Avengers: Season 5 (Blu-ray) Available for Preorder (1 Viewer)

[Professor Echo]

Can anyone comment if the Blu is a MARKED improvement over the UK Optimum set? I have the Complete Series and received my Blu today and was thinking I probably wouldn't keep the latter if it's not a real noticeable difference. Any help would be most appreciated.

 

[Osato]

Can anyone comment if the Blu is a MARKED improvement over the UK Optimum set? I have the Complete Series and received my Blu today and was thinking I probably wouldn't keep the latter if it's not a real noticeable difference. Any help would be most appreciated.

I have the other set as well. I will compare and post my findings. I believe color and sound are a bit better.

 

[mikeyhitchfan]

I have the other set as well. I will compare and post my findings. I believe color and sound are a bit better.

The blu-ray is HD, the DVD is not. Of course it's better!

 

[Will Krupp]

My won't come until tomorrow but I have to say the anticipation has already been somewhat hampered for me because of the "is it" sped up or "isn't it" sped up back and forth. The run times being the same as the old A&E discs are encouraging but who is the poster on the other forum that insists they have PAL speedup? What's the story? Is it a created controversy or a massive cock-up? PAL speedup will be bitterly disappointing and absolutely inexcusable but is it even there?

Guess I'll wait and see but jeeze!

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

I'm still waiting for Amazon to ship my package... but when they do, the contents will look something like this:

 

[Will Krupp]

So, the other forum seems more active on this but, from what I can glean, they are not actually "sped up" as the running times are identical to the old A&E DVD's but there is still a pitch shift to the voices....

whaaaaaaaattt?

This gets curiouser and curiouser.

EDIT:

This blog has posted clips of all three (the 24fps A&E DVD's, the PAL Optimum DVD's, and the new blu-ray) to judge the difference in the pitch between them:

http://spyvibe.blogspot.com/2014/11/avengers-review-update.html

To be honest, after seeing this, it doesn't seem awful at all. There is a definite pitch difference between the A&E and the Optimum discs (as we would expect there to be) but the audio difference between the A&E and the blu sounds less (to my ear) like a pitch shift and more like a "brightening" of the sound which makes it "crispier" (both terms I am, by the way, pulling out of my ass for lack of better ones) I'm not 100% sure yet as I won't have the set until tonight but, if the running times are the same (no speed-up) and this is as "bad" as it gets, I think I can live with it

 

[Brett*H]

Haven't posted here at HTF for awhile but thought I'd chime in.

Received this BD yesterday and have skimmed thru a few eps. The video is outstanding! I have been waiting for decent prints of this series for years and am very happy with the prints. The contrast is a little off here and there but I can deal with that. Also on the left hand side of each frame the rounded corners of the film gate can be seen.(at least I think it's the film gate) It's only slight but they are there.
Otherwise, the prints are truly remarkable and I have noticed no compression artifacts despite each disc holding so many episodes.

However, even though the video was converted from 25 FPS PAL to 24 FPS NTSC (which would account for the correct run times on each episode) the audio remains at the PAL 4% higher pitch.
Diana Rigg has lost her sultry, slightly deeper voice that she has on the A&E releases (I have them all including the VHS versions that were released back in the 1990s) and Patrick Macnee's voice is very high pitched. The sound is very crisp but seems to have lost some of the audio bass that the A&E dvds contained in the audio tracks.

Visually, this release would be a hands down winner but the higher pitched audio is very distracting.

I am seriously considering sending this set back to Amazon.

 

[smithbrad]

Which could explain why the UK and other European blu-ray releases seem to have fallen off the map. It could be this issue was identified and they pulled back and delayed any formal announcements until it is fixed, while Liongate went "full-steam ahead" with their release despite the issue.

Since I already have the complete UK set I think i will wait for the potential future UK release since i already have decent PQ and my PAL speedup is similar to the pitch issue. Hopefully, the next release will get it all worked out. And by then i may even have a region-free blu-ray player, if needed.

 

[Will Krupp]

However, even though the video was converted from 25 FPS PAL to 24 FPS NTSC (which would account for the correct run times on each episode) the audio remains at the PAL 4% higher pitch.

I'm sorry Brett, but I don't see how that's physically possible. If they did, indeed, start with a 25fps video master and slowed it down to 24fps to achieve the correct running time, then the sound would have necessarily lowered in pitch as well (see Downton Abbey Series 3 and 4) else it would be out of sync rather quickly. The sound can't conceivably run 4% faster than the picture without it being very noticeable.

 

[Jack P]

I will pass. This is exactly the reason why I have considered foreign region releases only as the ultimate of last resorts (McCloud S1 and "The Law And Harry McGraw") because my ear can not stand the constant speed-up not just in voices but in the change in music up an entire key in the process from what it's supposed to sound like. I have the old A+E releases and I will stick to them.

 

[JohnMor]

However, even though the video was converted from 25 FPS PAL to 24 FPS NTSC (which would account for the correct run times on each episode) the audio remains at the PAL 4% higher pitch.

[SIZE=14.3999996185303px]How can the audio be 4% faster than the video? In addition to the pitch change, it must not not sync up to the video then.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.3999996185303px]EDIT: Will beat me to the punch. LOL.[/SIZE]

 

[Brett*H]

Hey, don't shoot the messenger!

I'm just reporting my observations on the physical media.

