Beaver in HD??

[stevea]

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).

[1960'sTVfan]

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.

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.

[stevea]

Originally Posted by retroTVfan4ever

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.

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by stevea

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.

[stevea]

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.

[stevea]

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.

[stevea]

Originally Posted by retroTVfan4ever

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.

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by stevea

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.

[stevea]

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.

[GentlemanJim]

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.

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by stevea

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.

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by retroTVfan4ever

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...........

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by Dude111

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.

[stevea]

Originally Posted by retroTVfan4ever

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.

[stevea]

Originally Posted by Dude111

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.