Cannon And Others Coming Back Courtesy Of VEI (1 Viewer)

[jcroy]

For example according to the CBS syndication bible, there exists HD transfers for the final few seasons of Diagnosis Murder.

http://syndicationbible.cbstvd.com/series/diagnosis_murder/diagnosis_murder.htm

At this point I can't figure out whether VEI actually used these HD transfers for their seasons 7 and 8 dvd sets. Very few comments on the amazon pages for various Diagnosis Murder dvd sets (both indivdual and complete series) have mention anything detailed about the video quality.

Earlier today I decided to read through all the comments on the amazon pages for various Diagnosis Murder dvd sets, to see which comments have some information about the video quality. There were not many posts of this type.

From what I can figure out from the handful of relevant posts, it sounds like the video quality is not from an HD transfer and is probably typical 1990s era non-hd stuff which has the hard telecine left intact (ie. the "comb effect"). Most likely the show was edited on sd videotape in postproduction, for most of the show's original first run.


How drastically the picture quality is affected in the VEI low-budget disc-reduced version of the complete series set (with 32 discs) with 6 or 7 episodes crammed per dvd disc, is not known. The first more expensive version of the complete series set released back in 2013, had 51 discs.

 

[Jeff*H]

I watched through some of my 2013-2014 VEI released Mod Squad dvds yesterday, and noticed the seasons 3, 4, and 5 video quality appears to be similar to the video quality on the first released Hawaii Five-O season 10 dvd set which purportedly didn't use an HD transfer. (Dunno when that non-hd Hawaii Five-O season 10 transfer was made).

The original H5O S10 prints were sourced from video transfers made for the syndication package (uncut) that was used between 1989-1997. I know this because my uncut homemade recordings made in the 90s looked exactly the same as the S10 DVD, albeit with the Viacom Steel V at the end.

 

[jcroy]

Thanks for the info Jeff.

It would be interesting to figure out which other CBS now-owned shows had non-hd transfers, which don't look completely atrocious.

 

[jcroy]

Looking through VEI's web site, one of the "coming soon" titles is Jake and The Fatman.

On the CBS syndication bible's page for Jake and The Fatman, there's very little information.

http://syndicationbible.cbstvd.com/series/jake_and_the_fatman/jake_and_the_fatman.htm


Reading through the comments on the amazon pages of the previous CBS/Paramount dvd releases of this show, there are not many comments which discussed the picture quality. The few relevant comments suggest that the video is not from an HD source.

If all CBS has are old sd transfers from the late-80s -> early-90s, then I wouldn't be surprised if VEI's release of a "Jake and The Fatman" complete series set will be followed with tons of vitrolic comments (on amazon) about crappy picture quality.

What is unknown at the current time, is whether VEI will just cram 6 or 7 episodes per disc from the start, and completely forgo a more expensive complete series set version with 4-episodes per dvd disc. Recently VEI did this for the revived 1993-1994 The Untouchables complete series set, which had 6-episodes per disc.

 

[FanCollector]

Jake and the Fatman was a Hargrove/Silverman production, so it was almost certainly edited on tape, as were their other shows of the era. I don't think HD masters would be possible.

 

[jcroy]

Also with some of the more recently released VEI sets, it appears they're going straight to new never-before-released sets crammed with 6-episodes per dvd disc.

Recently I purchased the revived The Untouchables (from 1993-1994) and Martial Law complete series dvd sets, which were released last year by VEI.

The Untouchables was a 7-disc set, with 6 episodes crammed per dvd disc. Using the computer I checked the file sizes of the episodes, where they were around 1.3 gigabytes per episode.

Martial Law was a 10-disc set, with 4 or 5 episodes per dvd disc. On the surface this may sound "acceptable", until I checked the episode file sizes using the computer. It turned out, the episodes were also around 1.3 gigabytes per episode. (ie. Lots of empty unused space on the discs).


Also I checked the file sizes on the low-budget disc-reduced version of the Cannon complete series set. On the 6-episode discs, the episodes were around 1.3 gigabytes per episode. On the 7-episode discs, the episodes were around 1 gigabyte per episode.

In contrast, I checked the file sizes from other dvd sets I have, such as Stargate franchise. For example, many of the Stargate Atlantis episodes were around 1.75 to 1.85 gigabytes per episode. On the season 1 set of Stargate SG-1, the 5-episode discs had episodes which were around 1.4 gigabytes per episode. (It might not matter as much, since the first three seasons of Stargate SG-1 were allegedly shot on 16mm film).


