Batman TV series DVD set in 2014!!

[Gleeps, it's Batman]

Andy Fish is right. Most every show nowadays that is in syndication is edited. I know people who watch Lois And Clark on The Hub, and there are not only little snippets of the show taken out here and there, but they tell me the songs have been changed! Apparently the songs are correct on the DVDs and were correct on the old TNT airings, but there must have been a new deal made that didn't pay for the original music rights because I'm told neither The Hub nor the iTunes versions use the original songs.

But my point was that as commercial time increases over the years, cuts will always be made to shows in syndication to accomodate that lengthened commercial time as Andy said.

Of the channels showing old shows, I have to say that MeTV is my favorite of the three. Cozi seems to cut off the end credits (no idea how much they cut from the body of the show) and Antenna TV cuts out whole scenes, as I found out when Adam West's Bewitched episode aired on Antenna TV. One of his whole scenes was missing MeTV may speed up the bat fights and sometimes the theme song, but they include more scenes from each episode than I saw on the youtube copies from TVLand and wherever else they had been uploaded from.

[brucemcwaynejr]

I'm not giving my Canadian TVLand set to my nephews anytime soon. My fear is that because there are a lot of fingers in this bat-pie they are going to try to save money on the set and not spend it on restoration and bonus features, etc. Unlike the many Star Trek sets over the years, this will be a unique case of "take it or leave it."
And everyone will take it, no matter what.

[batsman]

My point is at this stage in the process there is just no way WB stops and switches it's source material even if they got 10,000 letters on the subject.

I have faith they'll put out a good product.

Batfans still need to speak up, and ask what they are getting. If fans don't speak up, then it's possible it might end up being a sub par product.

How can you be sure that they will handle it properly ? Warner's sometimes does not get it right.

It's not just Warner's. Other companies have also gotten it wrong on many popular movies.

The most common complaints are the wrong colors, too much DNR, etc.

I'm concerned because Hi Diddle Riddle and Smack in the Middle, are the pilot, and whoever restored the series for broadcast got it right.

It has a pristine look and it looks great and has minor problems that can easily be corrected.

The reason the syndicated ones are edited or sped up is to fit in the longer amount of commercials we're used to today vs 1966.
That's not likely to change.

A better solution would be to show it on a premium channel like FX or something similar that relied on less advertising than MeTV.

The Bat-Fanbase is large enough to have these concerns listened to.

[batsman]

I had a look at one of my tapes, to see the quality of the pilot. This was an off the air recording from cable, not a bootleg.

Surprisingly, it looked very good. The colors in the pilot, were great. Not HD, but for a standard definition copy the colors were very good.

Just for fun, I wanted to post some screen caps. The quality is not DVD, thought it would be fun to post.

One quick point about the quality of what you are seeing. It looks much better on an actual television. Batman's costume looks correct on the TV (not the screen cap posted), almost like the Home Theater Forum image! There is very little purple.

Whoever worked on this transfer, got it right.

Batusi.jpg (86.44 KiB) Viewed 6516 times

Robin Batscope 1.jpg (72.1 KiB) Viewed 6516 times

Jill.jpg (83.2 KiB) Viewed 6516 times

Bruce Wayne Manor 2.jpg (73.72 KiB) Viewed 6516 times

[Scott Sebring]

I'm concerned because Hi Diddle Riddle and Smack in the Middle, are the pilot, and whoever restored the series for broadcast got it right.
It has a pristine look and it looks great and has minor problems that can easily be corrected.

Whoever worked on this transfer, got it right.

I disagree. These looked washed out. One of my main professions is color correcting photography and I have to say that the broadcasted stuff I've been seeing for quite some time is washy as opposed to the DVD and Blu ray of the 66 movie. The colors and contrast that was shown earlier from the WB folks looks more spot on. Especially when it comes to the colors of the costume (I should know). Granted, it was just one pic from a scene in a nightclub but all the colors hit the mark and I think they are on the right track.

