The Official Network Thread

[Reddington]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Network's Thunderbirds release was poor due to the cropping, and there's no decent affordable edition of it. Shout's is poor due to aliasing and sync issues.

The Shout set is in the OAR, and has the original mono. I've watched it all the way through three times, with favourite episodes even more. On my 40" screen it looks fantastic. I've read lots of comments about the alleged issues, but I've never noticed. Perhaps because I've never gone looking...?

Originally Posted by Professor Echo

I sympathize with you, but I consider those releases still relatively watchable and am glad to have them. Maybe I’m not as particular as some when it comes to such issues...

Sums it up for me.

[Yippie Ki Yay07]

Originally Posted by mar3o

There are always new fans, plus if there's one thing that's obvious on this site, it's that fans will re-buy releases if it adds something new or is an improvement over previous editions.

Network's Thunderbirds release was poor due to the cropping, and there's no decent affordable edition of it. Shout's is poor due to aliasing and sync issues.

Network's Space:1999 year 1 still looks very nice but it's based on an ancient BBC scan and could stand a new restoration. There's also a faint blue vertical line on the far right edge of the screen on all season 1 episodes, which affects all releases worldwide. Most don't notice it. Network's remaster of season 2 is great but the surround tracks have sync issues throughout the set and the music sadly takes a back seat to the action. All sets worldwide that use their surround tracks have the same issue. Shout's set used their own surround tracks but they are poor. Thankfully the mono tracks are great.

Network's UFO release was nice but didn't correct some of the issues previous sets had.

So there's room for improvement and re-releases, especially new remasters.

I think some people become highly obsessive and like to nit pick about very minor issues. All this becomes an unhealthy exercise. Just be grateful that you had the opportunity to watch a better quality release. Now it seems totally academic and pointless. Never satisfied.

[CelestialAgent]

I picked up some Network titles from CEX Ipswich. £8, £8 and £12. They mostly seem to still be available, but I don’t want to fall into a trap of listings rapidly disappearing, and I don’t know if I would get the digipack packaging or the booklet for Defence if I went with another seller. They also had The Way to the Stars, but it had sold out when I got there.

[Dubliner1]

"The World At War" is a great set to pick up...and the Network is the only one available in the correct aspect ratio anywhere I think.

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by Mr. Thomsen

Can you trust Rarewaves in that if you order something that is listed in stock, you are certain to get it?

I ordered The Dark Eyes of London a few days ago, but it has still not shipped and is now listed as OOS. In the meantime, sellers on Amazon has been straight up doubling the price on it since yesterday (it went from £17 to £34 at one specific seller, even though they do not list it as low stock).

I ordered The Man Who Finally Died! and Robbery from Rarewaves on 31 May. The former shipped on 2 June and the latter shipped on 5 June, both well after they showed as "Sold Out" on the site.

I think if you got an order in, you should be okay, but obviously, if you don't receive a shipping confirmation e-mail soon, I would reach out to Rarewaves.

[everygrainofsand]

Originally Posted by Modman

There's also Plays for Britain, Galton and Simpson Playhouse, Male of the Species (includes 3 plays with stars like Caine and Connery) and there's stage plays brought to TV like The Norman Conquests Trilogy.

Thanks for this. I appreciate the general heads up. I'm only really familiar with 'Play for Today', so the prospect of these others is tantalising. I bet there's some wonderful stuff amongst them, that's largely forgotten today.

[ste71]

Originally Posted by Dubliner1

"The World At War" is a great set to pick up...and the Network is the only one available in the correct aspect ratio anywhere I think.

I'm in the middle of watching this (for the 1000th time I think). Great set and restoration. For those who are interested I put one disc in my Region A player by accident and it is definitely region-locked.

[Modman]

Originally Posted by Martyghost

I'm glad I bought The Persuaders 50th anniversary set when it came out, made up of five blu-rays (in two sets) and a big book. Only £50 at the time.

I've just seen the Featuring the Persuaders 8 movies blu-ray on ebay and it's now a whopping £94.99 for that alone!

The two sets plus the book were in the last sale for £32.50, I would be kicking myself now if I hadn't picked it up.

[Modman]

Originally Posted by CouncilSpectre

Only things left that I'm desperate for now is the Saint sets. Always thought we'd get them in HD at some point so never bothered picking up the DVDs.

Sadly, for me, news of Network's demise came after I'd already massively overspent this month...

I held off buying the monochrome set expecting a blu-ray release at some point, I guess that's now on my list of must buys.

