Mill Creek re-releases Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

BewitchedFan · 11-15-2013, 01:09 PM

Get a load of this:

http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Bewitch...-1-and-2/19157
http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Bewitch...-1-and-2/19176

Mill Creek Entertainment is re-releasing Seasons 1 and 2 in B&W and they are cramming each season into 3 DVDs. With that amount of compression, these will probably not look as good as the Sony discs. If anyone can explain the reason behind this re-release, please do. I don't get why they would do this when there are no known issues with the Sony DVDs.

Regardless of how ridiculous I think this is, I may bite since it's only $14.99 for the Seasons 1 and 2 combo. The reason I'm considering it is because I only own the color versions of Seasons 1 and 2 because I could never get a good deal on the B&W versions since most store either only sold the color versions or charged significantly more for the B&W versions. At $15, I may buy it. I'll see...

McGillicuddy · 11-15-2013, 02:20 PM

What I don't get is why the Bewitched, The Complete Series Set they released in Japan and the UK was never released in Region 1 for America. This set has extras, including commentaries from Erin Murphey.

BewitchedFan · 11-15-2013, 10:23 PM

Mill Creek did this re-release thing with Highway To Heaven, but that's understandable because the previous releases by A&E were edited, so Mill Creek corrected that by releasing the uncut versions. So, that was fine. But I don't get the reason for this Bewitched re-release as I don't think Sony released any edited episodes. I think I Dream of Jeannie they did, but as far as I know, all Bewitched episodes are uncut. I did hear some rumors that Sony didn't actually release the original B&W episodes of the first two seasons, but rather, just used the colorized version and removed the color. I can't verify if that rumor is true, but it's just something I heard. So, if it is true, maybe Mill Creek is going to release the original B&W versions and not the de-colorized versions. I guess that makes the most sense since on the link from TVShowsOnDVD, it says, "true to the original broadcast versions of these episodes."

But I have to say, I bought the first season of Mill Creek's Highway to Heaven and the quality leaves a lot of be desired. The motion was kind of choppy and makes me suspect that Mill Creek did some PAL to NTSC conversion instead of actually transferring these episodes from the original film elements. So, I'd be very surprised if these Bewitched re-releases look better than the Sony DVDs.

McGillicuddy · 11-16-2013, 01:35 AM

They're also cramming too many episodes on discs.

comedyfreak · 11-17-2013, 03:04 PM

The first 2 seasons of Bewitched were released in B&W and colorized. I'm happy with my original sets and won't be buying anymore.

Jude The Obscure · 11-21-2013, 08:14 PM

I have no plans to double dip...lol. The only way I would is if I knew the original openings to season 1 and seasons 2 were restored.

MickeyMac · 11-22-2013, 04:02 PM

I got the first seasons from Sony in black and white. I dont need this.

bliss · 11-24-2013, 12:40 AM

Dont' care for this. I'll stick the Sony release EXCEPT I'll buy Mill Creek if Season 5 is remastered.

BewitchedFan · 01-29-2014, 11:00 PM

Ok, I just bought this Season 1 & 2 combo pack for $15. For those that already own the B&W versions from Sony, let me warn you now... DO NOT BUY THIS! It looks like the exact same prints that Sony used. Even the opening credits are not the original B&W versions. They're the same de-colorized versions that Sony used.

As for the cramming of 12-13 episodes per disc... to my amazement, these look pretty good considering how much cramming and compression was done. In fact, I don't notice any heavy compression... at least, on my TV, I didn't notice. However, the packaging is terrible, which is very typical of Mill Creek. It's six discs stacked on a spindle. Thankfully, all of my discs were in immaculate shape and didn't have any scratches.

I bought this because I only own the colorized versions of Seasons 1 and 2, so I used this opportunity to obtain a B&W version at a cheap price. So, I was very happy with my purchase.

If you don't own Seasons 1 or 2 at all or if you own the color versions and want a B&W copy, then this is a great purchase. But for those that already own the B&W versions by Sony, then there is no reason whatsoever to purchase this re-release.

jade88 · 02-02-2014, 07:32 PM

Any notice the glitches on disc 1 in the first episode, right before the dinner scene? My disc 1 was pretty glitchy.

BewitchedFan · 02-04-2014, 02:09 PM

I didn't notice any glitch on my copy. I can try to re-watch the episode again to make sure.

Can you clarify what the glitch is? Is it a skip? A freeze? And did you check your discs for any scratches?

jade88 · 02-05-2014, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BewitchedFan

I didn't notice any glitch on my copy. I can try to re-watch the episode again to make sure.

