Dan August – The Complete Collection (5 Viewers)

[bmasters9]

To compare the compressed video definition of the Dan August episodes with the beautifully remastered pilot telefilm on the same set, I offer these comparative examples...

Newspaper headline as seen in the pilot, The House on Green Apple Road...You can easily read most of the type here...
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Newspaper headline as seen in the Dan August episode, Invitation To Murder...soft image by far...
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Here's another good comparison...Tim O'Connor's old acne scars as seen in the pilot movie...
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Tim O'Connor returns in the Dan August episode, Invitation To Murder...
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One thing I noticed about the pilot movie is it's 1968 copyright...I don't know if that means it sat on the shelf for awhile or not...it didn't go to air until January 11, 1970. There's nothing in Jonathan Etter's book on QM that accounts for the long lead time, other than perhaps ABC wanting to hold on to it for "event programming"...
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Great shots! That's a big difference between the papers on the pilot and in the series, for one thing-- nonetheless, I am still getting this sometime soon, because I have never seen Dan August before (outside of the quite catchy title track, and the very well done title sequence over which it played), and as I've said before with things like M Squad, if a show's as good as I think this will be, picture quality should hardly be a concern.

 

[Flashgear]

For me, the soft image video quality of the episodes only bothers me in the middle and backgrounds...and sometimes in motion during action scenes when the bit rate falls to a lower extreme...I do wish that VEI had devoted a fifth disc to this set...

from Invitation To Murder...the statuesque Barbara Mills...a stunning redhead, among many babes in this series...

Here's an example of the soft images in the middle and backgrounds...see the blur in Norman Fell's face!

I'm just trying to help people here, for those on the bubble who are trying to decide if they want it right now...I'm sure it will be nicely discounted in the near future, if you want to wait for a bargain price...for me, the price is about right and I'm still glad to have the series as is, especially the extraordinary pilot film which, as you can see from my earlier screen caps, is gorgeous! I do most of my TV viewing on a 60" HDTV, by the way. You may not notice most of these deficiencies on a smaller TV...

 

[bmasters9]

I do most of my TV viewing on a 60" HDTV, by the way. You may not notice most of these deficiencies on a smaller TV...

Great points there! I have a 55" Vizio now that my brother had (he gave it to me for a Christmas present), and I've tried several things on it, and it upconverts (upscales) many older series quite well, like Petrocelli for instance; it might do the same with this.

 

[GMBurns]

I have a really old tv and my Dan August looks good, nowhere near as blurry as the above screen captures, and definitely way better than VEI's release of Cannon. The plots are fairly predictable as far as 70's detective shows go, but it has all the earmarks of a Quinn Martin production, including great guest stars. There's a nice rapport between Burt Reynolds and Norman Fell that makes their partnership very believable and enjoyable.

 

[bmasters9]

There's a nice rapport between Burt Reynolds and Norman Fell that makes their partnership very believable and enjoyable.

And it's the same with The Streets of San Francisco when it came to Karl Malden and Michael Douglas; it was said popularly that Malden's Stone character was like a father figure to Douglas' Keller character, but, IMO, they worked so well together that, as I said one other time, I have thought of them more as brothers than as father-son.

 

[Neil Brock]

Regarding the running times, some ABC shows from that era ran really long, like almost 52 minutes without any next week teasers. I was just transferring some Toma from a run in Canada that was uncut and the shows come in around 51:45. Same as The Immortal. So, I don't doubt that Dan August likely had just as long of an original running time.

I'm sure I'll pick up the set eventually but considering they just ran the same copies on GET last year, I pretty much already have the series, and less compressed than these will be.

 

[JohnHopper]

Oddly enough, Amazon US ceased to sell the title Dan August.
They mention the vague statement "Currently unavailable" followed by "We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock".

To be continued … Please stand by …

 

[phenri]

I just ordered mine directly from VEI. It shipped yesterday and it is on its way.

 

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

Oddly enough, Amazon US ceased to sell the title Dan August.
They mention the vague statement "Currently unavailable" followed by "We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock".

To be continued … Please stand by …

I would have to guess there may be a few flaws with this first batch... I know it will be back! They did temporarily remove Nero Wolfe (1981) from their stock over a year ago (during the summer of 2017) for a similar reason.

~Ben

 

[jcroy]

I would have to guess there may be a few flaws with this first batch... I know it will be back! They did temporarily remove Nero Wolfe (1981) from their stock for a similar reason.

VEI's track record in the past suggests this may very well be the case.

I'll usually wait a year or so after release for VEI to iron out the kinks.

 

[JohnHopper]

I would have to guess there may be a few flaws with this first batch... I know it will be back! They did temporarily remove Nero Wolfe (1981) from their stock for a similar reason.

~Ben

I will wait for later in 2019. There's no rush. To be continued …

 

[ScottRE]

Screen caps I took from the pilot telefilm, The House on Green Apple Road...incredible cast...no spoilers, of course...

Holy moly, Chris George put on some weight between this and The Immortal.

The caps are great! It's almost a Who's Who of Star Trek guests...

 

[Neil Brock]

My friend is selling me his copy for $20. He watched a few and thought the show sucked and it looked bad on his HD TV. I like the show and it will look just fine on my CRT set!

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Oh, wow, these look terrible. The runtimes aren't that shortened (49 minutes and change) but it's still some of the ugliest time compression (or PAL-to-NTSC conversion?) I've ever seen. If you didn't know better you'd think the series was shot on tape.

Yeah I just watched an episode of Streets of San Fran then Dan August , big difference. But even DA looks better than the transfers on Shout Factory’s Homicide complete set, talk about murky digital soup

 

[Dave Scarpa]

My friend is selling me his copy for $20. He watched a few and thought the show sucked and it looked bad on his HD TV. I like the show and it will look just fine on my CRT set!

Wow a CRT holdout. I’ve been tempted to did a nice CRT set bet these older shows would look great on them

 

[Stephen Bowie]

Guys, it's gonna look bad on your tube TVs, too.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

I would have to guess there may be a few flaws with this first batch... I know it will be back! They did temporarily remove Nero Wolfe (1981) from their stock over a year ago (during the summer of 2017) for a similar reason.

~Ben

oddly enough, Early Edition came and went with no issues.

 

[bmasters9]

But even DA looks better than the transfers on Shout Factory’s Homicide complete set, talk about murky digital soup

You mean that 1993-99 NBC police/detective series wasn't handled too well when Shout! released it?

 

[Neil Brock]

Wow a CRT holdout. I’ve been tempted to did a nice CRT set bet these older shows would look great on them

Maybe not great but a helluva lot better than on a HD set. Without spend 2 hours making a list, I have tons of series recorded on VHS from off air, which are watchable on a tube set which wouldn't be on a modern TV.

 

[Dan McW]

I've watched the pilot and the first four episodes. I've got a humble 43-inch Vizio, and I've certainly noticed the above-mentioned softness in medium and long shots. But I'm satisfied with the quality--I'm not that picky. The Dan August episodes are uncut but time-compressed, which I'm OK with.

Close-up shots on Dan August are certainly comparable to the Cannon and Barnaby Jones sets. This set is worthy for the guest stars and the usual QM formula, which I've always liked.

Time-compression is evident in announcer Hank Simms' voice. So deep-voiced on Cannon, he sounds like he's on helium on Dan August. The opening credit music is allowed to build to a crescendo, but the music fades out early on all other acts and the epilog.

One error: the episode "The King Is Dead" opens with a suitcase being thrown against a wall or door. There's no sound of the impact; the sound kicks in at the one- or two-second mark.