So in summary, the Martial Law and revived The Untouchables dvd sets released by VEI, are effectively the same technical software quality as the "4-disc seasons" in various VEI "low-budget disc-reduced" complete series sets with 6-episodes (or 7-episodes) crammed per dvd disc. As far as I can figure out, this is the first time these two shows were officially released as complete series dvd sets. (Though some Martial Law episodes were previously released on vcd in hong kong, more than a decade ago).

I would guess VEI might be using the same 6 or 7 episode template authoring program for a lot of their recent dvd sets. (I also suspect Warner might be doing something similar, judging by the episode file sizes on their recent tv bluray sets).

This is only true when the 4 or 5 episodes per disc are done "properly", where the transfers are decent AND are encoded into 1.8 to 1.9+ gigabyte sized episode files for four episodes per disc, or 1.6 to 1.7 gigabyte sized episodes files for five episodes per disc. (Such as the Stargate Atlantis dvd season sets, or the later seasons of Stargate SG-1 after season 3).

On the other hand, if the 4 or 5 episodes per disc are encoded like what was done for Martial Law with 1.3 gigabyte sized episode files for just about every episode, then it will be just as awful as 6 episodes crammed onto a single dvd disc.

I decided to look at more episode file sizes on other releases with crappy transfers.

In another thread, I looked at the closing logos on various Dallas season sets and deduced that the seasons 9 to 13 sets were most likely transfers made back in the mid->late 1980s for possibly the original first-runs or subsequent reruns.

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/co...nd-other-ramblings.351423/page-2#post-4472807

The picture quality was mostly crap for seasons 9 to 14 of Dallas. I strongly suspect these particular seasons might have been edited on sd videotape in postproduction. (In contrast, the seasons 1/2 to 8 transfers appear to have been scanned in the early-mid 2000s. If I had to guess, they were probably edited on film in postproduction).

Examining the discs from seasons 9 to 13 on the computer, the episode file sizes were around 1.4 gigabytes for seasons 10 and 13, and around 1.5 gigabytes for seasons 11 and 12. Seasons 10 to 13 have five episodes per disc side (ie. they were all double-sided flipper discs). For season 9, the episode file sizes were around 1.8 gigabytes.

In the earlier seasons, the file sizes varied from 1.7 to 2 gigabytes. For example, seasons 1/2 and season 8 had episode files sizes around 1.7 gigabytes. Season 3 (ie. the "who shot JR?" season) had episode file sizes around 2 gigabytes. (The seasons 1/2 to 8 dvd sets all had three episodes per disc side, with plenty of empty unused space).

 

[jcroy]

So if VEI ends up releasing Jake and The Fatman as 6-episodes crammed per disc (ie. 1.3 gigabyte sized episode files), then I wouldn't be surprised if the picture quality ends up being just as crappy as seasons 10 to 14 of the original Dallas.

Jake and The Fatman and seasons 10-14 of Dallas were from around the same time period, and possibly both edited on sd videotape in postproduction.

 

[jcroy]

Thanks for the info Jeff.

It would be interesting to figure out which other CBS now-owned shows had non-hd transfers, which don't look completely atrocious.

(This is purely hypothetical).

Doing some googling and watching some youtube videos of closing credits, I'm guessing some of the later seasons of The Love Boat had transfers made during the 1990s with the 90s era Worldvision logo. Possibly made around the same time period the seasons 3 to 5 Mod Squad transfers were made.

So if VEI gets their paws on The Love Boat and they don't bother using any HD transfers beyond seasons 1 and 2, then perhaps the (hypothetical) dvd sets for seasons 4 to 9 using the 1990s era non-HD Worldvision transfers might be comparable in picture quality to the seasons 3 to 5 dvd sets of Mod Squad. (ie. With 3 or 4 episodes per disc).

This is assuming Worldvision actually gave a damn about The Love Boat transfers being then-top quality.


IIRC, Worldvision did a corporate merger with Aaron Spelling's production company in 1989.

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/26/b...-spelling-and-worldvision-in-merger-pact.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_Television

 

[classictvfan40]

Looking through VEI's web site, one of the "coming soon" titles is Jake and The Fatman.



