I just found out that seasons 1-6 are available to watch or download though Amazon Prime. No additional cost involve. Season 7 & 8 are there as download purchases. Season 9 & 10 will be available in late February as download purchases.

Thank you for letting us know. I have Prime but this did not pop up under recently added so had to do a search. I am now watching "No Noise" from the 2nd season - one of the "lost episodes".

Unlike the recent DVD's, Prime does not have letter boxing on all four sides. Prime is showing them in the original aspect ratio - so on my wide screen TV there is only black on the sides but not also on the top and bottom.

The clarity of the black and white is wonderful.

Why they've chosen to force you to watch the series on a postage stamp size picture in the middle of your screen is anyone's guess. I hope someone wises up over there and fixes the size ratio for the DVDs and let's it fill the screen the way it should have been from the start. The O&H DVDs available from other cheap DVD places (Alpha etc.) the picture very nicely fits the WHOLE screen, no need to zoom in at all. This is the way these "official" O&H DVDs should look. I'm waiting for the Compete Series package to come out, but they'd better fix the stamp size picture before then.:mad:

Why they've chosen to force you to watch the series on a postage stamp size picture in the middle of your screen is anyone's guess. I hope someone wises up over there and fixes the size ratio for the DVDs and let's it fill the screen the way it should have been from the start. The O&H DVDs available from other cheap DVD places (Alpha etc.) the picture very nicely fits the WHOLE screen, no need to zoom in at all. This is the way these "official" O&H DVDs should look. I'm waiting for the Compete Series package to come out, but they'd better fix the stamp size picture before then.:mad:

I had the new DVDs for the first couple of seasons. The image fit correctly on my TV. There were black bars on left and right but the video was 4x3 format on 16x9 screen.

Maybe there is an adjustment you can do on your TV. If it's an older TV (not HD 16x9) then maybe it's time to get a new TV. New ones are very affordable.

My TV is not old, it's large and widescreen. I did buy the O&H Christmas DVDs that came out this past November-December and that's when I see what others have talked about here, the picture was a small square in the middle of the TV. Black bars on the sides and on the top and bottom. Unacceptable. :mad: I'm afraid that's how this O&H new set is going to be and that's awful.

I've seen it when you have a 4x3 picture and on some dvds you'll get the black bars on both sides but not on the top and bottom. I've also seen the 4x3 pictures fill the entire screen which is what I like best.:D Why have a large TV if you have to watch a tiny picture in the middle?:confused:

BUT I did solve my lousy formatted Christmas O&H set by hitting the "Zoom" on my TV which made the picture fill the screen. But I shouldn't have to go thru that they should be formatted correctly from the beginning. Zooming in makes the picture blurrier than it would be if you weren't forced to zoom in. It's not my TV it's the lousy formatting on these DVDs. Certainly if "Alpha" cheapie DVDs can do it correctly than so should these expensive "official" DVDs. Maybe they need to talk to the people at the cheapie DVD companies to do it right.

My TV is not old, it's large and widescreen. I did buy the O&H Christmas DVDs that came out this past November-December and that's when I see what others have talked about here, the picture was a small square in the middle of the TV. Black bars on the sides and on the top and bottom. Unacceptable. :mad: I'm afraid that's how this O&H new set is going to be and that's awful.

I've seen it when you have a 4x3 picture and on some dvds you'll get the black bars on both sides but not on the top and bottom. I've also seen the 4x3 pictures fill the entire screen which is what I like best.:D Why have a large TV if you have to watch a tiny picture in the middle?:confused:

BUT I did solve my lousy formatted Christmas O&H set by hitting the "Zoom" on my TV which made the picture fill the screen. But I shouldn't have to go thru that they should be formatted correctly from the beginning. Zooming in makes the picture blurrier than it would be if you weren't forced to zoom in. It's not my TV it's the lousy formatting on these DVDs. Certainly if "Alpha" cheapie DVDs can do it correctly than so should these expensive "official" DVDs. Maybe they need to talk to the people at the cheapie DVD companies to do it right.

That's odd. I didn't have any issues with black bars on top and bottom of my TV screen.
Zooming shouldn't affect the image that much. Yet I guess on your set it does.

Luckily most of the series is available on Amazon Prime. I'm sure other streaming services do or will have them available as well.

On a DVD player it's in a letterbox on all four sides. I'm told on a Blu-Ray player it's got vertical black bars, due to its original 4:3 aspect ratio.

It's probably all because they tried to put it in HD. They should have just left it alone, in standard def.

On a DVD player it's in a letterbox on all four sides. I'm told on a Blu-Ray player it's got vertical black bars, due to its original 4:3 aspect ratio.

It's probably all because they tried to put it in HD. They should have just left it alone, in standard def.

The DVDs I had were HD and worked fine. So somehow there's a formatting issue somewhere.

The DVDs I had were HD and worked fine. So somehow there's a formatting issue somewhere.

Are you talking about the Time Life set or the MPI season sets?

The T-L set had the episodes in full screen.

Are you talking about the Time Life set or the MPI season sets?

The T-L set had the episodes in full screen.

The new ones. The Time-Life are not full individual seasons.

Some TVs and DVD players have an option to fill the screen, I guess.