I think I've managed to go about two months without whining about how awful LOST IN SPACE looks on DVD. However, every good DVD releases just reminds me of how good old TV can look if people transfer it correctly.

I just picked the first season of THE MUNSTERS on DVD. 38 episodes including the original color pilot/network presentation. No other extras to speak of (don't care for extras myself so it's a non-issue). The reviews have been very good and today I got a chance to see it for myself.

The quality is asolutely WONDERFUL! Both video and audio quality are absolutley first class. I'm so encouraged by the very high quality product that we are seeing in classic TV.

Other reviews I've seen of this set have given it 4.5 stars out of 5 for video quality. That's certainly fair...even slightly conservative. In my substantial library of older B&W TV shows, this is among the very best (the top 2 or 3 shows are so close that I'd call it a draw). One review commented on the "consistently high transfer rate". That's a measure of compression with the higher number being the best. My DVD player reads the transfer rate and I can tell you that this has one of the highest, if not THE highest, transfer rate I've ever seen for a TV show on DVD. The means that it has very minimal compression. In fact the transfer rate reads better than 75% of the movies in my collection.

Constrast and gray scale are excellent. Print damage in terms of flecks and specks is extremely minor. Add that to the extremely low compression and this is a truly first class offerring. This is what we expect from DVD.

The audio is 2.0 mono. Not very exciting but absolutely flawless.

This get's my highest, unqualified, recommendation.

One parting shot...I'm again reminded of just how badly the LIS transfers stink. Universal showed they have some balls with THE MUNSTERS. They charged us a bit more money but they had the courage to invest in first class transfers. The girlie-men at Fox were so wet-pants scared that they wussed out and used crappy, edited videotapes and low balled the price. You get what you pay for (in this case, anyway).

Funny you should mention this, I had JUST herd on Stern's Radio Show that (Please fogive my Spelling But They Say Keenan and the other Brother Waynns are Working on a Munsters BIG SCREEN Movie I just hope it Does'nt Suck BUT how cold it NOT Fred Gyen and Yevonne DeCarlo and all other Cast made that show the Cult Show that it is Today (IMHO) We don't need another Tim Burton Planet Of The Apes! I didn't use LIS in my Point cause Frankly I Liked Gary Oldmen as Dr. Smith and Mimi Rogers is the Bustiest Astronaut I've had the Pleasure of Watching lol
JOHN/LONFAN

I'm really looking forward to watching these. I haven't seen the show since I taped them all off Nick at Nite about ten years ago. I hope they do season two. There is one season two episode that Nick or TvLand have never shown. #53 Herman's Peace Offensive. Anybody get the Night Gallery set. I passed on it because I just recently recorded them on to dvd from Encore plus that set is pretty steep for 6 episodes and the movie. The product description is a little deceiving. It states 20 "stories". The six season one episodes have 17 "stories" plus the movie has three.

On a related bad transfer, I spent Hurricane Charlie watching Season 1,4, and 7 of "Star Trek TNG", and I was less than impressed with the picture, the skin of the Enterprise seemed to "crawl" in a LOT of shots.

Just a heads up that the first episode or two of THE MUNSTERS is fairly grainy and contrasty. I'm generally forgiving of grain because it's film artifact and not an electronic or videotape artifact. So the first viewing might seem a bit harsh.

BTW, I timed three episodes on the first disc (well, read the DVD time readout at the end credits)and the eps were all 25 minutes and 28 seconds. So I think we can safely say that they are complete.

I saw NIGHT GALLERY in the store today but did not buy it...and I probably won't. I read some major complaints about the source material used. I can't recall the specifics (I'll note them if I find some reviews again) but I recall that it was, for lack of a better term, "the Lost in Space problem" which involved the use of slightly edited and somewhat worn videotape masters. Anyway, whatever the exact nature of the problem, people seemed very unhappy about something with those transfers.

I've noticed dozens of progressive scan "artifacts" on practicaly every episode of TNG and DS9. A Slow motion effect that lasts a few seconds, quite often on the close up of the Enterprise in opening credits. Also a picture "flicker" when there is a quick scene or camera angle change. Not there with progressive scan turned off. These are the only dvds I've ever seen these on. A friend has told me he sees them on the X-Files dvds.

^And paramount has the balls to charge over $100 per season for the TNG DVDs!!

I got Night Gallery this week. I'll let ya know how it looks.

That "100 classic cartoons" disk I mentioned on the other thread? The one that sells for $25 and has a million disks? I know why it's so cheap now :). Apart from selling ad space for Pilates tapes on the inside of the jacket ( :freak: ), anyway. We watched Popeye in "Alladin and his Magic Lamp" last night - blurry, faded transfer. Couldn't even read the smaller print on the title cards. Technicolor looked like mud. We'll see what the later cartoons look like.

I just finished watching the first disc of The Munsters. The picture quality is absolutely stunning. Truly, one of the best transfers I've ever seen. The picture quality on the pilot looks almost contemporary!

Far and above most of what is out there on disc. I'm really happy with this set!