Reading through the comments on the amazon pages of the previous CBS/Paramount dvd releases of this show, there are not many comments which discussed the picture quality. The few relevant comments suggest that the video is not from an HD source.
.

I have the first two seasons on dvd. The picture quality isn't HD and the quality varies. Some episodes have a lot of grain and others don't. It depends on the episode. I doubt the release from VEI will be any better. It might be worse considering their awful record in DVD releases

I was very surprised that CBS/Paramount didn't clean up the episodes like they did with other releases.

 

[Mr. Handley]

The only Dallas flippers of mine that had issues (freezing, etc) were the early seasons (like, 1-5). I don't remember the picture being too bad on the later flippers, but it's been awhile since I viewed them. This is the main series in my collection that's crying out for a single-sided release!

 

[jcroy]

I have the first two seasons on dvd. The picture quality isn't HD and the quality varies. Some episodes have a lot of grain and others don't. It depends on the episode. I doubt the release from VEI will be any better. It might be worse considering their awful record in DVD release

I'm not expecting anything better in picture quality either, especially with VEI involved.

At best, VEI will probably just replicate the old season 1 and 2 sets as-is. (ie. Changing some of the initial CBS/Paramount logos into VEI logos).

I was very surprised that CBS/Paramount didn't clean up the episodes like they did with other releases.

I'm not surprised at all.

If Jake and The Fatman was originally edited on sd videotape in postproduction, then most likely it will be very expensive to clean up + scan the original 35mm film footage and re-edit every episode again. (Like what was done for Star Trek: The Next Generation).

I strongly suspect most movie companies are not willing to make such an investment, for old shows which are not A-list titles in the off-network syndication reruns market.

 

[bmasters9]

Bumping this up: just looked up the Hotel all-in-one on EBay, and I found an entry for the newer condensed budget printing that has a few pictures of it, one of what it looks like inside. The pictures of the front and back are blurry as all get out, but the picture of what it looks like inside is very clear, and it shows that at least one disc (first disc of the fourth go [1986-87]) has 6 episodes on it; also, that two discs of the third go (1985-86) have 5 episodes apiece.

Here it is:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hotel-Compl...429188?hash=item1c81a92104:g:YzIAAOSww3tY5qeS

 

[mattfire64]

I know another thread has already been created for Nero Wolfe, but it has also been announced that Poltergeist: The Legacy will also be getting a DVD release from VEI in the near future. The series has been airing on Comet recently, and probably partially inspired this release. Based on the artwork, chances are that this is going to be a re-release of the Region 4 release that came out roughly 2 years ago.

https://www.visualentertainment.tv/blogs/news/poltergeist-the-legacy-the-complete-series

I sadly ordered the Season 2 MOD release last week after seeing that the stock was limited, so I'm hoping that VEI considers releasing Seasons 3 and 4 separately for those of us who already paid for the first 2 seasons.

It was also casually announced on a Facebook a few weeks back that VEI will be releasing Viper this summer as well. Overall I'm glad to see some of these 90s shows getting released, especially since they don't seem to carry the same cult following as older series from the 50s-80s.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Viper-DVD-Update/23176

 

[jcroy]

Awhile ago I went through several copies of this 1975 Invisible Man set, which had the same bad sectors appearing at approximately the same spot. (I ended up getting a refund). Most likely it was from the same batch of discs, which turned out to be defective. Several comments on amazon describing the same problem, at approximately the same place on the same affected discs. (At the time, I didn't bother paying attention to and reading IFPI codes on dvd discs).

If VEI releases this 1975 Invisible Man set again with a different pressing, I may try again.

I picked up the 1975 Invisible Man series set on bluray today. (Found it for less than $10).

I avoided the bluray version for a long time, after reading reviews about it being in "fake widescreen" via a dumb cropping of the original 4:3 aspect ratio. When I looked at the copy I purchased today, it explicitly mentioned on the back cover that the aspect ratio is 4:3 and not widescreen. So I decided to take a chance this time on the bluray, in spite of previous bad experiences with several copies of the dvd version having defective discs.

I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing VEI might have possibly used an HD transfer for this particular bluray version.

