Sony says no to The Shield on Blu-ray

[Clark Kent]

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Shi...e-Series/12589

Straight from Shawn Ryan on his twitter thread, who created The Shield. Sony said it was because the show was shot on 16mm film and not good-looking enough to release on Blu-ray. I have to come out and say this is a short-sighted decision by Sony, which does not bode well for the future of television releases on Blu-ray. This is obviously a business decision more than anything else, but a season one release could have easily tested the waters without committing too much money.

[Lord_Stewie]

what a disappointment.

[Shanester]

What was the show shot on?? Not sure Blu-Ray would make that much of a difference

Great show though

[scweb13]

Texas Chain Saw Massacre was filmed on 16mm, so it can be done. Sounds like Sony just thinks its a waste of time.

[Ator the Invincible]

Well, The Shield always had an intentional gritty and shoddy appearance PQ-wise. There was little to no difference between watching it on FX or FXHD. So, I really have no problem hanging onto my DVDs of the show. I can see why some would still like to see it on blu-ray, but understand why the studio would be unwilling to make the upgrade. It would undoubtedly lead to many complaints about its appearance.

Regardless, fantastic show with one of the all-time greatest finales, IMHO.

[MaCruz]

Originally Posted by Shanester

What was the show shot on?? Not sure Blu-Ray would make that much of a difference

Great show though

on 16mm film per OP / link.

[steve_dave]

Wow, either Sony really is short sighted or they don't want to invest in TV on BD.

Scrubs is shot on 16mm film and Season 8 was presented in 720p HD on television and looks amazing. The BD coming November will improve on that presentation by being in Full 1080p.

[Rblu-Dblu]

Too bad, I would've laid some cash down for this series. One of the best IMO.

[retablo]

David Simon has also said there will be no Blu-rays for The Wire, because he wanted the look of the show to be gritty from the start. Dunno if HBO can override him, but either way I have the DVDs.

I'm not disappointed The Shield won't be coming on Blu. I assume eventually EVERYTHING will have to be upgraded to HD even for broadcast, so its not like never means never. The image wouldn't benefit that much — look at Chainsaw, its slightly better but still way soft and smeary — and The Shield was shot with blown out highlights and grainy on purpose. So yeah, look how many uneducated morons would start complaining that it doesn't look like Transformers.

[kndy]

Originally Posted by steve_dave

Wow, either Sony really is short sighted or they don't want to invest in TV on BD.

Scrubs is shot on 16mm film and Season 8 was presented in 720p HD on television and looks amazing. The BD coming November will improve on that presentation by being in Full 1080p.

Well, according to rep for the Scrubs release, Disney has said the "Scrubs season 8" is to be one of their highlight releases. The recently released DVD box set shocked the crap out of me with the amount of features included in that release. So, I'm definitely looking forward to it on Bu.

But It's not just Sony...there are plenty of series that recently came out on DVD that I wished were in Blu-ray.

[jw]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Shi...e-Series/12589

Straight from Shawn Ryan on his twitter thread, who created The Shield. Sony said it was because the show was shot on 16mm film and not good-looking enough to release on Blu-ray. I have to come out and say this is a short-sighted decision by Sony, which does not bode well for the future of television releases on Blu-ray. This is obviously a business decision more than anything else, but a season one release could have easily tested the waters without committing too much money.

well if they released it and it looked like crap, we would have another Gladiator Thread on our hands

[kevinbr100]

that sounds fishy to me, if anything it sounds like he just talked to some random sony marketing person, who doesnt really know that much about bluray, and just gave an answer based on his own assumption, and no real business decision was made. bluray is replacing dvd, it doesn't have to "look good enough", at some point everything will be released on bluray. well maybe not EVERYTHING. but they didnt not release a tv show on dvd because they shot it on beta, and it wouldnt look good enough on dvd.

[SlmShdy1]

Sony won't even give us Rescue Me on Blu-ray and that show was broadcast in HD. They're dropping the ball on TV series.

[Adam_ME]

I don't think it's accurate to say 16mm can't look better on Blu-ray. Wasn't This Is Spinal Tap shot in that format? The recent Blu-ray release is visually superior to the DVD.

If Sony just doesn't see enough copies being sold on Blu-ray to warrant a release on that format, so be it. But I think it's wrong to say 16mm material should never see the light of day on Blu-ray. That would rule out the likes of Buffy Seasons 1-2, Clerks, and Chasing Amy.

[monkeyjb1988]

That's BS on toast. Anything shot of film will look good on Blu. I can't believe I'm hearing this. This is why TV shows have been (relatively) getting the shaft. If this was Paramount, I would lose hope of the Trek spin-offs coming to blu. Absolutely ridiculous.

Originally Posted by Adam_ME

I don't think it's accurate to say 16mm can't look better on Blu-ray. Wasn't This Is Spinal Tap shot in that format? The recent Blu-ray release is visually superior to the DVD.

If Sony just doesn't see enough copies being sold on Blu-ray to warrant a release on that format, so be it. But I think it's wrong to say 16mm material should never see the light of day on Blu-ray. That would rule out the likes of Buffy Seasons 1-2, Clerks, and Chasing Amy.

And behold, Clerks and Chasing Amy are on their Blu way, along with Scrubs season 8. Like I said, ridiculous.

[Clark Kent]

Lots of films and shows shot on 16mm stock have been released on Blu-ray. I will admit that the show never looked that great on FX in HD, but a BD would have been awesome.

[al cos.]

Yeah Spinal Tap is 16mm. Anything shot on 16 can look great in HD (and not lose any of its grittiness either, style is in the photography, not the home video format). They just don't want to deal with the hassle and the cost.

[mpstjohn]

Originally Posted by steve_dave

Wow, either Sony really is short sighted or they don't want to invest in TV on BD.

I was under the impression from reading this article on the home page that Sony had yet to side with the series creator on whether or not to actually put this out on blu-ray. The creator is against it, but Sony could go either way.

[steve_dave]

Read the first post again, Shawn Ryan, the creator, said that Sony shot down the Shield on Blu-ray Disc.

From Shawn Ryan's Twitter feed:

I asked Sony when The Shield would be on Blu-Ray. I was told that our film wasn't high enough quality to put on Blu-Ray. Seems appropriate.
12:15 PM Aug 24th from web

So this looks like last and best Shield DVD release... http://tvshowsondvd.com/n/1...
12:16 PM Aug 24th from web

To clarify, Sony said the 16 mm FILM STOCK was of insufficient quality to put out on Blu-Ray, not the quality of the show. Thnx for concern.

ShawnRyanTV on Twitter

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by retablo

So yeah, look how many uneducated morons would start complaining that it doesn't look like Transformers.

But but but

Transformers is grainy too! The HD picture makes graininess more apparent, not less-so!

Originally Posted by jwbbud

well if they released it and it looked like crap, we would have another Gladiator Thread on our hands

Better to have something than nothing, especially since this show was broadcast in HD during its run. If its HD during its run, Blu-ray shouldn't be out of the question.

Anything shot of film will look good on Blu.

Actually, something shot on 8mm film probably wouldn't be NOTICEABLY better at 1080p than upscaled 480p. Not that 8mm is common these days or anything either. But native HD scan of analog material is always better than an upscaled low resolution anyway. Even low grade 16mm. Look at what Disney is doing with Clerks.