dana martin
Senior HTF Member
with CBS doing the two seasons of "The California's" via the mod program, what other CBS titles would everyone else be willing to support, for blu ray releases? considering that they are done correctly!
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What is the "mod program"?with CBS doing the two seasons of "The California's" via the mod program, what other CBS titles would everyone else be willing to support, for blu ray releases? considering that they are done correctly!
What is the "mod program"?
What scares me, and this is not something that CBS is to blame for, is when does the picture quality become TOO good? Just on DVD releases of The Beverly Hillbillies, it's REALLY obvious when the background is fake. As you got up to S8 and S9, a lot of the scenes were filmed in front of a screen, especially the Washington, D.C. and Silver Dollar City episodes. Those are painfully obvious in VHS quality-I can't imagine what blu-ray would do to them.Too many to list, but they have my support for much of their vintage catalog.
Some would be disappointing (I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show), but only because their previous Blu-Ray's were so impressive. Just their pre-existing HD transfers without all the TLC that went into their first Blu-Ray attempts, would leave these as automatically inferior.
But they're still favorites and I'd love to up the picture quality for the remainder of both series, flaws and all.
All I can currently think of:
One Step Beyond (Complete Series official release)
Way Out (shot on tape, so maybe not any kind of visual boost from Blu, but I'd like it on either Blu or DVD)
Great Ghost Tales (ditto)
Trackdown
The Lineup
The Greatest Show on Earth
Richard Diamond, Private Detective (whatever sub-set of this series CBS controls, if any)
The Millionaire
Amos & Andy (I seriously doubt this one will ever have a chance, alas)
And any of these, which I'm still unsure whether they are with CBS or with other entities:
T.H.E. Cat (if CBS indeed has this, it goes to the very top of the list, my #1 grail show, although I think it's probably with Universal)
Captain Nice (also probably with Universal, though I'm not 100% sure)
Panic! (a.k.a. No Warning)
Q.E.D. (a.k.a. Mastermind)
All the other unreleased and/or stalled series I want seem to be mainly with Fox (both Fox proper and Four Star) and Universal, as well as a couple others with Sony, WB and MGM... and some independent owners (I would guess... such as Wichita Town).
Such scenes have always been "painfully obvious" to me in most productions - no matter how or where I've seen them and no matter what the quality of transfer. One of the reasons I've never been able to get into most Hitchcock films is his tendency to use rear-screen intercut with location, frequently in a single scene. It *always* takes me out of the film. It's bad enough that some TV shows did this for many outdoor scenes but at least those tended to be for the entire scene. That a director with Hitchcock's pedigree does this in the same scene in a major film just makes me shake my head in wonder.What scares me, and this is not something that CBS is to blame for, is when does the picture quality become TOO good? Just on DVD releases of The Beverly Hillbillies, it's REALLY obvious when the background is fake. As you got up to S8 and S9, a lot of the scenes were filmed in front of a screen, especially the Washington, D.C. and Silver Dollar City episodes. Those are painfully obvious in VHS quality-I can't imagine what blu-ray would do to them.
Such scenes have always been "painfully obvious" to me in most productions - no matter how or where I've seen them and no matter what the quality of transfer. One of the reasons I've never been able to get into most Hitchcock films is his tendency to use rear-screen intercut with location, frequently in a single scene. It *always* takes me out of the film. It's bad enough that some TV shows did this for many outdoor scenes but at least those tended to be for the entire scene. That a director with Hitchcock's pedigree does this in the same scene in a major film just makes me shake my head in wonder.
Things get "too good" for me when wires holding props/planes/etc. become obvious. Frequently it was felt that by the time a film was transferred and then projected, such "tells" would not be visible. It's the same with many TV shows. They counted on the lower quality of the medium to hide how things were done.
Example of "too good": the 1953 War of the Worlds on DVD. The strings holding up the alien ships show, taking me right out of film. No way did Byron Haskins or George Pal intend for that to be. We can only hope that the blu-ray (please, Paramount: license the damn thing!) will hide them via digital magic.
And that's exactly the film I had in mind when I typed that!Example of "too good": the 1953 War of the Worlds on DVD. The strings holding up the alien ships show, taking me right out of film. No way did Byron Haskins or George Pal intend for that to be. We can only hope that the blu-ray (please, Paramount: license the damn thing!) will hide them via digital magic.
Gort has to be one of the greatest robots in all of sci/fi. But he’s also one of the most poorly executed designs ever. He’s still bad-ass and I love the movie.You can see wires in the 1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still as Gort is carrying Patricia Neal.
Example of "too good": the 1953 War of the Worlds on DVD. The strings holding up the alien ships show, taking me right out of film. No way did Byron Haskins or George Pal intend for that to be. We can only hope that the blu-ray (please, Paramount: license the damn thing!) will hide them via digital magic.