaged? it is a digipak or just the five separate Blu-Ray releases bundled into a boxed set?
 

bigshot

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lukejosephchung said:
According Mr. Harris' review, he looked at ALL of the 12-disc set...you're making an assumption not evident in his assessment...
Well then he saw the difference between first season and the TV movies. The image quality of the series varies because the production values got better as the series went along.

I've got a five dollar bet on the licensor (Granada?) just sending the masters to two different companies who just did disk mastering and didn't do their own transfers or image processing. There has already been a thread on the differences between the Spanish set and the US (or am I thinking of the other forum?) In any case, I didn't see anyone who could point to any difference at all except the layout of the material on the disks. I have the Spanish set and it is a significant step up from the green DVD box. The descriptions of the US set I read sound exactly the same as my Spanish set. The Spanish set is much cheaper and region free.
 

bigshot

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I don't know about the grain issues, Oblivion38, because I don't know the scenes you are referring to, but it has been confirmed that the US set has the same issues with day for night in Sign of the Four and the same upscaled episode in the last series.
 

Persianimmortal

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Here's the HTF thread discussing this set.

Over at that other forum, this post by someone who claims to have both the Spanish and the new US Blu-ray releases says that:

I have to say, the Spanish release looks MUCH better to my eyes. I know there were concerns about the level of noise reduction and sharpening in the Spanish release, but watching the new US release, I can see why they did it. The level of noise and grain (for example, in the beginning of the ep when Mary Morstan consults Holmes) is distractingly high. In this scene, Holmes brushes dust from his pants - I couldn't even SEE the dust through all of the noise and grain in the US bluray release.
So there does appear to be an image quality difference in that the Spanish release has been DNRed, but at least the poster above seems to prefer it that way.

Hmmmm.... which to choose, which to choose..?
 

FoxyMulder

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Persianimmortal said:
Here's the HTF thread discussing this set.

Over at that other forum, this post by someone who claims to have both the Spanish and the new US Blu-ray releases says that:



So there does appear to be an image quality difference in that the Spanish release has been DNRed, but at least the poster above seems to prefer it that way.

Hmmmm.... which to choose, which to choose..?
If the Spanish release has excessive DNR and sharpening and the USA release has a film like approach then it's an easy decision.
 

Persianimmortal

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Yeah I suppose so, although it's hard to swallow paying an additional $110 ($199 vs, £55) if it's just a bit of DNR for cleanup purposes. Looks like I'll just wait and see if the US set drops to a more acceptable price.
 

Johnny Angell

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Mark Walker said:
I really like Brett and I like Sherlock Holmes, but I have never seen the two as one. This set sounds like the perfect time to get introduced.
Or the Spanish version, which I have. Ordered from Amazon Spain.
lukejosephchung said:
You're in for a treat...to my mind, Brett is the screen personification of Doyle's original character and this series was/is as good as it ever got for vintage Holmes translated from page to film...
I think this production is extremely faithful to the canon. Brett and both actors who portrayed Watson, are superb.
 

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