Anyone have experience buying TV DVDs/Blu rays from German sites? (looking for Hunter) (1 Viewer)

[Desslar]

The Rockford Files is from when Cannell worked at Universal, it’s out on blu for the same reason as The A-Team. Chase, Toma, Baretta, & City of Angels are also owned by Universal. I would love to see even just a DVD release of Chase & City of Angels but I doubt if that will ever happen.

I have the Japanese blu release of The Greatest American Hero. Not true HD, just upscales from tape masters.

The German DVDs of Hunter & Riptide look good, so does Hardcastle & McCormick. If memory serves me correct the 4th season of Hunter looks the worst. Not because of any fault of the company that released the series, but because Cannell started having the show transferred to video tape for editing. (an experiment he tried all the way back in 1981 with TGAH’s The Lost Diablo) Thankfully the decision was made on Hunter to go back to editing on film.

I would take all you listed above in HD, along with The Quest, The Last Precinct, (which is really awful in my opinion ) Stingray, and Sonny Spoon.

Thanks for the info. I'm curious why you went with a German release for Hardcastle & McCormick. Does that have music issues as well? I think I remember people claiming on the Hardcastle fan site that the U.S. set from VEI retains the original music, but maybe they were mistaken.

Never seen The Quest (sounds interesting) or The Last Precinct (Adam West!), but I figured those series are probably too short to get releases.

Haven't been able to get into Stingray, at least the first few episodes anyway. The stories are typical A-Team helping people in distress stuff, but with a more serious tone (probably inspired by Miami Vice's success) that I don't think really fits, and Nick Mancuso is a little short on charisma.

 

[WendyCR]

Might be worth it to get the 3 seasons from Germany. I don't care about the abysmal 4th season without Wahl. What about the return movie from 1995. Was that released anywhere? Where Vinnie came back from the dead.

I was thinking the same, until I saw on another board that the English track on the "Dead Dog" arc appears to be absent. That, and I guess, the supposed scene that once used "Hit The Road Jack" reportedly used muzak in Stairway To Heaven, so it would seem, unlike other US shows released in Germany, Wiseguy continues the unfortunate "edited" trend. Hard to say if this is some glitch in terms of the missing English track (said to be an option, but per the post, it actually only plays the German audio there!) or on purpose. Just stating what the other site posting had said.

And I was so looking forward to hearing "Nights In White Satin" again. I guess it's not to be. Might as well buy the cut-to-ribbons US DVDs for half the price.

 

[Desslar]

I was thinking the same, until I saw on another board that the English track on the "Dead Dog" arc appears to be absent. That, and I guess, the supposed scene that once used "Hit The Road Jack" reportedly used muzak in Stairway To Heaven, so it would seem, unlike other US shows released in Germany, Wiseguy continues the unfortunate "edited" trend. Hard to say if this is some glitch in terms of the missing English track (said to be an option, but per the post, it actually only plays the German audio there!) or on purpose. Just stating what the other site posting had said.

And I was so looking forward to hearing "Nights In White Satin" again. I guess it's not to be. Might as well buy the cut-to-ribbons US DVDs for half the price.

What board did you see that info on? I checked the reviews on the German Amazon site, but only saw a couple people mentioning frustration about language switching between English and German (not sure what they meant here, but for other shows like Knight Rider I've noticed the reviewers complained that some episodes didn't have the German dub).

I think the U.S. DVD set is out of print now, so the savings over the German discs might not be huge.

 

[Neil Brock]

Tenspeed and Brown Shoe was released in 2010 by Mill Creek, 12 episodes on 3 discs. One of their first nice quality non-PD releases, even though CBS (who owns the two-part pilot telefilm from January 1980) wouldn't let Mill Creek include the pilot along with the rest of the series' 12 episode run licensed from Cannell. I see that the pilot is available separately, apparently released by CBS in 2019, but I have an off-air recording so I don't know about the PQ of that disc. A fun and often clever show that I loved then and now. The series set is long OOP, but may be found if you're lucky at a reasonable price. Another one that I'd like to have alongside my Rockford Files complete series Blu-ray is the limited run spinoff, Richie Brockelman, Private Eye.

I just started watching Tenspeed recently. I've never seen the show but its not bad. How offensive are the music replacements on that show?
I have RB, PE from off NBC. Quality not the greatest, but that will never see the light of day again.

 

[Desslar]

I just started watching Tenspeed recently. I've never seen the show but its not bad. How offensive are the music replacements on that show?
I have RB, PE from off NBC. Quality not the greatest, but that will never see the light of day again.

Speaking of your off the air recordings of Hunter and Richie Brockelman, are those original airings with commercials? I'd be almost as interested in the commercials as in the programs themselves.

And while we are talking spin-offs, apparently JJ Starbuck (1987) is something of a spin-off of Tenspeed and Brown Shoe in that Ben Vereen reprises his Tenspeed character in several episodes. But I have to say that the intro to that show looks pretty dull.

 

[WendyCR]

What board did you see that info on? I checked the reviews on the German Amazon site, but only saw a couple people mentioning frustration about language switching between English and German (not sure what they meant here, but for other shows like Knight Rider I've noticed the reviewers complained that some episodes didn't have the German dub).

I think the U.S. DVD set is out of print now, so the savings over the German discs might not be huge.

Found here. Scroll down.

