Holocaust miniseries DVD (1 Viewer)

[MatthewA]

This was supposed to have come out in May. Has anyone been able to find it? I have found no reviews or comments on the presentation quality.

 

[Doug Wallen]

Picked this up last week and it appears no work was done on the transfer at all. Also at the beginning of each act (after commercial break), the screen stays blank while the audio plays and after 15 seconds or so the picture fills in. I do not know if this was the original plan for broadcast or not.

It is nice to have the show available, but it is not as clear as some other Paramount discs (eg. Hawaii 5-0, Wild Wild West, etc.)

Doug

 

[MatthewA]

Could the visual breaks have been NBC's IDs?

 

[FrosteyV]

I picked it up for cheap at Best Buy, and the transfer is better than the current VHS tape which I have, but not on the order of transfer of something like the Untouchables or The Fugitive.

 

[MatthewA]

Better than VHS, maybe. But far from great. I have watched the first two parts, and it looks like what I imagine watching it on NBC in 1978 would have looked like. This seems to be an early 1980s transfer; it doesn't even have 3:2 pulldown!

This is an independent production that Paramount only has the DVD rights to because they inherited Worldvision library. They may not have had access to the negatives or any film master, since they're usually pretty good about remastering.

There was a region 2 version out for years; can anyone who has it tell me if that is any better?

 

[Jeff Willis]

Matthew,

Thanks for the info on the R1 release. Since this one's on my "big-time" list, I'm going ahead and getting it at the current DD sale.

I did buy the R2 set a couple of years ago and, without having seen the new R1 release, going by your (very good) description of the R1, I'd say that it's about the same quality.

It's a shame that this miniseries hasn't been remastered by now.

 

[FrosteyV]

I have the region 2 release, and believe it or not, I think the new release is better.

 

[DanFe]

Is the region 2 release cut?

 

[Neil Brock]

I'm not sure what region mine is from. I picked it up from Greece of all places a long time ago. I just timed out the 3 discs and disc one is 2:03, disc two is 2:00 and disc three is 2:48. I looked it up and apparently this ran on 4 nights with a combined airing time of 10:30. IMDB lists the full run time at 475 minutes, which seems about right, taking into account commercials, opening and closing credits each night and episode recaps. So if this set is coming in at 411 minutes, that means there's a good hour plus missing. How long is the U.S. DVD run time? What about the VHS, if anyone has that?

 

[stuartfanning]

I'm not sure what region mine is from. I picked it up from Greece of all places a long time ago. I just timed out the 3 discs and disc one is 2:03, disc two is 2:00 and disc three is 2:48. I looked it up and apparently this ran on 4 nights with a combined airing time of 10:30. IMDB lists the full run time at 475 minutes, which seems about right, taking into account commercials, opening and closing credits each night and episode recaps. So if this set is coming in at 411 minutes, that means there's a good hour plus missing. How long is the U.S. DVD run time? What about the VHS, if anyone has that?

I have the US DVD Anniversary edition which states the running time as 7 hours 49 minutes (449 minutes) approximately. This edition is currently on Amazon.com stating the running time as 475 minutes. So contradicts what is said on the DVD box. Amazon.com has a VHS video listed with stated running time of 450 minutes.

 

[bmasters9]

I have the US DVD Anniversary edition which states the running time as 7 hours 49 minutes (449 minutes) approximately.

7 hrs. 49 min. is 469 min. (7 hrs. is 420, and 49 more makes it 469).

 

[stuartfanning]

7 hrs. 49 min. is 469 min. (7 hrs. is 420, and 49 more makes it 469).

 

[Ferdinand Hudson]

I'm not sure what region mine is from. I picked it up from Greece of all places a long time ago. I just timed out the 3 discs and disc one is 2:03, disc two is 2:00 and disc three is 2:48. I looked it up and apparently this ran on 4 nights with a combined airing time of 10:30. IMDB lists the full run time at 475 minutes, which seems about right, taking into account commercials, opening and closing credits each night and episode recaps. So if this set is coming in at 411 minutes, that means there's a good hour plus missing. How long is the U.S. DVD run time? What about the VHS, if anyone has that?

