The Official Network Thread

[Big-D]

Whatever happened to the release of Out - The Complete Series (1978)?

I know it was scheduled for release on May 15th, but I haven't saw it listed or for sale anywhere.

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=32364

[fatboyslim142]

Originally Posted by Big-D

Whatever happened to the release of Out - The Complete Series (1978)?

I know it was scheduled for release on May 15th, but I haven't saw it listed or for sale anywhere.

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=32364

Think it might have been site exclusive to begin with.

[T4ffer]

Originally Posted by fatboyslim142

Think it might have been site exclusive to begin with.

I think so, yeah. Luckily managed to snag a copy.

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by fatboyslim142

The Edgar Wallace Mysteries - a series of B-movies based on Edgar Wallace stories. Either get the boxset that contains all the films or get each one (there are 47 in total) individually. There is also a German BD set of the films but NOT all of them are English friendly so you'd need DVDs of the German ONLY ones.

Just a friendly correction: The German Wallace DVD/Blus are not the same movies that are in the Network sets. They are adaptations of Wallace stories, but they are German films (though mostly set in England as per the original books). These are affectionately known as "Krimi" films in Germany, aka "Crime films." Many have been released in Germany on DVD and Blu, but as you say, not all releases are English friendly. The Network pictures on the other hand are all UK produced and in native English.

[fatboyslim142]

Originally Posted by Professor Echo

Just a friendly correction: The German Wallace DVD/Blus are not the same movies that are in the Network sets. They are adaptations of Wallace stories, but they are German films (though mostly set in England as per the original books). These are affectionately known as "Krimi" films in Germany, aka "Crime films." Many have been released in Germany on DVD and Blu, but as you say, not all releases are English friendly. The Network pictures on the other hand are all UK produced and in native English.

Thanks. I must've got them mixed up.

[OceanBlue]

Originally Posted by Professor Echo

Just a friendly correction: The German Wallace DVD/Blus are not the same movies that are in the Network sets. They are adaptations of Wallace stories, but they are German films (though mostly set in England as per the original books). These are affectionately known as "Krimi" films in Germany, aka "Crime films." Many have been released in Germany on DVD and Blu, but as you say, not all releases are English friendly. The Network pictures on the other hand are all UK produced and in native English.

Professor Echo, thanks for the detailed explanation.

[alexrinse]

Shout out to the Edgar Wallace box. There's some absolute crackers in there, like The Man in the Back Seat. Also, no love here for Scotland Yard?

[Modman]

Originally Posted by alexrinse

Shout out to the Edgar Wallace box. There's some absolute crackers in there, like The Man in the Back Seat. Also, no love here for Scotland Yard?

You mean Scotland Yard with with everyone's favourite criminologist Edgar Lustgarten or New Scotland Yard?

[alexrinse]

That's the one! He loves a good murder.

[Yippie Ki Yay07]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

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.

What you're searching for is perfectionism on Blu-Ray. You may get near to it, but you will never get what you want. Network produced the best Blu transfer. I'm satisfied with the restoration work carried out. Jaw-droppingly sensational, and with a new 5.1 sound mix available they sound pretty damned good too. Overall, nick picking is about right. Some people will never be satisfied, even when a job is done very well by Network.

[JoePo]

HMV staff member told me today Network are being picked up by a company call Spirit (something to do with Technicolor apparently) and normal service (whatever that entails) should be resumed shortly

[DaniRyder23]

Originally Posted by JoePo

HMV staff member told me today Network are being picked up by a company call Spirit (something to do with Technicolor apparently) and normal service (whatever that entails) should be resumed shortly

Well...first thoughts are that's great news!

...followed by mild regret for having spent so much in a panic over the last week still got a few that haven't been charged or shipped yet, but not confident enough to cancel them (FOMO still getting me, just in case it doesn't work out)...think I'll probably just take it on the chin and be grateful that I've filled some holes in my collection

Still, I look forward to moving onto some of the more obscure titles in the future now that I've got the ones I wanted taken care of

[The Hornets]

Originally Posted by JoePo

HMV staff member told me today Network are being picked up by a company call Spirit (something to do with Technicolor apparently) and normal service (whatever that entails) should be resumed shortly

As someone noted earlier Spirit own the label Dazzler and signed a distribution deal for BBC content last year, as the BBC now only do a handful of shows like Doctor Who themselves. They also handle output for the likes of Sky, C5 and Apple+.