The audio is pitched higher/faster than the A&E releases. Period. Trust me, I've been watching my Avengers DVDs for years and the difference is there.

I have no idea how they screwed this up. (They sped up David Cassidy's voice on the Partridge Family to make him sound younger, yet the audio/video was still in sync.)
When they first released the Optimum discs, they screwed up the audio and everything was super sped up. Even the overseas Pal customers complained that the characters sounded like chipmunks and the dvds were replaced with the correct audo pitch.
Maybe these were the prints that were used or given to Lionsgate.

I'm just giving my take on this BD set since no one else has so far and people who don't own this set yet or watched it are asking questions.
Just trying to give answers.

 

[mark-edk]

I did an A/B comparison of the opening credits and the beginning of 'From Venus with Love'. I use the music rather than the voices to check because I have perfect pitch and can spot a shift much more easily in music than in voice. The pitch is definitely higher on the Blu-Ray than on the A&E DVD.

EtA: I decided to check the iTunes HD 'From Venus' (luckily the snippet that plays for free is the same one I used to compare the A&E/Blu-Ray discs). The iTunes download has the same higher-pitched audio as the Blu-Ray. Meanwhile the Laurie Johnson CD of the original music tracks matches the lower pitch on the A&E DVD.

 

[smithbrad]

While pitch is indirectly affected by PAL speed-up, pitch can also be adjusted separately without having to speed-up the content. This is how they prevent pitch issues with big movies converted over to PAL. They just adjust the pitch in the opposite direction first so that after PAL speed-up it is closer to as intended. Since the length of the episodes does not appear to be affected, and since this originally came from a 24fps source, it would appear that the pitch alone was manually adjusted.

Since the original Optimum UK sets had pitch issues above and beyond PAL speed-up, it is very possible that it's HD source was also used by LionGate and that the same problems were introduced.

 

[youworkmen]

I'm not sure why you're still running round in circles about the problem . I explained about the SC problem on the original dvd's yesterday.
The Blurays do not suffer from PAL speedup as the running times confirm.
What has happened is that just like the first SC dvd's in the UK the audio has been pitch corrected but its not been done correctly.
It would seems that SC HD masters of season 5 are exactly how you have them on the A&E Bluray discs . Pitch correction was done unnecessarily which is why your sound is 4% higher.

These same masters were used for the Optimum dvd's . But some idiot at SC decided to pitch correct them for the UK to make them sound as they would at 24fps. But they pitch corrected the wrong way so the dvd's had audio 4% higher pitch than what you have on your Blurays .
They reissued them with the audio at 25fps pitch which is how the UK discs now sound.

The only question is why the pitch corrected masters are still around - clearly having been supplied to A&E.
They should have junked them long ago .

So while you won't notice any faster movement ( did anyone ever really notice PAL speedup on the video anyway?) you will notice it on the sound and I doubt A&E will correct it .

The Avengers In Color logo is also silent on the masters for unknown reasons . SC manually added the music over it for the dvd's - it remains to be seen if they will for the UK Blurays.

The bottom line is that Studio Canal are incompetent and people familar with the show should have been used to remaster it .
Even the guys who spent a long time putting together the huge array of bonus features for the UK dvd's have washed their hands of Studio Canal who issue faulty discs with alarming regularity - you should see the list of errors on their Blurays of classic Hammer films

 

[Harry-N]

Mine's on its way back to Amazon. I'll remain content with the old, reliable DVDs from more than a decade ago.

Harry

 

[JeffT.]

If I am following this discussion thread correctly pertaining to the recent North American (Region A) blu-ray release of THE AVENGERS (ABC 1966-69) tv series colour Emma Peel episodes while the actual running time of each segment is the normal speed the sound is slightly (or substantially) faster like time compression?!

If it is the same as the "older" A&E standard DVDs than I really didn't notice anything negatively discernable and it wouldn't bother me.

Please clarify this.

Jeff T.

 

[youworkmen]

My Blurays don't arrive until tomorrow but what is clear is that the North American Blurays seem to be a huge improvement on video quality over the old dvd's despite having 8 episodes per disc.
The older A&E dvd's were from the 1992 remasters and look dreadful in places so the video will be much better as I believe its the first US appearance of the recent remasters that have been available in the UK for a few years.

The one and only problem is with the audio.
The audio has been pitch adjusted so that it sounds the way it's been in the UK forever - that is 4% higher than you Americans are used to.
Some people can put up with it - others are more sensitive .
As a Brit I won't notice it as I've spent 50 years hearing it that way .

It's a great package at a great price so it looks like something each person needs to audition themselves to see if they notice the sound or whether it bothers them.
You will notice it if you do a side by side comparison with previous US releases so don't do that and you may not even be aware there's something not quite right.

One thing I am curious about : I assume one disc must have 9 episodes on if The Forget Me Knot is included.
There are 24 Rigg colour episodes and TFMK is actually the first of the 33 Thorson episodes and was filmed in that block so it's 25 when that one is included with the Rigg season

 

[Osato]

Blu ray.com has posted a review...

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Avengers-Season-5-Blu-ray/111266/#Review

 

[Jack P]

"Auditioning it" infers we must buy to make a judgment. I'll save my money, thank you.Honestly, why did the Europeans develop a system where people and music don't sound the way they're *supposed* to???