My Spanish 4-DVD set is about the same. When I bought it it was advertised both on the package and online as 475 minutes but checking each disc it actually came out to 411:54 (approx. 429 minutes running time when converted from PAL to NTSC). I never bothered searching out a more complete set. Checking on OFDB it seems all the European sets are more or less the same running time.

 

[Neil Brock]

7 hrs. 49 min. is 469 min. (7 hrs. is 420, and 49 more makes it 469).

Ok, now I'm really confused. Reviewers on amazon were writing that the DVDs were missing scenes, yet if the running time is a legitimate 469 minutes, that would appear to be fairly complete, once you take into account the opening and closing credits each night plus episode recaps, which I'm sure they didn't include on each segment.

 

[Ferdinand Hudson]

Ok, now I'm really confused. Reviewers on amazon were writing that the DVDs were missing scenes, yet if the running time is a legitimate 469 minutes, that would appear to be fairly complete, once you take into account the opening and closing credits each night plus episode recaps, which I'm sure they didn't include on each segment.

Take into consideration that Amazon mix reviews from all releases of Holocaust, both domestic and imports, (much like what they do with any and all homevideo releases regardless of format) and reviews may be from a different release altogether.

 

[Neil Brock]

I have the US DVD Anniversary edition which states the running time as 7 hours 49 minutes (449 minutes) approximately. This edition is currently on Amazon.com stating the running time as 475 minutes. So contradicts what is said on the DVD box. Amazon.com has a VHS video listed with stated running time of 450 minutes.

I took the anniversary edition out of the library and timed it out to around 447 minutes (7 hours, 27 minutes), give or take a minute or two. It is broken up into 5 parts of around 90 minutes each give or take a minute with the first part being 86 minutes. However, when it first aired on NBC, it was in four parts, not five, which ran as follows:

April 16/78 - 3 Hours
April 17/78 - 2 Hours, 5 minutes
April 18/78 - 2 Hours
April 19/78 - 2 Hours, 30 min

So, the total broadcast time was 9 hours, 35 minutes including commercials. Shows in 1978 were still around 50 minutes per hour, so on that basis, 475 minutes would be the correct running time for the original broadcasts. The DVDs include around a 5 and a half minute recap and credit sequence plus another minute or so closing credits. Because it is broken up into one more part than the original, that's another 6:30 to 7 minutes of content missing. So I would surmise that there is approximately 30 to 35 minutes which is cut out from the original airing. I don't believe the VHS release would be any different as it is also listed as being around 7 and a half hours (450 minutes approximately). So, it looks like all of the releases are using the same edited elements. Was there ever a laser disc version put out?

 

[jcroy]

Was there ever a laser disc version put out?

Purportedly in Japan.

https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/28043/PILF-1128/Holocaust

 

[jcroy]

Ther american laserdisc was possibly cancelled.

https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/30818/ID8627WV/Holocaust

 

[Neil Brock]

Paley Center has copies of the original NBC airings with run times, minus commercials. But they list the first night as running almost 3 hours without commercials which is impossible unless it aired commercial free. Their running times are:

Part 1 - 2:54
Part 2 - 1:38
Part 3 - 1:43
Part 4 - 2:07

If their time for part one is wrong, and that includes the commercials, it likely would have run 2:27, based on the part 2 running time. That would have put the total time to 475 minutes, exactly what IMDB lists. When the extra part recap and opening and closing credits are taken into account, my conclusion is that there is a good 35 minutes of story content missing from all of the releases and the only way one could have the miniseries intact would be to have recorded it off air in 1978.

 

[Neil Brock]

By the way, does anyone know when NBC repeated it?