[DaniRyder23]

Originally Posted by GreatUncleBaal

Yeah, it was Virgin, then when they went bankrupt, Zavvi bought the stock,
then when Zavvi went bankrupt there was another internal buyout, and eventually 'the hut' bought them, or combined with them.

I might be remembering slightly wrong, but that was gist of it.

Yeah that sounds about right! I hadn't realised it was that long ago, but I suppose that's due to having gone through my 20's in the time since Virgin went bust...time flies when you're getting older

Originally Posted by Shawn1968

While I’d like to be proven wrong, I can’t see anyone pressing physical discs of the Gerry Anderson Superanimation material - the collectors, hardcore and even more casual fans picked up the Network Blu-rays so who would be the market?

It's hard to say. I had picked up both the Captain Scarlet sets, since I always felt they were the more adult (certainly darker) of the puppet shows. I think I probably watched more of Scarlet as a kid than I did Thunderbirds or Stingray - but I still don't have Stingray, and having never seen Fireball XL5 or Joe 90 (or Supercar, for that matter) I had not been in a rush to get them, even when they were on sale. As an adult GA fan I had intended to get around to picking them up eventually, but the only shows I had any nostalgia for were CS, Thunderbirds and Stingray. I got the Supermarionation BD and book, I'm sure that I would have eventually bought the complete sets after watching the selection of episodes on that disc, but I wasn't in a huge rush...

Plus, there are always new fans. As long as the format is popular (which is a bigger concern, I think) there will be people who have grown up watching these shows on streaming who will want to own them in another 10-15 years...if this generation ends up being into physical media when they're older. Seeing how vinyl and (bewilderingly) cassettes are back in style, maybe there will be an optical disc film and TV resurgence when the kids of today grow up and want something that reminds them of the DVDs they had when they were little?

As long as physical media continues to be a thing, I think there'll be new generations of fans of these shows who will want to buy them on BD (or even UHD one day, who knows?)

Originally Posted by mar3o

There are always new fans, plus if there's one thing that's obvious on this site, it's that fans will re-buy releases if it adds something new or is an improvement over previous editions.

...and then there's this. I think a lot of us would double-dip if a new version improved on the Network versions in some way. I think a lot of us have double dipped on a lot of films and shows that had originally been released in "ultimate edition" DVDs, or even BD, back in the beginning of the format's life. Maybe the next thing is UHD transfers for these shows? Or newly created bonus material? Failing that, just a fancy new box would be enough to entice some people. It wouldn't be the first time we'd seen older titles replaced by newer, even slightly, better releases...depending on who gets the existing transfers, they may end up costing so little for the content that another label could put more money into the special features or presentation to pretty it up, without affecting the end RRP too much. So I think there's still some longevity in it; I mean if Disney can keep finding ways to sell us Star Wars...

Originally Posted by floor pie

Okay, I'm making some Network TV purchases in the fear that they will be OOS/OOP soon. So far I've got both The Saint sets and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) in my basket. Unfortunately Department S seems to have gone already. And The Professionals too, fück!

Are there still some other series I should be prioritizing? I already have The Persuaders and I love it dearly. I was a bit interested in Space: 1999 as I love old sci-fi, but that seems to have gone up in price too. I'm not going to buy the space puppet stuff. (Honestly I hope there won't be any more "can't miss" stuff, The Saint and RH(D) is quite enough damage to my wallet already!)

Edit: and of course I can't forget the Prisoner! I'm also thinking of grabbing UFO, although it's a bit pricey at £50.

So my opinion, as a fairly casual British fan who's probably letting nostalgia affect their judgement somewhat...

I already had The Prisoner (grew up watching this as a teen, so an essential purchase IMO), The Persuaders (a blind buy that was absolutely worth it), and the Captain Scarlet shows (as I said earlier, one of the darker/more adult puppet shows - but if you have no interest in these, probably best to keep the blinders on and not let them burn a bigger hole in your pocket).

With the recent news, I went straight for the other shows I'd already grown up watching - the main one was Man About The House (remade as Three's Company in the states), which I think still holds up today but then I do have a very British sense of humour, so it's not one I'd recommend for anyone who hadn't seen it before.

Space: 1999 is one that I'd been planning to get for a while - my sci-fi collection would be incomplete without it tbh. I got my Battlestar '78, Star Trek TOS, Star Wars OT (the silly BDs and the rough "Special Edition" DVDs with the original theatrical versions), 2001, Silent Running...so there was a gaping Space: 1999 shaped hole in my "space miniatures" collection that needed filling. Personally I think it's my favourite GA show, and the "Ultimate Space: 1999" (18 disc set) is fantastic, with both series, all the special features, and all 5 of the film versions included - but it only came out in March 2022, so with it only having existed for 14 months, I expect it'll be harder to find in the future. I would say get on it now - even at a slightly inflated price - if you're interested in it, because it'll be one of the rarer ones going forward

UFO I had never gotten around to seeing, but knowing that it laid the foundation for Space: 1999 I had always meant to. I watched a couple episodes on streaming and decided that - whilst it didn't grab me as much as Space: 1999 - it was something worth owning (and another one that's got a great set of special features). I ended up getting a secondhand one from CeX for £27 instead of paying the £39.99 that it was on Amazon. I wouldn't pay too much for this one, as it's been around for 5-6 years now, and I expect there'll be enough on the used market once things cool down that it would be easier to get ahold of than the new Space: 1999 set. If you're thinking in terms of scarcity, I'd prioritise Space: 1999 over UFO, but both are good (especially if you're a sci-fi fan). Series 2 of UFO eventually became Space: 1999, so it's kinda like Danger Man to The Prisoner, in that sense

I also grabbed the Saint sets, having been a BD elitist before now, I buckled and went for DVDs because I'd rather have them than not. The other DVD set I went for was Danger Man - if you're a fan of The Prisoner, I think it would be worth picking up the complete set (if you can afford the £65). It's a shame that they were never remastered, but I find both The Saint and Danger Man to be more enjoyable than the Bond films. I like a bit of Bond, but (especially the older films) they can be a bit over the top for me now...Danger Man is more down to earth, I think, but still has that typical British 60's spy swagger to it

I also grabbed Randall and Hopkirk, Department S and The Professionals - if that gives you some idea of the kind of things that interest me

Bottom line though; I think that The Prisoner is essential, potentially Danger Man to accompany it, Space: 1999 and UFO are both great sets, but the former is going to be scarcer going forward whilst the latter is still available for a reasonable used price (but if you absolutely want a new copy, it's worth grabbing now). Obviously my sci-fi bias is showing...but that said, The World At War is a great set too, that I'm really glad I'd already picked up earlier as I wouldn't have been able to justify it on top of all the stuff I've bought over the past week

Also I discovered that, in a few places, it was cheaper to buy the 4 Professionals sets individually than the complete series, so it might be worth looking into that (I believe Amazon still have I to III, you'd have to find IV elsewhere though)

Originally Posted by Martyghost

I'm glad I bought The Persuaders 50th anniversary set when it came out, made up of five blu-rays (in two sets) and a big book. Only £50 at the time.

I've just seen the Featuring the Persuaders 8 movies blu-ray on ebay and it's now a whopping £94.99 for that alone!

Were there 8? I'd assumed that the 4 on the regular set (in SD) were all of them...the Network Store exclusives are the biggest shame tbh. I got the Supermarionation book for a tenner, which I thought was a great price, then saw it on sale for £3 and was a little gutted, but now I'm just glad I got a copy at all. I just picked up the Prisoner soundtrack about a month or two back (never did get the new book though). Was hoping to get the Persuaders movies at some point, but...well I think we all would have done a few things differently if we'd had a crystal ball..

Originally Posted by CouncilSpectre

Only things left that I'm desperate for now is the Saint sets. Always thought we'd get them in HD at some point so never bothered picking up the DVDs.

My monochrome set arrived yesterday, I've not watched any yet...DVDs in general don't look fantastic on my 4K TV, and I'm so spoiled with BDs that I had been passing on The Saint and Danger Man thinking it was just a matter of time before we got restored BDs on the same level as Persuaders, Prisoner, UFO etc (I really thought that Danger Man would have been an inevitability, with so many Prisoner fans being fans of that show as well). Still, I'll take what I can get The Saint sets seem to be really good though, even if they are "just" DVDs

Originally Posted by Mr. Thomsen

In the meantime, sellers on Amazon has been straight up doubling the price on it since yesterday (it went from £17 to £34 at one specific seller, even though they do not list it as low stock).

I'd keep an eye on Amazon - I was going to buy The Saint colour series from them for £35.99 the other day, saw them put it up to £41 before I ordered a copy, then saw another copy come up for £30.99 so I ordered that one instead, now a day after that one has been dispatched I see that Amazon has dropped theirs to £27.99! So it's all over the place atm...

Originally Posted by CouncilSpectre

Probably a case of grab from where ever you can before it goes through the roof.

Pretty much, find the best deal you can today and secure it while you can...maybe the used prices will all drop once the buzz has died down (I saw completed listings for The Professionals: The Complete Series had been selling for £50 or less on eBay a couple months ago - now you can't find one for less than £100). There's obviously more demand than supply right now, but in another 6-12 months? Who knows what these sets will cost...but that's only going to apply if you want/are ok with used sets. If you want new copies then I think you're going to have to grab whatever you can right now, cause they're only going to go up in price in the coming weeks, as new stock becomes scarcer..

