A Few Words About A few words about...™ Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Granada TV Series -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Lou Sytsma]

Just finished - The Crooked Man. Damn fine piece of story telling. Very emotionally engaging. Great performances from top to bottom.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Finished the first season. Really enjoyed it. What a rush to get Moriarity so early into the show.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Finished the Second Season and it's been a revelation how many episodes I have never seen before. Seems like my local stations aired the same ones over and over again. A very pleasant surprise. Wisteria Lodge with Freddy Jones was an especially delightful first time experience.

 

[Persianimmortal]

Surprised to see this thread pop back up again! I'm greatly anticipating rewatching this series on Blu shortly, after my first viewing of it almost a year ago.


Interesting to check the status of the Spanish set and the US set - the Spanish collection has dropped further to 46 Euros ($52USD), while the US set has also fallen slightly but is thrice the price at $158.00.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Re Lou Sytsma's comment .... glad someone else appreciates that great character actor Freddy Jones .. though I'm sure very many people here do.

For me, the revelation of just how good an actor he was came when I saw a masterful BBC dramatisation on the life of the English rural poet John Clare ..who Freddy Jones brought to life with immense sensitivity and moving understanding. I don't think the BBC bothered to keep a copy on tape of that production.

And Koroush reminds me once again how lucky I was to find the Spanish set!

 

[JohnMor]

And Koroush reminds me once again how lucky I was to find the Spanish set!

Seconded!

 

[marsnkc]

Surprised to see this thread pop back up again! I'm greatly anticipating rewatching this series on Blu shortly, after my first viewing of it almost a year ago.


Interesting to check the status of the Spanish set and the US set - the Spanish collection has dropped further to 46 Euros ($52USD), while the US set has also fallen slightly but is thrice the price at $158.00.

Koroush-


Unless I'm misreading it, Amazon Spain appears to be selling the set only through 3rd parties with prices starting at 69 Euro and no break on the VAT you get when it's Amazon selling. Total with shipping comes to $96 US. After (luckily) coming across this thread last Saturday (6/27) I ordered what Amazon.es stated was their last copy, for a total, with shipping, of $57 US. One gouger who specializes in European titles wants $110 US plus shipping.

 

[Persianimmortal]

Unless I'm misreading it, Amazon Spain appears to be selling the set only through 3rd parties with prices starting at 69 Euro and no break on the VAT you get when it's Amazon selling.

I just checked again and the price has indeed gone up - when I posted, Amazon was selling it directly for 46 euros. As noted late last year in this thread, Amazon.es seems to price this set with rather dramatic fluctuations on almost a daily cycle, so anyone looking to buy directly from Amazon should check daily and buy at the lowest price in the cycle (around 46-49 euros).


Note also that as identified earlier on page 10 of this thread, one of the other benefits of the Spanish set vs. the US set aside from price is that the Spanish set has correct frame pacing for the episode The Three Gables, whereas the US set exhibits frame skipping every second due to what appears to be an incorrect conversion from 25 to 24 FPS.

 

[marsnkc]

Apparently, unlike Amazon.com Amazon.es don't tell you there's 'more on they way' when they run low on stock. This is the only explanation for units popping up since I ordered 'the last one' last weekend. Anyone interested in getting a set from Amazon direct should wait and check back daily, as you say, and not resort to the 3rd 'partiers'.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Guess I picked the right time when I bought the set last February - it was 36.26 Euros then. With shipping I got the set for roughly $70 Canadian.

 

[Matt Hough]

I got my set from Amazon Spain this week, and I have been greatly enjoying The Adventures in high definition. I've watched the first four (don't want to zip through them because there is so much to savor), but they are BEAUTIFUL looking and eons ahead of the DVDs which will now be gifted to a friend.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Finished The Creeping Man. Rather a bizarre episode. If only they knew about Viagara


Off to watch the movies - now of which I have ever seen before.

