DVD boxset options - French, Dutch, US or UK?

Jiggly · Post by **Jiggly** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 2:38 am

Apologies in advance for the very general and 'naive' question I'm posing here - I confess that I have trawled through the various threads on the pro's and con's of the various DVD releases (and very interesting reading they proved to be too!) but I'm still a tad unsure as to which of the current DVD boxsets are my best option.

Still a bit of a newbie when it comes to the series (I've caught a few over the years, but I'm still surprised at the sheer amount of eps I haven't seen as yet) and I'm currently making my way through the recent R4 release of the colour Peel episodes (which I'm delighted with, even though I gather it's simply a repackaged re-release - the picture looks crystal clear to my jaded eyes), and I'm now toying with the thought of purchasing the b/w Peels and the Tara eps....

If I've got my info correct, I seem to have several options:
1. The US Emma Peel 'megaset' - which entails a little double-dipping and NTSC picture quality
2. The French boxsets - which I'm presuming are uncut and have removable subtitles (do they contain the original credits incidentally?)
3. The recent Dutch releases - seemingly good value ; I gather there is some controversy around small cuts/omissions and French titles?
4. UK (Contender) - now deleted & commanding extremely high prices just now I see, which considering the poor exchange rate with the Aussie dollar puts this quite out of my league!

Any thoughts / guidance gratefully received

Dandy Forsdyke · Post by **Dandy Forsdyke** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 10:17 am

Closer to you, there's also a Universal edition of the Emma Peel episodes from Australia....

Myself, I have DVDs from all over (UK, US and France).

Philippa · Post by **Philippa** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 10:31 am

I'm still very unsure which ones to buy as well. I've got the Dutch release of the first Cathy series, and I'm quite happy with that so I'll probably buy the other one as well. But because of the trouble with the Dutch Emma Peel dvds, the French credits and the cut episodes etc, I won't go for those.
I've looked around, on Ebay etc, for the US Emma Peel megaset, but they're all around €70 and I really can't afford that at the moment.
So is there another alternative for me to get the Emma Peel dvds, and pay less?

Post by **Allard** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 1:12 pm

The best thing would be of course a DVD release with English subtitles, but alas that has not yet been done.

I can give you some advice concerning the DVD's I own.
Seasons three and four I own on the Contender DVD's from the UK.
Good, but I have had some playback issues with the monochromes Peels.

I have all the Dutch A-Film DVD's except season four because I read on this forum some episodes have been edited.
The quality of the DVD's is superb, never any playback issues,
but no extra's, no episode information and some episodes from the Tara King era really could do with a remastering.
Dutch subtitles can be switched off.

Jiggly · Post by **Jiggly** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 9:43 pm

Dandy Forsdyke wrote:Closer to you, there's also a Universal edition of the Emma Peel episodes from Australia....

And a lovely set it is too - this has been my starting point recently and I'm loving every minute of it. Obviously I'm not in a position to make comparisons but to me the quality on this 9 disc set is consistently immaculate (although I'm barely halfway through). Australia TV is currently screening the same season in a late-night filler slot just now and the phrase 'day and night comparison' readily comes to mind...

I guess this has set a bit of a benchmark for me and it would be good to see both the b/w Peels and the Thorson eps in comparable quality.

Jiggly · Post by **Jiggly** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 12:08 pm

Allard wrote:

I have all the Dutch A-Film DVD's except season four because I read on this forum some episodes have been edited.
The quality of the DVD's is superb, never any playback issues,
but no extra's, no episode information and some episodes from the Tara King era really could do with a remastering.
Dutch subtitles can be switched off.

Thanks for the info - much appreciated. I could probably live with the altered series title credits (I'm presuming that the individual episode title credits are intact and just subtitled?), but the thought that some the b/w Peels are subject to a bit of editing is a tad worrying. Any info on which eps are cut in this way or even which of the Tara's are a bit below par? (I think I recall reading that the even the Contender release of 'Game' was inferior to the old Lumiere VHS release?)

It's looking like a toss-up between the French boxsets and the Dutch at this stage...

Thanks again to all for their responses

Post by **Allard** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 2:22 pm

All Dutch DVD's have the original unchanged title sequences.

Philippa · Post by **Philippa** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 4:43 pm

Allard wrote:All Dutch DVD's have the original unchanged title sequences.

Oh, and I thought it was said that the Dutch Emma Peel dvd's had the French title sequences instead of the original ones?
Or am I confusing this with something else now?

Post by **Allard** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 10:57 pm

Philippa wrote:
Allard wrote:All Dutch DVD's have the original unchanged title sequences.
Oh, and I thought it was said that the Dutch Emma Peel dvd's had the French title sequences instead of the original ones?
Or am I confusing this with something else now?

Yes you are right I thought I have read that too, but I did wrote here that I do not own the Dutch season four DVD box.
Thanks for pointing out my little mistake Philippa!

arromdee · Post by **arromdee** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 7:05 pm

How is the sound on the Dutch versions compared to the American versions, for season 2?