Originally Posted by Yippie Ki Yay07

I think some people become highly obsessive and like to nit pick about very minor issues. All this becomes an unhealthy exercise. Just be grateful that you had the opportunity to watch a better quality release. Now it seems totally academic and pointless. Never satisfied.

Yeah I've never experienced my A/V standards plummet as quickly as they have whilst confronting the fact that it would have to be DVDs or nothing for the shows that I've always wanted to own on some format - now I'm all the more grateful for the ones that we did get on BD...

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

I picked up some Network titles from CEX Ipswich. £8, £8 and £12. They mostly seem to still be available, but I don’t want to fall into a trap of listings rapidly disappearing, and I don’t know if I would get the digipack packaging or the booklet for Defence if I went with another seller. They also had The Way to the Stars, but it had sold out when I got there.

I grabbed a used copy of UFO from CeX - paranoia over 6 discs with microscratches on them aside - used copies are better than nothing, and I've generally had really good luck with CeX in the past. Only times I've returned anything have been due to my own paranoia more than any discs having any issues (I don't know how they manage it tbh - I can't imagine they have people watching every disc that comes in? Yet I've not had a faulty one yet, even with the smudges and scratches). Maybe my Xbox just has a deceptively good laser and I'm setting myself up for issues in the future when I'm no longer using this machine to watch them on...hope not though

I'm wondering if/when CeX clock onto what's happened - I can imagine sets like UFO (£25 when I bought it) and Space: 1999 (£35) going up in price once they're genuinely OOP. CeX have fair prices, but they don't often undercut the market either, so I can't imagine these sets being so reasonably priced forever. I could have gotten a brand new UFO for £40 but, considering a new copy would one day become a used copy, it felt like it wasn't worth the extra £13 if the CeX one gets the job done...this whole experience has taught me to be less of an elitist tbh. As someone who turned their nose up at DVDs and rarely ever bought used discs, here I am buying used BDs to save a bit of money to be able to afford brand new DVDs - i don't even know who I am anymore

But I'm also not sure that I would want to spend £40 on a set that was on sale for £27 just 2 months ago either, if I'm honest...I have a weird thing about episode to £££ ratio, and I don't like to pay more than £1 an episode - which is totally stupid and irrational and doesn't even take into account the number of discs, special features, or restoration efforts...it's just a weird, senseless quirk of mine...

[DaniRyder23]

Originally Posted by Modman

The two sets plus the book were in the last sale for £32.50, I would be kicking myself now if I hadn't picked it up.

I was trying to pinch pennies in the last sale so limited myself to £100 budget...I don't even want to think about how much I might've saved in the long run had I just bought everything I'd wanted then instead of waiting till now...

I never learn. It's not the first time I've set myself a limit during a sale and ended up paying more for what I wanted later on down the line...but tbh, part of it is that if I spend too much during every sale, then space becomes a bigger issue than the cost. Setting myself a budget during sales is more about not buying more than I have space to actually store...which is still an issue now, it's just cost me twice as much to face that issue a year later

[dr727]

Originally Posted by Martyghost

I'm glad I bought The Persuaders 50th anniversary set when it came out, made up of five blu-rays (in two sets) and a big book. Only £50 at the time.

I've just seen the Featuring the Persuaders 8 movies blu-ray on ebay and it's now a whopping £94.99 for that alone!

I have the 2011 5-BD/3-DVD set with the 150+pg book from Pixley. Does the newer set have anything substantially different?

[Modman]

Originally Posted by dr727

I have the 2011 5-BD/3-DVD set with the 150+pg book from Pixley. Does the newer set have anything substantially different?

All explained in the link below, the main extra content being the 8 movies constructed from the existing episodes - this is not a re-issue of the original series.

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=30206

[DaniRyder23]

Originally Posted by dr727

I have the 2011 5-BD/3-DVD set with the 150+pg book from Pixley. Does the newer set have anything substantially different?

