The Alfred Hitchcock Hour - Imprint

[tangerinewolf]

Originally Posted by gunnerg

Have you viewed all the discs yet? My opinion is only on the first 2. I have 6 more to go and you've got me nervous for those! But yeah, so far there is nowhere near too much damage for me personally. The visual improvements far outweighed any specks or damaged moments. It was a treat to finally see a filmic presentation. It far surpassed the dvds & streaming. And any defect looked to be a film defect, I don't mind those as much. It felt like a quality, honest, warts & all scan. Disc 3-8 may change my mind!

Well, I just finished the sixth disc and started (2 episodes) of the seventh disc. So if you like what you saw in terms of PQ with the first two discs, then I believe you’re going to like the rest. No need to get nervous.

For me, as a little kid in the 1970’s, The Twilight Zone (1959-1964), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1962), Thriller (1960-1962) with Boris Karloff, The Outer Limits (1963-1965) and finally The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962-1965) were, by this time, all in syndication. And my friends and I watched them nonstop.

So The Twilight Zone Blu-rays were/are very near perfect in the PQ department. Next came The Outer Limits to Blu-ray, first from Kino Lorber in the US and Via Vision/Imprint in Australia. And again PQ nearly perfect. Although Imprint, IMO had a better encode, so I kept Imprint’s set. Now we finally have (at least the first season) of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour on Blu-ray. And, for me, this one is somewhat a cut below the other two shows on Blu-ray that I mentioned in terms of awesome print quality.

I guess I set my expectations a bit to high, but these three shows all came from the same TV era. So why does TAHH have more print damage and a lesser restoration? But of course they’re certainly not unwatchable by any means, and I’m having a blast watching them! But The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits set a pretty high standard PQ wise. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour doesn’t meet that standard, IMO.

But the bottom line is: Enjoy them, they’re on Blu-ray now. Hopefully AHP and Thriller will get there soon.

[smithb]

Originally Posted by tangerinewolf

Well, I just finished the sixth disc and started (2 episodes) of the seventh disc. So if you like what you saw in terms of PQ with the first two discs, then I believe you’re going to like the rest. No need to get nervous.

For me, as a little kid in the 1970’s, The Twilight Zone (1959-1964), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1962), Thriller (1960-1962) with Boris Karloff, The Outer Limits (1963-1965) and finally The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962-1965) were, by this time, all in syndication. And my friends and I watched them nonstop.

So The Twilight Zone Blu-rays were/are very near perfect in the PQ department. Next came The Outer Limits to Blu-ray, first from Kino Lorber in the US and Via Vision/Imprint in Australia. And again PQ nearly perfect. Although Imprint, IMO had a better encode, so I kept Imprint’s set. Now we finally have (at least the first season) of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour on Blu-ray. And, for me, this one is somewhat a cut below the other two shows on Blu-ray that I mentioned in terms of awesome print quality.

I guess I set my expectations a bit to high, but these three shows all came from the same TV era. So why does TAHH have more print damage and a lesser restoration? But of course they’re certainly not unwatchable by any means, and I’m having a blast watching them! But The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits set a pretty high standard PQ wise. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour doesn’t meet that standard, IMO.

But the bottom line is: Enjoy them, they’re on Blu-ray now. Hopefully AHP and Thriller will get there soon.

So why does TAHH have more print damage and a lesser restoration?

The likely reason because the studios did those restorations and provided the prints for release. As stated in the press release, Imprint did the 2K scans for TAHH. Imprint probably felt they could recoup their cost for 2K transfers but not for full restorations as well. That's the bad news.

The good news is that if Imprint had to fork over for new 2K transfers then it is likely the studios weren't, so this may be the only way these are ever available in HD.

I own the UK DVD versions that I converted from PAL 576i to NTSC 720p. They look pretty good, so I will likely stick with those unless at some point the studio does a full restoration.