I have emailed Optimum as suggested above and have contacted play.com from whom I bought my Series 5 and they are accepting them back for refund. So, I am sending them back tomorrow. I am sure Optimum will put this right. They will have to or lose a lot of money and respect. I will wait before I buy the Tara series to see what happens.
When I first put on a disc from series 5 I thought 'That doesn't even sound like Diana!' - maybe I have had one sherry too many. I put up with it thinking it was me but I wasn't even sure it wasn't a bad Diana Rigg impersonator doing a voice-over...so, I put away the discs I had been sooooo looking forward to and the set was collecting £42-worth of dust. But thanks to the discussion here I know I am no longer delusional and they will be in Recorded Post tomorrow back to play.com.
Last edited by DiVicenzo on Sun Nov 21, 2010 12:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Series 4 only features standard PAL speed up, which is perfectly acceptable (and in many ways exactly how we have been hearing those episodes for nigh on fifty years in the UK).
Series 5 is affected by PAL speed up + an additional 4% increase in pitch, which is plainly incorrect.
I've preordered the final set at a locked-in low price, so I'm going with it. Hopefully it will be alright. I look forward to the extras on each set, and am anticipating seeing the Tara King screen tests.
This is the incredibly disappointing thing about the pitch level. It is such a critical error to make and puts people off buying the final series. It would have been a pre order for me, but for the fact that thing have gone wrong with the other sets. So, I am waiting for reviews of the final set before taking the plunge. This is depsite the fact it is my favourite series
Alan is exactly correct about the issue that has afflicted Series 5.
Series 4 is precisely how I'd like for these discs to look and sound for PAL releases.
I am hopeful that if Optimum fixes the issues with Series 5, they won't try anything too fancy with the pitch. Just aim for what it should sound like for PAL, in other words, not film. Just like Series 4. Otherwise, we'll have more confusion from those who grew up with these in PAL territories.
I still have the complete series set on order and will share my opinion for those on the fence, if the expectations aren't already obvious by that time. I think it wouldn't hurt to have the set pre-ordered at a low price if the opportunity presents itself as one could always cancel before release if Series 5 isn't dealt with or there are issues with the Series 6 standalone.
That's my approach, anyway, especially with the announcement from Optimum last week. I am hopeful, in other words.
Last edited by torishu on Sun Nov 21, 2010 11:54 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Alan wrote:Series 3 was correct from the off and and Series 4 is also definitely safe to buy, if you buy new from Amazon.co.uk - but probably the best option is to wait for the complete set (currently listed for next March), which will definitely include corrected versions of all re-authored discs.
That's good news. Hopefully in the long run (say the latter end of 2011 onwards) the standalone sets for S5 and S6 will also have these re-authored disks when bought new? I'm not likely to buy them before then, lack of dosh, though I'd have foregone some essentials in order to get them if they'd been error-free.
I don't believe Alan is saying there will be reauthored discs for Series 5 or 6, just that if there are, they'll be included in the complete series set.
(Along with the already reauthored discs for Series 1+2 and Series 4.)
Of course, we don't even know if such a thing will be needed for Series 6 yet.
Alan wrote:Series 3 was correct from the off and and Series 4 is also definitely safe to buy, if you buy new from Amazon.co.uk - but probably the best option is to wait for the complete set (currently listed for next March), which will definitely include corrected versions of all re-authored discs.
That's good news. Hopefully in the long run (say the latter end of 2011 onwards) the standalone sets for S5 and S6 will also have these re-authored disks when bought new? I'm not likely to buy them before then, lack of dosh, though I'd have foregone some essentials in order to get them if they'd been error-free.
As Torishu correctly states, my comment related to the fact that the set will include all the discs that have been re-authored. I didn't mean that my comment should be taken as confirmation that they have undertaken to re-author Series 5. If they DO re-author Series 5, then those V2 discs will be in the complete set, of course.
Likewise, you're jumping to a conclusion about Series 6!
Alan wrote:Likewise, you're jumping to a conclusion about Series 6!
Are William Hill giving good odds on this?!
I would have bet money that series 5 would have been fine, after errors in series 4 came to light (ie, they would have spent a lot of time checking the series 5 discs).. but..