I think the 50th anniversary set had the movies and a feature length documentary, if I remember right? I don't think it had the actual show (although that might have been the other set of the two in this particular set, but I can't imagine that would've been the case for what it cost), but it was meant to accompany the series set IIRC

I remember thinking it was something I'd pick up after I bought the series and watched through that set, rather than it being some updated ultimate version that included everything in it like the recent Space: 1999 set (I would've gone for that instead if it were the case). I may be totally wrong of course...but I've always been one to pay more for everything, so I can't see any reason I would have passed on it unless it was intended to be complimentary to the series set itself (nor would I have bought the series set when I did if it were including in that newer set - hence why I held off on the first series of Space: 1999, knowing that I'd eventually just pick up the ultimate set)

[oddbox83]

Originally Posted by Yippie Ki Yay07

I think some people become highly obsessive and like to nit pick about very minor issues. All this becomes an unhealthy exercise. Just be grateful that you had the opportunity to watch a better quality release. Now it seems totally academic and pointless. Never satisfied.

It’s not nitpicking. The aliasing is there, and is apparent to those with larger screens.

It bothers you, or it doesn’t. It bothered me enough to just stick with the 16:9 version until something better came along. Which now looks ever more unlikely.

Ditto UFO, I stuck with the Umbrella DVD set of that plus the Invasion UFO Blu-ray. Those SD ITV remasters that BBC Resources did the work on are just better done, period, than the sloppy later ones. That was an example where the superior grading wins over more detail but inconsistent grading for me.

[The Hornets]

Originally Posted by DaniRyder23

Were there 8? I'd assumed that the 4 on the regular set (in SD) were all of them...

You need to read the Persuaders thread here.

You are correct that at the time of the original Persuaders BD boxset there were only 4 English language TVMs from back in the day.

The new Persuaders 50th Anniversary release had all 8 TVMs (4 released in UK / US with English soundtracks plus the 4 from back in the day which were only released elsewhere so at the time didn't have English soundtracks, Network rebuilt the English for these). All 8 being upgraded to HD. Plus you got the disc of 50th Anniversary convention footage.


In terms of HD upgrades of Danger Man and The Saint the problem was too many episodes vs most ITC shows which only had a single season of 20 odd episodes. The Saint had something like 180 episodes so a massive cost to restore the negatives and upgrade to an HD master. Network had said Danger Man was in train at a convention around 3 to 4 years ago now but never provided an update. Again the episode count probably counted against it.

People just wouldn't buy boxsets these days for something like The Saint as you would be talking hundreds of pounds for one with everything (the market these days is sub £100 product) and if they did season by season many would wait for a full boxset so the poor sales kill the project (as we saw with The Sweeney).

I think this is why Network did a lot of left field BD upgrades in the last few years that people weren't expecting as they were only 1 to 3 disc titles so in most cases no more than max £30 to £50 which is I think a much more palatable price point than well above £100.

With the cost of living crisis am sure it is not just Network suffering as sales must be down everywhere. I for one have to be much more selective these days on what I buy whereas a few years back would happily have taken a punt on stuff. Just need to look at things like the energy price jump, ours being up nearly £200 a month as had a very cheap fixed deal long since expired. That extra energy cost more than eats up what I was spending on home video, then other things like food have shot up as well and my pay is no way keeping pace.

[BiggusDickus]

Originally Posted by floor pie

Okay, I'm making some Network TV purchases in the fear that they will be OOS/OOP soon. So far I've got both The Saint sets and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) in my basket. Unfortunately Department S seems to have gone already. And The Professionals too, fück!

Are there still some other series I should be prioritizing? I already have The Persuaders and I love it dearly. I was a bit interested in Space: 1999 as I love old sci-fi, but that seems to have gone up in price too. I'm not going to buy the space puppet stuff. (Honestly I hope there won't be any more "can't miss" stuff, The Saint and RH(D) is quite enough damage to my wallet already!)

Edit: and of course I can't forget the Prisoner! I'm also thinking of grabbing UFO, although it's a bit pricey at £50.

I really liked Dept. S, better than the spin off Jason King. Danger Man is pretty good as well, early Patrick McGoohan and B&W, but still good I thought. Network did do a series of 3 "Retro-Action" TV blu-rays showing a series of single episodes from a lot of 1960's ITC series, they might be worth checking out if cheap, you could determine which series looks promising and which ones do not.

[Jamiouse]

Will The New Avengers ever get an HD upgrade now? Was it ever confirmed that Network were planning on restoring the series?

[harry o]

Originally Posted by Jamiouse

Will The New Avengers ever get an HD upgrade now? Was it ever confirmed that Network were planning on restoring the series?

The French have the rights I think (studio canal) I don't think it was ever likely to happen which is a shame that single cybernaut episode looked great.

[MifuneFan]

I'm embarrassed to say I don't have any Network releases besides The Red Balloon / The White Mane. I'm not familiar with so many of their British releases, so I'm not sure what I should consider getting (if it's not too late). I'd like to get their House of Hammer set.