In the scenes without any visual fx, the picture quality looks relatively clear with decent colors. But in the scenes with a lot of visual fx, the picture quality is significantly inferior with many sd->hd type artifacts (ie. ringing, aliasing, etc ...). The visual fx in this show, typically involves an invisible person doing/showing things. For example, such as scenes where body parts are "invisible" but some of the clothing is "visible". This difference in picture quality between fx-heavy scenes and no-fx scenes, is explained in this article:

https://www.questia.com/magazine/1P...-electronic-special-effects-for-the-invisible
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invisible_Man_(1975_TV_series)#Production

If this article ^ is accurate, then the fx-heavy scenes are locked in at sd (or ntsc) resolution.


This 4:3 aspect ratio version on bluray may very well be worthwhile to buy, especially if one finds it for less than $10.

 

[bmasters9]

On that Petrocelli, I'm over 70% done-- close to 80%.

 

[jcroy]

(Some more observations of the Invisible Man bluray).

I noticed on some scenes which featuring objects moving in mid air, which appear to be clear and possibly HD resolution, one can see the attached threads/strings moving the mid air objects around.

 

[Neil Brock]

Anxiously awaiting The Immortal, one of my favorite series. Any word yet on this one? When I contacted VEI a few months ago, they said second quarter of 2017, which we are now in.

 

[jcroy]

I did some further comparisons for this Invisible Man bluray, by comparing the picture quality to other shows from around the same era, such as:

- the original Battlestar Galactica (4:3 aspect) bluray
- the first season 10 dvd release of Hawaii Five-O
- Bionic Woman complete series dvd set

I recently picked up the Bionic Woman complete series set for around $15 at a local costco, as mentioned in another thread.

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/the-best-star-trek-set.352571/#post-4488398


(These observations are subjective and very anecdotal).

The Invisible Man bluray picture quality in the no-fx scenes, looks better than the picture quality of the first season 10 dvd set of Hawaii Five-O.

The original Battlestar Galactica bluray looks somewhat sharper than the Invisible Man bluray in the no-fx scenes. Even in scenes with a lot of film grain, the Battlestar Galactica picture quality still looks somewhat better.


I was watching Bionic Woman with several different sd->hd upscalng algorithms on madVR, such as nearest-neighbor (the worst) to better ones like Lanczos, Jinc, etc ... (The Bionic Woman dvds look like they might have been from an hd transfer).

The most difficult thing for sd->hd upscaling is interpolating areas with gradual diffuse light gradients, such as in smoke. This is where significant "pixelation" is observed when the sd->hd interpolation isn't done very well. This is the first thing I look for, to see how good/bad a particular sd->hd upscaling algorithm is.

As far as I can tell, the Bionic Woman scenes where I would look for sd->hd pixelations, are there if one looks closely enough. In particular in darker scenes.

Looking for the same type of sd->hd pixelations on the Invisible Man bluray in the no-fx scenes, they are not quite as obvious. (Similar story with the original Battlestar Galactica bluray).


As a first guess, either the Invisible Man bluray episodes were actually from an original real hd transfer (albeit compressed to around 3.5 gigabytes per episode without any intermediate hd->sd downscaling), or VEI used a very excellent sd->hd upscaling algorithm (ie. better than Jinc). I don't have any easy way of further distinguishing which one was done.

 

[bmasters9]

Just took the checkered flag on Petrocelli!

Having taken the checkered flag thereof, I would like to say right now that Petrocelli is the latest series to join a very small group of select series on DVD that includes Barney Miller, The Bob Newhart Show, M Squad, original-recipe NBC Star Trek, and Hart to Hart. What do all of those have in common? This: that they are the few series that I have tried on DVD lately that have been good enough for me to see all of.

 

[Dave Lawrence]

VEI hasn't updated its website yet, but they sent out a pre-order email yesterday announcing that Jake and the Fatman - The Complete Collection is coming out on June 23.

They'd recently removed the title from their "Coming Soon" page, so I'd assumed it was cancelled or delayed like others that had similarly disappeared from the page.

I already have the episode I most wanted from this series - Dick Van Dyke's guest appearance which led to his own series Diagnosis: Murder. (VEI included it on their D:M complete set.) Still, even though it's not a high-priority show for me, or one of the shows I'm still waiting on that was on VEI's earlier lists, I like William Conrad and will get this at some point. But given the questions of quality that have come up with more recent VEI sets (such as the recently discussed issue with the Nero Wolfe set that's apparently getting fixed with a replacement disc per that thread), I don't think I'll pre-order this. I want to read some reviews/reactions first.

Here's the set image that was included in the email: