Thunderbirds limited edition box sets (1965 series)

[navydavey]

Originally Posted by Indiana Jones

The LE Captain Scarlet set or the regular series release? as the bonus disc exclusive to the LE has a great amount of extras.

Just the regular set, I will probably upgrade if/when Anderson releases their own set similar to Space Precinct and Thunderbirds.

[Indiana Jones]

Originally Posted by T4ffer

To balance out the marketing e-mails is it ok if I start writing a weekly diary and send it to the Gerry Anderson store until the box set has arrived?

I have found if you add something to your basket and leave it there for a few days you will get an email with a discount code, just got one yesterday for 10% valid for 48 hours.

[Martyghost]

There is mention elsewhere that the Thunderbirds Super Space Theatre BD is encoded 50i. The film is running at 25fps, not the correct shooting speed for a 35mm production for international sales, which of course is 24fps.

Does that mean the 60th release will also be wrong ?

[Indiana Jones]

Originally Posted by Martyghost

There is mention elsewhere that the Thunderbirds Super Space Theatre BD is encoded 50i. The film is running at 25fps, not the correct shooting speed for a 35mm production for international sales, which of course is 24fps.

Does that mean the 60th release will also be wrong ?

They state on their site the boxset will be 24fps which would make sense as they are using the same masters as the US/Japan/German sets just with some tweaks.

Where is it being reported the Super Space Theatre discs are 50i? as it states 1080p on the Anderson Store so if they are in fact 1080i/50hz that could cause quite an issue for anyone in the US looking to import and there are no warnings on their site.

[Martyghost]

It was over on Roobarbs but it seems it may have something to do with the movies originally being video edits and the audio sources used.

[Indiana Jones]

Originally Posted by Martyghost

It was over on Roobarbs but it seems it may have something to do with the movies originally being video edits and the audio sources used.

Just checked my copy and they are encoded as 1080/24p.

[Nailwraps]

There is a problem with the audio however. I won't get into the specifics (long story short, they were using PAL masters converted to NTSC then converted back to PAL), but the Movie audio is presented in the correct pitch (ironically), but the Episodes soundtrack is in a high PAL-pitch.

I e-mailed Anderson about this and this is what they had to say:

"The pitch is adjusted to in each instance to match original episodes as closely as possible. The format of masters varies for each available asset, and there are inherent differences in audio quality of each master, which results in differing audio quality dependent on the source."

"The sources for these soundtracks were from masters with different frame rates. Working with old masters such as these it is often necessary to convert frame rates (from 25fps to 24 fps etc), as the standard format for region-free Blu-ray compatibility is 24fps. When making any such necessary changes, we work to ensure that the re-speeds are undertaken in such a way that does not affect the picture motion adversely. We also use various audio editing techniques, such as pitch shift, to ensure the audio quality is as close as possible to the original mono audio. This work however is subjective, and as each audio source also has its own qualities (inherent to the original master format) the results for the episode and movie soundtracks will always differ slightly. However, we are happy with the balance we have achieved here to ensure pitch is always as close as possible to the original mono track from the episodes (i.e as originally recorded)."

Which doesn't make sense for 2 reasons; 1.) Thunderbirds and all of Gerry Anderson's ITC output was automatically and intentionally shot and recorded at 24fps/NTSC (as a way to help sell the shows to America) and 2.) If they knew the pitches used for the Episodes soundtrack were higher-pitch, why not simply correct them?

What's odder (but good) is that they manage to correct the pitch problems for the Movie soundtrack. As I said, the movies were made using PAL transfers and adding additional sound effects and music from NTSC/24fps sources, so how they manage to convert everything at the proper pitch and speed is interesting. When Network released the Stingray movies, they had the Movie soundtracks in the pitch the way it was created and the Episodes soundtracks in their correct pitch.

So I don't understand why the Episodes soundtracks for the Thunderbirds release wasn't pitch-corrected.

[Indiana Jones]

Originally Posted by Nailwraps

There is a problem with the audio however. I won't get into the specifics (long story short, they were using PAL masters converted to NTSC then converted back to PAL), but the Movie audio is presented in the correct pitch (ironically), but the Episodes soundtrack is in a high PAL-pitch.

I e-mailed Anderson about this and this is what they had to say:

"The pitch is adjusted to in each instance to match original episodes as closely as possible. The format of masters varies for each available asset, and there are inherent differences in audio quality of each master, which results in differing audio quality dependent on the source."

"The sources for these soundtracks were from masters with different frame rates. Working with old masters such as these it is often necessary to convert frame rates (from 25fps to 24 fps etc), as the standard format for region-free Blu-ray compatibility is 24fps. When making any such necessary changes, we work to ensure that the re-speeds are undertaken in such a way that does not affect the picture motion adversely. We also use various audio editing techniques, such as pitch shift, to ensure the audio quality is as close as possible to the original mono audio. This work however is subjective, and as each audio source also has its own qualities (inherent to the original master format) the results for the episode and movie soundtracks will always differ slightly. However, we are happy with the balance we have achieved here to ensure pitch is always as close as possible to the original mono track from the episodes (i.e as originally recorded)."

