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A Quinn Martin Production (2 Viewers)

Neil Brock

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The VEI complete series release of "Cannon" has a lot of negative comments on Amazon from people complaining about the "poor picture quality". I own the set, and I don't understand the griping. Sure, it's not in HD and the shows haven't been restored at all, but the quality is as decent as any rerun you'd see on television. The most positive thing about the set is the episodes being completely uncut, with running times usually around 51 minutes. Highly recommended by me.

Because the moron HD crowd, which watches on their 90 inch TVs, anything that isn't a perfect modern remaster, they don't like. To me it looks fine too, but then again, I lived through shows in syndication in the 70s and early 80s that aired on 16mm from prints which were red as a beet.
 

BobO'Link

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Because the moron HD crowd, which watches on their 90 inch TVs, anything that isn't a perfect modern remaster, they don't like. To me it looks fine too, but then again, I lived through shows in syndication in the 70s and early 80s that aired on 16mm from prints which were red as a beet.
Those folks are kin to the "I won't buy anything on DVD! It's BR or nothing for me!" crowd.
 

jcroy

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Those folks are kin to the "I won't buy anything on DVD! It's BR or nothing for me!" crowd.

This type of habitual complaining will continue on until hell freezes over.

I'm sure when holodecks become commonplace, people will still be complaining about Perry Mason and Star Wars looking like 2D crap (ie. not holodeck quality).

;)
 

BobO'Link

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DVD is my last format. After 3/4, EAIJ, Beta, VHS, Super Beta, Super VHS, no more formats!
Mine is BR. In spite of that I have no problem purchasing something on DVD if that's the way it's offered or if the DVD is much less expensive. Most of my BR purchases are visible upgrades or for product where I totally missed the DVD. Anything else is simply because the BR is less expensive (new or used). FWIW, other than ST:TOS I purchased nothing on a tape format - just blank tapes to time shift and record the occasional favorite movie/series. By the time DVD came along I had about 100 tapes full of stuff I wanted to keep. I had almost that many DVDs before I purchased a player I could connect to my TV (it was viewing on the computer prior to that - I had a 19" CRT on the PC).
 

jcroy

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FWIW, other than ST:TOS I purchased nothing on a tape format - just blank tapes to time shift and record the occasional favorite movie/series. By the time DVD came along I had about 100 tapes full of stuff I wanted to keep. I had almost that many DVDs before I purchased a player I could connect to my TV (it was viewing on the computer prior to that - I had a 19" CRT on the PC).

I was still using VHS until about 2009/2010 or so, until my machine died. (I never got around to purchasing a dvd recorder back in the day. They largely disappeared from local retailer shelves by then).

By then, I changed the cable service which provided an actual digital dvr box. I didn't see any point in hunting down an older discontinued dvd recorder model, and setting up all the weird wiring setup to get it to work with the previous digital cable box. (It turns out the old digital box models were bricked deliberately shortly thereafter by the cable provider, where they eventually moved everybody to the digital dvr boxes).
 

jcroy

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@BobO'Link

(On an offtopic tangent).

What computer dvd-rom drive did you have to play those first 100 dvd purchases on the computer?


(IIRC , the dvd-rom drives were several hundred $$$ back in 1998->1999).
 

BobO'Link

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@BobO'Link

(On an offtopic tangent).

What computer dvd-rom drive did you have to play those first 100 dvd purchases on the computer?


(IIRC , the dvd-rom drives were several hundred $$$ back in 1998->1999).
Don't remember the specific brand. I built a gaming system and made sure it had a DVD drive as I anticipated games coming out on DVD instead of several CDs. It was a DVD/CD-R drive (wouldn't burn DVDs - just play them). It was a "top of the line" system at the time - set me back ~$2000 (including the 19" CRT).
 

jcroy

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I have quite a few Blus (generally of films), with most of mine being DVDs, so I'm not one of those people.

For me, bluray has largely been an afterthought relegated to dump bin purchases.

If I see the bluray version of a film/show where I already have the dvd version, I might pick up the bluray version as an impulse buy from the local $5 (or less) dump bins.
 

jcroy

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I built a gaming system and made sure it had a DVD drive as I anticipated games coming out on DVD instead of several CDs.

(Going offtopic).

I thought something like this might happen. Though in the end, I only ever purchased one pc video game which was released on a dvd disc (Grant Theft Auto: San Andreas).

By that time circa mid-2000s, some pc game discs were starting to go the route of just having a "install/download" program on the cdrom disc.
 

