FRIENDS The Complete Series - November 13, 2012

[Rambaldi47]

While it's sad and annoying that we're not getting every episode extended like on the DVD set, I'm most concerned about the Supersized episodes. I hope that by "as they originally aired on NBC" means that they will be intact and not the butchered versions they show now. What confuses me is that special feature "The One With More Friends." I want to know what means. Does that mean that the supersized episodes will be the butchered syndicated versions and that to view them as their original supersized version, we have to go to a special feature menu? Where is the logic in that? Why not just put the extended ones (the ones they're actually including) with the rest of the episodes? No one wants to see edited content. Of course, I don't know for sure that's what's going on, and I could be wrong. I can begrudgingly live with the normal episodes being the NBC edits, but the supersized ones I cannot accept being edited or put as a special feature.

[samukas]

I was really excited with this announcement and I've been following this thread since last week.

I have never watched the Extended Episodes, I have the European Edition, and was hoping that those would be released in HD so that I could finally experience the extended version in higher quality.

It's sad that those won't get released, and I do believe that it's just WB being greedy and/or lazy. Although, it's quite possible that they only exist in an SD enviroment, if so, it really is a shame. (And weird, coming from the same studio that in the 90s had shows framed for possible international and high-def broadcasts, but on 2002 when the first season was released on DVD; they didn't bother keeping either HD masters or EDLs, etc?)

It was mentioned a few pages back I believe, that it doesn't make sense that the "original version that never aired" of 8x03 is getting the HD treatment and the other extended versions aren't.

The thing is... this was just a regular episode at the time like all the other broadcast versions, edited like the others, given the same treatment as the others.

9/11 was a month or so before this episode was scheduled to air, the post-pro most likely was already finished.
I don't think that they had to resort to any additional editing to get this thing released.

Originally Posted by ChrisKostakis

Even though we're not getting the extended cuts, I hope at least the HD masters have cross dissolves where the commercial break spots were meant to go instead of dips to black.

Any reason why they would do that? Do the DCs have the fade to black or no?

[Rambaldi47]

What was so different about "The One Where Rachel Tells Ross" that they have a whole alternate version?

[Riddler The Slag]

Originally Posted by Rambaldi47

What was so different about "The One Where Rachel Tells Ross" that they have a whole alternate version?

There was a scene removed to be sensitive about the 9/11/01 events. Chandler making jokes at the airport security line.

[BluRyan]

Originally Posted by samukas

It was mentioned a few pages back I believe, that it doesn't make sense that the "original version that never aired" of 8x03 is getting the HD treatment and the other extended versions aren't.

The thing is... this was just a regular episode at the time like all the other broadcast versions, edited like the others, given the same treatment as the others.

9/11 was a month or so before this episode was scheduled to air, the post-pro most likely was already finished.
I don't think that they had to resort to any additional editing to get this thing released.

That makes a lot of sense actually, they must have edited it etc so it was easy to just go back and make a HD master of this version. But yeah I think WB are just being flat out lazy on this one. I mean think about it, in 2002 when they put together the Season 1 DVD set they must have had to have gone back and got the original negatives, put them onto SD tape and then cut these scenes back into the episodes. That's all they need to do now except just do it in HD. I mean they were willing to spend money doing that in the early days of DVD so there's no reason why they can't do the same thing again this time around for Blu-ray... It's not like it's 2007, it's 2012, Blu-ray is a lot more mainstream now! Here's hoping they do go back and do it at some point... They did it for the DVD's now they're just being lazy and selfish!

[Walts Ghost]

Originally Posted by BluRyan

That makes a lot of sense actually, they must have edited it etc so it was easy to just go back and make a HD master of this version. But yeah I think WB are just being flat out lazy on this one. I mean think about it, in 2002 when they put together the Season 1 DVD set they must have had to have gone back and got the original negatives, put them onto SD tape and then cut these scenes back into the episodes. That's all they need to do now except just do it in HD. I mean they were willing to spend money doing that in the early days of DVD so there's no reason why they can't do the same thing again this time around for Blu-ray... It's not like it's 2007, it's 2012, Blu-ray is a lot more mainstream now! Here's hoping they do go back and do it at some point... They did it for the DVD's now they're just being lazy and selfish!

But if they did edit it back then onto standard def tape, and they've lost the negatives, then that would explain why aren't seeing them. I don't see it so much as laziness as in they don't want to half ass the episodes with upconverted SD content on the blu-ray. It would be terribly noticeable every time it happened during the episodes, I'm sure people would think there was something wrong with the transfers. Is it a bummer? Yes. But I see both sides, and I don't really think WB is being lazy.

[samukas]

I think it's unlikely that they've lost the negatives between 2002 and now... It's one thing when you're talking about really really old shows (for example they did not find everything for the new release of star trek), but if between 2002 and 2005 (the DVDs release dates) they had the negatives, I don't think they in this era they would have lost them.

[BluRyan]

Yeah if they hadn't lost the negatives between 1994 and 2002 when they did the DVD's, knowing about the whole possible 'HD Future' they wouldn't just dispose of them... and they wouldn't lose them either. I think WB has just decided to throw together the episodes that had already been remastered which they had already raked in profits from and not put any money into getting the extended editions on there. It is what it is and there will be a 20th Anniversary Edition in a couple years be it with extended episodes or without... But I'd bet if this sells well it'll be with...

[mayorofsmpleton]

Originally Posted by BluRyan

Yeah if they hadn't lost the negatives between 1994 and 2002 when they did the DVD's, knowing about the whole possible 'HD Future' they wouldn't just dispose of them... and they wouldn't lose them either. I think WB has just decided to throw together the episodes that had already been remastered which they had already raked in profits from and not put any money into getting the extended editions on there. It is what it is and there will be a 20th Anniversary Edition in a couple years be it with extended episodes or without... But I'd bet if this sells well it'll be with...

