Inside Mill Creek's Bewitched full-series release (1 Viewer)

[bmasters9]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bewitched-The-Complete-Series-DVD-2015-22-Disc-Set/111860795462?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20150604093004%26meid%3D4e23d45517a74bdaa804c60acc6b9033%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D181969169331&rt=nc


Saw this on EBay: an unboxing of what Mill Creek's full-series release of Bewitched looks like. The cardboard sleeve lifts up to reveal a black box that contains all 22 discs' worth in blue cardboard sleeves; each sleeve (11 in all) has one disc per side in a cardboard pocket.


Just thought I'd bring this up here in case you were interested in how Mill Creek has been packaging some of their newer releases.

 

[MattHR]

And just when you think the distributors have hit rock-bottom when it comes to crappy packaging. I saw this set at a used book store, so I took a peek inside, since the box was already opened. The box itself is cheap and flimsy, and I could feel some "rattling" inside. Turned out to be a bunch of loose cards (generic, with no series art), each holding a disc. I guess this new style of packaging is fitting for Mill Creek's continuing-to-decline releases, as this set has several discs with fourteen episodes crammed onto them! What's next, the complete series on a single DVD? I wouldn't bet against it.

 

[jcroy]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bewitched-The-Complete-Series-DVD-2015-22-Disc-Set/111860795462?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20150604093004%26meid%3D4e23d45517a74bdaa804c60acc6b9033%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D181969169331&rt=nc


Saw this on EBay: an unboxing of what Mill Creek's full-series release of Bewitched looks like. The cardboard sleeve lifts up to reveal a black box that contains all 22 discs' worth in blue cardboard sleeves; each sleeve (11 in all) has one disc per side in a cardboard pocket.


Just thought I'd bring this up here in case you were interested in how Mill Creek has been packaging some of their newer releases.

Blah blah blah!!!!! And more blah!


I strongly suspect this cardboard pockets style disc packaging will also warp the discs slightly.

 

[MattHR]

I strongly suspect this cardboard pockets style disc packaging will also warp the discs slightly.

There shouldn't be a warpage problem with this packaging, since each disc sits flat on its own card. It's the type where multiple cardboard pages are folded together in an "accordion" style that causes problems. The edges of the discs that meet too tightly at the folds, combined with empty air space that gets "trapped" between the cardboard and allows the discs to "flex" a bit, seems to be the cause. This was a very common problem with many laserdiscs that were packaged in gatefold sleeves. I recall several titles that were actually recalled and then reissued in non-warpage-causing sleeves.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Personally, I'd be less concerned about the packaging, and more worried about the cramming up to 14 episodes per DVD! Honestly, that's almost 6 hours of content on media that should never exceed 4 hours! For that alone, I'll stick with the Sony set (First 2 colorized seasons, and all!), that I purchased for my wife a few Christmases back! I went with the Sony I DREAM OF JEANNIE complete series set for her this Christmas for the same reason; not to mention that it was also substantially cheaper than the Mill Creeks!


Now, had Mill Creek issued these same series on Blu-ray instead, it might have been a different story? For instance, the difference between last year's Three Stooges 6 Movie Collection 2 DVD release by Mill Creek, and this year's 2 Volume Blu-ray Triple Pack sets (1 BD in each) is quite significant, especially with THE OUTLAWS IS COMING, which is pretty much unviewable on the Mill Creek DVD, but looks quite good on their Blu-ray release!


Of course, the approximately 350 minutes (For 14 episode discs!) of content that's been reported for some of the BEWITCHED DVDs would be pushing it, even for Dual Layered Blu-ray!


My recommendation is to stick with, or even purchase the Sony set for those who are debating which one to buy, colorized episodes and all, and this is not a recommendation that I normally make!


CHEERS!

 

[Ethan Riley]

If they'd done Bewitched on blu-ray, it'd probably be comparable to their That 70s Show release, which crammed each season onto two discs, and all came in little cardboard fold-out sleeves. So it probably wouldn't be that much of an upgrade in terms of packaging.

