For the first recipients of A&E's UFO DVD Set 1...

Hi all,

For the lucky folks who receive their A&E UFO DVD Set 1 today or
tomorrow, here are some things that I (at least) would be interested
in hearing about:

* picture & sound quality (including any MPEG encoding artifacts)
* Is the sound in mono or surround? (or both?)
* does it have a Gerry Anderson commentary on IDENTIFIED?
* does it have deleted scenes? If so, how many and what are they?
* does it have publicity and behind-the-scenes photos? If so, about
how many? And do they take up the entire screen or just 1/4 of it?
Are they washed-out or clear?
* How about the menu design? Is it cheesy or impressive?
* How many scene selections are there per episode?
* Does it offer any subtitles?
* Any other extras we haven't heard about?
* Any problems playing it?
* What's the artwork featured on the discs themselves?
* length of episodes (52 min for IDENTIFIED? 50 min for the rest?)
(check of proper PAL->NTSC conversion)
* also, a readable scan of the slip cover (both front & back) would
be a nice upload into the SHADO files area...

Ahhh, so many questions.... :-)

Marc

I can tell ya one thing -- there ain't no slip cover. I saw the new Captain
Scarlet set and the packaging sucks royally. Pardon my American-English. :)

Similar packaging was used for the Peter Gunn set too. It's too bad as it
really "cheapens" the look of the product -- IMO. I can't see how this late in
the game A&E decides to shift gears and cheapen the look.

Anthony
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marc Martin" <[hidden email]>
To: "SHADO Discussion Group" <[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2002 11:57 AM
Subject: [SHADO] For the first recipients of A&E's UFO DVD Set 1...
<snip>

> * also, a readable scan of the slip cover (both front & back) would
> be a nice upload into the SHADO files area...
>
> Ahhh, so many questions.... :-)
>
> Marc

>I can tell ya one thing -- there ain't no slip cover. I saw the new Captain
>Scarlet set and the packaging sucks royally. Pardon my American-English.

I own the A&E Captain Scarlet DVD's, so I know what
the packaging looks like! What I was calling a
"slip cover" is the single sheet of paper used
for both the outside cover and the inside liner
notes. This can be pulled out of the plastic case
and easily scanned.

Marc

Oh, on the subject of A&E's new packaging, I agree that
it does cheapen the look of the product, but on the other
hand, A&E's old packaging bothered me, as they put the
volumes in a slipcase which doesn't seem to have an
purpose except for it to gather dust in my attic.

Also, A&E's Captain Scarlet DVD's has color artwork
on the discs, which is actually a step up from the
previous A&E releases.

Marc

I just got home a few minutes ago and my UFO DVDs have arrived.

The first disc has alternate footage of the opening for Identified, which is
more graphic. You see blood coming out of Straker's mouth after getting
ejected from the car. You see one of the motorcyclists lying on the ground
after getting hit and a few more seconds of the woman with Carlin and his
sister who is killed.

The other alternate scene on disc 1 is a shorter ending which I haven't
viewed yet.

The photos fill up almost the whole screen. The aspect ratio of the photos
is about what the early Bond movies such as Goldfinger were shot at.

Artwork
---------
Disc 1 - Commander Straker
Disc 2 - Col Foster
disc 3 - Lt. Ellis
disc 4 - Col. Freeman

I am about to watch Identified and I will check if length of episode was
properly converted, i.e. not speeded up.

I'll pass on additional info as I check the material out.

>more graphic. You see blood coming out of Straker's mouth after getting
>ejected from the car. You see one of the motorcyclists lying on the ground
>after getting hit and a few more seconds of the woman with Carlin and his
>sister who is killed.

Good! That was probably my favorite extra from the Carlton discs,
so I'm glad to hear it's on the A&E discs. I've also heard that
the Gerry Anderson commentary track is there, which is another
important extra.

>The photos fill up almost the whole screen. The aspect ratio of the photos
>is about what the early Bond movies such as Goldfinger were shot at.

It sounds like the photos are larger than what's on the Carlton disc!

>I'll pass on additional info as I check the material out.

Great! Thanks Ron!

Marc

Sorry, but I have to disagree (there's a surprise! :).

