US Blu-ray release of the complete series, March 22nd, 2022

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

but old TV shows just don't seem right to me on anything other than a CRT TV.

Not even a flat screen TV?

I don't think I could watch anything again on a "curved" screen. It's been probably 20 years since I've seen anything on one of those.

We used to have this one well into the early 2000s: https://bit.ly/3IVl44r
It was a black and white that I could carry into the kitchen and then back into my room. Used to watch STREETS OF SAN FRAN, ROCKFORD, FIVE-O, BONANZA, etc. on this thing! Good times.

[MaximRecoil]

but old TV shows just don't seem right to me on anything other than a CRT TV.

Not even a flat screen TV?

My PC monitor, which I got in 2006 (and it was already about 2 years old at the time), is a 22" Mitsubishi Diamondtron, which is the same idea as a Sony Trinitron (flat CRT with an aperture grille rather than a shadow mask). I had to fix it a few years ago (replaced approximately 100 electrolytic capacitors, and fixed the cracked yoke solder joints), and during the time that I had it apart (about a week), I bought a 27" Acer LCD PC monitor to get me by. I hated it with a passion. It was a huge relief for my eyes to get back to my CRT once I fixed it. The Acer has been in storage ever since.

But for old TV shows, old console video games, and arcade games, I won't settle for anything other than a 15 kHz spherical ("curved") CRT. For consoles from Atari 2600 to Super Nintendo I use a 32" RCA CRT TV that I bought new in 2005, and it's still like new (I made a point of buying a new one at that time because I could see the writing on the wall for CRTs). For old TV shows I use the same TV, via a component (YPbPr) connection. My arcade machines all have their original or original-type RGB 15 kHz spherical CRT arcade monitors. In my living room alone there are 6 CRTs: my main PC monitor, my spare PC monitor, a 19" Happ Vision Pro in my Atari Missile Command arcade machine, two Nintendo/Sanyo 20-Z2AWs in my Nintendo Super Punch-Out machine, and the 32" RCA TV. If you include the dining room there are two more 19" Happ Vision Pros (Tradewest/SNK Ikari Warriors and Capcom Street Fighter II arcade machines), and in my bedroom there's another CRT PC monitor connected to a 486 PC dual-booting Windows 3.11 WFW and Windows 95.

The only modern video display that I have and actually use is a BenQ W1070 1080p projector (along with a 100" projector screen); I only use it to watch movies, preferably movies that were shot on film and have a good Blu-ray transfer. A good transfer looks spectacular on it; you'd think you were watching an original film print in a theater ("Quigley Down Under" is one of the best quality BD transfers I've seen; beautiful film grain and color timing).

I don't think I could watch anything again on a "curved" screen. It's been probably 20 years since I've seen anything on one of those.

We used to have this one well into the early 2000s: https://bit.ly/3IVl44r
It was a black and white that I could carry into the kitchen and then back into my room. Used to watch STREETS OF SAN FRAN, ROCKFORD, FIVE-O, BONANZA, etc. on this thing! Good times.

I have a 12" B&W TV similar to that one. I rarely use it, but sometimes I connect it to an NES for the sake of nostalgia. My cousin Mike was the first person I knew to get an NES, in 1986 about 2 weeks after the first commercials for them aired in the US, and the TV in his room was a 12" B&W that he got for $5 at a yard sale.

[eagle]

For consoles from Atari 2600 to Super Nintendo I use a 32" RCA CRT TV that I bought new in 2005

That's hard-core. I'm a huge Atari fan, and I modded all of my Ataris with UAV and added S-video output. I feed that through a RetroTINK 2X-Mini into my Vizio 43" TV. Looks great, but it doesn't look like a CRT.

I'd switch to HDMI output if I could, but this is as good as it'll get without switching to direct HDMI output.

And, sorry for being off-topic. It's just cool to meet another phone & Atari fan.

[MaximRecoil]

For consoles from Atari 2600 to Super Nintendo I use a 32" RCA CRT TV that I bought new in 2005

That's hard-core. I'm a huge Atari fan, and I modded all of my Ataris with UAV and added S-video output. I feed that through a RetroTINK 2X-Mini into my Vizio 43" TV. Looks great, but it doesn't look like a CRT.

I'd switch to HDMI output if I could, but this is as good as it'll get without switching to direct HDMI output.

And, sorry for being off-topic. It's just cool to meet another phone & Atari fan.

