Amos N' Andy: Who owns them? (1 Viewer)

[alan halvorson]

That helps a lot, Barry. Yes, it's expensive, but where else to get them? I found one other place that sells the set but for essentially the same price. Amos 'n Andy is a must-buy for me - somebody must have these for a more reasonable price.

 

[BarryM]

Wish we could get our friends at DVD Verdict to get the set and review them......

$289.00, 18 discs is $16.00 a disc...and we don't even know if they're watchable.....

What happens if the picture is adequate and the sound is weird, echoey or wind-tunnel like?

 

[Larry Bevil]

I'd be tempted to buy a set if I knew for sure they were up to normal DVD quality. However, not that I don't trust the person selling the aforementioned set for $289.00, it would be most helpful if an "independent" source could verify their quality. Not sure who that independent source could or should be, however. Oh, well, guess I'll have to wait until I see some verification of the quality.

 

[Greg_S_H]

One of you guys take the plunge and let us know if they're any good.

 

[alan halvorson]

I e-mailed the winner of one those $289 sets, asking if he was satisified with picture quality and playability and if he was happy with the seller. This is his reply:

I am very happy with the seller, he did abide by
his return policy, I received the dvd set and was not happy with the set so I returned them!!

That's all he said. So dang, it appears that this set isn't up to snuff either. I may ask other winners as they come along - I'd sure like to know exactly what is wrong.

 

[BarryM]

Alan: Now that's Moxie with a capital M! It didn't occured to me to contact a winner of one of those eBay winners. I did once contact an eBay winner who won another kind of item, and he bit my head off.

Very good detective work. Well, looks like I'm not gonna be one of those $289.00 winners!

Thanx again.

 

[Larry Bevil]

Alan Halvorson "That's all he said. So dang, it appears that this set isn't up to snuff either. I may ask other winners as they come along - I'd sure like to know exactly what is wrong."
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It wouldn't surprise me if someone copied the VHS tapes onto dvd for those sets. Even the commercially available tapes are of poor quality. Of course, TV in general, back in the days these programs were on the air, were of poor quality. If it were possible, it would be nice if someone could enhance the quality of the video. But, that my not be cost effective.

 

[BobO'Link]

I've enjoyed this show since I first saw it in the 60s. I received an excellent price during a "Lightning Deal" (~$13 - the regular price appears to be ~$29) and figured for that price it was worth the risk. It essentially was. Had I paid the regular price I'd feel ripped off. For $13 I'm OK with it. It pretty well matches the seller description Barry quotes. I can't comment on how it compares to other sets as I don't own anything other than some DVDs my dad made off an old VHS set of some episodes. It *is* better than those VHS-DVD copies I have.

Here is a link to the set I purchased (Amazon).

Pros:
*Surprisingly these are pressed discs. I fully expected to receive MOD/DVD-R discs.

*74 episodes are present and what I've watched so far appear to be uncut.

*Audio is generally clean and understandable.

*It has the PD Amos 'n Andy radio programs as a "bonus."

Cons:
*The video quality is rather poor. The episodes are mostly watchable but blacks are crushed, whites bloom, and some significant damage is present on many prints. A few are so poor as to be almost unwatchable. There are digital artifacts as well as issues caused by what appears to have been video tape source material.

*At least once, sometimes twice, per episode a rather large "Amos 'n Andy Classic Films" bug (orange text on a solid black rectangle) appears in the lower right of the screen. It's annoying in spite of only being on the screen for around 3 seconds.

*Packaging is horrible. It's an overlarge 9 1/4"x6 1/2", fold-out/open affair with 3 discs per "page" in simple slots in the paperboard package. There's not even a slipcase to prevent the discs from falling out should they become dislodged. It will not fit on a standard DVD/BR shelf.

*Horrible menu system. At least there's no audio to distract/annoy. While you can select an individual episode or "Play All," when an episode that's been selected individually finishes playing it does not return to the menu but continues to the next episode! Why even bother if it's not going to return to the menu? On at least one disc I selected the 4th episode but the system started playing the first!

*No chapter stops in any episode. Oddly enough, this somewhat helped with the incident above as it was a simple press of "skip" 3 times to get to the right one.

*No SDH or CC.

Here's a photo of the packaging:

I love that blurb "Elegant Box Design." It's anything but "elegant." It's nothing but glossy card stock with page slot design for the discs.

There's absolutely nothing on the "box" indicating they're licensed from CBS so I'm assuming it's just another bootleg version. The presence of that bug is another good indicator of this. Most legit distributors don't do this.

Maybe one day this'll see a proper release.