 

[Tony Bensley]

If they'd done Bewitched on blu-ray, it'd probably be comparable to their That 70s Show release, which crammed each season onto two discs, and all came in little cardboard fold-out sleeves. So it probably wouldn't be that much of an upgrade in terms of packaging.

Hi Ethan!


Perhaps not with the packaging, but based on my BATMAN Complete TV series Blu-ray set, 12 episodes can fit onto each 50G Dual Layer BD with no problem.


On the other hand, if Mill Creek has crammed more than 12 on any of the THAT 70'S SHOW Blu-rays (I don't know how many shows they did per season?), I'd suspect there might be some visual issues!


CHEERS!


Tony

 

[MattHR]

Perhaps not with the packaging, but based on my BATMAN Complete TV series Blu-ray set, 12 episodes can fit onto each 50G Dual Layer BD with no problem.


On the other hand, if Mill Creek has crammed more than 12 on any of the THAT 70'S SHOW Blu-rays (I don't know how many shows they did per season?), I'd suspect there might be some visual issues!

WB was pushing their usual limits with Batman at 12 eps-per-disc (12 eps @ 26 mins. each = 5.2 hours on disc).


Mill Creek's That '70s Show: Complete Series blu-ray set has 11 eps-per disc (11 eps @ 22 mins. each = 4.03 hours on disc), so it has considerably less data-per-disc than Batman. Also, all the bonus material was placed on two separate discs, which freed up some space on the episode-only discs. I believe Mill Creek's previous That '70s Show Season 1 and 2 blu-ray releases each utilized four 25G blu-ray discs versus the 50G discs in the Complete Series set, which greatly reduced the size of the overall package. I have yet to notice any compression-related issues on either set.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The Batman set has the advantage of being 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital Mono sound instead of lossless - that's probably why it's able to look as good as it does with as many episodes per disc as it has.

I just got the Bewitched complete series on DVD last week, but I opted for the 33 disc Sony version over the 22 disc Mill Creek. Amazon had them at the same price (the Sony might have even been a dollar cheaper), and I got the B&W versions of the first two seasons used on eBay for about $5 each. Losing 11 discs, and then adding double versions of two seasons worth of episodes on top of that, seemed like a recipe for disaster. Having not seen the Mill Creek I can't say for sure, but I'm okay with the choice I made.

The packaging isn't great on the Sony - just two spindles of discs - but I think they'll be okay. I have spindles of CD-Rs and DVD-Rs that have been stored that way for over a decade and all of those still work fine, so I'm thinking pressed discs should hold up just as well if not better.

I would be curious to hear how the video quality is for anyone who has the Mill Creek.

 

[Tony Bensley]

By double versions, do you mean the first 2 seasons of BEWITCHED in Black & White AND in Color?


That effectively would make it 10 seasons worth of episodes on 22 DVDs!


YEECH!!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

By double versions, do you mean the first 2 seasons of BEWITCHED in Black & White AND in Color?

That effectively would make it 10 seasons worth of episodes on 22 DVDs!

YEECH!!

That's what the packaging on the Mill Creek said, that it contained both the B&W and color versions. Which would be a major plus if it weren't crammed on to so few discs.

 

[MattHR]

That's what the packaging on the Mill Creek said, that it contained both the B&W and color versions. Which would be a major plus if it weren't crammed on to so few discs.

I didn't see that indicated on the packaging. I believe it stated that it included the "original broadcast versions", making mention of the first two B&W seasons. I can't imagine Mill Creek would also include the colorized versions. Their website gives a breakdown of the contents of each disc, with no indication of dual-versions eps from S1 and S2.


http://www.millcreekent.com/bewitched-the-complete-series.html

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I didn't see that indicated on the packaging. I believe it stated that it included the "original broadcast versions", making mention of the first two B&W seasons. I can't imagine Mill Creek would also include the colorized versions. Their website gives a breakdown of the contents of each disc, with no indication of dual-versions eps from S1 and S2.

http://www.millcreekent.com/bewitched-the-complete-series.html

My mistake, I must have confused the Amazon description or something similar along the way. My apologies for any confusion!

