[Variety Films 3D]

Here's a summary of where things stand on the availability of the original Three Stooges shorts in HD, including recent concerning developments from C3 Entertainment, the original entity started by their families which still owns the rights to the franchise.

First of all, it should be noted that when official DVDs were released of the complete series in various editions, the packaging said they were "Remastered in High Definition" (although obviously downsampled to 480i). More recently on the official Three Stooges YouTube channel, some compilation videos & clips have been uploaded that contain glimpses of the original shorts for the first time in Full HD, and besides YouTube's compression look nice.

Also late last year, C3 launched a Kickstarter campaign for a 'streaming service' called "Three Stooges +" (which was really just a new branding name for their YouTube channel, plus sections on Amazon's Freevee, Sling, Tubi, TCL & Vizio). Besides new content they were considering though was the announcement of:
"All 190 Classic Columbia Shorts in One Place, Remastered in Pristine HD"

The day came on December 31, 2023 when they began to upload the remastered episodes in order, starting with #1, "Women Haters"... but there was a problem: They maxed out at 480p. I commented on the video asking what happened to the HD versions, and they replied that these would be on the other services mentioned above. I checked out Sling and Freevee, and both were in standard def (besides being scheduled live-streaming ONLY). Tubi was the only somewhat HD version I saw out there, but it maxes out at 720p @ 2mbps, which needless to say is pretty bad.

So apparently, they're too scared to upload quality versions to ANY streaming service (even though they DO have them as evidenced by the many recent compilation videos in full HD) and aren't interested in a Blu-ray release either, preferring streaming profits in perpetuity. They also (deceptively) implied to Kickstarter backers that the remastered versions were not only newly made with the donated funds, but would at least be available in "Pristine" quality to stream.

So if you're a Stooges fan and don't like the bait-and-switch or unwillingness to monetize their assets, feel free to comment on their YouTube channel and speak your mind. Just be aware that if you are on the nose about how the quality backtracked your comment may be deleted (mine was) but at least it may let them know there is a market.