Here's something on the back of the season 3 DVD set (the one that's part of the box set):

All 39 episodes of the third hilarious season of the quintessential TV classic Leave It To Beaver are presented like you've never seen them before: completely restored and remastered from brand-new high-definition transfers of the original film elements!

So they transferred Beaver in HD, yet they put out DVDs, which aren't HD? I wonder why they didn't and still haven't put Beaver out on Blu-Ray? (I looked it up and Blu-Ray format came out in 2006, and the original Beaver DVD set came out in 2010).

I dislike blu ray and have no plans to invest in that format.

With regards to Leave It To Beaver on DVD and these high-def transfers as advertised by Shout Factory, when watching episodes there is noticeable "video noise" in areas of the picture that have a lot of fine detail and it gives off a reddish/purplish color in those fine detail areas. This is annoying and I usually turn the color off on my TV set so I don't have to see this "rainbow of color" effect. :mad:

Anyhow, I don't think it's necessary to have high-def episodes of a black and white sitcom from the late 1950's and early 1960's. To me, the concept is absolutely ridiculous. A marketing gimmick by Shout Factory to generate DVD sales. :rolleyes: :crazy:

I dislike blu ray and have no plans to invest in that format.

With regards to Leave It To Beaver on DVD and these high-def transfers as described by Shout Factory, when watching episodes there is noticeable "video noise" in areas of the picture that have a lot of fine detail and it gives off a reddish/purplish color in those fine detail areas. This is annoying and I usually turn the color off on my TV set so I don't have to see this "rainbow of color" effect.

I really notice these problems when somebody has a striped or small patterned garment on. I read on Home Theater Forum that this is some digital issue. It makes you long for the days before digital TV.

Another annoying thing I see with digital is a horizontal camera pan. The pan is almost always at least slightly jerky, at most very noticeably jerky. You never saw this with analog TV.

I really notice these problems when somebody has a striped or small patterned garment on. I read on Home Theater Forum that this is some digital issue. It makes you long for the days before digital TV.

Another annoying thing I see with digital is a horizontal camera pan. The pan is almost always at least slightly jerky, at most very noticeably jerky. You never saw this with analog TV.

I have the 1st season DVD set of Leave It To Beaver from the Universal studio, and those episodes were transferred properly, there's no video noise or color effect in the picture. It's unfortunate that Universal discontinued producing the LITB DVD's after the 2nd season and farmed the series out to Shout Factory.

Oh, yeah, the Shout season 1 is a mess. The teaser scene is not in the proper order, which should be before the opening credits. Universal got it right on that, and they also reissued season 1 on single-side DVDs.

I think we've discussed before how Shout really screwed up the season 3 DVD set, with many episodes too short.

I might add Shout also screwed up the Dennis the Menace sets, other than season 1 (which I think Sony had remastered for Nickelodeon years ago). Seasons 2 thru 4 have really bad audio problems.

And as long as I'm complaining about Shout, the really screwed up Father Knows Best season 1, and never corrected it. They really needed to get hold of the TV Land remasters, but--oh, well.

I'll add I have no preference for Blu-Ray, either. I was thinking putting out LITB in HD might be a chance to correct the errors Shout made on the DVD sets.

I have the 1st season DVD set of Leave It To Beaver from the Universal studio, and those episodes were transferred properly, there's no video noise or color effect in the picture. It's unfortunate that Universal discontinued producing the LITB DVD's after the 2nd season and farmed the series out to Shout Factory.

Another comment: what you mentioned about season 1 is probably why that season looks so bad on MeTV. They probably mastered it from the Shout season 1.

Why Shout changed anything that Universal did is another mystery.

Oh, yeah, the Shout season 1 is a mess. The teaser scene is not in the proper order, which should be before the opening credits. Universal got it right on that, and they also reissued season 1 on single-side DVDs.

I think we've discussed before how Shout really screwed up the season 3 DVD set, with many episodes too short.

I might add Shout also screwed up the Dennis the Menace sets, other than season 1 (which I think Sony had remastered for Nickelodeon years ago). Seasons 2 thru 4 have really bad audio problems.

And as long as I'm complaining about Shout, the really screwed up Father Knows Best season 1, and never corrected it. They really needed to get hold of the TV Land remasters, but--oh, well.

Agree with you on all points.

