I think its important to know that in April 2025 a new Blu Ray Edition is coming from Plaion Pictures in Germany. They also released Miami Vice and MacGyver and are known for their very good technical presentations and the care they put into those TV Show Releases.
The Edition will be called "Ultimate Complete Collection" because they will have ALL Feature length Episodes in their original form.
So huge advantage over the US Mill Creek Set which had them all in the shortened syndicated versions.
And the Finale "Resolutions" was also on the UK and French Set only available als shortened 2-Parter. In the German Plaion Set it will be finally complete again!
It seems that they also will include the original black/white Version of "Murder by night".
Also the crossovers with simon&simon and murder she wrote will be included.
Here is the Cover Artwork and how the Box will look:
The Magnum Font is the one from the Original German TV Airings in case you wonder what this is.
They will not use the same HD Masters that were used on the UK Blu Ray Set or French Blu Ray Set. Plaion will use the much newer 4K Remasterings of the Show. Mill Creek did use those 4K masters too for their US Blu Ray Release but they compressed them poorly which resulted in reduced grain because of artifacts from the encoding.
Considering Plaions track record that will not happen with the German Release. Also Plaion will correct the problems with those 4K Masters (Complete the Syndicated Two Parters as i wrote before for example).
Compression from Mill Creek aside the 4K Remaster looks much better than the old HD Master. The Old master was too bright and sometimes a bit "lifeless". The new Remaster has far better color Correction an picture dynamics.
There will also be a lot of Bonus:
- All Episodes from 4K Masters
- Alternative Episodes
- Crossover Episodes from SIMON & SIMON and MURDER SHE WROTE
- Audiocommentary with Writer Jay Huguely and Producer Chas Floyd Johnson
- 7-part Interview with Donald P. Bellisario (60 Minutes)
- Interview with Norbert Langer: German Voice Actor for the Dubbing of Magnum/Tom Selleck (89 Minutes)
- Interview with Writer Reuben Leder (12 Minutes)
- Interview with Chris Abbott (13 Minutes)
- Interview with Deborah Pratt (10 Minutes)
- Interview with Composer Mike Post (13 Minutes)
- Interview with Virgil Vogel (7 Minutes)
- Archivinterview with Mike Post (16 Minutes)
- Featurette “The Great 80s Flashback” (29 Minutes)
- Featurette “America’s Top Sleuths” (30 Minutes)
- Featurette “Inside the Ultimate Crime Crossover” (6 Minutes)
- On Set with Tom Selleck (7 Minutes)
- Booklet
- Episodeguide
So they basically combined all the existing bonus from various releases and did some new stuff.
Interesting Info only for German Watchers:
As many German Watchers probably know: Magnum had two completely different German Dubbings back then. Only the Voice Actor of Magnum/Tom Selleck was the same in both dubbings. Every other Character had different voices.
The First Dubbing was done by german national Television Station ARD from 1984 to 1991. Unfortunately as they always did back then with a lot of US Shows they cut a couple of Minutes from every episode and some episodes are left out entirely.
Thats the reason for the second dubbing with different voice actors (besides magnum) from the 90s. The Private TV Station RTL bought the rights for Magnum and decided to do a completely new dubbing to present the show Uncut.
They did their dubbing for all 8 Seasons from 1994 to 1996. Because the dubbing was uncut it was the only one used since back then for all TV Airings, DVDs, Streaming and Stuff.
Even considering the fact that the first ARD Dubbing was cut in every Episode a lot of German Fans are missing the first German dubbing of the show because they grew up with it and a lot of nostalgia is connected with that.
And now Plaion Pictures is doing the service over 30 Years after the last showing of the original German Dubbing: They will offer BOTH German Dubbings on the new Blu Ray Set.
The missing Parts of the ARD dubbing will be completed with the RTL Dubbing so that even if you choose to watch the original ARD Dubbing you can watch the Episodes uncut.
The Technical Specs are:
Picture: 1,33:1 High Definition from 4K Remasters
Sound: DTS-HD Master Audio in German and English
Subtitles: German and English (altough the English subtitles are never officially listed but are always present)
It looks like this will really be the ultimate home video release of the show.
I will do lots of Image Comparisons with the UK and US Blu Rays after the German set is available and present them here.
Sadly the only way to purchase the German Magnum Blu Ray Box will be in Plaions own Online Shop:
https://shop.plaionpictures.com/magnum- ... exkl.-shop
And they do not ship to the us.
But there are always possibilities i guess if a lot of fans are helping each other.