The Facts of Life Complete Series Jan 13th 2015 (1 Viewer)

[Tory]

It has arrived and all the proper discs are there and look to be good. Debating on starting from the beginning or Season 4 (I have the old Seasons 1-3 sets) but haven't watched them in two years.

 

[JLKINSER]

I haven't bought this set yet because I have been on the fence about the edited episodes and the video quality. I have been reading the reviews on Amazon about poor video quality I believe on season 6 and other seasons. For those of you that have this set, what are your opinions? Can you post some screen grabs for me to look at? Also what about the edited episodes? Thanks!!!!

 

[bmasters9]

It has arrived and all the proper discs are there and look to be good. Debating on starting from the beginning or Season 4 (I have the old Seasons 1-3 sets) but haven't watched them in two years.

When I got that full Bob Newhart Show release, the decision was easy: I started from Season 3, as I had already seen the first two seasons from the individual Fox double-sided releases.

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

I thought the quality of the set was on par with all the other seasons, shot to video the show won't ever look pristine but as far as video looking shows go Facts looks decent. The only thing I didn't watch was their TV movie when they went down under. I was so bored I tried to hang on maybe watched half of it and gave up. It was just bad IMO.


I'm just glad to finally have the whole series, yeah a few episodes have some edits but in the end what this set contains is to great not to own it.

 

[JLKINSER]

I thought the quality of the set was on par with all the other seasons, shot to video the show won't ever look pristine but as far as video looking shows go Facts looks decent. The only thing I didn't watch was their TV movie when they went down under. I was so bored I tried to hang on maybe watched half of it and gave up. It was just bad IMO.


I'm just glad to finally have the whole series, yeah a few episodes have some edits but in the end what this set contains is to great not to own it.

Hey thanks for the response. I have The Jeffersons complete box set and think the transfers are quite good. I was assuming that Facts would look the same. Agree that being shot on video the show will never transfer as well to DVD as film does.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Hey thanks for the response. I have The Jeffersons complete box set and think the transfers are quite good. I was assuming that Facts would look the same. Agree that being shot on video the show will never transfer as well to DVD as film does.

The edits aren't really a big deal. In fact, some episodes were restored to original length compared to the Sony sets (one S1 episode, and the two parters got their "last time on" openings back).


The episodes that are edited are only three that I know of... the episode in S3 where Jo goes to see her cousin is missing a scene (and the scene was missing in the Sony set, too), S6's Bus Stop is a syndicated version, and the music edit in the S7 finale.


Of the three, only the syndication edit bugs me, because I know it's a syndication edit. The missing music scene in S7 is handled well enough that if Shout hadn't mentioned they cut the song, you wouldn't know it. And the edit in Jo's Cousin... well, it was a spin-off attempt episode, so the episode was already pointless anyway.


That's it for edits. Out of 201 (209?) episodes, not bad at all.


As far as picture quality... it's 1980s video. Don't expect it to look great. It's probably on par with the other Shout released seasons.

 

[David Rain]

Do people actually expect a 30 year old videotaped show to look great?

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Do people actually expect a 30 year old videotaped show to look great?

If you've ever read an Amazon review page, yes, people expect every show to look spectacular on DVD, and often wonder when the Blu Ray release is coming so it will look even better, because Blu magically makes 40 year old videotape HD.

 

[bmasters9]

If you've ever read an Amazon review page, yes, people expect every show to look spectacular on DVD, and often wonder when the Blu Ray release is coming so it will look even better, because Blu magically makes 40 year old videotape HD.

Trust me, I will not be one of those "must be Blu-Ray" types, because IMO, the full-series release of Barney Miller looked great, and as such, needed no sweetening done to it. IOW, it's fine as it is.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Trust me, I will not be one of those "must be Blu-Ray" types, because IMO, the full-series release of Barney Miller looked great, and as such, needed no sweetening done to it. IOW, it's fine as it is.

If someone posts here, I figure they already know the limitations of videotape and other basic stuff.