I'll give Shout Factory credit for correcting the 1st season of Mister Ed and re-issuing that season with all complete episodes. I don't know why they haven't done the same with season 1 of Father Knows Best. :confused:

I'm grateful that Shout has released so many shows, like Hazel S2-S5), etc., but they really got inferior masters. For the Sony stuff, it's easy to tell they just got the videotape masters that were created in the 1990s.

Starting with season 2 of Father Knows Best, it looks like they must have made a deal with the Robert Young estate, and for the most part accessed the original 35mm masters. But not correcting season 1? Inexcusable, since they corrected Mister Ed.

I guess I would call Shout a mixed bag. And what they put out now is just garbage, IMO.

I think the terminology is intentionally misleading. There weren't 1080 lines there to begin with, so they aren't going to create detail that was never there initially.

Upsampling on capable hardware is better than not doing so. But calling the end product "HD" is a bit of a stretch.

I'm grateful that Shout has released so many shows, like Hazel S2-S5), etc., but they really got inferior masters. For the Sony stuff, it's easy to tell they just got the videotape masters that were created in the 1990s.

Starting with season 2 of Father Knows Best, it looks like they must have made a deal with the Robert Young estate, and for the most part accessed the original 35mm masters. But not correcting season 1? Inexcusable, since they corrected Mister Ed.

I guess I would call Shout a mixed bag. And what they put out now is just garbage, IMO.

Definitely a mixed bag with regards to DVD's from Shout Factory.

The 5th season episodes of Hazel have a somewhat dark tint to them, I don't know what happened but there's definitely a brightness issue.

Aside from two episodes being edited because of music rights issues, I think Shout did a pretty good job with the complete series DVD of Mary Hartman and I've enjoyed watching those episodes.

The complete series DVD of One Day At A Time is pretty good, there's also two edited episodes in that set but as far as I know the others are complete.

I dislike blu ray and have no plans to invest in that format.I dislike anything digital really,it doesnt look as good or natural...........

I dislike anything digital really,it doesnt look as good or natural...........

Analog vs. digital, in my opinion both have their advantages.

DVD's are OK, so many classic TV shows have been made available for home video since the creation of DVD. But that's where I draw the line, I have no plans to invest in blu ray. I also still use VHS and I have hundreds of VHS tapes.

For music, I prefer vinyl records although I also have CD's because the CD format does have it's advantages.

Analog vs. digital, in my opinion both have their advantages.

Yes, if you think back to the analog days in the 50s and 60s we had ghosting and snow, vertical and horiz. hold dials. Now we have pixilation and other digital artifacts.

I don't normally see the jerky panning motion on DVDs (and to be fair I don't always see it on TV broadcasts). So it's probably some artifact of digital broadcasting, or maybe the cable company squeezing too much on that little coaxial cable.

I dislike anything digital really,it doesnt look as good or natural...........

When I pulled out an old Beta tape (from 1984) the other day, you can see a certain different quality to it. An analog recording from a good analog TV broadcast looks really good.

When I look at a newer show in HD, I can honestly say I don't see what the big deal is. If I switch back to the program in standard definition, the only difference I see is a squished down picture with horizontal black bars.

When I pulled out an old Beta tape (from 1984) the other day, you can see a certain different quality to it. An analog recording from a good analog TV broadcast looks really good.

When I look at a newer show in HD, I can honestly say I don't see what the big deal is. If I switch back to the program in standard definition, the only difference I see is a squished down picture with horizontal black bars.

Widescreen format with the black bars is a huge irritation of mine. Fortunately, the classic TV DVD's in my collection are in full screen format.

A few years ago when Warners issued the Bowery Boys movies on DVD, they put the later titles from 1954 and forward in widescreen format on the DVD's. :mad: Thankfully, I have my own Bowery Boys movie collection and all of them including the later ones are in full screen format. :) Back in the 1980's I recorded many Bowery Boys movies from WGN TV in Chicago, I believe the airings were sourced from 16mm prints. I still have these recordings and I'm glad I kept them.

I hate widescreen SD, and the vertical black bars, too. They should have found a way to convert HD to a regular SD picture.

I hate widescreen SD, and the vertical black bars, too. They should have found a way to convert HD to a regular SD picture.

Two TV shows from more recent times that I have on DVD are Monk and Rizzoli & Isles. Both of those are in widescreen format on the DVD's, I don't like it but there's no other choice so I live with it.

