VEI DVD reissue of the complete series

[johnnybear]

Why not, they're okay and do the job you bought 'em for!
JB

[Kladdagh]

I'll stick with my DVDs from the early 00's

[Russell Nash]

I wonder if this crop-job is a newly performed one or if maybe they had this "lying on the shelf" from a proposed Blu-ray release.

AdamBishop, does the transfer show any signs of being from a different source than the old DVDs? (Based on that one screencap I'm thinking not, but you never know.) How do they handle the cropping when there are credits on screen?

[The One With The Prize]

I don't understand this trend. I suppose it's not too dissimilar to old pan and scan full screen presentations of widescreen films, but considering most TVs these days give the viewer the ability to zoom videos to fill the screen if they want it to, the idea of releasing a show in anything but it's original aspect ratio just seems idiotic. Just give people everything that's supposed to be there, and let them crop it themselves if the black bars on the side bother them.

That would be the ideal situation but it seems people are too damn lazy/dumb to work that out for themselves and the rest of us usually have to bow down to what they want (cropping, dnr, sharpening, whatnot...).

[Takk]

I don't understand this trend. I suppose it's not too dissimilar to old pan and scan full screen presentations of widescreen films, but considering most TVs these days give the viewer the ability to zoom videos to fill the screen if they want it to, the idea of releasing a show in anything but it's original aspect ratio just seems idiotic. Just give people everything that's supposed to be there, and let them crop it themselves if the black bars on the side bother them.

[dubiousbystander]

Demand your money back. It usually makes a point.

[The One With The Prize]

Had a feeling they'd go with the cropped version of the series. This is just sad.
VEI did originally release The Invisible Man TV series in a 16:9-cropped version but later on offered it in its original aspect ratio for those who wanted that. If people are inclined they might be able to "bug" VEI into doing the same.

[dubiousbystander]

The VEI release has removed approximately 20% of the original picture in the process of cropping it to widescreen. There are also 6 episodes per disc on the VEI version and 3 on Anchor Bay's release. I uploaded an image of the two releases to show the difference in quality.

Oh for gracious' sake. WHY?! Why, why why?!

[AdamBishop]

The VEI release has removed approximately 20% of the original picture in the process of cropping it to widescreen. There are also 6 episodes per disc on the VEI version and 3 on Anchor Bay's release. I uploaded an image of the two releases to show the difference in quality.

[dubiousbystander]

I have to stick with digital only. No space at home. I'm still glad of this!

[Takk]

Neat... might have to get it for some friends/family as a gift alongside that 5 film franchise collection.

[Wilusa]

Interesting! In my experience with the original DVDs, everything after Season 1 was perfect. But the Season 1 DVDs had been packed too closely in the box, and by the time I got around to playing them, many episodes were unplayable. But there probably wasn't much Commentary with Season 1 anyway. I was able to buy all the episodes on Amazon Video...and while I was at it, I bought all the other seasons too.

[The One With The Prize]

https://www.visualentertainment.tv/p...ete-collection



The complete series for $40. Don't know how many discs they use (nothing on Amazon or TVShowsOnDVD yet either) but VEI is known to cram as much as possible with little regard to quality. Their discs have been known to have playability issues as well at times. Nothing mentioned in regards to specs so unknown whether these are 4:3 or 16:9, or what audio is on them. Contains extras but unknown if they are the old ones or newly created.

EDIT: Correction, TVShowsOnDVD did have a news article on it but they have no real info on this release either.... http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Highlan...e-Series/24072