I think the older style packaging (2 discs in a slipcase) provided ample space
for photos and nice design -- which the new design does not. I haven't seen
the new color DVD artwork, but I can't believe that A&E would need to cut down
on packaging in order to add color to its discs! Music CDs have had funky
colored faces for years.

Think of all the nice photos,etc. you would have if UFO came in a slipcase
with 4 separate Amarays. Each disc holder would have space for multiple
pictures, etc. In the beginning, they did this for Space:1999 -- then took a
shortcut by putting the same pictures on both Amarays.

Long live the slipcase!

Anthony
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marc Martin" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2002 6:11 PM
Subject: Re: [SHADO] A&E's new packaging

Here is additional info since my last email:

So far picture quality is excellent. The flesh tones are more accurate on
DVD than what is portrayed in the Japanese laser discs.

Surprisingly the video outtakes picture quality is good. The video extras I
have seen on many other DVD's has been poor.

I think the sound is mono. It doesn't give you the option of mono or stereo
that the Captain Scarlet discs have.

Disc 1 has the Gerry Anderson commentary for the episode Identified.

Disc 2 has 2 outakes from the episode Exposed. Some of the dialog is
missing, which is mentioned in the menu. The second outtake contains footage
from several scenes and is much longer than the first outake.

Disc 3 has outtakes for Sid's computer voice. The first outtake uses the
voice we are all familiar with. The voice of the second outtake is raspy
sounding, as if the person had just gargled with sand.

Disc 4 has a biography of Gerry Anderson.

I haven't viewed all photos yet, but so far they are look good.

Each episode has 6 scene selections from the menu.

So far I haven't encountered any problems playing "Identified" , "Computer
Affair" and supplementary material

The running time was 51 minutes 12 seconds for Identified and almost 50
minutes for Computer Affair. It looks like conversion was done correctly. If
it hadn't, running time for Identified would have been about 49 minutes,
and 48 minutes for Computer Affair.



Ron

>Disc 3 has outtakes for Sid's computer voice. The first outtake uses the
>voice we are all familiar with. The voice of the second outtake is raspy
>sounding, as if the person had just gargled with sand.

Hey, now THAT is something that wasn't on the Carlton discs!

>Each episode has 6 scene selections from the menu.

Good. The Carlton discs only had 4 scene selections, which I thought
was bit sparse.

>The running time was 51 minutes 12 seconds for Identified and almost 50
>minutes for Computer Affair.

Very good!

Thanks for all the info, Ron!

Oh -- one more question -- does the set really include CONFETTI CHECK
A-OK instead of RESPONSIBILITY SEAT? That would mean the episode
order is slightly different than on the Carlton discs.

Marc

>I haven't viewed all photos yet, but so far they are look good.

That seems to imply that there are a LOT of photos? (I don't
recall it taking much time at all to go through the photos
on the Carlton discs)

Marc

>
> Oh -- one more question -- does the set really include CONFETTI CHECK
> A-OK instead of RESPONSIBILITY SEAT? That would mean the episode
> order is slightly different than on the Carlton discs.
>
> Marc
>

Disc 4 does have Confetti Check A-OK instead of Responsibilit Seat.

Ron

Marc wrote:
> >I haven't viewed all photos yet, but so far they are look good.
>
> That seems to imply that there are a LOT of photos? (I don't
> recall it taking much time at all to go through the photos
> on the Carlton discs)
>

I wouldn't say it is a lot of photos. So far it is about 8 to 10 photos per
episode. Is that about the same for the Carlton discs?


Ron

I own several sets of A&E discs such as The Prisoner, The Saint, most of The
Avengers, Thunderbirds, Danger Man and Captain Scarlet.

The supplementary material of this set is by far better than that offered on
the other A&E sets that I have.

I hope A&E adds material regarding Derek Meddings to Set 2 when that comes
out.

Ron

>I wouldn't say it is a lot of photos. So far it is about 8 to 10 photos per
>episode. Is that about the same for the Carlton discs?

Yes, that sounds about right.

Also, how long are the SID outtakes? It's interesting that this appears
on the A&E discs, but not the Carlton ones. Evidently Carlton Video
must not have found it to be sufficiently interesting.