Technicolor where IIRC the fulfillment company who handled the mailing out of Network direct sales in the past. Not sure if they were the current partner at time Network imploded. If they were, then almost certainly Network's stock is in one of Technicolor's warehouses.

[MifuneFan]

Assuming this is true, I wonder how it will continue after Spirit Entertainment takes over. Is it simply that they will just sell Netowork's existing warehouse inventory, or will they actually continue to keep licenses, and make new stock available if titles sell out?

[The Hornets]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Assuming this is true, I wonder how it will continue after Spirit Entertainment takes over. Is it simply that they will just sell Network's existing warehouse inventory, or will they actually continue to keep licenses, and make new stock available if titles sell out?

Agree lots of unknows

- If just distribution and they were Network's fulfillment partner through Technicolor it may just be selling the stock left in their warehouse.

- However, if we take the "glass half full" then it may mean they continue to keep existing titles in print, so press more copies as required. This is a "low cost" option as the BD and DVD masters would already exist.

- Big unknown is do they keep Network's catalogue going as an ongoing business so new titles exploiting their licencing with the likes of ITV, Freemantle and Studio Canal.

- What we all hope "would be the cream" is not just new titles but also new HD restorations, so some of those titles talked about here over the recent years finally appear on sale.

[CouncilSpectre]

Unless they're changing their model Spirit don't undertake restorative work do they? As good as this could be losing that side of Network would still be a big loss.

Dependent on how close to being finished certain in-flight restorations might have been they could pay for them to be finished off, but who knows

[Rayjg]

Originally Posted by The Hornets

Did you see they still have the complete Space 1999 boxset there which gives you all of S1, S2, TVMs and extras (10 copies left at time of writing). It’s cheaper than the Imprint version.

https://shop.gerryanderson.com/colle...region-b-2-pal

However, paid much less than this in recent Network sale.

Does this include everything from the Space Theater set site exclusive?

[oddbox83]

Originally Posted by Yippie Ki Yay07

What you're searching for is perfectionism on Blu-Ray. You may get near to it, but you will never get what you want. Network produced the best Blu transfer. I'm satisfied with the restoration work carried out. Jaw-droppingly sensational, and with a new 5.1 sound mix available they sound pretty damned good too. Overall, nick picking is about right. Some people will never be satisfied, even when a job is done very well by Network.

Network did try and address some of the issues with ITV’s HD masters but it was certainly below the standard of Network’s in-house restorations. Nit-picking, or justifiable criticism? I definitely go with the latter especially when we have the older restored DVDs which in my opinion are overall more satisfying to me.

Is aiming for perfection a bad thing anyway?

I don’t think I’m being unreasonable in any way in using an early 00s restoration as the gold standard in grading UFO properly and making the choice to stick with a softer 576p image in preference to a 1080p one with more detail but sloppier work by ITV. It’s just the one I like most, and the Umbrella edition has nice extras not carried over onto the Network so I’d be wanting to keep that anyway. The Umbrella DVD remains the best release of UFO overall IMHO.

[The Screaming Feces]

Originally Posted by JoePo

HMV staff member told me today Network are being picked up by a company call Spirit (something to do with Technicolor apparently) and normal service (whatever that entails) should be resumed shortly

That's great news if it turns out that way (including the continued restoration of in-progress shows like The Sweeney to HD for a future Blu-ray release)--I'm not cancelling any of my yet-to-ship orders though lol.

As for my orders, everything has shipped except for Man in a Suitcase: The Complete Series on Blu-ray, so I ordered the individual BD volumes from Amazon UK in case the American seller, MovieMars, doesn't come through.

[harry o]

What about "the baron" I wonder ??