Is the b&w era of TV on DVD slowly coming to an end? (5 Viewers)

[Gary OS]

I watched it yesterday on Encore Western and thought surely they were working from old prints. At the end, however, was the new Paramount logo, not the old V of Doom I was expecting. It's not on my holy grail list but it's a show that's good enough it should be remastered imho!

If HGWT and Rawhide had not used so much beautiful location shooting I'd be less inclined to want remastered prints. If we were talking about a western that is primarily soundstage bound (especially in regards to outdoor, daytime scenes) then I honestly wouldn't have nearly as much interest in whether or not the prints were remastered. But these shows went out of their way to film in some beautiful locations so I'd like to enjoy it with quality video.


Gary "hopefully CBS eventually corrects these missteps" O.

 

[Richard V]

I shall take it upon myself to note that this thread is now over the 100 pages milestone.

 

[Ron1973]

If HGWT and Rawhide had not used so much beautiful location shooting I'd be less inclined to want remastered prints. If we were talking about a western that is primarily soundstage bound (especially in regards to outdoor, daytime scenes) then I honestly wouldn't have nearly as much interest in whether or not the prints were remastered. But these shows went out of their way to film in some beautiful locations so I'd like to enjoy it with quality video.


Gary "hopefully CBS eventually corrects these missteps" O.

It is a well-produced show with a ton of outside work. If we're counting just westerns, it would be in my top five easily but I just can't see springing for the DVD's if they're not any better than what Encore is offering.

 

[Gary OS]

It is a well-produced show with a ton of outside work. If we're counting just westerns, it would be in my top five easily but I just can't see springing for the DVD's if they're not any better than what Encore is offering.

Since CBS (according to their own site) hasn't remastered some of the seasons from HGWT and Rawhide, then you can bet that what you saw the other day was not remastered. Even if it had a different logo on it, I guarantee you it wasn't remastered. I just watched an episode of HGWT on Encore Westerns the day before yesterday and it looked horrible as well. It was a Season Four episode, but it didn't look anywhere near as good as my Season Four remastered episodes do.


Gary "trust me, remastering shows like these make a huge difference - don't necessarily go by what Encore shows" O.

 

[Ron1973]

Since CBS (according to their own site) hasn't remastered some of the seasons from HGWT and Rawhide, then you can bet that what you saw the other day was not remastered. Even if it had a different logo on it, I guarantee you it wasn't remastered. I just watched an episode of HGWT on Encore Westerns the day before yesterday and it looked horrible as well. It was a Season Four episode, but it didn't look anywhere near as good as my Season Four remastered episodes do.


Gary "trust me, remastering shows like these make a huge difference - don't necessarily go by what Encore shows" O.

So are the DVD transfers better than what Encore is showing? I guess I was under the impression none of the seasons were remastered.

 

[Randy Korstick]

For Have Gun Will Travel: The 1st three seasons are not remastered and do not look very good. Seasons 4-6 are remastered and look excellent. So we are hoping Seasons 1-3 are remastered when they do a complete series release. For Rawhide the same situation for Season 1 and 4 not being remastered but the rest of the seasons are.

So are the DVD transfers better than what Encore is showing? I guess I was under the impression none of the seasons were remastered.

 

[Gary OS]

For Have Gun Will Travel: The 1st three seasons are not remastered and do not look very good. Seasons 4-6 are remastered and look excellent. So we are hoping Seasons 1-3 are remastered when they do a complete series release. For Rawhide the same situation for Season 1 and 4 not being remastered but the rest of the seasons are.

Yep, Randy's spot on. What I think must be happening with the EncoreWesterns airing of HGWT is that they aren't using the remastered prints from seasons 4-6. I honestly haven't watched much of the show on TV (since I've got the dvds), but I did look at another episode today since I'm in the middle of a free month of the Encore package. The channel is still airing episodes from season four and the one I saw today was NOT remastered. It looked fairly ragged.


Gary "I don't know what the chances are of a complete set of either series down the road having corrected seasons, but I'll keep my fingers crossed" O.

 

[Steve...O]

I've held off on buying these shows (HGWT and RH) due to the lack of remastering certain seasons, but will certainly strongly consider a complete series reissue if these are fixed. Unfortunately the only similar situations I know of is Hawaii Five-O where S10 was fixed and ILL where S1 was fixed. Not sure if these series are popular enough to get the same treatment. The lack of any updates on their bible website doesn't leave me optimistic.

 

[LeoA]

CBS did a remastering of season 1 for I Love Lucy for the complete release and I think The Andy Griffith Show also saw some improvements for its complete series release. So there's some precedence here although multiple seasons being remastered for a complete DVD release would be pretty ambitious and expensive.

 

[smithbrad]

My take is that CBS didn't do all this just for DVD releases, it has to be more geared to the future and HD syndication. Therefore, it would be a compromise on their part not to remaster all the seasons eventually. However, CBS can't keep up with the demand as it is based on the time it takes, and there isn't enough incentive to go back and fix something that has already been released. So like Hawaii Five-O, I would imagine the next time the unmastered seasons will be revisited will either be for a complete series release or a blu-ray release. That way they will have a completed HD package for syndication.

As Jimmy would say, "don't worry it'll happen" but we just have to wait a bit longer for them to get back to those seasons.

 

[jdee28]

Have Gun Will Travel Seasons 1-3 and Rawhide Season 1 were released by CBS before they started remastering all their shows.

I've never understood what happened with Rawhide Season 4 though. The picture quality is almost on par with a public domain release. There might have been some sort of mistake with this release. Maybe they were intending to remaster it, as the back cover of Rawhide Season 4 Volume 2 actually states that the episodes in the set are "digitally remastered"! Talk about falsity in advertising!