I have 5 Atari 2600s, one of which is a "heavy sixer" (first-year production, made in Sunnyvale, CA, very thick/heavy shell; production moved to Taiwan after the first year and the lower shell was reduced from 3/8" thick to 1/8"):

https://i.imgur.com/wfSrkoh.jpg (the "heavy sixer" is front and center)

I also have an Atari 7800. The early 2600s (both "heavy" and "light" six-switch models) had the best colors, but there's a simple modification for the later 4-switch models that makes the colors almost as good as a six-switch model (it's an official modification from an old Atari field service manual), and I did that modification to both of my 4-switch models. It makes a drastic difference. The 7800's colors aren't as good as a 6-switch 2600, but they are better than an unmodified 4-switch; about as good as a 4-switch with the resistor fix. Here are some comparison pictures I took:

https://i.imgur.com/fmz0vnI.png

I like older stuff in general (TV shows, movies, cars, phones, video games, and so on). There's not much from the 21st century that I like. I never set out to be this way; it just happened. When I was a kid in the '80s I was excited for the "year 2000," and beyond; I figured everything would be amazing. But now that I'm here, the internet is about the only modern thing I care about. Ironically, most of what I use the internet for is to further my knowledge of old stuff.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

When I was a kid in the '80s I was excited for the "year 2000," and beyond; I figured everything would be amazing. But now that I'm here, the internet is about the only modern thing I care about. Ironically, most of what I use the internet for is to further my knowledge of old stuff.

How true! It's the internet that allows us to be on a site like this, reliving our past. But other than that I too don't care for modern technology. So many bells and whistles in my brand new car that I'll never fully "get" all of it, or use all of it. Just creates much more confusion than it's worth. Give me a good ol' Ferrari 308.

[MaximRecoil]

Give me a good ol' Ferrari 308.

Yeah, that's a pure car, especially the European version that didn't have its design influenced by bureaucrats mandating oversized "5 MPH bumpers." The only body style I like better than the 308 is the second-generation Dodge Charger (and luckily, those came out a few years before the US "5 MPH bumper" regulations went into effect). I bought one in junkyard condition in 1994 for $1,100, and after 17 years of it sitting around, I got it on the road in 2011, and I've used it as my main vehicle every summer since. It's rough looking (and probably always will be) but it's structurally and mechanically solid (spent the whole spring and summer of 2011 making it that way, with some help from my now-retired mechanic friend, including him allowing me to use his lift [when it wasn't occupied] and tools):

https://i.imgur.com/M1Fdrj0.jpg (I took that picture in his driveway)

I'll never have a Ferrari 308 though, as much as I'd love to. It's way too expensive, not just the initial price of the car itself, but for insurance and maintenance as well. If I were to magically wake up rich one morning, it would be the first car I'd buy though (and I'd be fully restoring my Dodge at the same time).

I've only seen one in real life one time. I worked briefly at Vic Firth's drumstick factory in Newport, Maine in the mid '00s, and one of the days I was there, Vic Firth himself showed up to have a look around. I talked to him a bit when he walked by my station; he told me about various famous musicians he'd worked with (I remember him mentioning Paul Shaffer). When I went outside for lunch, parked right by the main entrance was his car: a late 1970s red Ferrari 308 GTS with the top off. It looked exactly like the MPI car from the early seasons, including the 70-series tires (rather than the later "low-profile" tires, which don't look as good in my opinion).

[eagle]

MaximRecoil, that's awesome! It's the right color too!

I bet it's lots of fun in the dirt.

[MaximRecoil]

MaximRecoil, that's awesome! It's the right color too!

I bet it's lots of fun in the dirt.

Thanks, and yeah, it was done up like the "General Lee," probably in the early 1980s, considering the shape it was already in when I got it in '94. I'm guessing they used vinyl stickers for the "01" on the door and "GENERAL LEE" text on the roof, because there wasn't a trace of either when I got it, but they painted the flag on the roof, and there was (and still is) very faded/weathered remnants of it still visible. That's also how most of the Warner Bros. General Lees were done, i.e., painted flag, vinyl everything else (though sometimes the flag's stars were vinyl stuck on top of the painted flag).

[JungleBird]

First I was excited to see the "Universal" BR release, especially since it was listed on the bluray-site for years without any progress since then.

I was hoping for a real remaster since the best version around so far is the british BR release- which, to be clear, has really great quality for many episodes, especially the first seasons. Much better than the DVDs I have, in resolution/ sharpness and colours.
The problem however is that this is only true for most episodes of the first seasons and in later seasons it's a mixed bag.

Quite a lot of the episodes are much less brilliant... I mean the difference in sharpness and just general picture and colour vibrance is quite extreme.
It seems this was the best material they were able to get. I guess it's better than the DVDs but that might even only be down to the fact that BR is less compressed.

