Question about "The Avengers" TV series (1 Viewer)

[David Weicker]

I have the UK discs for season 4-6 and the image is fantastic. The version on Amazon prime are definitely from these transfers as the picture quality especially on Season 6 is superb. As a note Network will be releasing the 26 episodes of The New Avengers on BluRay as well. https://networkonair.com has some amazing Blu rays on offer but you will need to invest in an all region Blu-ray player, available on Amazon. They currently offer The Cybernauts Trilogy on Blu Ray (2 Peel episodes and 1 New Avengers episode). The New Avengers remaster is fantastic.

I just visited the Network site, and did not see anything about The New Avengers. Can you post a link to that news?

 

[JoshuaB.]

I just visited the Network site, and did not see anything about The New Avengers. Can you post a link to that news?

I believe it's Studio Canal that has the rights to The Avengers and The New Avengers, not Network (though they have released some exceptional Blu-ray and DVD releases of splendid British spy and adventure series). I have held off buying the Region 2 DVD set of The New Avengers in anticipation of a possible Blu-ray set, but I don't think any official announcements have been made (I'm still hoping for Network to announce a Blu-ray set of The Champions, The Saint, and Danger Man! ).

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Studio-Canal hold overall rights, but they have licenced to Network. They released "The Cybernauts Trilogy" in late 2019, which includes the first-ever New Avengers blu-ray episode.

I think this is meant as a sort of "teaser" (like "Bringers of Wonder: Special Edition" was for Network's then-upcoming Year 2 release of Space: 1999) to whet the appetite for more, while restoration work continues. I've heard very little, though. For years, it was assumed the original film prints for New Avengers were lost. No word on where this Cybermauts print turned up. Hopefully, they have access to the remaining episodes. I'm sure there's a ton of restoration work to be done, though (and the pandemic lockdowns would surely have slowed things down more).

 

[darkrock17]

Studio-Canal hold overall rights, but they have licenced to Network. They released "The Cybernauts Trilogy" in late 2019, which includes the first-ever New Avengers blu-ray episode.

I think this is meant as a sort of "teaser" (like "Bringers of Wonder: Special Edition" was for Network's then-upcoming Year 2 release of Space: 1999) to whet the appetite for more, while restoration work continues. I've heard very little, though. For years, it was assumed the original film prints for New Avengers were lost. No word on where this Cybermauts print turned up. Hopefully, they have access to the remaining episodes. I'm sure there's a ton of restoration work to be done, though (and the pandemic lockdowns would surely have slowed things down more).

Too bad that Cybernaut collection didn't get a North American release. Studio-Canal most likely has the original masters for both Avengers series sitting in a warehouse collecting dust.

 

[GlennC]

Network seem to have given up on their ITC (The Saint, Danger Man, The Champions), New Avengers of Gerry Anderson stuff as it is well over a year since they released anything of this type.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Too bad that Cybernaut collection didn't get a North American release. Studio-Canal most likely has the original masters for both Avengers series sitting in a warehouse collecting dust.

The article I read on the restoration of the NA episode said that Studio-Canal couldn't find any New Avengers master prints in their archive (in multiple searches). Now, are they like the "morals" for Filmation's Shazam! were until recently--actually there somewhere, but just not discovered yet--or are they truly not among Studio-Canal's holdings?

I'm quoting now: "Network conducted restoration work on a, presumably newly-discovered, “2K ARRI-scanned from 35mm original cut negative”. Where this negative came from is unknown...."

 

[darkrock17]

Couldn't Lionsgate gotten the prints from Network and through licensing done a NA release for The Cybernaut Trilogy set?

It could very well be that SC has the all masters, just they haven't found it yet; studio/companies storage facilities are usually quite large so it could in a warehouse they haven't been to yet.

 

[Sam Favate]

Are those UK discs region free?

 

[JoshuaB.]

Are those UK discs region free?

Sadly, they are not. Region B only.

 

[Desslock]

Hi all. I know this thread hasn’t been active in a while, but I was hoping to find some information. I recently started watching the Season 5 of The Avengers and absolutely love it. I have the Lionsgate blu-ray set (had it for a while but just recently had the chance to check it out). It appears that’s the only season Lionsgate has put out and the StudioCanal sets are region-locked (unfortunately I don’t have a region free player).

For anyone that has them, how is the quality for the other seasons on iTunes or Amazon Prime Video? I noticed reviews of Season 4 on iTunes complaining that the episodes there are edited? Is that true?

Thanks for any info anyone has on how best to watch this terrific series!

 

[Anthonydasher]

I just visited the Network site, and did not see anything about The New Avengers. Can you post a link to that news?