 

[Tony Bensley]

I didn't see that indicated on the packaging. I believe it stated that it included the "original broadcast versions", making mention of the first two B&W seasons. I can't imagine Mill Creek would also include the colorized versions. Their website gives a breakdown of the contents of each disc, with no indication of dual-versions eps from S1 and S2.


http://www.millcreekent.com/bewitched-the-complete-series.html

Hi Matt!


All that I recall reading was that the original Black & White Broadcast versions (Which, in itself, sparked some hopeful debate regarding restoration of the proper season openings, that was soon dashed!) from the first two BEWITCHED seasons were included. I didn't see anything about those and the Colorized versions both being included in the Complete Series set. In my opinion, that would leave the episodes so badly compressed they'd look downright terrible!


CHEERS!


Tony

 

[bmasters9]

The packaging isn't great on the Sony - just two spindles of discs - but I think they'll be okay. I have spindles of CD-Rs and DVD-Rs that have been stored that way for over a decade and all of those still work fine, so I'm thinking pressed discs should hold up just as well if not better.

If I had to choose, I would much rather have it on spindles than in cardboard sleeves, for reasons unknown.

 

[classicmovieguy]

Mill Creek has NEVER released the colorized "Bewitched" (or "I Dream of Jeannie") episodes.

 

[Tony Bensley]

The BEWITCHED Season 1 episode "A Vision Of Sugarplums" (1964), as it appears on the 2009 DVD by Shout! Factory, MERRY SITCOM! CHRISTMAS CLASSICS FROM TV'S GOLDEN AGE is the only instance that I know of, in which the original BEWITCHED Season 1 opening and closing appears on DVD! The latter even includes the split screen "Wardrobe For Elizabeth Montgomery Provided By PFC, Inc. / Wardrobe For Dick York Provided By Phoenix Clothes" listings! As for the opening, I'll have to check again, but even without the opening "Elizabeth Montgomery in Bewitched" audio intro, and the animated sponsor tag that instantly follows, as has been demonstrated by low resolution clips uploaded to YouTube, it did appear *seamless to me!

The opening titles follow the opening scene in this particular episode:
[

The 1964 copyright appears in Roman Numerals, instead of the 1966 (For the Dick York episodes) / 1969 openings (For the later Dick Sargent years) that otherwise appear on the BEWITCHED Sony and Millcreek Season/Series sets:

*While I can't say this with certainty, it appears to me that this shot could have been frozen to get around the end sponsor tag? It fades out 2-3 seconds after the opening theme concludes:

Closing credits:

The aforementioned DVD is currently available via an Amazon Marketplace vendor for $4.25 U.S:
https://www.amazon.com/Merry-Sitcom-Christmas-Classics-Golden/dp/B002JYPVS6/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1481486864&sr=1-1&keywords=merry+sitcom+christmas+classics+from+tv's+golden+age

CHEERS!

 

[Tony Bensley]

As I've seen much debate regarding how digital colorization reportedly affects the Black & White shading palette even when the Color is turned off, I've decided to put this to the test.

My VLC player allows for the Color to be turned off, which in turn, allows me to then do Black & White Screen Captures of the colorized episodes!

Captured from a Black & White transfer of the "A Vision Of Sugarplums" episode, as it appears on the 2009 DVD by Shout! Factory, MERRY SITCOM! CHRISTMAS CLASSICS FROM TV'S GOLDEN AGE:

Captured from the Sony Colorized DVD, with the Color turned off:

Any thoughts?

CHEERS!

And here's the "Original" Colorized shot:

 

[Joe Lugoff]

I don't see any difference, but my eyes are getting pretty old. (I was in high school when that episode was first shown! Yikes.)

 

[BobO'Link]

The B/W Colorized shot looks a bit brighter but otherwise identical. Not enough difference to argue about. How about a couple of frames inside with people? Don't say which is which.