Thanks Universal Italia!

[Magnum T.]

Hi there,
how's it going? Hope well.
I want to tell you my experience with the italian DVD release of MPI series.
As I said in my introduction post, since I saw it as a child I have always been a fan of MPI.
Here in Italy the series was aired starting from 1982 (I was 9 years old) and I loved it. Everyday there was a new episode.
During these years the series has been broadcasted several times, but often early in the morning or when it was not possible for me to see it.
So, my memories on the series dated back to those years in my childhood, when there was great shows on the tv, like The A-Team, The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, The Dukes of Hazzard and many others.
MPI has never been relesed on VHS tapes here, but I had a few episodes recorded from TV.

Several years ago, in the DVD era, it came a 2-discs set, "The best of Magnum p.i.", which of course I bought.
I must say that, at the starting of the "Don't eat the snow in Hawaii" opening theme tears almost came to my eyes.
For some years, that was the only Magnum DVD available.
Thanks to Internet I discovered that, first in the US, then in the UK, Universal was releasing the series. At this point I began to think about buying it in UK (Region 2 like Italy). I can follow the episodes in english, but I wanted to have the italian audio track too, let's say for sentimental reasons (those were the voices I grew up with and I think they did a great job in the casting of the italian actors), so I waited.

Some years ago, at last, Universal Italia released the first two seasons.
I bought the boxes and I must say I appreciated the good quality, not only the a/v quality, but the way the boxes were made. Each disc had its tray in an elegant boxed digipack. The menus and episode titles were in english but that was fine for me. I think they were problably the exact replica of the US/UK release.
Now begins the sad story.

After those two first boxes it seemed Universal had no plan to release the remaining seasons.
Some more years the third season was released but with an authoring issue on one of the discs. One by one, the remaining seasons saw the light, until the 8th, released some months ago.
After the first two seasons, I decided to wait until all the remaining boxes were available and buy them all at once. So I did it.

The good news is that I'm watching the entire series right now for the first time (I'm at the 6th) and I discovered that there are several episodes which I have never seen, so they are completely new to me.
I am watching with great pleasure many classic episodes which I haven't seen in many years, and this remains one of the best series of TV history!

The bad news is that the quality of this DVD edition is unacceptable, coming from a great major like Universal (I want to remember that the first two seasons were a/v perfect).

1) The rib of the 1st box says "Stagilone 1" invece di "Stagione 1" (it is like "Seaszon 1" instead of "Season 1"). More, the season is indicated by a number, while on all the other boxes it is indicated by letters (like "Two", "Three", etc...)

2) The Magnum P.I. and season writings on the rib of the 1st season box are reversed, contrariwise the other sets.

3) The first two seasons were in nice digipacks, the others are ugly black amarays (which are shorter than the digipacks). In the first two boxes, each disc has its tray and the releasing mechanism works well. In the amarays the discs are positioned in couples, one disc over the other, and to release them you have to risk to break them (I wonder if they have quality checkings at Universal).

4) The ribs of all seasons are black, except one (3rd), which is red.

5) The "Magnum P.I." logo has been rendered in three different ways and the season logo in four different ways, from season 1 to season 8.

6) There is no consistency in the disc labels, nor in the layout neither in the content (some have pictures, some graphics, some a mix of them).

7) 1st and 2nd seasons have italian and english subtitles, the other seasons have none.

8) The menus of the first two seasons were good (as I said, I think they are just from the US or UK release). From season 3 to 8 they have changed totally, and the new menus are ugly. More, in some season there are the episode titles, in other there is "Episode 1", "Episode 2", etc...

9) The authoring of seasons 1-2 discs is different from that of seasons 3-8.

10) The audio/video quality of the 3rd season (and several episodes from other seasons) is much worse than the first two seasons.
(Some episodes are so poor they look like VHS tapes).

I could go on but I think you got the point.
Totally amateur-like work.

[Higgy_baby]

Those quality issues sound very disappointing. Are you sure they are legitimate original copies or could they be illegal copies? I know I once bought a Bruce Lee movie from chinatown that had all kinds of problems.

Being Italian, is it possible that you read Spanish? If you are really desperate, I suppose you could get a region 1 North American set and convert to region 2. Our DVDs have very good video quality (although not perfect) and come with French and Spanish subtitles.

Ciao

[Magnum T.]

Hi Higgy,
yeah, they are original dvds, straight from Universal Italy.
It seems to me that after the first release of seasons 1+2 (which, with the exception of some error on the cover, were very good) the big brains at UI decided to go cheaper (in fact the first two boxes that I have went out of print and were re-released with amaray case too).
If I look at the shelf, the eight boxes have two different heights and five different cover styles

Talking about the a/v quality, almost the entire third season is bad, fortunately it goes better with the following ones (excepting some single episodes here and there).

As I said, I could have bought the UK edition since I understand English but I wanted to have the italian voices.
I have done several conversions from NTSC to PAL and it'a a PITA, believe me.

I'll keep these dvds as they are, I don't want to buy the same thing two times only because somebody doesn't know how to do the job he's paid for.
You know what? There were other Universal TV series that I wanted to buy (Columbo, The Incredible Hulk, The A-Team) but, after this experience I decided not to.

btw, I like Bruce Lee too

[Zeus73]

Hi Magnum T,

I'm from Italy too and I bought all 8 seasons in US so they are Region1 but they perfect. I decided to do that just because I didnt want to wait for the italian DVD to be released...

Anyway I read your post and I'm quite disappointed to know how Universal Italia treat the customers/collectors...