Can you clarify what the glitch is? Is it a skip? A freeze? And did you check your discs for any scratches?

Watch the sequence when they're walking to dinner, their should be a freeze with a visible glitch on screen. Unless mine is the only one.

BewitchedFan · 02-09-2014, 12:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jade88

Watch the sequence when they're walking to dinner, their should be a freeze with a visible glitch on screen. Unless mine is the only one.

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. I actually didn't get a chance to watch episode 1 until today; I thought I did, but it turns out, it was one of the episodes I skipped. But yes, my episode 1 is glitchy too. It actually happens TWICE before entering the party and then during the dinner scene.

I doubt it's a disc issue. These discs are not encrypted so they can be copied. My DVD drive on my computer copied the whole disc without issues. Usually, my drive chokes up when there's a read error on the disc. But it copied successfully and it showing the same glitch when I play it from my computer. This looks like an encoding error on the video itself, so I'm pretty sure all discs out there will have the problem.... unless Mill Creek fixes this issue later on down the road.

I haven't had a chance to watch all the episodes on my set. To be honest, I may have only watched about 10 random episodes. Are there other episodes you caught with glitches? I really hope it's just that one episode.

Colonel Hogan · 02-10-2014, 10:34 PM

I can't see buying the Mill Creek releases, for two reasons.

They're cramming too many episodes on each disc.

In addition, the individual, original, Sony releases are so cheap on Amazon. They go for $12-$18 each, with Seasons 3-8 usually under $15.50. These are all available at those prices straight from Amazon, so you don't have to take a risk and resort to the Marketplace sellers.

If you can put up with the terrible packaging that is nothing more than two stacks of discs, the complete series set goes for $38.

With those prices on the real releases, the Mill Creek releases just don't make a bit of sense to me.

BewitchedFan · 02-10-2014, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Colonel Hogan

I can't see buying the Mill Creek releases, for two reasons.

They're cramming too many episodes on each disc.

In addition, the individual, original, Sony releases are so cheap on Amazon. They go for $12-$18 each, with Seasons 3-8 usually under $15.50. These are all available at those prices straight from Amazon, so you don't have to take a risk and resort to the Marketplace sellers.

If you can put up with the terrible packaging that is nothing more than two stacks of discs, the complete series set goes for $38.

With those prices on the real releases, the Mill Creek releases just don't make a bit of sense to me.

You can buy the Seasons 1 & 2 Mill Creek two-pack for only $8 now on Amazon. Still much cheaper than buying the Sony set for more than double the price. And just as an FYI.... the complete series set from Sony includes the color versions of Seasons 1 and 2, NOT the B&W versions.

With that said, I take back what I said before and will not recommend this set because of that glitch on Episode 1. The Sony set does not have that kind of glitch, so Mill Creek obviously has quality control issues. I haven't watched the whole set yet, so there could be more glitches on the way that I'm not aware of. And since Mill Creek just used the same exact opening credits that Sony used, then there really is no reason to buy this version over Sony.... except, of course, to save some money.

11-15-2013, 01:09 PM	#1
BewitchedFan Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Sep 02, 2010 Posts: 103	Mill Creek re-releases Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD Get a load of this: http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Bewitch...-1-and-2/19157 http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Bewitch...-1-and-2/19176 Mill Creek Entertainment is re-releasing Seasons 1 and 2 in B&W and they are cramming each season into 3 DVDs. With that amount of compression, these will probably not look as good as the Sony discs. If anyone can explain the reason behind this re-release, please do. I don't get why they would do this when there are no known issues with the Sony DVDs. Regardless of how ridiculous I think this is, I may bite since it's only $14.99 for the Seasons 1 and 2 combo. The reason I'm considering it is because I only own the color versions of Seasons 1 and 2 because I could never get a good deal on the B&W versions since most store either only sold the color versions or charged significantly more for the B&W versions. At $15, I may buy it. I'll see...
	Last edited by BewitchedFan; 11-15-2013 at 10:24 PM.

11-17-2013, 03:04 PM	#5
comedyfreak Cheers! Forum Fanatic Join Date: Dec 14, 2005 Location: Sunny California Posts: 11,060	The first 2 seasons of Bewitched were released in B&W and colorized. I'm happy with my original sets and won't be buying anymore.
	__________________ www.facebook.com/comedyfreak

11-15-2013, 02:20 PM	#2
McGillicuddy Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Sep 28, 2002 Posts: 5,179	What I don't get is why the Bewitched, The Complete Series Set they released in Japan and the UK was never released in Region 1 for America. This set has extras, including commentaries from Erin Murphey.