Which doesn't make sense for 2 reasons; 1.) Thunderbirds and all of Gerry Anderson's ITC output was automatically and intentionally shot and recorded at 24fps/NTSC (as a way to help sell the shows to America) and 2.) If they knew the pitches used for the Episodes soundtrack were higher-pitch, why not simply correct them?

What's odder (but good) is that they manage to correct the pitch problems for the Movie soundtrack. As I said, the movies were made using PAL transfers and adding additional sound effects and music from NTSC/24fps sources, so how they manage to convert everything at the proper pitch and speed is interesting. When Network released the Stingray movies, they had the Movie soundtracks in the pitch the way it was created and the Episodes soundtracks in their correct pitch.

So I don't understand why the Episodes soundtracks for the Thunderbirds release wasn't pitch-corrected.

Sounds like they didn't understand you were referring to the original episode audio as their explanation makes sense as too why the film length audio is in the correct pitch despite its frankenstein nature, they clearly put a lot of time into getting it right.

I am not sure why they even bothered including the original episode audio as an option, I mean if I want to watch the broadcast episodes I will watch them in the forthcoming boxset in their full unedited format, this set was to get the compilation movies and it sounds like in that regard they got those presentations spot on, didn't notice any sync issues either so I have high hopes they have fixed that on the boxset.

[hagios]

Why has this gone up another $5 (to $155) for us in the USA since I last looked (it is a very high price to begin with )?

[The Hornets]

Originally Posted by hagios

Why has this gone up another $5 (to $155) for us in the USA since I last looked (it is a very high price to begin with )?

They are obviously dynamically updating for changes in the GBP vs USD exchange rate. It won’t be a fixed USD price as they want a guaranteed amount in GBP.

Remember they charge your card when you order so that locks in the exchange rate.

[Martyghost]

So after their long winded explanation, we are left hoping that the audio pitch of the episodes in the 60th set will be correct.

[oddbox83]

If it’s 24p and not dicked about with, it should be fine.

[Nailwraps]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

If it’s 24p and not dicked about with, it should be fine.

I don't think we have to worry about it. Even the listing states 24fps. If the audio is in the wrong (I.E. PAL) pitch, then we need to do something.

[Yurakucho]

Skip to 57 minutes on the video embedded in this site to see Mark Steyn singing the Fireball XL-5 theme song: https://www.steynonline.com/mark-ste...fire-and-reign

You're welcome.

[Indiana Jones]

Originally Posted by Martyghost

So after their long winded explanation, we are left hoping that the audio pitch of the episodes in the 60th set will be correct.

The compilation movies were a frankenstein creation, I have absolutely no worries about the pitch of the episodes as they will be using the already struck masters used on the Japanese/US/German releases which are 24fps, just with some additional cleanup work (and I hope no additional DNR)

What I would like to see though is that they have corrected any sync issues with the 5.1 and mono tracks which affected the German and Japanese releases (no idea if the US set was affected as never had it)

[Nailwraps]

Originally Posted by Indiana Jones

What I would like to see though is that they have corrected any sync issues with the 5.1 and mono tracks which affected the German and Japanese releases (no idea if the US set was affected as never had it)

From what I heard, Pit of Peril has sync issues on the Japan set. Shout! corrected that for the US release.

There's also an audio skip during the end credits for Trapped In The Sky, but fortunately the music still plays through to the last note even after the final credit fadeout.

The Cham-Cham has had audio problems since the DVD releases; the 5.1 track, Stateside wise, is low-pitched (which, if you watched it on a UK/PAL DVD, it sounds like the original pitch as originally recorded). The HD remaster corrects the pitch of the opening intro, but neglects everything after that (the original Mono since the Japan Blu-ray releases are in the original correct pitch).

[Indiana Jones]

Originally Posted by Nailwraps

From what I heard, Pit of Peril has sync issues on the Japan set. Shout! corrected that for the US release.

There's also an audio skip during the end credits for Trapped In The Sky, but fortunately the music still plays through to the last note even after the final credit fadeout.

The Cham-Cham has had audio problems since the DVD releases; the 5.1 track, Stateside wise, is low-pitched (which, if you watched it on a UK/PAL DVD, it sounds like the original pitch as originally recorded). The HD remaster corrects the pitch of the opening intro, but neglects everything after that (the original Mono since the Japan Blu-ray releases are in the original correct pitch).

During my watch through of the German set most episodes seemed to have issues with some worse than others (The Mighty Atom was really bad) but I really do hope they have paid special addition to fixing those.

[Obsidianable]

Preorder up at HMV. Releasing on 29th September apparently which would be nice.

https://hmv.com/Store/Film-TV/Blu-ra...ed-Collector-s

[JackyJacquard]

Ugh, Rarewaves have it at £110 for some reason.

Guess I gotta hope Anderson Entertainment sends me another discount code

[Grazey1]

Originally Posted by Obsidianable

Preorder up at HMV. Releasing on 29th September apparently which would be nice.

https://hmv.com/Store/Film-TV/Blu-ra...ed-Collector-s

Which was the same date that Swiss pre order site had it listed at the end of july