I certainly hope CBS goes back and corrects this one day, as they recently did with Hawaii Five-O Season 10. If they ever do, it would probably be for a complete series set. I do think a lot of people would be interested in such a set though; I'd snap it up immediately! Here's hoping that Paramount is reading this or someone passes the idea along to them.

 

[smithbrad]

I've never understood what happened with Rawhide Season 4 though. The picture quality is almost on par with a public domain release. There might have been some sort of mistake with this release. Maybe they were intending to remaster it, as the back cover of Rawhide Season 4 Volume 2 actually states that the episodes in the set are "digitally remastered"! Talk about falsity in advertising!

I believe I checked into this once before and found that Rawhide season 4 and Bonanza season 2 and possibly the unmastered Hawaii Five-O season were all done within a year of each other. My theory is that CBS was just looking to try and get things out quicker and to do that had to leave those umastered. Many of the complaints they receive is always related to being to slow to release. They gambled and lost on this since people wanted quicker and still the higher quality, so just complained that much more.

 

[Professor Echo]

Brad, I just picked up the first five seasons of BONANZA for a very, very good price (S5 complete was just $8.50 shipped!). I'm assuming that they never redid S2? How bad does it look?

 

[smithbrad]

Brad, I just picked up the first five seasons of BONANZA for a very, very good price (S5 complete was just $8.50 shipped!). I'm assuming that they never redid S2? How bad does it look?

Nice...that is a very good price. For some reason CBS discounts Bonanza a bit better than Gunsmoke on initially release, so I generally get it right away. However, I'd be smarter to wait a bit longer.

Season two doesn't look bad per se, it just isn't as good in comparison to the other seasons. It would probably be comparable to what Encore is playing for the "Lost Years" in that it would be complete, possibly a little faded, close-ups will look good, while the background is lacking in a bit of detail. However, the bitrate would be higher than what you would probably get on broadcast so probably a bit less artifacts during motion.

I would recommend not watching a season 2 episode on the same night as a season 1 or season 3 episode so you will be less likely to get caught up in comparisons, and can just sit back and enjoy the show.

 

[BobO'Link]

Brad, I just picked up the first five seasons of BONANZA for a very, very good price (S5 complete was just $8.50 shipped!). I'm assuming that they never redid S2? How bad does it look?

I snagged a new copy of S5 for that price too! I was thrilled and wish I could get seasons 1, 3 & 4 that cheap!

I think S2 looks pretty good. But I started there and until that S5 purchase didn't have anything with which to compare. I've not finished watching S2 yet so it will be a while before I crack open S5 and see just what I'm missing with S2 but all I can say is if the others are better then wow! Keep in mind that I still watch on a 32" CRT and *lots* of stuff that looks horrible on my computers looks very good on the TV.

 

[Professor Echo]

Even with all the regrettably back lot and stage bound shooting on BONANZA, no doubt cost cutting measures to cover the cost of shooting in color, I'm finding the series holds up very well all these years later. The writing is incredibly good and the acting by the regulars and an amazing roster of guest stars is uniformly excellent. Can't recommend the series enough.

 

[John Hermes]

I snagged a new copy of S5 for that price too! I was thrilled and wish I could get seasons 1, 3 & 4 that cheap!

I think S2 looks pretty good. But I started there and until that S5 purchase didn't have anything with which to compare. I've not finished watching S2 yet so it will be a while before I crack open S5 and see just what I'm missing with S2 but all I can say is if the others are better then wow! Keep in mind that I still watch on a 32" CRT and *lots* of stuff that looks horrible on my computers looks very good on the TV.

The later remastered seasons of Bonanza have some of the best PQ of any TV series.

 

[LouA]

Timeless announced the Color shows , The Chisolms , The Big Valley and I Spy recently , so you can see where they are moving away from B&W television . Still it's hard to complain about them , the gave us so many great shows. I only wish they would have put out some more ZIV shows before the stopped .

 

[Silverking]

Not a b/w show but this thread seemed the most appropriate.End of the trail for 'Bonanza'? My understanding was CBS/Paramount had planned seasons 7 & 8 this year with the first announcement due about now. However I have heard that sales for S6 were 'soft'. Accordingly further seasons have been delayed or maybe abandoned.Shame as they tried hard with this series with more than the usual in the way of extras throughout the run , not just the first release.With all the various 'wish lists' and rants at DVD companies we tend to forget that to them, it is a business, not a hobby & at the end of the day if it doesn't sell we can't really expect them to release it.

 

[smithbrad]

End of the trail for 'Bonanza'? My understanding was CBS/Paramount had planned seasons 7 & 8 this year with the first announcement due about now. However I have heard that sales for S6 were 'soft'. Accordingly further seasons have been delayed or maybe abandoned.Shame as they tried hard with this series with more than the usual in the way of extras throughout the run , not just the first release.With all the various 'wish lists' and rants at DVD companies we tend to forget that to them, it is a business, not a hobby & at the end of the day if it doesn't sell we can't really expect them to release it.

I wasn't really expecting Bonanza season 7 until late summer. I wouldn't think CBS would want to ignore the "Lost Episodes" since I think they did pretty well in syndication and are more familiar to many people as a result. I think they will still continue along, if at only one season release a year. It would be too bad if it was abandoned at this point. I manged to get the "Lost Years" off Encore during this last run, but I rather have them all remastered and to fill in the missing episodes not broadcast within the "Lost Years" package.