I think you made the right choice in deciding not to buy anything else from them!

Ciao
Zeus

[Magnum T.]

Hi Zeus73,
another Magnumaniac from Italy, great!

[Zeus73]

Già!

This site is amazing!!

A presto

[Styles Bitchley]

I have done several conversions from NTSC to PAL and it'a a PITA, believe me.

I'm in Switzerland and I have the Region 1 DVDs. I just have a multi-region dvd player. Quality is perfect.

[Magnum T.]

Hi Styles, nice to meet you!
I know it, but I am pretty sure that the UK DVDs are perfect too.
The R1 discs are two sided? Just curious.
I hate two sided discs!
Anyway, my point was that a big major like Universal should take more care of customers, hire a good graphic designer (I am available ) and make some quality checks could be a good idea.
One thing that drives me crazy is the holding/releasing mechanism of the discs: in several Universal DVDs (even movies) I have almost to break the disc to remove it.

I can see your feet have touched the holy sand of Robin's Nest beach.
Is that a future Magnum fan?

[Styles Bitchley]

Hi Styles, nice to meet you!
I know it, but I am pretty sure that the UK DVDs are perfect too.
The R1 discs are two sided? Just curious.
I hate two sided discs!
Anyway, my point was that a big major like Universal should take more care of customers, hire a good graphic designer (I am available ) and make some quality checks could be a good idea.
One thing that drives me crazy is the holding/releasing mechanism of the discs: in several Universal DVDs (even movies) I have almost to break the disc to remove it.

I can see your feet have touched the holy sand of Robin's Nest beach.
Is that a future Magnum fan?

Yes, the discs are two sided. A bit annoying, but saves packaging.

As far as my son being a future MPI fan, a father can only dream! I could probably convince him until he gets to the stage we all go through when everything Dad does just isn't cool.

[Magnum T.]

As far as my son being a future MPI fan, a father can only dream! I could probably convince him until he gets to the stage we all go through when everything Dad does just isn't cool.

I think you still have time before that stage

[Jeffrey]

Hi There,

The dvds in Holland do have some errors too. It's the spelling most of the time. Instead of 'T.C.' - 'R.C.' on the backside of the box. That's just one thing that pops into my head.

The quality is good but some do better then others.

I do thank Universal for releasing the stuff! But it could have been done a lot better. I have The A-Team and Miami Vice on dvd too wich have some errors too.

I think Warner Bros is one of the most professional releasers as I experciened it. I have five seasons of the Dukes of Hazzard and it has lots of interesting extra's like interviews with cast-members, stuntmen, producer, a reunion with the whole surviving cast... They sure did there work like it is supposed too, and you get someting worth paying for!

Jeffrey

[Magnum T.]

Hi Jeffrey,
Universal seems to be not as professional as one would expect from such a big major.
The sad thing is there is a lot of material they own that I would be very interested in but I don't want to waste my money with low-quality releases.
I heard that some DVDs of Columbo (Italian Edition) have audio/video sync issues.
The Dukes is one of the series I would like to see again, but even in this case I'd like to have the Italian audio track for its "sentimental" value.
BTW you are talking about the Region 2 (PAL) release of the Dukes, aren't you?

[Jeffrey]

Hi,

Yeah I'm talking about the region 2 of the Dukes dvd.

Is there no Italian audio-track on the dvd of the dukes?

off-topic:
I don't understand why other countries always put another audio-track on it with their language... In the Netherlands they don't do that at all, they just put subtitles under it. On tv and on dvds... Unless it's a child-movie. It sure has improved my English.

[Magnum T.]

Yes, there is (in the Italian edition), but you won't believe DVD prices here in Italy.
I could buy them in the UK at a much lower price but no Italian track.
I understand english enough to follow the show anyway but, as I said, it is a "sentimental" thing. I knew the characters with those voices as a child.
I know that this sounds odd to some of you, but here in Italy everything (from movies to tv series, etc...) is dubbed in our language, and it is not that bad most of the times because the actors they use are pretty good (often they are cinema or tv actors)
The Italian "Dubbers" are said to be among the best in the world.
The Rossi family counts some of the most respected and talented dubbers, they give their voices to people like Schwarzenegger, Jodie Foster, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tom Hanks and many others and, believe me, they are very, very good.
But perhaps the most "iconic" single case is Woody Allen.
He has always been dubbed in Italy by an actor/comedian called Oreste Lionello, who passed away in February 2009.
I didn't appreciate Mr. Lionello's career as an actor but he had the ABSOLUTELY RIGHT voice to dub Mr. Allen. Believe me.
(I think they will be in big troubles to find another voice for Mr. Allen)
The first time I heard Woody Allen's real voice I almost had a shock, like my mother speaking with another voice.
For more than 20 years TM's voice has been the one of a guy called Natale Ciravolo (who has a terrific voice imho). Everytime I hear that voice (even in non-Magnum context) I think: Magnum!
Higgins' voice was provided by Bruno Slaverio and he did a wonderful work too (everytime I hear this voice too I think: Higgins!)
When I heard the "real" voices I was a bit disorientated, but they sound more familiar to me now (though I keep to prefer the Italian voices).

For some of you who could be interested, I made a short videoclip where it is possible to hear the Italian voices of Magnum, Higgy, TC and Rick.

http://rapidshare.com/files/267386447/mpiita.avi.html

[Lt Tanaka]

I remember when I lived in Italy I saw a headline in a paper one day "Danny DeVito dead". After I read the story I realised it wasn't the "real" DeVito but the guy who provided his voice.