The other choice would be Blu-Ray, but I don't know know if they came out on Blu-Ray. And I know you said you don't do Blu-Ray anyway.

The fifth season of HGTV's Holmes on Homes converted to HD, but came out on DVD only, thus in SD widescreen.

I really doubt Beaver was up-converted to HD, or we'd probably be seeing that in widescreen on DVD, too. I'm trying to find out for sure.

When I look at a newer show in HD, I can honestly say I don't see what the big deal is. If I switch back to the program in standard definition, the only difference I see is a squished down picture with horizontal black bars.

When you get a good 1080 program where they have taken steps to preserve the fidelity all the way to your box, it appears noticeably better than when they try to pass off 720 as "HD"

The grain in people' hair is where I notice it most, or nature and wildlife shows with intricate detail.

Where I am the local cable operators fritz things up with compression, and a lot of detail is lost....comparing the local NBC affiliate's local news broadcast compared to the network programming that immediately follows it makes for a handy comparison.

And, we've been getting the "double bars" treatment on some of the regional sports networks where programming originally produced in the 16:9 format first gets letterboxed, and then windowboxed to restore the 16:9 aspect ratio, albeit then you have black matting on all 4 sides of the video image. Which, once you zoom that to fit the entire screen is ANYTHING BUT high definition

As with most things, anyway they can find to stick it to you for the sake of reducing operating costs, they do. aka "New and Improved".

I really notice these problems when somebody has a striped or small patterned garment on. I read on Home Theater Forum that this is some digital issue. It makes you long for the days before digital TV.

Another annoying thing I see with digital is a horizontal camera pan. The pan is almost always at least slightly jerky, at most very noticeably jerky. You never saw this with analog TV.

On the show Newhart when Bob shows up to do the 1st Vermont Today show the director says to Bob - paraphrase - "Ya know Bob the sport coat will STROBE on the tv camera ! "

I've seen it many times on different tv shows where it was not caught ahead of filming +-

On the show Newhart when Bob shows up to do the 1st Vermont Today show the director says to Bob - paraphrase - "Ya know Bob the sport coat will STROBE on the tv camera ! "

I've seen it many time on different tv shows where it was not caught ahead of filming +-

Yeah they need to follow rules.

Like on TV news. If the chroma key color is green, the weather person cannot wear green.

When I look at a newer show in HD, I can honestly say I don't see what the big deal is. If I switch back to the program in standard definition, the only difference I see is a squished down picture with horizontal black bars.

The following includes quite a bit of technical mumbo jumbo, but if one labors through all of it, it pretty well explains how the once magnificent bandwidth of "HD" has been repurposed to deliver multiple diginet stations in SD.

I guess much in the way our receivers can be spoofed to display "virtual" channel numbers that are different from the actual broadcast channel frequency, so too can they be spoofed into reporting the definition of the carrier

^Were you wanting to include a link?

^Were you wanting to include a link?

LOL! Yeah, that was my intent....I'm such an idiot sometimes!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_subchannel#Technical_considerations

The whole article that this table is a part of gives understanding of the fundamentals, making the table make more sense.

But the general gist of it is, that as the digital sub channels became such a significant piece of the overall pie, local broadcasters have dropped the quality of their primary channel, to make room for the digital subchannels within fixed bandwidth limitations. Once the broadcaster exceeds 2 subchannels, they no longer have enough bandwidth left to deliver 1080i on the primary channel

I know for a fact that my local NBC affiliate was broadcasting in 1080i with no subchannels back in 2004 ...whereas now they are only 720p for their main signal, with several digital subchannels at 480i. So, they have taken back image quality in order to send me more commercials on the extra channels

Something I never expected to encounter back when HDTV was the 2die4 "must have" improvement to the medium

One other thought regarding diminished signal quality. I suspect that all the service providers are faced with constrained bandwidth issues at some point in their operations. Can only flush so much down the pipe at one time.

I remember thinking when I first got "Video on Demand" service as part of my cable package, wondering how I could watch one movie, while my neighbors watched a another, and their neighbor watched yet another program... etc etc AND STILL PROVIDE all the standard channels, all on a single wire.

Now I think the answer to that question is a little more obvious. They make room by "squeezing" in other areas. All the while gambling that people really wont notice service degradation enough to complain.