Blu-ray Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - Columbo The 1970s-- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Peter Apruzzese]

About half of the episodes are ~74 minutes.

 

[madfloyd]

About half of the episodes are ~74 minutes.

I spot checked some of the season 2 ones and they were all long, but thanks, that's good to know.

One attraction for me of these types of series is seeing some favorite actors in the guest roles.

 

[jayembee]

A ‘reviewer’ on Amazon complains that the picture doesn’t completely fill his TV screen. A pity Amazon can’t stop people from posting ignorant comments.

Those idiots crack me up. The same person also did a review of Babylon 5 and said the same thing.

I dunno if they're really an "idiot". Depending on exactly what they said in their complaint, they just might be one of those people who want their screen filled. They're only an idiot if they don't understand why it's not filling their screen.

 

[jayembee]

I was totally sucked in and quite surprised that it was 97 minutes long. I guess the TV 'episodes' were actually 2 hour movies.

It was part of "a series of series", The NBC Mystery Movie, where instead of a single 1-hour show every week, it was a rotating run of different shows, and they were all "movie length" (90m or 2-hour).

The NBC Mystery Movie - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[madfloyd]

It was part of "a series of series", The NBC Mystery Movie, where instead of a single 1-hour show every week, it was a rotating run of different shows, and they were all "movie length" (90m or 2-hour).

The NBC Mystery Movie - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Ahhh, thank you!

 

[Wayne Klein]

I dunno if they're really an "idiot". Depending on exactly what they said in their complaint, they just might be one of those people who want their screen filled. They're only an idiot if they don't understand why it's not filling their screen.

It’s pretty easy to be informed and find out why the screen isn’t filled. So I stick with the idiot definition. Willful ignorance From those folks.

 

[jayembee]

It’s pretty easy to be informed and find out why the screen isn’t filled. So I stick with the idiot definition. Willful ignorance From those folks.

Again, it might not be a case of being informed or uninformed. If the person complains because they think something is wrong with the disc because it's not filling the screen, that's one thing. If it's an aesthetic preference, that's something different, and has nothing to do with being informed or not. Many people just want to watch the story, and don't care about frame composition.

 

[mskaye]

Again, it might not be a case of being informed or uninformed. If the person complains because they think something is wrong with the disc because it's not filling the screen, that's one thing. If it's an aesthetic preference, that's something different, and has nothing to do with being informed or not. Many people just want to watch the story, and don't care about frame composition.

 

[Nelson Au]

Did anyone get 2 disc 1’s and no disc 2 for season 1? I’ve been trying to deal with Kino for a replacement disc for weeks but had no luck. I finally gave up and returned the set for a refund. the situation has left me extremely disappointed with Kino. I’m not replacing it. Just wondering if anyone else had issues with the discs themselves.

My first season case has all the correct discs, disc 1, 2, 3 and 4. I have yet to check the other seasons, but because of your post, I did check season 1.

 

[Robert Saccone]

Any reason to hang onto the DVDs if you get the Kino set?

 

[B-ROLL]

Any reason to hang onto the DVDs if you get the Kino set?

Um the other "seasons" ...

 

[Jack P]

There's also the fact that the audio in a number of Season 1 episodes on the Blu-Ray has some problems where the sound effects and music are drowning out the dialogue as if the music/FX track has somehow "doubled up" over the regular audio. The audio at times (Particularly the construction site scene in "Blueprint For Murder") is almost indecipherable dialogue wise.

 

[Robert Saccone]

Um the other "seasons" ...

View attachment 219508

I have the Columbo Series as individual DVD Seasons. I only meant differences between the original 70's run on DVD vs Blu.

 

[Robert Saccone]

There's also the fact that the audio in a number of Season 1 episodes on the Blu-Ray has some problems where the sound effects and music are drowning out the dialogue as if the music/FX track has somehow "doubled up" over the regular audio. The audio at times (Particularly the construction site scene in "Blueprint For Murder") is almost indecipherable dialogue wise.

I have an import of the Season 1 Blu-Ray from Australia which I will compare to Kinos Season 1.

 

[Robert Saccone]

My set just showed up. Very nice packaging and the artwork on the outside box is nice. I do recall that Falk was a drawer and had a number of drawings on his website. One was a really nice drawing he did of himself as Columbo. That would have made for interesting box art.

 

[mskaye]

My set just showed up. Very nice packaging and the artwork on the outside box is nice. I do recall that Falk was a drawer and had a number of drawings on his website. One was a really nice drawing he did of himself as Columbo. That would have made for interesting box art.

Just watched PLAYBACK the other night - I think the new cover art is based on shots of Columbo from a scene w Gena Rowlands. I could be wrong.

 

[Robert Saccone]

Okay, I think the time has come to point out that in at least two Season 1 episodes, "Dead Weight" and "Blueprint For Murder" there is clearly some serious problems with the sound mixing. In multiple scenes I noticed that the backround noise is practically drowning out the dialogue and it just about required me to use the subtitles. This is evident in the scene where Eddie Albert takes Columbo out on his boat where you can hardly hear anything above the engine noise but it's also clear in scenes like when Columbo is first interviewing Suzanne Pleshette at her home and the background music is way too loud (and the background F/X at the animal park where Albert sees Pleshette are also much too loud).

Proof that there's been a screwup became clear in "Blueprint For Murder" at 51 minutes there's a scene where Columbo is talking to a foreman on a noisy construction site. You can hardly make out what they're saying. After this I pulled out the old DVD, and on that the sound mix is different. The dialogue is clearer and distinct and isn't overwhelmed by the background noise.

Unfortunately my plans to give away my old DVDs to a friend just went out the window. I think this needs to be studied more carefully because these episodes, while they look better do not sound better to my ears. And on top of the debacle surrounding the thing I won't mention any longer, this is only further underscoring what a tremendous letdown this release has turned out to be for me as a Columbo fan.

I just compared Dead Weight on the Kino Set to the same episode the Australian Madman Release of Season 1. The Kino Set is using DTS for the soundtrack and the Madman release is using LPCM Stereo. It is the case that the level of dialog on the Kino release during the boat trial scene is lower and / or the engines are much louder. I can still hear the dialogue pretty clearly though. In fact the Kino version seems more realistic to me as it matches my boating experiences. The same goes for Blueprint For Murder the dialogue is lower on the Kino but I can still hear what is being said. I am guessing the Kino set is a new audio mix from the older BluRay sets.

 

[B-ROLL]

I just compared Dead Weight on the Kino Set to the same episode the Australian Madman Release of Season 1. The Kino Set is using DTS for the soundtrack and the Madman release is using LPCM Stereo. It is the case that the level of dialog on the Kino release during the boat trial scene is lower and / or the engines are much louder. I can still hear the dialogue pretty clearly though. In fact the Kino version seems more realistic to me as it matches my boating experiences. The same goes for Blueprint For Murder the dialogue is lower on the Kino but I can still hear what is being said. I am guessing the Kino set is a new audio mix from the older BluRay sets.

I believe Kino uses DTS for virtually all of their blu-ray releases -even monaural ones.

 

[Robert Saccone]

One thing I noticed is that on the shorter Etude in Black the episode does not have Mystery Movie opening like it does on the second season Blu-ray set I imported from Australia. Too bad Kino didn’t do it the same way.