Doubtful.

I know a few of the people on here insist they're going to remaster these episodes to produce an ULTIMATE set later but truthfully -- it's probably not ever going to happen. Even if this set sold millions of copies (unlikely) it wouldn't cover the cost/benefit of redoing those episodes for ANOTHER BD release that most people would not repurchase.

Think about it. Any profit made with this release is a positive investment on their PREVIOUS remasters for syndication.

In order to re-release extended versions for 200+ episodes it would likely cost millions of dollars (to redo season 1 of ST: TNG Paramount spent something like 9 million).

They'd NEVER sell that many copies of any RE-RELEASE to justify that. This set will likely sell well -- but any re-release will sell even less.

[BluRyan]

I know what you're saying I think it just absolutely sucks. It's 5 hours of footage. It wouldn't be as costly as remastering the whole series. 5 hours... Is that too much to ask? It's the equivelant to a little over half a season's worth of footage... Not ten whole seasons...

But yeah you're right, it probably wont happen.. But if it did there would need to be some sort of rebate for those that bought this release...

[Riddler The Slag]

Let the saving begin...

[GoldMotel]

Originally Posted by Rambaldi47

While it's sad and annoying that we're not getting every episode extended like on the DVD set, I'm most concerned about the Supersized episodes. I hope that by "as they originally aired on NBC" means that they will be intact and not the butchered versions they show now. What confuses me is that special feature "The One With More Friends." I want to know what means. Does that mean that the supersized episodes will be the butchered syndicated versions and that to view them as their original supersized version, we have to go to a special feature menu? Where is the logic in that? Why not just put the extended ones (the ones they're actually including) with the rest of the episodes? No one wants to see edited content. Of course, I don't know for sure that's what's going on, and I could be wrong. I can begrudgingly live with the normal episodes being the NBC edits, but the supersized ones I cannot accept being edited or put as a special feature.

The episodes shown on tv now are syndicated cuts, meaning they are shortened to accommodate more commercials. The blu-ray will have the episodes be their original broadcast length (aka the length they where when they aired on NBC). This applies to the super-size episodes as well.

[Rambaldi47]

I can (sort of) understand WB not having the original film for like season 1 and therefore not being able to make an HD transfer of those extended episodes. But what about the later seasons? They couldn't have lost the originals for season 10, right?

[RayCRP]

Originally Posted by Rambaldi47

I can (sort of) understand WB not having the original film for like season 1 and therefore not being able to make an HD transfer of those extended episodes. But what about the later seasons? They couldn't have lost the originals for season 10, right?

They have the original film negatives, even for season 1. It's what they used to go back and create these new HD masters with. They couldn't do so with digital SD video.

[GoldMotel]

Does anyone think the UK version will use the same HD masters for their set?

I mean, didn't they originally have the broadcast versions on DVD first before getting the extended version years later? So maybe it's possible that they used the extended episode masters or that an extended blu ray edition could happen some time in future (probably not, but I can dream).

In any case, I still want to see what their set will look like to see how it compares to ours.

It comes out in October so a picture should be up soon.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by GoldMotel

Does anyone think the UK version will use the same HD masters for their set?

I mean, didn't they originally have the broadcast versions on DVD first before getting the extended version years later? So maybe it's possible that they used the extended episode masters or that an extended blu ray edition could happen some time in future (probably not, but I can dream).

In any case, I still want to see what their set will look like to see how it compares to ours.

It comes out in October so a picture should be up soon.

WB normally uses the same discs worldwide. Odds are 99% that the UK release will be the same.

[mayorofsmpleton]

Originally Posted by BluRyan

I know what you're saying I think it just absolutely sucks. It's 5 hours of footage. It wouldn't be as costly as remastering the whole series. 5 hours... Is that too much to ask? It's the equivelant to a little over half a season's worth of footage... Not ten whole seasons...

But yeah you're right, it probably wont happen.. But if it did there would need to be some sort of rebate for those that bought this release...

Trust me, I'm on your side. It DOES suck.

But you have to realize it's not just '5 hours' -- it amount to that much in terms of footage but they'd have to finance many many hours of going through all those negative to find the various bits of footage from each episodes, remastering THOSE bits, and splicing them back into the existing HD masters. It would cost a lot of money and the return on that investment would be low. I could see them doing it if it was to restore the NETWORK cuts -- but honestly the extended cuts were special and made for the DVD. I'm just glad these aren't syndication versions. As nice as the extra bits here and there are -- they're the stuff deemed most cut-worthy when they were preparing the final network versions... in other words, the jokes/moments least worth keeping anyway.

[mayorofsmpleton]

Originally Posted by GoldMotel

Does anyone think the UK version will use the same HD masters for their set?

I mean, didn't they originally have the broadcast versions on DVD first before getting the extended version years later? So maybe it's possible that they used the extended episode masters or that an extended blu ray edition could happen some time in future (probably not, but I can dream).

In any case, I still want to see what their set will look like to see how it compares to ours.

It comes out in October so a picture should be up soon.

The show debuted on DVD with the first season already being "extended" episodes. There weren't DVDs released of the "network" versions.

[TNAJason]

Originally Posted by mayorofsmpleton

The show debuted on DVD with the first season already being "extended" episodes. There weren't DVDs released of the "network" versions.

Pretty Sure GoldMotel was talking about the UK DVD Releases,which did release Broadcast Versions 1st followed by Extended.

[mayorofsmpleton]

Originally Posted by TNAJason

Pretty Sure GoldMotel was talking about the UK DVD Releases,which did release Broadcast Versions 1st followed by Extended.

Ah, didn't know that.