I've been wondering for a long time whether this might be because of the fire that reportedly happened at some time at Universal's archives. Were the master tapes for the later seasons destroyed in that? Are there better copies that could be scanned? I really hoped if Universal did the release they maybe would look into that but with the information now being it's some rather low-budget company handling it I guess this will remain wishful thinking. It's a real shame because I'm still really delighted with the quality of especially the first season but you know... still many episodes that we may never see in their best quality.

Happy for all the US-based Magnum-Maniacs though for the option of buying a regional BR set!

[MaximRecoil]

I've been wondering for a long time whether this might be because of the fire that reportedly happened at some time at Universal's archives. Were the master tapes for the later seasons destroyed in that? Are there better copies that could be scanned?

Hopefully they're not using master tapes at all, because those would range from slightly higher to well below DVD quality. MPI was shot on 35mm film and that's what they should be scanning in. A good 35mm negative can resolve to about 4K, and a 35mm film print can resolve to about 2K / 1080p.

If they lost some of the original negatives and other film elements (such as interpositives and internegatives) in a fire, that would explain why some of the seasons look bad, not even up to true DVD quality. That may mean they had to use NTSC broadcast masters for some of the seasons, which are probably Betacam SP at best. In theory they could be D-1 tape, which is slightly better than DVD quality, but I doubt it. I don't think D-1 was commonly used for broadcast masters. It was commonly used for LaserDisc masters, which could also be used as VHS or Betamax masters. But MPI never got a LaserDisc release, nor even a VHS release (except for the pilot episode).

I just checked dates though, and all 8 seasons of MPI had been released by March 4, 2008, and the big Universal Studios fire was on June 1, 2008. Using 2K film-source masters was already standard practice for DVD releases (and 2K masters are sufficient for BD releases too, since 2K is slightly higher resolution than 1080p) when the first season was released September 7, 2004, so they don't have any excuse for the bad quality that I know of.

[JungleBird]

Yeah, maybe my terminology was a little off there, I meant the best available copy that exists in their archive, so a film print. You're right, it was shot on 35mm which is why there would be quite some potential.

However, even though a true remaster, meaning scanning all available 35mm camera negatives and arranging every episode back together again digitally (shot for shot) would be best... I never had high hopes in that regard.
I'm afraid that's just too much work and too costly in their mind. So the next best thing would be a good film print, scanning each episode and digitally correcting it afterwards.

Using 2K film-source masters was already standard practice for DVD releases (and 2K masters are sufficient for BD releases too, since 2K is slightly higher resolution than 1080p) when the first season was released September 7, 2004, so they don't have any excuse for the bad quality that I know of.

Huh, that's really strange then.

[MaximRecoil]

However, even though a true remaster, meaning scanning all available 35mm camera negatives and arranging every episode back together again digitally (shot for shot) would be best... I never had high hopes in that regard.
I'm afraid that's just too much work and too costly in their mind. So the next best thing would be a good film print, scanning each episode and digitally correcting it afterwards.

Yeah, going back to the original negatives is hardly ever done, even for big movies. Normally an intermediate-stage print is used to create the digital master (or the telecined analog broadcast masters in the old days). I doubt that final prints (i.e., the type of print that's used for projection in a theater) were ever even created, since there would be no use for them that I know of.

If the first three seasons of the BD releases are true BD quality, then they must have used at least 2K masters. I don't know what would explain the poor quality of the remaining seasons, unless, after the first three seasons they decided to cheap out and made D-1 masters (approximately DVD resolution, but uncompressed and less chroma subsampling) like was normally done in the '90s for LaserDisc and early DVD releases.

[JungleBird]

Actually, I just compared some episodes from different seasons and now am even more confused. It seems that even in one season there are many different levels of quality and sharpness between episodes.
(To be clear, I'm still talking about the british FF release here)

There are those that look really great, this seems to be the case for most of season 1, then there are some that definitely look much sharper than DVD but much less perfect (720p-ish) and lastly there are the really soft, DVD-like ones which is how at least most of S6-8 look.

I didn't have the time to compare all, but I noticed that also in season 4 most episodes are at least "720p-ish" quality but don't come close to what S1 had to offer in terms of clarity.

Well, I don't know what they did there, it's quite confusing. You'd think with these things that they'd scan at least one season at a time but judging by the quality, it seems more like they had totally different source materials throughout one season. I've never seen something like that anywhere else so far.

So it seems it isn't as clear-cut as I had first thought, sorry. I've corrected that in my first post.