 

[Desslar]

Found here. Scroll down.

Ah, of course. Always good to find another forum that discusses classic TV. There aren't many.

 

[mark27b]

COMING ON FRIDAY 4/29:

* Hunter - The Complete TV Series (VEI)

$39.99 SRP DVD

Hunter: The Complete Series [DVD] #7188

Includes 7 Seasons, 152 Episodes, plus The TV Movie: The Return of Hunter Breaking all the rules has never been so much fun! Take a hardnosed, strong-willed, undercover cop outraged by crime and the loopholes an the United States justice system and team him up with a sexy, no-nonsense...

www.visualentertainment.tv

EXTRAS: The TV Movie "The Return of Hunter"

-----Breaking all the rules has never been so much fun! Take a hardnosed, strong-willed, undercover cop outraged by crime and the loopholes an the United States justice system and team him up with a sexy, no-nonsense policewoman whose unorthodox tactics sometimes rival his own, and you get...HUNTER! Fred Dryer stars as LAPD detective Rick Hunter, who ruled Saturday nights for 7 highly successful seasons on NBC with a quick gun, an iron fist, a hair-trigger temper, and a law all his own. The stunning Stephanie Kramer brought an edgy attitude as Hunter’s partner, Sgt. Dee Dee “The Brass Cupcake” McCall during the series' first six seasons. Throughout all their action-packed exploits, this dynamic duo remained united by a common goal: upholding law and order! The special collection includes all 152 episodes of this 3-time Emmy nominated series and features guest stars George Clooney, Eric Estrada, Jesse Ventura, Dennis Franz, Brian Dennehy, Ed O’Neill, Bruce Davison, Garett Morris, Jerry Orbach, Lauren Lane, Isaac Hayes, Robert Vaughn, Sammy Davis Jr., and hundreds more!

 

[WendyCR]

Yep, we have been discussing this, @mark27b . Thanks, again. But this set will likely - as Mill Creek did in 2010 - have the generic music, which is why @Desslar was asking about the German set, which kept the original music.

 

[Al_D]

Anyone get the new Vei Hunter set? Is it the same as Mill Creek?

 

[WendyCR]

I was thinking the same, until I saw on another board that the English track on the "Dead Dog" arc appears to be absent. That, and I guess, the supposed scene that once used "Hit The Road Jack" reportedly used muzak in Stairway To Heaven, so it would seem, unlike other US shows released in Germany, Wiseguy continues the unfortunate "edited" trend. Hard to say if this is some glitch in terms of the missing English track (said to be an option, but per the post, it actually only plays the German audio there!) or on purpose. Just stating what the other site posting had said.

And I was so looking forward to hearing "Nights In White Satin" again. I guess it's not to be. Might as well buy the cut-to-ribbons US DVDs for half the price.

Quoting a recent post of mine to confirm something. I got the German S1 DVD of Wiseguy. A couple things: The weird phenomenon of German audio interspersed with English is true. On the German audio track, no less. The English track stays steady.

Now for the half-disappointing confirmation: The scene in "No One Gets Out of Here Alive", where Sonny Steelgrave starts losing his crap and throwing glass as he screams/sings "Good Love", is still intact. (Probably would have been weird as hell for him to be singing that song while some substitution played!) So, that much is good.

However... (you knew there had to be a however...)

"Nights In White Satin" is definitely gone, replaced by some sad instrumental track. Which really dilutes the potency of the scene. While I'm grateful any of the original music is there, I wish all of the songs remained intact.

 

[mark27b]

Yep, we have been discussing this, @mark27b

I know you were discussing that release Only trying to be helpful by posting the full info besides I have the German sets in question and the Return of Hunter movie too

 

[Al_D]

Just received the German Hunter complete series set today. It is excellent. Correct music makes the show just as I remembered it.

 

[smithbrad]

Quoting a recent post of mine to confirm something. I got the German S1 DVD of Wiseguy. A couple things: The weird phenomenon of German audio interspersed with English is true. On the German audio track, no less. The English track stays steady.

That is not uncommon. I recall German releases of Gunsmoke being the same way. The reason being that the original source to the releases were syndicated episodes in German with sections cut for time. So instead of releasing cut-syndicated episodes they decided to release complete episodes with the cuts replaced with English speaking parts. I can only assume that enough people can understand English to make it palatable and that the cost to remix those parts back into German without losing the background sounds was too high for the company making the releases.

 

[WendyCR]

Just received the German Hunter complete series set today. It is excellent. Correct music makes the show just as I remembered it.

Yes, it does. So glad I also got the German DVDs.

 

[bmasters9]

Anyone get the new Vei Hunter set? Is it the same as Mill Creek?

I have it (got it direct from VEI), and it is similar, in that there are still 28 discs and still 152 episodes; however, there are a couple of differences:

--This VEI edition has the discs coming in sleeves in a wallet, while the Creek one had black paper envelopes.

--The VEI one has subtitles (which it calls captions), while the Creek had none whatsoever.

 

[WendyCR]

Good news for anyone (@Desslar ?) still seeking the Hunter German set. It is being re-released on August 19, 2022 and is up for pre-order at Amazon.de for only 79.99 Euros, translated to about $80.20 in USD.

Here is the link to pre-order:

See on Amazon

(For some reason, an empty box appears; just click on it to go to the order page.)