I'm going to pick up this set just to see episode number 36: Hot Rod Herman. Herman loses the Koach in a drag race, only to have Grandpa try to win it back with the Drag-U-La! My favorite episode for obvious reasons.

- Joe J.
www.hollywood-diecast.com (http://www.hollywood-diecast.com)

Just picked it up for 32.95 at Sams Club, a great deal.

I just watched HOT ROD HERMAN and I noticed something interesting. You can use this piece of trivia to impress (?) your friends:

The Dragula windshield appears to be a surplus P-51 Mustang canopy turned backwards.

Hey guys,

Was REALLY thinking about getting a DVD player now....I've seen countless posts about how certain DVD's skip or are grainy etc...

Does anyone have the 1967 Spider-man set and the Batman the animated series volume one? I'd like to know if they are ok before I make such a purchase...

Let me know...

i wish they'd release the first 1990's munsters tv movie "here come the munsters" on dvd. unlike the horrible "munsters today" series or the "munsters christmas", it was done with a lot of respect for the original show, and had some pretty nice production values.

Don't have the Spider-man set but the Batman 1st season set is terrific. Nice transfer of the episodes and some interesting observations with the creators. The boxed set also includes the test film they created to sell the series to Waner Bros. Even though it only runs a few minutes it is simply gorgeous. Fully animated with some fantastic shading. It looks almost like it was done by the Fleischer Brothers. The set is not jammed pack with extras but the ones that are there are interesting. Hopefully it does well enough to prompt Warner to release more seasons on disc.
For the skipping part of dvd's, that usually occurs when you have either a dirty disc or dirty laser lens. Cleaning these usually cures that problem. Occasionally a disc that is manufactered badly will cause this to happen. Of the hundreds of discs I've purchased only one was bad. Pretty good odds I think.
As for grainy picture I've yet to see that. If you've only watched movies on VHS then you will be amazed at the sharpness and clarity of DVD. I know I was.

Hey guys,

Was REALLY thinking about getting a DVD player now....I've seen countless posts about how certain DVD's skip or are grainy etc...


About that:

Grain is a FILM byproduct. The most common reason some DVDs are described as "grainy" (as I have described some episodes of THE MUNSTERS) is because the picture is so sharp that film grain become visible. This is NOT A BAD THING!

I have my own photographic darkroom (virtually unused since the advent of digital photography). It's well equipped with expensive, professional equipment. One device is a "micro grain focuser" which is basically a microscope used to achieve extreme sharpness by focusing on the silver crystals in the film emulsion.

It's the silver crystals that form the image. It's the silver crystals that form the grain. Admitedly, this can sometimes be distracting when watching a TV show on the big screen because it might seem foreign. I'm not used to seeing such a sharp image of THE MUNSTERS (having last seen it on 19" TV set about 20 years ago). But this is not a quality lapse.

If you buy any DVDs of the Ray Harryhausen films, you'll see lots of grain. That's because multiple layers of film have been printed toghether and the grain builds up. The only "fault" of the DVD is that they can now show this grain in jarring detail.

Grain can sometimes be the result of using a generations old print that has been copied one too many times. Again, that's not the fault of the DVD format. The DVD format will merely reveal the limitations of the original source material. It's like looking at an ugly girl in bright light...it's not the fault of the light bulb if your date is homely :).

With regard to certain DVD's skipping: I have in excess of 1000 DVDs. As I've told people, I stopped counting at around 700 so I'm not sure of the total. Have I ever had a DVD skip? Yes...maybe 3 or 4. Handle them with care. Pick them up by the edges. Don't set them down on the coffee table. They'll be fine.

In two cases, the skip is traced to a known manufacturing error (a couple of Anchor Bay discs). In another case, a scratch on a discs causes it to skip on one DVD player but not on another DVD player.

So my personal "skip rate" is LESS than one half of one percent of all DVDs bought in the past three years.

""The Dragula windshield appears to be a surplus P-51 Mustang canopy turned backwards."

I've always wondered how they got such a nicely curved bubble. To The Airport!

For the trivia aficianado, it's a "Dallas" canopy. The Dallas canopy (named for the Dallas assembly plant) became increasing common late in WWII and was the style usually seen on Korean war and Air National Guard units in the '50's.

I notice on the Dragula, they even attached some kind of unidentified accessory to fill in the canopy hole through which a radio antenna was rigged. The antenna was relatively rare in WWII so I'd guess this to be a canopy surplussed from a late P-51.

http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=SQ9579

Note the very slight "over bubble" where the bottom of the clear canopy attaches to the lower canopy frame. That distinguishes the Dallas canoy from the standard canopy (which would flow from the canopy frame in a smooth, continuous curve).

Well thanks for those that replied! There are SO many things I would want to get...I could easily see spending $1,000 right now...

What's happening seasons one and two
Flintstones 1&2
Batman animated series 1&2
Spidey 1967
Gi Joe 1&2
Alf
Different Strokes
Munsters


AHHHHHHHHH!!! It boggles the mind...