Bottom line is, I'm still happy we got BR at all, and in many episodes, there definitely is great improvement over DVD.
And I still have some hope left that the new US release maybe gets better, more consistent source material. Who knows...

[MaximRecoil]

Actually, I just compared some episodes from different seasons and now am even more confused. It seems that even in one season there are many different levels of quality and sharpness between episodes.
(To be clear, I'm still talking about the british FF release here)

The DVDs are all over the place as well, not in just the way they look, but in how the DVD masters were made too. I'm in the process of encoding them all to h.264 files so that I can put them all on a single 128-GB USB flash drive to watch them on my TV (via a BD player that has a USB port that can play various media files directly) without having to mess with DVDs every few episodes. Part of the process when encoding DVD-sourced MPEG-2 files is to run them through DGIndex which creates a D2V file, which can be thought of as a set of instructions telling the encoder how to properly handle the frames/fields. As it generates the D2V file it gives a real-time display of the type of video it's dealing with, which can range from 100% video-source to 100% film-source, and any percentage in between.

With the MPI DVDs, most of the episodes are close to 100% film-source, with at least one episode so far actually being 100% film-source. However, there was also one that was 100% video-source, and several that have been under 95% film-source, and a few that were only around 70 to 80% film-source. In one case, the opening title sequence was 100% video-source and the rest was 99.xx% film-source. It's truly bizarre.

Now, having it show up as video-source doesn't necessarily mean the content was shot on video, and in the case of MPI, none of the episodes were shot on video; they were all shot on film. But it does mean that some video sources (hard-coded interlacing) were used to make the DVD masters, and that means that best practices of the time weren't being used. For example, a 2K master made from a film print would show up as 100% film-source, because it would just be pure 24 FPS progressive frames. If you then made a DVD master from that, it too would show up as 100% film source, because it would still have those 24 FPS (23.976 rather) progressive frames, and the interlacing that's required for DVD (bringing it up to 29.97 FPS) would be done in real-time by the DVD player, following the instructions from the pulldown flags, i.e., the interlacing wouldn't be hard-coded. When they made masters for LaserDisc and other pre-DVD home video formats, players couldn't add interlaced fields on the fly so the interlacing had to be hard-coded into the video. That was done with an old style telecine machine, using a process known as 3:2 pulldown. Those type of masters would show up in DGIndex as 100% video-source.

And I still have some hope left that the new US release maybe gets better, more consistent source material. Who knows...

I hope so too. Like I mentioned in a previous post, if they are properly-made BD transfers, I'd use them to re-encode to DVD resolution and have better quality than the official DVD releases. I did that with the Star Trek TOS BD release (which is good, and consistent, quality), and they look perfect on my standard-definition CRT TV, and they all fit on a 128-GB flash drive with plenty of room to spare.

[Keleko]

Review on Blu-ray.com:
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Magnum-P ... 58/#Review

Mill Creek releases the long anticipated Magnum, P.I. to Blu-ray with all eight seasons spread over thirty discs. The 1080p presentation is certainly flawed but it's also certainly watchable. The show's 1080p home video edition is home to the usual compression follies that are often associated with Mill Creek releases. Backgrounds are frequently rendered as unnaturally blocky, appearing ungainly and chunky, lacking that smooth, finessed film-like appearance. This is true throughout but the problem is especially noticeable in lower light. This is the most offensive part of the entire viewing experience; the compression certainly drags the picture down but not so low into the depths as to render it an instant recommendation to skip. On the contrary, even with the compression problems, the image can be quite stout, yielding a nicely detailed picture that has not been severely de-noised or scrubbed of its inherent filmic textures. On the contrary viewers will find a relatively satisfying level of clarity and definition to facial features, for example, including Magnum's famous mustache. Skin pores and lines as well as clothes and environmental details are also pleasantly complex. This is certainly well above any previous home video engagements, even with the blocky compression issues interfering with a superior presentation. Colors are also very good. Lush natural greens abound with vivid, punchy depth on display. Bright Hawaiian tones delight for fullness and accuracy; the show is frequently awash in such colors and Mill Creek's transfer handles the full spectrum color palette with impressive ease and efficiency. Black levels are decent but lacking full depth and accurate shadow detail. However, white balance is good and skin tones are fine. Yes, things could be better but no, this is hardly the worst transfer on the market. Most fans with reasonable expectations should be more or less satisfied with this.

As expected, Mill Creek disappoints in the compression department, which is a shame, as the underlying image looks otherwise fantastic. Still, this is most likely the best MPI will ever look on any format. It appears that the green push evident on the UK set is gone; hopefully the few season 1 episodes that exhibited heavy green push, such as The Black Orchid, have been fixed.