The Complete Avengers: 50th Anniversary Edition (39 Discs)

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Tue May 17, 2011 10:06 pm

The packaging couldn't be described as flimsy and the only 'special features' missing are the replica booklets. Everything on the original discs themselves is preserved on the complete set.

It is however true that the discs are tightly held in the cardboard and a little difficult to extract.

MRotten · Post by **MRotten** » Wed May 18, 2011 2:48 am

Alan wrote:Even better than that...

http://www.sainsburysentertainment.co.u ... =E10761786

Enter code JSDB1605 at checkout if you are a new customer to receive 20% off the price (and other DVDs/Blu-rays in the same order).

You could get the complete set for a stonking £95.99!

Does me no good; they don't deliver to the United States. Baaaaaaaaaah.

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Wed May 18, 2011 6:01 am

Sorry to hear that.

mousemeat · Post by **mousemeat** » Wed May 18, 2011 7:00 pm

Sam wrote:Yes, A&E made their fair share of mistakes as well. Their New Avengers release lists "Cat Amongst the Pidgeons" on its DVD menu.

Don't think it's fair to blame A&E, for some of 'their' dvd problems. They received
the masters...I don't believe (could be wrong) they had anything to do with
the source material,and mastering process...

Sam · Post by **Sam** » Thu May 19, 2011 12:44 am

mousemeat wrote:
Sam wrote:Yes, A&E made their fair share of mistakes as well. Their New Avengers release lists "Cat Amongst the Pidgeons" on its DVD menu.
Don't think it's fair to blame A&E, for some of 'their' dvd problems. They received
the masters...I don't believe (could be wrong) they had anything to do with
the source material,and mastering process...

A&E didn't really put that much work into their releases, other than the final bonus disc that David K Smith helped with. The main reason being that it was somewhat of a pioneer effort. The Avengers was one of the first series to be released, in its entirety, on VHS and DVD. No one was sure at the time how successful it would be, so I'm sure they didn't want to risk too much at the beginning.

Post by **dissolute** » Thu May 19, 2011 1:20 am

mousemeat wrote:
Sam wrote:Yes, A&E made their fair share of mistakes as well. Their New Avengers release lists "Cat Amongst the Pidgeons" on its DVD menu.
Don't think it's fair to blame A&E, for some of 'their' dvd problems. They received
the masters...I don't believe (could be wrong) they had anything to do with
the source material,and mastering process...

Err, well, no, that's not right.
A&E downsampled everything to Never The Same Colour format and produced their own menus (which is where the typo in question appeared) and by extension must have organised the DVD mastering (as opposed to the initial video remastering, which was by Canal+).
It's now clear how bad A&E's NTSC conversion was, as every PAL release since has seen improvements despite mostly using the same Canal+ remaster (as proof of this, before I'm flamed by all of sundry, I tender the evidence of the flies buzzing around the transfer desk in a few Cathy episodes - they're still there even in the new re-re-remaster).

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Thu May 19, 2011 9:37 am

dissolute wrote:Err, well, no, that's not right.
A&E downsampled everything to Never The Same Colour format and produced their own menus (which is where the typo in question appeared) and by extension must have organised the DVD mastering (as opposed to the initial video remastering, which was by Canal+).

I think you could possibly be wrong there, Piers. Studio Canal was very proprietorial in those days and I can well believe the US DVD masters could possibly have been made in France. The British ones from Contender certainly were (until Contender made a stink at how badly they were authored - and we all know where that ended up), so I don't see any reason why the US ones couldn't have been also.

It's now clear how bad A&E's NTSC conversion was, as every PAL release since has seen improvements despite mostly using the same Canal+ remaster (as proof of this, before I'm flamed by all of sundry, I tender the evidence of the flies buzzing around the transfer desk in a few Cathy episodes - they're still there even in the new re-re-remaster).

The infamous fly is 'recorded in' and will even be on the telerecording negative, so there could be any number of different prints with that same creature immortalised.

The early Cathy Gale releases were definitely the worst I've seen of those episodes, but I'm convinced that the fault was with Canal and not A&E. It's not a conversion issue so much as a source issue, and clearly the source prints were very poor.

In general, with those episodes as an exception, I think the NTSC conversions were perfectly fine - and as you know, I'm a fussy so-and-so! The problem was always the source materials - and contrary to what you say, it's fundamentally clear that the UK and US VHS and DVD releases were often made from different source prints (note the inexplicable edits to early Series 4 episodes in the US, which were uncut in Europe, the variation in quality between US and Europe with the Tara King episodes)...

Also, as a fellow PAL territory viewer, I should also point out that if you look at NTSC and think the blacks look grey (for instance) and all the colours look 'sat up', that's because PAL and NTSC black levels are set at different levels and our PAL TVs are biased towards the PAL settings. NTSC on a PAL TV (even in 'true' NTSC) can often look 'milky' compared to the same programme viewed on a native NTSC set.

Post by **dissolute** » Thu May 19, 2011 10:52 pm

Thanks Alan, I stand corrected!

Post by **dissolute** » Fri May 20, 2011 1:31 am

Is the complete collection missing all the insert reprints, or does it have them, or are they in there as PDFs?

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Fri May 20, 2011 7:06 am

None of the insert 'replica' reprints are in there at all. The only printed booket is a single sheet folded in half with is an 'episode guide' - in reality a guide to the disc contents.

Otherwise, the only booklet included is the Series 1 book, as a PDF.