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

[Keleko]

Okay, a few things:

1.) It's being released by Mill Creek Entertainment, which for those who know of their track record, is a little concerning.
2.) That's a high price ($179.99 pre-order, currently) for a Mill Creek release, but they usually come down in price fairly soon after release.
3.) The back cover claims "now available fully restored and in high definition for the first time" is interesting, but since it has been already released in other countries in HD already, I think they're really implying "available [...] for the first time" in the United States. Which could mean that the "fully restored" part is useless.

Well, I am glad it's finally being released in the USA, regardless. If anything, I hope they can fix the heavy green push during certain season one episodes and the use of digital noise reduction on several episodes later in the series that are present on the existing HD masters.

[Styles Bitchley]

Thanks for flagging this release. It's a steep ask, especially since a lot of people who would want it already have it and many can even stream it. I would think they would try to put together some bonus content to try to get people to pull out their wallets.

[Old Düsseldorf]

Thanks for flagging this release. It's a steep ask, especially since a lot of people who would want it already have it and many can even stream it. I would think they would try to put together some bonus content to try to get people to pull out their wallets.

I sure wish they'd finally produce some bonus content, seems like it would be a no brainer. Even back when the DVD's came out it was standard practice but they did nothing. Unfortunately it's too late now to include John Hillerman but with even the slightest bit of inspiration there's got to be a lot of material and new interviews they could still add.

[Styles Bitchley]

Thanks for flagging this release. It's a steep ask, especially since a lot of people who would want it already have it and many can even stream it. I would think they would try to put together some bonus content to try to get people to pull out their wallets.

I sure wish they'd finally produce some bonus content, seems like it would be a no brainer. Even back when the DVD's came out it was standard practice but they did nothing. Unfortunately it's too late now to include John Hillerman but with even the slightest bit of inspiration there's got to be a lot of material and new interviews they could still add.

Couldn’t agree more.

[perfectlykevin]

Wondering if this is the same as the current BR DVD set already out. I purchased that one about 6 months ago and bought a region-free DVD player especially for it.

[eagle]

Wow, this is interesting. It would be great if it was a fully restored set. Like many of you, I have the DVD set, and I would love to have a higher resolution, higher quality video, for Magnum.

[ConchRepublican]

Wondering if this is the same as the current BR DVD set already out. I purchased that one about 6 months ago and bought a region-free DVD player especially for it.

Santa brought me the same for Christmas about 5 years ago . . . I liked them then, but seeing what is streaming now on Roku Network the HD quality isn't even close. I'd hope these being released are more that quality than the European discs we have.

[Coligion]

Finally! I've been waiting what feels like forever for a domestic Blu-ray release. However, like many fans have already expressed, there is definite concern over what the quality will be given Mill Creek's tepid reputation. This Mill Creek release is already going to be the least amount of total discs at 30 compared to the U.K. release at 37 and the French release at 31, i.e. much more compression and lowering of overall video quality. I do really like the cover art choice, though! They actually used a promotional photo (that you could once buy as a poster print). I'll also be curious how MC handles the two crossover episodes, as well as if season 8's Resolutions is the syndicated (shorter) version or the broadcast (longer) version -- the DVD release had the former.

It's a shame Universal won't be releasing this themselves, but at the same time, I am grateful that MC took the opportunity when nobody else was stepping up. Here's to hoping this U.S. release can come out better than expected!

[Pickledeggplz]

Hi guys, what am I seeing on Amazon? Is that just regular DVDs?

[Pickledeggplz]

Not sure if I have to post this three times before it shows up, so here's #2.

[Pickledeggplz]

Hi guys, so what's the DVD set that Amazon has? Regular discs, nor BR?
Thanks!

[Coligion]

Hi guys, so what's the DVD set that Amazon has? Regular discs, nor BR?
Thanks!

The Blu-Ray set is on Amazon to preorder here.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Hi guys, what am I seeing on Amazon? Is that just regular DVDs?

Yep, I think you're just seeing regular DVDs. As the Blu-Rays haven't been released yet.

[Pickledeggplz]

Thanks guys!

[MaximRecoil]

I would be perfectly happy with the DVD releases if they'd been done right, because I watch Magnum, P.I. on a standard-definition CRT TV, the same as I did when it originally aired. DVD quality (when done right) is beyond NTSC broadcast quality, so it's more than enough to max out the potential of a 15 kHz CRT, especially when you use a component (YPbPr) connection (which gives the best possible color resolution and separation). For movies I always want the Blu-ray and I watch them on an HD projector, because they were originally intended to be seen projected onto a big screen, but old TV shows just don't seem right to me on anything other than a CRT TV.

The problem is: only the first season on the first DVD release is done right. Maybe the second season is done right too, but I don't have the original DVD release for the second season; I only have a crappier later release (the full series set that was released in 2013). For the original single-season releases, I have seasons 1, 3, and 7, and of those, only season 1 looks particularly good. Furthermore, season 1 is pretty much pure film-source for every episode, while season 3 has some episodes that have a lot of video-source mixed in with the film-source, and some episodes that are simply 100% video-source; in other words, very sloppy, inconsistent, outdated, and low-grade mastering.

In addition to the problems that the original releases have, the 2013 full-series release makes it even worse because they drastically reduced the bitrate. For example, with the first season, original release, each episode was around 2 GB. With the 2013 release, all the episodes are around 1 GB, which is way too small for ~48 minutes of 720×480 MPEG-2 video + 192 kbps audio. I've compared screenshots from my own DVDs and the 2013 one is full of compression artifacts and it's missing half the film grain. That sort of "quality" is for YouTube or inept pirates, not for official DVD releases from a major studio. I assume they did it so they could use cheap DVD-5s (single-layer) instead of DVD-9s (double-layer). When each episode is only around 1 GB you can fit 4 of them onto a cheap DVD-5. Can you imagine a studio releasing a 3+ hour major movie like Titanic (1997) on a DVD-5? It would never happen. Old TV shows (and the people who purchase them) get no respect from the studios it seems.

The only reason I'd be interested in a Blu-ray release would be to re-encode them to better quality DVD-resolution than you get with the official DVDs. However, I don't like the sound of this at all:

This Mill Creek release is already going to be the least amount of total discs at 30 compared to the U.K. release at 37 and the French release at 31, i.e. much more compression and lowering of overall video quality.

It sounds like they've done the same thing with the US BDs as they did with the 2013 DVDs.