You have to do a search with Cybernaut https://networkonair.com/all-products/3150-the-avengers-the-cybernauts-trilogy-blu-ray-

 

[David Weicker]

You have to do a search with Cybernaut https://networkonair.com/all-products/3150-the-avengers-the-cybernauts-trilogy-blu-ray-

I'm aware of that single episode.

The post I was quoting stated that the entire series was being released on Blu-Ray. That was what I was disputing.

 

[Anthonydasher]

I'm aware of that single episode.

The post I was quoting stated that the entire series was being released on Blu-Ray. That was what I was disputing.

That announcement came at a Q And A by Tim Beddows of Network in 2019 and said they were releasing all TNA episodes but he didn’t have a schedule for release at that point. When i heard no further information i reached out to Network directly and was told the probability of a release was now very unlikely. No reason was given but based on their reply the release had at some point been in the works. They had discovered about 40 cans of film and thought they had enough good elements to scan but apparently that either was not the case or cost was too prohibitive. The last sentence is supposition on my part.

 

[mark-edk]

For anyone that has them, how is the quality for the other seasons on iTunes or Amazon Prime Video? I noticed reviews of Season 4 on iTunes complaining that the episodes there are edited? Is that true?

I have 4 from iTunes. I don't know that any editing was done; they're all listed at 52m so that seems to me unlikely. I haven't watched them in a while but i checked out a couple and they looked good. You should be able to select individual episodes and watch a preview of them if you want to see for yourself how it looks.

 

[Jack P]

Could someone refresh my memory regarding the audio on the Blu-Ray discs that were released in the US? I remember there was a bit of an uproar over the fact that in contrast to the old A+E DVDs, the Blu-Ray was pitched up to match the altered sound of PAL formatted British releases and thus was not the correct speed we had always been able to hear on the old US DVD releases. That was why I totally passed on them at the time. I'm assuming that nothing was ever fixed and that the only way to see any version of this on Blu-Ray is always going to be in compromised sounding audio in the wrong pitch? (It may be the "right" pitch to Brit audiences but it's not the way Macnee and Rigg actually talked or the way the music was actually recorded. This is why I hate and avoid PAL sourced material as much as I can)

 

[Dave Jessup]

Here's a cut 'n paste of my 2014 review on Amazon:

Based on viewing one episode from this package and a quick look at the A&E DVD transfer, the picture quality is vastly improved. Obviously better resolution on the Blu Ray, plus a better source print.

The sound, however, has been rechanneled to a 5.1 "stereo" output with no option for original broadcast mono. The title music now sounds like it's coming from the back of a huge hall, as well as sounding terribly thin. The older DVD soundtrack was robust.

Playing games with the soundtrack is no more enjoyable now than it was for fans of 1930s / 1940s music when the major companies reissued the tracks on LPs and electronically rechanneled the sound for "stereo."

This classic series deserves better.

I don't think I've yet watched more than a couple episodes from that set.

 

[mark-edk]

Could someone refresh my memory regarding the audio on the Blu-Ray discs that were released in the US?

The audio pitch on season 5 is elevated by almost a half-step. It is the same on the streaming transfers. Why not just correct the pitch? Digital audio editors can do that almost instantly. If it was too late to correct the discs they could have corrected the streaming versions...but no.

 

[cineescape]

Network seem to have given up on their ITC (The Saint, Danger Man, The Champions), New Avengers of Gerry Anderson stuff as it is well over a year since they released anything of this type.

Danger

Not surprised that Network would pass on re-issuing Danger Man-not to mentioned those other ITC series-if they too suffer from the same horribly overloaded audio that plagued Danger Man/Secret Agent. Anytime Astley's scoring climbs into the fortissimo range the sound is badly distorted, however briefly. This even happens during lower level slow tempo acoustic bass/harpischord cues. I have the Network CD boxed set of Astley's score, issued by Sony; thank goodness that superb music wasn't recorded at all that stupidly. What had to have happened was that back that in the day some idiot sound editor failed to monitor the gain of the final (mono) mix track to be mixed with the dialogue track. Thus, while the dialogue sounds clean the music track's gain level was left at one gain setting and kept getting its peaks clipped.

And because the original isolated mono dialogue and music tracks masters were probably long since trashed, probably the only way for Studio Canal to undistort the audio (which would likely sound even worse on lossless BD than on lossy DVD) is to use something like the Declip feature in this restoration software. https://www.izotope.com/en/products/rx.html It probably would make a for a big improvement, but I strongly doubt they would spend time doing so for a very old TV show-and EVERY one of those episodes has frequently clipping in the program peaks.

 

[mark27b]

Network seem to have given up on their ITC (The Saint, Danger Man, The Champions), New Avengers of Gerry Anderson stuff as it is well over a year since they released anything of this type.

There are just the x3 releases - with a collected set of all 3 too - of the individual episodes which in the promo says are a precursor to full sets