Sorry to use a picture of myself but I wanted to show the colors of the suit are much closer in the WB pic when you particularly pay attention to the cowl. The broadcast colors are way off and lack depth from light to dark as well as leaning to the yellow scale. Whether or not it is the way some folks might be use to seeing it over the years, the broadcast transfer shown here was certainly wrong.

Okay. In the too much time on my hands department, I took the previous picture of myself and sucked out the contrast, black point, saturation and shifted the overall color temperature to the yellows. Now it has the that broadcast, washed out and yellowed out look. I'll go with the original print.

[Scott Sebring]

The reason the syndicated ones are edited or sped up is to fit in the longer amount of commercials we're used to today vs 1966.
That's not likely to change.

A better solution would be to show it on a premium channel like FX or something similar that relied on less advertising than MeTV.

The Bat-Fanbase is large enough to have these concerns listened to.

This whole line of point and debate should be on a separate thread.

[Batman Buddy 2012]

Scott is right I rather see all the colors then have it lighten or fadded colors. I do hope that WB gives us the bright colors and picture clear in our 1966 Batman tv series on DVD when they do come out!!!

[batsman]

I'm concerned because Hi Diddle Riddle and Smack in the Middle, are the pilot, and whoever restored the series for broadcast got it right.
It has a pristine look and it looks great and has minor problems that can easily be corrected.

Whoever worked on this transfer, got it right.

I disagree. These looked washed out. One of my main professions is color correcting photography and I have to say that the broadcasted stuff I've been seeing for quite some time is washy as opposed to the DVD and Blu ray of the 66 movie. The colors and contrast that was shown earlier from the WB folks looks more spot on. Especially when it comes to the colors of the costume (I should know). Granted, it was just one pic from a scene in a nightclub but all the colors hit the mark and I think they are on the right track.

Scott-Sebring-as-Batman_cropped-720x480.jpg

Sorry to use a picture of myself but I wanted to show the colors of the suit are much closer in the WB pic when you particularly pay attention to the cowl. The broadcast colors are way off and lack depth from light to dark as well as leaning to the yellow scale. Whether or not it is the way some folks might be use to seeing it over the years, the broadcast transfer shown here was certainly wrong.

Scott-Sebring-as-Batman_cropped-recolored.jpg

Okay. In the too much time on my hands department, I took the previous picture of myself and sucked out the contrast, black point, saturation and shifted the overall color temperature to the yellows. Now it has the that broadcast, washed out and yellowed out look. I'll go with the original print.

Cool pics, Scott. Obviously, you've seen a lot of sources and you're an expert.

There is one area I would disagree : The "washed out" look of the caps I've posted looks that way, because it was done with an inexpensive capture card. On an HD television it is does not look washed out.

There's no way these caps are going to match the quality of the WB frame, what you are seeing is a projected print captured with a high quality transfer to the computer (perhaps with a high quality camera, taken directly from the screen?)

Capturing a frame with a capture card from an off the air tape is very different and it has a washed out look.

The colors are spot on for the costume in the WB frame. The background, and the dark look, look too dark.

Some posters on the board have suggested that this scene for years, is lit like a ballpark. When watching the tape on the TV, it doesn't look that way. It does not have that super bright look as some people are suggesting.

>The broadcast colors are way off and lack depth from light to dark as well as leaning to the yellow >scale.

I found the colors not that way off on the TV. When Jill St. John is talking to the Mole Hill gang member, the green background of the bar, looks very similar to the WB frame, not as dark but the color is right.

For the Wayne manor scene the depth looks good on my TV, it is not as bad as it looks in the screen cap.

It would be nice if Warner's would have some fan input, that's all.

[AndyFish]

There are plenty of fans already working at Warners, so the show is in good hands.
Scott's example is on the money-- rich blacks and pure color.

[benderdalek]

There are plenty of fans already working at Warners, so the show is in good hands.
Scott's example is on the money-- rich blacks and pure color.

