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A&E seems to be learning...

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Marc Martin

A&E seems to be learning...

Administrator

Hi all,

I've watched a couple of episodes of A&E's Captain Scarlet
DVD's, and it appears that they seem to be learning from
their past mistakes. For example, the publicity photos
are all full-frame, rather than taking up a 1/2 or 1/4
of the screen. Also, the mono track is the default,
instead of the awful 5.1 surround track (I can only
hope that UFO is indeed going to have a mono track on it).
The behind the scenes photos still only take up a 1/4 of
the screen, so that's still a problem. Also, since I have
not payed too much attention to the UK Carlton Captain
Scarlet DVD release, I don't really know how much better
the Carlton release is than the A&E release. I'm sure
the Carlton release has better, fancier menus. Also
they might possibly have better extras -- the A&E
ones have Gerry Anderson commentary on 2 episodes,
production photos, publicity photos, character bios,
vehicle summaries, and DVD-ROM extras. No extra video
footage that I could find.

Also, for those of you who have the Carlton Captain
Scarlet DVD's, is the picture & sound quality identical
to UFO? It's my impression from my A&E Captain Scarlet
DVDs and my Carlton UFO DVD's that UFO is higher quality
-- certainly the sound quality is better, but the film
elements seem to be in better shape too. Can anyone in
the UK confirm that UFO does indeed look & sound better
than Captain Scarlet? (not that I'm complaining about
A&E's -- it's just that I'd say that Scarlet looks "great"
while UFO looks "stunning"...)

Marc

Marc Martin

RE: A&E seems to be learning...

Administrator

Okay, I just had a look at a review of the Carlton
Captain Scarlet DVD's, and I see that the A&E ones
are certainly missing a lot of extras -- no merchandise
guide, no hour long documentary, no TV21 audio adventures!
I wonder what A&E is going to leave off of the UFO DVDs... :-/

Marc

jamesgibbon

Re: A&E seems to be learning...

In reply to this post by Marc Martin

"Marc Martin" wrote:

> the screen, so that's still a problem. Also, since I have
> not payed too much attention to the UK Carlton Captain
> Scarlet DVD release, I don't really know how much better
> the Carlton release is than the A&E release. I'm sure
> the Carlton release has better, fancier menus.

It _does_ have very impressive animated menus, yes! Though I
can't comment on how they compare.

> Can anyone in
> the UK confirm that UFO does indeed look & sound better
> than Captain Scarlet? (not that I'm complaining about
> A&E's -- it's just that I'd say that Scarlet looks "great"
> while UFO looks "stunning"...)
>
Not sure .. the Carlton Scarlet DVDs do look good but I've never
really looked that closely! I think you're probably right,
though - great, not stunning. I'll have a closer look later.

James

Christian J.

Re: A&E seems to be learning...

In reply to this post by Marc Martin

--- Marc wrote:

>
> Also, for those of you who have the Carlton Captain
> Scarlet DVD's, is the picture & sound quality identical
> to UFO? It's my impression from my A&E Captain Scarlet
> DVDs and my Carlton UFO DVD's that UFO is higher quality
> -- certainly the sound quality is better, but the film
> elements seem to be in better shape too. Can anyone in
> the UK confirm that UFO does indeed look & sound better
> than Captain Scarlet? (not that I'm complaining about
> A&E's -- it's just that I'd say that Scarlet looks "great"
> while UFO looks "stunning"...)

Marc,

I will send you frame captures from the UK release of CAPTAIN SCARLET
so you can judge for yourself.

Best wishes
Christian

jamesgibbon

Re: A&E seems to be learning...

In reply to this post by Marc Martin

"memorymetropolis" wrote:

>
> I will send you frame captures from the UK release of CAPTAIN SCARLET
> so you can judge for yourself.
>

Aaggghhh .. beat me to it! ;)

Christian J.

Re: A&E seems to be learning...

--- James Gibbon wrote:
>
> Aaggghhh .. beat me to it! ;)

First come, first serves :-)

Marc Martin

Re: A&E seems to be learning...

Administrator

In reply to this post by Christian J.

>I will send you frame captures from the UK release of CAPTAIN SCARLET
>so you can judge for yourself.

Thanks Christian!

The quality of the picture looks to be about the same on
the Carlton vs. A&E Captain Scarlet discs (except of
course that the PAL versions have 100 lines more of
vertical resolution...). The menu is certainly a lot
fancier on the Carlton discs, but one interesting
difference is that the Carlton menu only has 4 scene
selections per episode, while the A&E has 6. On UFO,
I found it rather frustrating to only have 4 scene
selections, which seems to be a bit too few for an
hour show.

Marc

Christian J.

Re: A&E seems to be learning...

--- Marc wrote:

> but one interesting
> difference is that the Carlton menu only has 4 scene
> selections per episode, while the A&E has 6. On UFO,
> I found it rather frustrating to only have 4 scene
> selections, which seems to be a bit too few for an
> hour show.