11-15-2013, 10:23 PM	#3
BewitchedFan Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Sep 02, 2010 Posts: 103	Mill Creek did this re-release thing with Highway To Heaven, but that's understandable because the previous releases by A&E were edited, so Mill Creek corrected that by releasing the uncut versions. So, that was fine. But I don't get the reason for this Bewitched re-release as I don't think Sony released any edited episodes. I think I Dream of Jeannie they did, but as far as I know, all Bewitched episodes are uncut. I did hear some rumors that Sony didn't actually release the original B&W episodes of the first two seasons, but rather, just used the colorized version and removed the color. I can't verify if that rumor is true, but it's just something I heard. So, if it is true, maybe Mill Creek is going to release the original B&W versions and not the de-colorized versions. I guess that makes the most sense since on the link from TVShowsOnDVD, it says, "true to the original broadcast versions of these episodes." But I have to say, I bought the first season of Mill Creek's Highway to Heaven and the quality leaves a lot of be desired. The motion was kind of choppy and makes me suspect that Mill Creek did some PAL to NTSC conversion instead of actually transferring these episodes from the original film elements. So, I'd be very surprised if these Bewitched re-releases look better than the Sony DVDs.

11-16-2013, 01:35 AM	#4
McGillicuddy Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Sep 28, 2002 Posts: 5,179	They're also cramming too many episodes on discs.

11-21-2013, 08:14 PM	#6
Jude The Obscure Retired Eternal Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Dec 10, 2006 Posts: 7,520	I have no plans to double dip...lol. The only way I would is if I knew the original openings to season 1 and seasons 2 were restored.

11-22-2013, 04:02 PM	#7
MickeyMac Member Forum Star Join Date: Jun 18, 2008 Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan Posts: 19,006	I got the first seasons from Sony in black and white. I dont need this.

11-24-2013, 12:40 AM	#8
bliss THAT GIRL Senior Member Join Date: Apr 26, 2009 Posts: 1,000	Dont' care for this. I'll stick the Sony release EXCEPT I'll buy Mill Creek if Season 5 is remastered.

01-29-2014, 11:00 PM	#9
BewitchedFan Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Sep 02, 2010 Posts: 103	Ok, I just bought this Season 1 & 2 combo pack for $15. For those that already own the B&W versions from Sony, let me warn you now... DO NOT BUY THIS! It looks like the exact same prints that Sony used. Even the opening credits are not the original B&W versions. They're the same de-colorized versions that Sony used. As for the cramming of 12-13 episodes per disc... to my amazement, these look pretty good considering how much cramming and compression was done. In fact, I don't notice any heavy compression... at least, on my TV, I didn't notice. However, the packaging is terrible, which is very typical of Mill Creek. It's six discs stacked on a spindle. Thankfully, all of my discs were in immaculate shape and didn't have any scratches. I bought this because I only own the colorized versions of Seasons 1 and 2, so I used this opportunity to obtain a B&W version at a cheap price. So, I was very happy with my purchase. If you don't own Seasons 1 or 2 at all or if you own the color versions and want a B&W copy, then this is a great purchase. But for those that already own the B&W versions by Sony, then there is no reason whatsoever to purchase this re-release.

02-02-2014, 07:32 PM	#10
jade88 Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Jan 25, 2014 Posts: 13	Any notice the glitches on disc 1 in the first episode, right before the dinner scene? My disc 1 was pretty glitchy.

02-04-2014, 02:09 PM	#11
BewitchedFan Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Sep 02, 2010 Posts: 103	I didn't notice any glitch on my copy. I can try to re-watch the episode again to make sure. Can you clarify what the glitch is? Is it a skip? A freeze? And did you check your discs for any scratches?

02-10-2014, 10:34 PM	#14
Colonel Hogan Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Oct 22, 2004 Posts: 100	I can't see buying the Mill Creek releases, for two reasons. They're cramming too many episodes on each disc. In addition, the individual, original, Sony releases are so cheap on Amazon. They go for $12-$18 each, with Seasons 3-8 usually under $15.50. These are all available at those prices straight from Amazon, so you don't have to take a risk and resort to the Marketplace sellers. If you can put up with the terrible packaging that is nothing more than two stacks of discs, the complete series set goes for $38. With those prices on the real releases, the Mill Creek releases just don't make a bit of sense to me.