Out in the wild, though, most people just think that everything can magically be made better looking because it's on DVD or Blu, and have no idea about videotape, film, or why something is capable of being high definition or not.

 

[Tory]

I think the one great benefit of bluray could have for a series like this is not the video quality but rather the amount of episodes you can fit on a disk.

 

[BlairWarner]

The episodes that are edited are only three that I know of... the episode in S3 where Jo goes to see her cousin is missing a scene (and the scene was missing in the Sony set, too), S6's Bus Stop is a syndicated version, and the music edit in the S7 finale.


Of the three, only the syndication edit bugs me, because I know it's a syndication edit. The missing music scene in S7 is handled well enough that if Shout hadn't mentioned they cut the song, you wouldn't know it. And the edit in Jo's Cousin... well, it was a spin-off attempt episode, so the episode was already pointless anyway.

This is pretty much my feeling/experience as well. I actually wouldn't have noticed Bus Stop or the missing scene from S3 if I hadn't read about them. I did know about the few seconds missing of Tootie singiing "Ease on Down the Road", but as The Obsolete Man stated, it's done so well - you still get the last few notes of the song (and I'm sure they used every note they legally could) and it plays so well into the scene that you wouldn't know it was missing if you didn't already know.


While it would have been nice as Kim sang it very well and it's a great moment for Tootie, overall as the only missing music clip in the entire 200ish episodes (depending on how you count), that's pretty darn awesome. I can't think of a show that's gotten off quite that easily, at least one that had as much popular music as they used, particularly in the later years. Thankfully, since a lot of it was current music of the 80's, it probably wasn't as bad as if there had been so many from the generally more expensive 70's.


I mean, the fact that "Cruisin'" doesn't have any music edits is astounding. I always thought it was a quirky episode to begin with - but watching it now knowing that every click on the radio means someone had to pay $$ just to keep it in, they did a fantastic job. I really don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if that one episode cost a massive chunk of the budget by itself. There is some real classic music in there, and I lost count how many different clips (hey, reason to watch again, LOL). I also bet financially this is what tipped the scales as to why Season 6 never came on it's own until now, as well.



Beyond that, so much is added - every episode but 1 is broadcast cut. The both full, uncut, complete movies. (Though, do note - the syndicated versions are NOT included, but that really isn't going to matter to most as they had no extra footage that I know of, only less.) All the two-parter and odd-one off promos attached (there aren't that many - but they didn't do that many, either - but the ones that are there are there, including that bizzare Western one that felt like the Star Wars Holiday Special of Facts of Life, LOL).


The video quality is really the best that exists, I have no doubt. The discs are not overly compressed, either - these are double-sided discs rather dense with data. I'll edit this post later and post the exact GB of episode data included (it's on my media server, can't check size from here) but it's massive - I want to say around 180GB (raw). Each episode is just under a GB - that's a pretty generous encode for 24 minutes of SD video sourced from videotape.


I think folks that think there are visual problems yes, they don't have realistic expectations - this isn't like an 8K restoration of Wizard of Oz - or even a 4K restoration of a film-based show like Lucy or Star Trek. The show looks as best as possible - and honestly, that's pretty darn good. There really is nothing to apologize for - sure, there is some video noise in a few spots (usually darker spots, like neon signs in dark bars) and some episodes look a bit crisper than others. But it looks better than what we saw in the 80's, in any case, better than it does in syndication (even the new syndication run which is based on the same transfers, of course), and of course is uncut to boot.


The other reason I think some folks might not be seeing the best quality there is because of HDTV settings. Basically, when watching true HD, Blu-ray quality encodes, you want just about every filter/setting/feature of your HDTV *OFF*. So none of that "enhancement" BS - it should all be off. Tweak the color/etc. how you want (and if you need advice, there are plenty of places like here to find recommended settings for your model), but all that other crap should be disabled. That said - this is one of the times that it's useful. This is the kind of content it's really meant to enhance.