Marc, I think they've decided to put the scene selections where the
commercial breaks normally are: after approximately 15 minutes, 30
minutes and close to the ending (including the start of the ep makes
it four selections :-) I would also like to have more selections but
on the other hand it's not a too bad choice, IMO.

Christian

bel3762001

Re: A&E seems to be learning...

In reply to this post by Marc Martin

>Hi all,
>
>I've watched a couple of episodes of A&E's Captain Scarlet DVD's, and it
>appears that they seem to be learning from their past mistakes. For
>example, the publicity photos are all full-frame, rather than taking up a
>1/2 or 1/4 of the screen. Also, the mono track is the default, instead of
>the awful 5.1 surround track (I can only hope that UFO is indeed going to
>have a mono track on it). The behind the scenes photos still only take up a
>1/4 of the screen, so that's still a problem. Also, since I have not payed
>too much attention to the UK Carlton Captain Scarlet DVD release, I don't
>really know how much better the Carlton release is than the A&E release.
>I'm sure the Carlton release has better, fancier menus. Also they might
>possibly have better extras -- the A&E ones have Gerry Anderson commentary
>on 2 episodes, production photos, publicity photos, character bios, vehicle
>summaries, and DVD-ROM extras. No extra video footage that I could find.
>
>Also, for those of you who have the Carlton Captain Scarlet DVD's, is the
>picture & sound quality identical to UFO? It's my impression from my A&E
>Captain Scarlet DVDs and my Carlton UFO DVD's that UFO is higher quality --
>certainly the sound quality is better, but the film elements seem to be in
>better shape too. Can anyone in the UK confirm that UFO does indeed look &
>sound better than Captain Scarlet? (not that I'm complaining about A&E's --
>it's just that I'd say that Scarlet looks "great" while UFO looks
>"stunning"...)
>
>Marc

Well, for me I have been enjoying CAPTAIN SCARLET this week more than I have
in years. I think that the picture looks terrific and the sound is fine (I
haven't listened to it in 5.1). I haven't seen the Carlton discs, but as you
said A&E does seem to be learning. Here's looking forward to UFO and (later
this year, I understand) STINGRAY.

Brian

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hazekel

Re: A&E seems to be learning...

> Here's looking forward to UFO and (later
> this year, I understand) STINGRAY.
>
> Brian
Stingray next huh? Any info on whether or not they will release
Space Precinct and/or Fireball XL5? Those are the last two GA shows
I am looking forward to.

bel3762001

Re: A&E seems to be learning...

In reply to this post by Marc Martin

> > Here's looking forward to UFO and (later
> > this year, I understand) STINGRAY.
> >
> > Brian
>Stingray next huh? Any info on whether or not they will release
>Space Precinct and/or Fireball XL5? Those are the last two GA shows
>I am looking forward to.
>

Does Carlton even own the rights to those two? In the case of FIREBALL, they
may even think that noone would be interested in a black and white show
(personally, I've never even seen it, but I would definitely dig a dvd
release). I think SPACE PRECINCT has been released in the UK on dvd, but by
a different label. Can anyone confirm?

Kind of off the subject, but I just saw that someone is releasing the first
four episodes of TERRAHAWKS in the UK in July on video and dvd.

Brian

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hazekel

Re: A&E seems to be learning...

> Does Carlton even own the rights to those two? In the case of
>FIREBALL, they
> may even think that noone would be interested in a black and white
>show
> (personally, I've never even seen it, but I would definitely dig a
>dvd

Probably right but it is my second favorite Supermarionation show
behind Captain Scarlett. More lighthearted but fun and good for kids.

> release). I think SPACE PRECINCT has been released in the UK on
dvd, but by
> a different label. Can anyone confirm?
>

It has been released in UK as Space Precinct but they were cheaply
done with only two episodes per DVD!

I am glad they did UFO right (or so it seems). The entire series on
two sets is much more fair and a good reason to buy. When they get
cheap and expect you to by a DVD with only two episodes, I don't
buy. Perhaps they are learning and will correct this mistake if they
ever do release the shows to the US.

Maybe if UFO does good.

bel3762001

Re: A&E seems to be learning...

In reply to this post by Marc Martin

>I am glad they did UFO right (or so it seems). The entire series on
>two sets is much more fair and a good reason to buy. When they get
>cheap and expect you to by a DVD with only two episodes, I don't
>buy. Perhaps they are learning and will correct this mistake if they
>ever do release the shows to the US.
>
>Maybe if UFO does good.

That's why I was glad to see the UFO set pop up on the Top 10 best selling
dvds at DeepDiscountDVD.com. CAPTAIN SCARLET is also on the "Top 25"
bestsellers list over at DVDPlanet.com.

I wish they would go back and rerelease THUNDERBIRDS in similar fashion, but
I guess I will have to live with the Megaset.

Brian

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