THE ALRED HITCHOCK HOUR comes to the UK (1 Viewer)

Fabulous films (in association with Universal) are releasing all 3 seasons of THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR in January 2016. This follows their recent release of all 7 seasons of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS (previously only seasons 1-3 were released on DVD in the UK),


The HOUR shows got a brief VHS release in, the UK many years ago with about 6 episodes getting a release.


Hopefully they will be of good quality. Seasons 6+7 of PRESENTS have given very good quality transfers of the episodes despite many episodes missing the "Revue/MCA" end logos.

I'm very glad to hear of the Region 2 complete series releases of both The Alfred HItchcock Hour and Alfred Hitchcock Presents on pressed DVDs; I hope this news bodes well for similar Region 1 complete series releases on pressed DVDs for both shows. Here are some links on fabulousfilms.com:


The Alfred Hitchcock Hour

The Complete Series: http://www.fabulousf...om/products/271

Season One: http://www.fabulousf...om/products/272

Season Two: http://www.fabulousf...om/products/273

Season Three: http://www.fabulousf...om/products/274


Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Complete Series: http://www.fabulousf...om/products/248

Season One: http://www.fabulousf...om/products/249

Season Two: http://www.fabulousf...om/products/250

Season Three: http://www.fabulousf...om/products/251

Season Four: http://www.fabulousf...om/products/252

Season Five: http://www.fabulousf...om/products/253

Season Six: http://www.fabulousf...om/products/254

Season Seven: http://www.fabulousf...om/products/255


Fabulous Films did a complete series release of Tales of the Gold Monkey (another Universal show) in Region 2 on November 16, 2009, followed by a Region 4 release on November 27, 2009, and finally a Region 1 release (distributed by Shout Factory!) on June 8, 2010.


I could see Shout Factory!/Timeless doing these releases in Region 1.


Here are the contact pages for Fabulous Films and Shout Factory!:


Fabulous Films: http://www.fabulousfilms.com/contact


Shout Factory!: https://www.shoutfactory.com/contact


Darby

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour is currently airing on MeTV weeknights from 2:00-3:00 AM (CST). I am loving these episodes and hope the show finally gets a Region 1 release.


Darby

Darby67 said:

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour is currently airing on MeTV weeknights from 2:00-3:00 AM (CST). I am loving these episodes and hope the show finally gets a Region 1 release.


Darby

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I've been watching some of these, but I don't understand why the picture is a bit smudgy on all MeTV broadcasts. Is it the source material, or the refresh rate or some engineering issue related to the local affiliate? You can tell the source material is sometimes remastered, but it's ruined by the on-air presentation. I have tried contacting MeTV and get no answers. It's not good.

We have a similar channel in the UK called Talking Pictures, very smeary smudgy blocky picture, seems they can't afford higher bitrates or something like that.

brynmill said:

We have a similar channel in the UK called Talking Pictures, very smeary smudgy blocky picture, seems they can't afford higher bitrates or something like that.

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Are you watching via satellite?

Their sat pictures have been dreadful from day one although they are better now than they were at the start.

But their broadcasts on Freeview HD are acceptable and far superior. Although the channel is not HD it broadcasts on the HD multiplex used by BBC4 so if you can get BBC4 HD you can get Talking Pictures.

I assume that being on an HD multiplex will automatically mean higher bitrates

Yes watch it via Satellite, still not a good quality picture.

Hollywoodaholic said:

I've been watching some of these, but I don't understand why the picture is a bit smudgy on all MeTV broadcasts. Is it the source material, or the refresh rate or some engineering issue related to the local affiliate? You can tell the source material is sometimes remastered, but it's ruined by the on-air presentation. I have tried contacting MeTV and get no answers. It's not good.

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My understanding is that MeTV dropped their satellite delivery to affiliates in favor of signal delivery via the internet. Therefore, if your local affiliate is already cramming the channel into a low bitrate, it could become additionally degraded by the quality of their incoming internet feed. Another example of how the "digital promise" winds up looking worse than old-fashioned analog.

Does anyone have the R4 (madman) release from a couple of years back? I assume they are probably based on the same prints. With the current DD sale (15% site-wide) you can get all the R4 seasons for around $110 shipped, while the new UK release for the complete series goes for about $125 shipped.