 

[Dregoth]

I've just discovered one sort of "botched" episode in the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes US Blu-ray set. "The Three Gables" suffers from a skipped frame every second resulting in jerky motion. Apparently they attempted to run the episode at its correct speed (the series was shot at 25 fps for PAL compatibility) by dropping every 25th frame and mastering on Blu-ray at 24fps. All of the other episodes in the series simply slow the speed down from 25 fps to 24 fps without dropping any frames and as a result the shows run a couple of minutes longer. "The Three Gables" runs 51 minutes whereas all the other shows in the series run 53-55 minutes. The other odd thing about "The Three Gables" is that it is an unusual aspect ratio of 1.55:1, whereas the other episodes in this season were 1.78:1 (all the earlier seasons are 1.33:1). Weird.

Snapshot-2014-11-17 at 03_48_01 AM-651438585.jpg

This is interesting because the audio in The Three Gables is higher, showing that they did not pitch correct in slowing down the other episodes. So that's the only episode with the correct audio; all the other episodes sound lower than they should.


Crazy to think because I believe the lower pitch is what I'm used to hearing from the US airings in the 90's.

 

[Persianimmortal]

And it seems the US set is now only $75 on Amazon, finally bringing it roughly into parity with the Spanish set. Each set has its own minor quibbles, so you can't go wrong with either as long as you grab one asap!

 

[macdaddy]

Agreed!! Great series.

 

[Dregoth]

Couldn't agree more, the quality is top notch.

 

[Oblivion138]

This is interesting because the audio in The Three Gables is higher, showing that they did not pitch correct in slowing down the other episodes. So that's the only episode with the correct audio; all the other episodes sound lower than they should.


Crazy to think because I believe the lower pitch is what I'm used to hearing from the US airings in the 90's.

The problem with Three Gables is that they didn't have the original film elements. It's clearly upscaled from an SD video source. I don't believe the motion judder exists on the Spanish release (would have to recheck to be sure), but it seems that there was a problem in the conversion on the US set, at least, when they attempted to resolve the framerate issue (PAL standard vs. BD's 24fps).

 

[jamesgrau]

Hello all, new here. I wanted to say I have been in contact with MPI Home Video regarding the issues with the "Memoirs" discs, both regarding the The Three Gables frame rate issue and severe audio sync problems on some of the episodes. They were not aware but expressed concern, asking some specifics. I suggested it would be great to have replacements discs made available with these things corrected. We shall see. It never hurts to ask!

 

[mjl1297]

I know this thread has been dormant for a while but I'm earnestly trying to get a few questions answered regarding the Sherlock Holmes Granada series sets answered and have been met only with stony silence on the other forums where matters like this are supposedly discussed. I came across this thread and thought the membership here might be more inclined to at least try and help.

In short, I would like to know the following, which of the sets is free of the following defects? It isn't the MPI Blu-Ray set because I have it but fault-free versions do exist somewhere because I have the downloads to prove it.:

1) In The Three Gables, the picture has an annoying "stutter" or jerking effect throughout. It looks as though frames are being dropped is the best way to describe it. The audio track does not manifest any concomitant deterioration however.

2) In The Red Circle and The Golden Pince-Nez, there are occasional issues with the AV sync.

3) In The Master Blackmailer there are some freakish effects in the audio track. The dialogue is normal but any other background noises e.g., horses trotting, birds taking to the wing at the beginning, etc., have an outlandish almost mechanical quality to them that is as annoying as it is hard to describe.

These are known issues with the MPI BD set like mine. MPI never offered replacements and couldn't now even if they wished to as they no longer retain the licence. I'd like to know if any of the foreign sets are plagued with the defects described above.

Again I would appreciate any help. Thanks in advance.

 

[Rodney]

It's a shame that no one has yet to respond to your questions from May, Mark. I came here because of a discussion in the
Mystery & Crime Series 30's & 40's thread that finally convinced me into purchasing the MPI blu-ray set from Amazon. After reading this entire thread as well as a thread on another forum it is my understanding that this set and the Spanish set are similar, though not identical, so I am not too concerned with your list of known issues, especially at the current price tag.