Airwolf The Complete Series April 23, 2015

[greenguy]

Amazon.de has the complete series of Airwolf up for pre-order:

http://www.amazon.de/Airwolf-Die-kom...ywords=airwolf

Judging by the run time I'm assuming the Canadian produced 4th season will be included. Although I'd imagine that will be a upscale only, as I think those episodes are probably taken from tape masters. The season was shot on 16mm film, but transferred to tape for post production, etc.

The U.K. Blu-ray release of seasons 1-3 has good reviews, I hope this set is up to the same quality.

[Indiana Jones]

Currently working my way through the UK set and apart from a few ropey episodes where it looks like the film was transferred correctly it has been fantastic picture quality far beyond that of the DVDs.

[DarthMarino]

Looks like this got pushed back to May 14th. Hopefully this is region free. I would have bought the UK version if it was.

[greenguy]

I noticed today one of the comments in the review section of the Airwolf Blu ray claims to be from Koch Media:

Our season 4 was transfered in late 2014 from the original 16mm elements in HD. As these are not 35mm- or Super16-elements like on the first 3 seasons the quality of season 4 is not as good as seasons 1-3, but it is real HD! So please don't spread rumors about our box without owning it!

Btw: When they transfered the 1st season episode "Bite of the Jackal", they haven't included 2 scenes. We asked Universal to look for these scenes and we could cut them back into the episode.

Their response was to a person blasting them for including season 4 as a upscale. In my original post above, I speculated that it would be a upscale due to that seasons post production process.

It will be interesting to see what it looks like. Plus, I hope they indeed returned Bite of The Jackal back to uncut status.

[DMRI2006]

Tempted. With the favorable exchange rate and low ship to the US, this would be the time to jump in, because I don't see anyone releasing it stateside.

[greenguy]

Originally Posted by DMRI2006

Tempted. With the favorable exchange rate and low ship to the US, this would be the time to jump in, because I don't see anyone releasing it stateside.

My thoughts exactly.

I've been trying to decide to jump on this now.

Or will the price drop in half after a certain time period as with what happened with Koch's Galactica set?

[SwissHD]

I got my complete German BD Collection of Airwolf!

Season 4 is indeed true HD. Its very grainy because the season was shot on 16mm instead of 35mm.
For me its a miracle that universal even bothered to redo the whole Post Production on this Season. And this was necessary to do real HD Remasters of this Season of Airwolf. Like TNG or X-Files it was shot on Film but finished on SD Tape Masters only.
So they had to redo the whole editing process, all the credits and and and......

They didn't redo Effects like animations on Screens. Its upscaled SD in such moments.
And in every case the original negative material was not found they had to fill it up with upscaled SD also.
In the first Episode of Season 4 its 90 Percent real HD and 10 Percent Upscale. In Episode 2 its 98 Percent real HD and 2 Percent upscale.
So it depends on the Episode.
I would say this is the best we are ever gonna get for Season 4. They did what they could and the result is stunning considering how poor the season looked before.

I made a comparison of a Season 4 Episode 1 shot with a scene that is present as Upscale and 2 cuts later in HD. So you can see the difference:
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/127799

So every time they had to fill up with SD it looks as poor as you can see in this comparison.

A good job overall on Season 4. And like i said: Its a miracle they even bothered with redoing the whole Season in real HD.

Some more Screenshots:
http://www.directupload.net/file/d/3...h6xz9g_jpg.htm
http://www.directupload.net/file/d/3...sj9ha3_jpg.htm
http://www.directupload.net/file/d/3...ydijve_jpg.htm
http://www.directupload.net/file/d/3...ubcisp_jpg.htm
http://www.directupload.net/file/d/3...rncoyc_jpg.htm
http://www.directupload.net/file/d/3...7vudlg_jpg.htm
http://www.directupload.net/file/d/3...k7ceam_jpg.htm

The Rest of the German Blu Ray set is also better than the UK Set because it has english subtitles for every episode and the Season 1 Episode "Bite of the Jackal" is uncut. It was cut on the UK Blu Ray Set.

Indeed the ultimate Collection this time!

[greenguy]

Swiss, thanks very much for taking time to write up information on the set AND taking the trouble to post those grabs from season 4.

I'm also shocked that the care was taken to go back to those original 16mm elements when possible. A big thank you to Koch for that.

With the inclusion of season 4 and Bite of The Jackal restored to uncut status, this is the set for Airwolf fans to purchase.

[Vintrus]

Anyone have any idea if they might be doing a separate release for S4 on Blu? I would be interested in picking that up as I already own the 1-3 UK release.

[greenguy]

Its a shame being in the U.S. that we can't be Prime members at Amazon.de.

The set is a deal right now during their Prime Day event for 79 euros

[WernerP]

Are the credits and titles on this release in German or in English?

[greenguy]

Originally Posted by WernerP

Are the credits and titles on this release in German or in English?

The titles and credits are in English.

If you are considering buying this here's a few other things you should know,
while the picture quality is outstanding there are things missing.

1. The 30 second teasers before the opening credits. None are included in the German set.

2. In the 1st season only there was a series overview featured between the end of the opening credits, and the start of the episode. These start out with a voice over saying "FILE A56-7W subject is Airwolf..." those run approx 50 seconds and were featured in 7 of the 1st season shows. Only two are intact in the German set. They are missing from Mad Over Miami, And They Are Us, Mind Of The Machine, To Snare A Wolf, and Fight Like A Dove.

3. In the 3rd season, all the episodes ended with the AIRWOLF logo closing the show, right before the end credits start. The German set eliminates many of these. For the episodes that have the closing logo, it's been awkwardly edited on.

4. Bite Of The Jackal is the full uncut episode, not the edited print as found in the UK set.

5. There's a soundtrack glitch in Proof Through The Night as Hawke and Santini drive to The Lair, thats found in the UK, U.S. and German set. Although I don't know if it's that way in the Japanese set.

6. Fallen Angel is missing a line by Caitlin when she says "I thought she was dead"

[WernerP]

Interesting.

[dvdboy]

Is the German release better in terms of video quality compared to the US release?

[greenguy]

Originally Posted by dvdboy

Is the German release better in terms of video quality compared to the US release?

The German set is just a little sharper in terms of picture quality.

In another thread, a member described it this way

"For example, take the the scene from pilot when Airwolf starts up for first time and is slowly heading towards the camera, you can see the the nose-mod rivet line more clearly than on MC set which is bit fuzzy (only gets sharp visibility when it gets closer)"

There's not a huge difference at all. Had I not put them episode on, then switched back and forth between the two, I probably would have never noticed.

[dvdboy]

Originally Posted by greenguy

The German set is just a little sharper in terms of picture quality.

In another thread, a member described it this way

"For example, take the the scene from pilot when Airwolf starts up for first time and is slowly heading towards the camera, you can see the the nose-mod rivet line more clearly than on MC set which is bit fuzzy (only gets sharp visibility when it gets closer)"

There's not a huge difference at all. Had I not put them episode on, then switched back and forth between the two, I probably would have never noticed.

Awesome, thankyou.