For example, I saw a world of difference because my Samsung has a specific MPEG filter with multiple settings. Since these are MPEG based encodes, and from the original lower-quality videotape the show was recorded on, it's kills any noise and gives a much more natural picture. This is the kind of thing that film purists (sometimes rightly so) freak out about being done to some old film transfers but it does wonders here.


It really makes it look better than it has any right to. Chances are even if it's not called the same, there is some filter on your TV that will do the same thing, one way or the other. That's actually why I put the whole show on my media server raw, because not only is it much easier to access, but it's a lot easier to leave the MPEG filter on and off from that with auto than to change the settings for my Blu-ray input.



This is a great package. You really can't go wrong. I bought it direct from Shout! so I got it a month early (and even with my coupon and free shipping I still paid more than it goes for now on Amazon), and I don't regret it at all. I have watched a whole lot of episodes, in six months I've been through every one I'm pretty sure, and some more than once (especially ones where I've showed it to company).


There is no better release going to come down the pike - if you want the whole set, this is your best bet. If you are waiting for individual seasons, you'll at least make sure you get the episodes - but I'd still consider it - you can sell off your existing sets to off-set it, and in the end you'll get them all now, the bonus disc, and won't spend much mroe than if you buy the next releases indvidually.


There is no taking the bad here, it's all the good of The Facts of Life.

 

[MatthewA]

The only thing I didn't watch was their TV movie when they went down under. I was so bored I tried to hang on maybe watched half of it and gave up. It was just bad IMO.

The funniest thing about that was the fact that Natalie says to Tootie about Australia: "this is the place that gave us Mel Gibson," the tone of her voice suggesting she had a crush on him or something like that. I don't know whether they knew he was actually born in Peekskill, NY, but imagine how she must have felt over certain comments he made after being pulled over for a DUI!

 

[Hank E]

The video quality is really the best that exists, I have no doubt. The discs are not overly compressed, either - these are double-sided discs rather dense with data. I'll edit this post later and post the exact GB of episode data included (it's on my media server, can't check size from here) but it's massive - I want to say around 180GB (raw). Each episode is just under a GB - that's a pretty generous encode for 24 minutes of SD video sourced from videotape.

Could I ask you to pick one of the discs and list it's technical specs? I think I may have received a bootleg set. The discs are single layer and compression artifacts are very noticeable. They also don't have any copyright protection and I checked a few different Shout factory shows I have and they all have copyright protection.

 

[classicmovieguy]

I think the original poster meant "dual layered" discs. Ain't no way Shout! has ever released double-side discs on anything.

 

[Hank E]

True, my mistake, I meant my discs are single layer. I edited my post.

 

[MatthewA]

I had a great time going through this set, but now I'm on to the twilight years of Diff'rent Strokes, and I noticed something:

The episode "Arnold the Songbird" ends with Carmela, the girl who

Spoiler: major spoiler

beat the Gooch,

singing "Ease on Down the Road." Why would Shout! be able to license it for one show but not the other?

 

[The Obsolete Man]

I had a great time going through this set, but now I'm on to the twilight years of Diff'rent Strokes, and I noticed something:

The episode "Arnold the Songbird" ends with Carmela, the girl who

Spoiler: major spoiler

beat the Gooch,

singing "Ease on Down the Road." Why would Shout! be able to license it for one show but not the other?

With music rights, we the consumer are like the group of blind men who each touch a part of an elephant and describe what it's like just from the part we touched.

Did Shout have more money to play with when releasing DS?

Did the rights holders settle for less money 4 years later?

Was this Sony's call, and they did the music clearances and decided it was worth paying for DS, a show they've farmed out to Comcast for on demand, but not FoL, a show they haven't made available on other platforms?

We may never know.

 

[MatthewA]

Well, we do know that it isn't because they both cast Jacksons other than Michael. In Strokes' case, it was impossible to cut the song without leaving the episode without an ending.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Well, we do know that it isn't because they both cast Jacksons other than Michael.

The Facts of Life taught me that just one hit of Jermaine will turn you into a raving lunatic.

Jermaine: not even once.