The Avengers - Series 5 + 6 replacement discs

[mousemeat]

Darren, thanks for passing this info on which I've also read on Roobarb's.

It is such a relief that TPTB have acknowleged that this is an issue and they're doing something about it.

What, with stoney silence from Optimum and then even quarrels on Roobarb's that Avengers fans were now nitpicking, leading to infractions and temp. membership suspensions, I really thought that this was getting out of hand.

Sense has prevailed and I'll be ordering the complete box set + extra disc in the New Year.

great that a company actuallyu cares about it's product..and serving the customer...

[Frankymole]

Is "Legacy of Death" fixed on the German DVDs (http://declassified.theavengers.tv/wonders_de_dvd.htm) - or does it still have the "speeded up sound" problem?

Also, the replacement / fixed disks, according to The Avengers Declassified page about replacements, are "not part of an official replacement programme (unfortunately, the replacement disc introduces an audio pitch error)". Does this mean that Studio Canal have withdrawn the offer of "corrected" disks?

I'm inclined to just get the 50th Anniversary Box in order to finally have the Special Features Disk and a corrected "Forget-Me-Knot", and then have both (faulty) versions of "Legacy of Death" - at least I can still watch it on the old Contender disk.

But if the German set (or any other new version) has fixed sound and vision I'd prefer to get those!

[cyberrich]

I did return the 2 affected Tara discs a few months ago and received the V2 versions. Although there's been problems, Canal have been quite helpful. I'm still on series 4 so I haven't got as far as Tara with the dvds yet. I watched a few seconds of each V2 disc and they seemed fine. I didn't notice the high pitched sound on Legacy V2. How bad is it Is it all the way through I did notice the pitch problem on Forget me knot V1, the V2 Forget me knot seems perfect. Rich.

[Frankymole]

I did return the 2 affected Tara discs a few months ago and received the V2 versions. Although there's been problems, Canal have been quite helpful. I'm still on series 4 so I haven't got as far as Tara with the dvds yet. I watched a few seconds of each V2 disc and they seemed fine. I didn't notice the high pitched sound on Legacy V2. How bad is it Is it all the way through I did notice the pitch problem on Forget me knot V1, the V2 Forget me knot seems perfect. Rich.

As I understand it, the picture is now stabilised on Legacy V2, although a bit dark, but the sound has returned to the same pitch-shift as for the original version of season 5 disks, all the way through.

I've decided to buy the Complete box set so I will have both versions, better picture on one, better sound on the other. Maybe I'll find som way to combine them!

[Dandy Forsdyke]

Not sure if this has been covered in this thread, but a member on Roobarb's has discovered more faults on the series 4 box set.

Please check these faults on your copies.

Audio on The Master Minds has been pitch corrected. The technique causes the audio to "blip" or "catch", at regular intervals. The problem is especially evident during sustained notes in musical passages. Witness the "catching", "clicking" effect in the music as Steed pulls up in his car and checks out the "trespassers will be prosecuted" sign around the 24-minute mark on the optimum disc, then go and check your contender disc - no "catching".

Audio throughout A Touch of Brimstone, Murder Market and (to a lesser extent) The House That Jack Built. Audio for all these episodes has been treated with so much noise reduction, every single music cue and line of dialogue sounds clipped, thin and too shrill. There's the "warble". Throughout the episodes, the audio warbles, or flanges, fluttering about as if someone tried to mix it to faux-stereo.

[mousemeat]

Not sure if this has been covered in this thread, but a member on Roobarb's has discovered more faults on the series 4 box set.

Please check these faults on your copies.

Audio on The Master Minds has been pitch corrected. The technique causes the audio to "blip" or "catch", at regular intervals. The problem is especially evident during sustained notes in musical passages. Witness the "catching", "clicking" effect in the music as Steed pulls up in his car and checks out the "trespassers will be prosecuted" sign around the 24-minute mark on the optimum disc, then go and check your contender disc - no "catching".

Audio throughout A Touch of Brimstone, Murder Market and (to a lesser extent) The House That Jack Built. Audio for all these episodes has been treated with so much noise reduction, every single music cue and line of dialogue sounds clipped, thin and too shrill. There's the "warble". Throughout the episodes, the audio warbles, or flanges, fluttering about as if someone tried to mix it to faux-stereo.

problems....that need to be avoided....problem being the 'masters' usually have some/lots of damage...

[Alan]

It's nothing to do with the masters, it's hamfisted restoration.

[dissolute]

Not sure if this has been covered in this thread, but a member on Roobarb's has discovered more faults on the series 4 box set.