Harry-N

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I just read something on page one of this thread and it's so true. With most QM Productions, when the guest stars were listed, you got to see their face, and hear their names pronounced. That really helped me learn about all of these actors and actresses - get familiar with their faces - and compare their work with other shows I'd see them in.

Right in this same set of threads is the one for Peter Mark Richman. I might never have gotten to know who he was had it not been for Quinn Martin's penchant for listing and picturing guest stars. And being a young male when most of these classic shows aired, I always managed to look for my favored "good-looking" ladies in the cast. Seeing a Suzanne Pleshette, or a Brooke Bundy, or a Jo Ann Harris was always a treat.

I watch some of today's programming, and the ones that actually list the regular stars of the show mostly do so without pictures, so it takes forever to even get to know a character's name, let alone who plays him or her, and this doesn't even GET to the guest stars.
 

JamesSmith

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Because the moron HD crowd, which watches on their 90 inch TVs, anything that isn't a perfect modern remaster, they don't like. To me it looks fine too, but then again, I lived through shows in syndication in the 70s and early 80s that aired on 16mm from prints which were red as a beet.
Today's generation is spoiled. In my day, we had to watch programs on grainy, tiny, black and white screens. And we enjoyed it.

--jthree
 

Jeff Flugel

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Today's generation is spoiled. In my day, we had to watch programs on grainy, tiny, black and white screens. And we enjoyed it.

--jthree
I shared the same experience as you, James...but I for one am overjoyed to be spoiled by today's far superior TVs. Most of these older shows I love look so much better on DVD (and, when we're fortunate, Blu-Ray) than they ever did when I was watching them growing up, feeling lucky when our big outdoor aerial antenna actually picked a station up clearly.

I grew up about halfway between Seattle and Portland, in a place where we could get networks and local stations from both cities (though not always with perfect reception). I remember having to put on my coat in midwinter and trudge outside to turn the antenna around to pick up whichever station in either city had the better picture quality. That experience, while a pleasant memory now, really makes me appreciate all the advances in technology we enjoy today.

We are indeed spoiled for choice in content today, and the days of "appointment viewing" and watercooler discussion are rapidly fading...but I wouldn't trade in my physical media collection, and the freedom it gives me to program my own personal TV channel schedule, for anything in the world.
 
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bmasters9

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I grew up about halfway between Seattle and Portland, in a place where we could get networks and local stations from both cities (though not always with perfect reception). I remember having to put on my coat in midwinter and trudge outside to turn the antenna around to pick up whichever station in either city had the better picture quality. That experience, while a pleasant memory now, really makes me appreciate all the advances in technology we enjoy today.
IIRC, Jim Nantz wrote in his book Always By My Side about how, when he was growing up in the small town (when he was growing up, it was a small town) of Colts Neck, NJ (near the Jersey shore, and a NYC commuter suburb now, according to him) the attic in the house where he lived (also his big sister Nancy's bedroom suite) had, he wrote, "a large swivel-mounted indoor television antenna with six-foot arms and prongs," and had two settings-- far right corner of the attic for Philly signals, and directly facing the staircase for NYC signals.

It wasn't easy to adjust for him though; he had to negotiate a whole bunch of knickknacks like old clothes, Christmas ornaments and the like, and if you didn't get it dead on, the reception would be too snowy, and you'd have to go back up two flights of stairs to fix it (the way Jim Nantz tells it).

According to him, all the effort was worth it for what he got out of it-- he could see the latest college sports events, the NFL on Sundays, and a whole bunch of other treats, and also, this would be foundational in the broadcasting career he would start in his 20s (joining CBS Sports in 1985).
 
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Wiseguy

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I haven't watched The Invaders lately, was Alfred Ryder the only recurring Alien on that show? I know he was in 3 episodes at least...a lot of early b+w TV appearances come to mind for me...his fine work on Naked City and Route 66, especially "And Make Thunder His Tribute", one of the best episodes of that series...on Dr. Kildare in "The Glory Hunter"...his weird and wonderful work on One Step Beyond, "Devil's Laughter", "Forests of the Night"...Outer Limits "The Borderland"...Combat!, the vengeful German Officer in "The Hunter"...professor Crater in Star Trek's "Man Trap"....the "Phantom" on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, ... maybe the only recurring villain on that show too?...he had a high profile role in the John Wayne Oscar winning film True Grit...but he retired from film and tv in the '80s to devote his remaining years to the stage...
Alfred Ryder was also on The Wild Wild West's "The Night of the Deadly Bubble." He even got his face on one of the animated bumpers.

Henry Jones played Mr. Pem on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea's "A Time to Die" and the final episode "No Way Back."
 

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