[UK] The Prisoner - Complete Series (1967) Coming to Blu-Ray April 27th- - Page 4

Originally Posted by dougotte

We reach...you're no Herbert.

BCNU,
Doug

Originally Posted by JerryElbow

I saw it as a kid when it was first shown in the US and between this and The Avangers, I was convinced that the British were far cooler and far hipper than anyone I knew. I saw it many years later and it seemed like pretentious, pseudo-intellectual tripe. I remember watching some professor-type with a tweed jacket and leather elbow patches going on excitedly about all the metaphors, all the satire and parody and all the references to the government of the time and I thought, this man still lives in his mother's basement, doesn't he?

It reminds me of watching the Blu-Ray discs of the remastered Star Trek: The Original Series, a show that I also watched as a kid when it was originally aired. I went on to watch and enjoy all the other Star Trek series (even Voyager and Enterprise) plus the movies. Then I watched these discs. They looked and sounded incredibly good and I though the re-done special effects really added rather than took away (which they could easily have done). And yet... The writing, direction and the acting are so often just plain awful!

Sometimes, it's best to leave your childhood memories as memories and not try to relive them as an adult. Some things are WAY better as exagerated memories than as disappointing realities.

Originally Posted by wuther

The US version promotes the BD as a restoration while the UK says it is from a DVD master.

Is the restoration cliam is just marketing BS?

Originally Posted by dougotte

Well, the BDs are based upon Network's masters, which are fairly recent (2006?). They were done for DVD, but hopefully were scanned at a high enough resolution to work for HD as well. I have high hopes about the quality we'll get on BD.

Originally Posted by wuther

"Once each episode was transferred to tape, it would then have a number of processes used to 'despot' the visuals to produce a smoother, cleaner image. Video noise reduction was applied (but minimally to retain some grain, keeping the 'film' look) "

Ugh! Sounds like the usual DVD 'improvements' baked into the master, HD does not need such flters as far as I am concerned.

Originally Posted by hlindstr

Dvdtimes.co.uk's review of UK version with 1920x1080 jpg screen captures.

Originally Posted by hlindstr

Dvdtimes.co.uk's review of UK version with 1920x1080 jpg screen captures.

Originally Posted by Stevie76

I don´t think we would benefit from a lossless track on an old british TV show originally recorded and aired in Mono.
It´s not exactly Battlestar Galactica

Originally Posted by dougotte

Maybe you can't hear the difference, but I can.
Doug

Originally Posted by erkq

I'd be surprised. Information lost in lossy compression is phase, frequency response and masked sounds. It's unlikely there's any content above 8kHz or so. It may well be less than even that. Phase is important for imaging. There's no imaging in a mono track. And I don't think anyone can hear through masked sounds.

Also, I'm surprised you've heard a lossy and a loss-less Prisoner soundtrack already. Did you A/B them?

Originally Posted by dougotte

Maybe you can't hear the difference, but I can. There is a difference between lossless and lossy compression.

Originally Posted by dougotte

What I have heard is a lossless mono soundtrack (The Third Man) compared to many years of lossy mono soundtracks (e.g. Charade). They're not the same film, they're not even from the same era (but they were both released by Criterion, FWIW). The lossless soundtrack on The Third Man was much more clear and intelligible than Charade.

Originally Posted by hlindstr

Dvdtimes.co.uk's review of UK version with 1920x1080 jpg screen captures.

Originally Posted by wnorris

Well, that clearly contradicts what the SonyDADC guy told me. A&E and Network neither one replied to my customer service inquiry for more details on the release.

My questions are, is it really 850 minutes, indicating PAL speedup or slowdown, depending on how it is approached (I believe it was shot on 35mm at 24 fps).

I also question what is on the A&E set, that it can list the same features (plus a preview of the new mini-series), and have one fewer disc.

Originally Posted by shiftyeyes

Someone posted earlier that the Network set is spread over six BD-25s, while the A&E set essentially has the same first four discs but puts the fifth and sixth ones on a single BD-50 and includes a preview for the new miniseries remake.

Originally Posted by wnorris

The only thing I can think of is if the UK set actually did something as far fetched as spreading it out needlessly over six discs, because the Prisoner is Number Six.

Originally Posted by Franchot

This is what someone posted at Amazon.com pertaining to the 5 and 6 disc difference. Take if for what it's worth.

"UK edition has 4 Blu Ray discs, plus two standard definition DVDs for the extras. Because A&E will be needing to do their own region 1 format NTSC discs for the extra features, they may be doing their own decisions on how they are presented."

Originally Posted by wnorris

According to the linked DVDTimes review, the UK set is 6 BD50 discs.

Originally Posted by colossus

Confirmed. Region locked.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDRe...er_blu-ray.htm

Disc 6 is a 2.84 Gig single-layered DVD that some players have had issue with because of the inclusion of the imbedded PDF documentation.