Please check these faults on your copies.

Audio on The Master Minds has been pitch corrected. The technique causes the audio to "blip" or "catch", at regular intervals. The problem is especially evident during sustained notes in musical passages. Witness the "catching", "clicking" effect in the music as Steed pulls up in his car and checks out the "trespassers will be prosecuted" sign around the 24-minute mark on the optimum disc, then go and check your contender disc - no "catching".

Audio throughout A Touch of Brimstone, Murder Market and (to a lesser extent) The House That Jack Built. Audio for all these episodes has been treated with so much noise reduction, every single music cue and line of dialogue sounds clipped, thin and too shrill. There's the "warble". Throughout the episodes, the audio warbles, or flanges, fluttering about as if someone tried to mix it to faux-stereo.

My Compete Set copies seem to be fine - compared to the A&E, I don't have the Contender dvds for that series. No noticeable clicking or thin audio on Disc 1 (Murder Market/Master Minds). The picture is sooo much better, it's amazing I ever put up with the horrible interlaced pictures of the A&E set - interestingly, the A&E are much lower resolution as well, are the optimum dvds in a newer dvd standard format?

EDIT: Answer that myself, Optimum is higher res - standard PAL though, but the better contrast ratio, lack of interlacing and tighter compression settings make the picture tons better, audio is higher quality as well:

A&E
video - 720x480 60fps 3000-6000kbs VBR 4:2:0 YUV NTSC interlaced
audio - 48000 Hz 224kbs AC3

Optimum
video - 720x576 50fps 2500-6000kbs VBR 4:2:0 YUV PAL
audio - 48000Hz 256kbs AC3

Makes me wonder what a 1080p bluray (or even next generation 4K UHD or 8K UHD!) would be like... 1080p is 6 times more information that NTSC DVD & 5 times PAL DVD, 4K is 4 times 1080p - 8.3 megapixels, same as cinema film (but not VistaVision, which is a bit higher) - and 8K is 16 times 1080p.

[Frankymole]

Not sure if this has been covered in this thread, but a member on Roobarb's has discovered more faults on the series 4 box set.

Please check these faults on your copies.

Audio on The Master Minds has been pitch corrected. The technique causes the audio to "blip" or "catch", at regular intervals. The problem is especially evident during sustained notes in musical passages. Witness the "catching", "clicking" effect in the music as Steed pulls up in his car and checks out the "trespassers will be prosecuted" sign around the 24-minute mark on the optimum disc, then go and check your contender disc - no "catching".

Audio throughout A Touch of Brimstone, Murder Market and (to a lesser extent) The House That Jack Built. Audio for all these episodes has been treated with so much noise reduction, every single music cue and line of dialogue sounds clipped, thin and too shrill. There's the "warble". Throughout the episodes, the audio warbles, or flanges, fluttering about as if someone tried to mix it to faux-stereo.

Thanks, Dandy. I'll probably check out "The Murder Market" tonight, it's always been one of my favourite episodes, but while I've been concentrating on Tara and New Avengers I haven't seen many of the Emma B&W episodes.

It could be that I don't notice these things unless I'm looking out for them. Visual errors like the pulsating gamma on "Legacy of Death" usually jump out at me more, I think I'm visually-orientated. But sound synch errors always look dreadful to me, however small, so I'm glad I kept my Contenders for "A Sense of History".

I've never been keen on "A Touch of Brimstone" and I can take or leave "The House That Jack Built". If it bothers me too much then I'll rip the visuals and edit the sound on from the Contender ones to burn a new DVD.

I do notice the noise reduction in "clipped" speech on many of the other filmed episodes, but I'm not sure yet whether it bothers me enough to do the same for them. Another Roobarb's poster mentioned that NR on a Cathy season made it almost unintelligible but it seems okay to me compared to the muffled versions we had before.

[Frankymole]

interestingly, the A&E are much lower resolution as well, are the optimum dvds in a newer dvd standard format?

EDIT: Answer that myself, Optimum is higher res - standard PAL though, but the better contrast ratio, lack of interlacing and tighter compression settings make the picture tons better, audio is higher quality as well:

A&E
video - 720x480 60fps 3000-6000kbs VBR 4:2:0 YUV NTSC interlaced
audio - 48000 Hz 224kbs AC3

Optimum
video - 720x576 50fps 2500-6000kbs VBR 4:2:0 YUV PAL
audio - 48000Hz 256kbs AC3

Yes, NTSC is always much lower resolution than PAL. Horrible!