>I hope A&E adds material regarding Derek Meddings to Set 2 when that comes
>out.

On the Fanderson UFO documentary, there was behind-the-scenes footage
of a UFO and Sky One being filmed. Unfortunately, this material
hasn't shown up on either the Carlton or the A&E UFO DVDs.
Presumably, this material must be owned by Derek Meddings family,
and possibly Carlton never contacted them to get it included.

Marc

So, can anyone tell me if the A&E UFO DVD's feature English subtitles
as an option? Unexpectedly, I found this to be quite a good feature
on the Carlton discs, as there are occasional lines of dialog that
I've NEVER understood over the decades, and the subtitles help
me finally understand what they were saying!

Also, it sounds like the EXPOSED outtakes don't contain subtitles
for the missing audio? Pity, since I supplied the A&E consultant
with that dialog... (and presumably Carlton did as well)

Marc

Hi all,

So far, it would appear that the following extras which appeared
on the Carlton UFO DVD's 1-4 are not on the A&E UFO DVD's 1-4.
(A&E UFO DVD owners feel free to correct me):

Deleted scenes covered with script excerpts and productions stills:

IDENTIFIED: Freeman arrives at SHADO HQ (3 photos)
IDENTIFIED: Carlin & Maxwell discussion (2 photos)
COMPUTER AFFAIR: Mark Bradley birthday party (1 photo)
FLIGHT PATH: Roper and Harrington discussion (3 photos)
FLIGHT PATH: Roper at spaceport (2 photos)
SURVIVAL: Foster & Grant discussion (1 photo)
SURVIVAL: Foster & Tina on couch (9 photos)
SURVIVAL: Freeman breaks the bad news to Tina (5 photos)
SURVIVAL: Mark Bradley laying in bed (2 photos)
ORDEAL: Freeman arrives at the party (6 photos)

SHADO Dossier parts 1 and 2:

A text/photo guide to all the various SHADO hardware & bases.
Includes SHADO HQ, Moonbase, SID, Interceptors, Skydiver, Sky One,
Mobiles, Moonmobiles, Cars and Jeeps, Lunar Carrier, Lunar Module,
Mobile Transporter, Seagull Passenger Jet, Kingfisher Helicopter,
Albatross Seaplane, B142 Space Probe

Character Profile:

Ed Straker, text and 5 photos

Note that for all of the above items, I believe the text & script
excerpts were provided by Fanderson.

Marc

P.S. As for the production still/photo galleries, if anyone wants to
compare the A&E and Carlton galleries, here's the number of stills
on the Carlton volumes:

volume 1: 57 stills
volume 2: 15 stills
volume 3: 26 stills
volume 4: 28 stills

Note that all of the stills on the Carlton DVD's are labelled with
text to describe what they are, typically take up about 1/4 to 1/2
of the screen, and occasionally two of the 1/4 sized shots are
shown side-by-side. Quality is very good.

Hi all,

I've been awaiting Scott Bosco's review of A&E's UFO DVD Set 1, so I
went to his site and made a guess at what the URL might be.
Amazingly, I seemed to have found his review in progress:

http://www.geocities.com/ditcin4/ufoset1.html

Marc

Hi all,

I noticed in Scott Bosco's in-progress A&E UFO DVD review that he
states that the photo galleries appear to be using frame grabs, and
not actual publicity photos. Is this true? The photo galleries on
the Carlton UFO DVDs are very obviously not frame grabs, as most of
them are behind-the-scenes photos which feature the director, crew,
etc., or posed-publicity shots, or deleted scenes.

Marc

> I noticed in Scott Bosco's in-progress A&E UFO DVD review that he
> states that the photo galleries appear to be using frame grabs, and
> not actual publicity photos. Is this true? The photo galleries on
> the Carlton UFO DVDs are very obviously not frame grabs, as most of
> them are behind-the-scenes photos which feature the director, crew,
> etc., or posed-publicity shots, or deleted scenes.
>
I haven't gone through all of the photos yet, but the photos I have seen so
far are frame grabs.

I hope to go through all of the photos tonight.


Ron

Marc wrote:

The Exposed outakes don't contain subtitles.

I'll have to check Marc's website to see if the dialog for the outtakes is
available.


Ron