Batsman you have nothing to worry about. The people working on this project already know what the Batman TV show means. They are also fully aware besides possibly The Wonder Years this is the most anticipated DVD/BluRay release for a series that any team will get their hands on. This means that if it is screwed up any way they will know fast and from a lot of people. The team handling release knows not to mess it up because they will be forced to fix it fast. I full confidence on the team at Warner's working on a show like this based on the high quality of restoration and releases done on older films that received a new transfer. Wizard of Oz, Dirty Harry, Gone With the Wind, King Kong, and more are some of the best handled releases out there of older films. Just take a look at the Wizard of Oz transfer they did you can finally see a rivet in between the Tin Man's eyes that you could not see on any other previous release. I am sorry, but syndication why would I want to watch an edited tv show that has been compressed as well in order for them to air it on tv. Even Netflix, Hulu, and etc streaming services will not beat the quality you will see on a Blu Ray release of the TV Show at home with the right setup. Oh did I forget to mention we might get a chance to see some of these episodes on the big screen as a one day event across the nation.

[batsman]

Batsman you have nothing to worry about. The people working on this project already know what the Batman TV show means. They are also fully aware besides possibly The Wonder Years this is the most anticipated DVD/BluRay release for a series that any team will get their hands on. This means that if it is screwed up any way they will know fast and from a lot of people. The team handling release knows not to mess it up because they will be forced to fix it fast. I full confidence on the team at Warner's working on a show like this based on the high quality of restoration and releases done on older films that received a new transfer. Wizard of Oz, Dirty Harry, Gone With the Wind, King Kong, and more are some of the best handled releases out there of older films.

I am hoping the final product will be good. The HD version of Dirty Harry has somewhat better colors than the DVD, not much different. I've heard a lot of things about the Wizard of Oz, though for a while it was only available in a very expensive box set, will have another look at it.

To say though, that somehow the broadcast version of the pilot is totally wrong, is also wrong.

There are a lot of good things about it. I'm concerned, because if it's altered to a very dark version, a lot of things will be missing and it will not look right.

The colors of the WB frame are a lot more different than people think, the final product will be very different.

>The broadcast colors are way off and lack depth from light to dark as well as leaning to the yellow >scale. Whether or not it is the way some folks might be use to seeing it over the years, the >broadcast transfer shown here was certainly wrong.

A lot of the problems Scott talks about could be fixed easily. The yellow scale? Even for this off the air recording that can be removed and I actually did it, without any software or computer.

The lack of depth from light to dark is because of the source where it was recorded from, off the air and the limitations of both the broadcaster and the recorder.

Even in this form, an off the air VHS recording with the washed out look, the colors actually look good. No other episode looks like this, it seems a lot of work had gone into it. It would be nice to know what source they used.

Oh did I forget to mention we might get a chance to see some of these episodes on the big screen as a one day event across the nation.

Sounds like a great idea.

[Gleeps, it's Batman]

They are also fully aware besides possibly The Wonder Years this is the most anticipated DVD/BluRay release for a series that any team will get their hands on.

This is off topic, but I was told about a dozen years ago by somebody at Warner Bros. that The Wonder Years would never be released on DVD because the music rights are just too expensive. It's a good thing that there isn't a whole lot of music in Batman that they have to buy the rights to.

[Mr.Freeze]

If only they could've foreseen commentary tracks , they could've gone to Romero and Merediths houses and recorded them there......they wouldn't even had to leave their houses.

Holy missed oppurtunity , Batman

[Scott Sebring]

***admin note***
BIG TIME OUT. Some posts have been deleted because they were becoming too personal, sulking or finger pointing. Let's keep this about the upcoming DVD release and not about syndication, other non related releases, rallying troops or perceived personal persecution. Let's keep any soap-boxing to a minimum and try to refrain from filibustering. And for the record, nobody has told anyone to shut up or keep quiet. There's a big difference between that and simply not agreeing or asking to tone it down.

Anybody who wants to discuss this admin action needs to take it up with me via PM.

[Millionaire Playboy]

Coming out from the "never say never" file along with 1966 Batman.... it looks like The Wonder Years will be released in 2014 as a complete series box set from Time-Life

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Wonder ... ries/19455