Has Anyone Seen the Route 66 Season 2 Set? (1 Viewer)

[Bob Hug]

IMDB.com says 35 mm: "Route 66" (1960) - Technical specifications

My set was shipped from DVD Planet ($22.50) yesterday . . . . can't wait!

 

[Stephen Bowie]

Just in case there's still any confusion:

The Route 66 Season 2 DVDs are equivalent in image quality to the remastered transfers (with the corrected 4:3 aspect ratio) of the later episodes from the Season 1 set, not the mediocre 16mm transfers used for the first half of Season 1.

In other words, they got it right this time.

 

[DeWilson]

They may have gotten it right this time,but what about the people who got stuck with the piss-poor season 1 part one,or the nice quality croped to all heck season 1,part two.

Just makes me sick. Either do it right the first time,or don't do it at all!

 

[BillyFeldman]

Let's see - a company messes up a release, but then tries to make it better and does. Then they release a season two set that's quite excellent. "Either do it right the first time, or don't do it at all." How tolerant of you.

 

[Bob Hug]

I received my set yesterday (in record time) and sampled a few episodes and I'm in agreement with you, after the problems with the season 1 episodes, Infinity/Roxbury did, indeed, get it right this time around. This release has restored my confidence in Infinity/Roxbury and I hope this set sells well enough so that we at least get the remaining Maharis episodes in season 3. I'll certainly buy both season 3 & 4 if they are released.

 

[michael_ks]

But the point Denny's making is that, irregardless, should the entire series get released, "Route 66" is still marred by poor quality/edited prints for the first half of season 1--and wiill most likely never get corrected.

I'm grateful that Roxbury/Inifinity finally got on track and met customer expectations but it's not as though this required some Einsteinian leap of logic. Just spending a couple hours scouring the net reading customer and critic reviews of classic tv shows released to DVD should clue one in on just how exacting people's standards are, given the high tech digital age that we're in.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

You're right, the bitter truth of Roxbury finally setting the standard with this second season is that the hideous, dark, scratched prints of the first season volume one are now the elephant in the room. I gave away my first season individual sets and ordered the re-released complete set hoping against hope they would also clean up those first 15 episodes and not just the AR in the second half, but they are really bad; almost unwatchable. Worse than my own recorded versions from the Nick at Night airings back in 1988.

 

[John DeAngelis]

Despite the Season One flaws, I'm happy to have those DVDs for the content.
And I appreciate that Roxbury addressed their formatting errors and that Season Two has no such flaws. That puts Roxbury way ahead of CBS Paramount in my book.

 

[Gary16]

I am very happy with the picture quality so far and found that the first episode with Anne Francis was exceptionally good pq. I am disappointed however in the audio. It's distorted in some places, particularly at the beginning of the first episode and at various other spots. This is a similar problem to the early "Naked City" episodes that Image put out, although in that case the later releases had much better sound. It appears that Roxbury had these 35mm prints transferred somewhere that does a good job with video but needs to pay a little more attention to the audio. However, overall it's still a good job and far better than season one.

 

[DeWilson]

A Company spends money to get the rights,and then right out of the bat put out average quality season one part one box. Then they have the bright idea to do letterboxed prints for the balance of season one.

They will lose a lot of future sales becuase how they handled the first season no matter how the 2nd season looks.

 

[michael_ks]

I tend to agree because I, for one have lost a great deal of enthusiasm for the "Route 66" releases. Normally, I would have been awaiting the arrival of S2 in my mailbox with huge anticipation. Well, I haven't even purchased yet because I was waiting on reviews of the image quality. I guess it's not up to "Untouchables" S1 but hopefully better than S2? And now I'm hearing rumblings about muffled audio.

How I wish this had been a Paramount product from the beginning (pre-"Fugitive" S2, of course!)

 

[BillyFeldman]

You seem to have a lot of anger issues in a thread in which you haven't even seen the relevant DVD, just like the Lone Ranger thread. So, the obvious best thing for you is not to purchase the DVDs, but also not comment on how terrible they are a) when they're not, and b) when you haven't seen these particular sets. It is disingenuous to do so, IMO. You've stated that you were angry with the first season Route 66 (did you actually buy the original or re-done DVD or are you just angry knowing it was first done incorrectly, then corrected?) - fine. No need to go on about it especially when everyone here is saying that the second season looks good and has no problems.

 

[Gary16]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the pq looks very good on season two. There is some audio distortion that probably sounds fine on a regular TV or small setup. It's somewhat more obvious in a theater setup but is still acceptable. Overall I think they did a nice job with season two based on the first 4 episodes that I have viewed.

 

[Bob Hug]

I'm viewing these on a traditional 19 inch television set and they look and sound fine so far but I can't comment on what the experience might be for a theater system.

 

[BillyFeldman]

I haven't heard any rumbling about muffled audio. I read one comment about some distortion on one episode - the first, with Anne Francis. The audio sounds fine on the episodes I've watched and the Riddle music comes through beautifully. Please link to these rumblings about muffled audio, I may have missed them. The people who actually have this DVD have posted that this set is a big step up from the last and that the episodes are fine here in terms of pq.

 

[John DeAngelis]

It wasn't their bright idea. It was a mistake. The person who did the transfers somehow screwed up and thought that that was what they wanted. Granted, they should have caught it, but it wasn't their intent.

 

[ProfessorCameraman]

Infinity just announced that Season Three, Vol. 1 will be available in early February.