U.K. distributor/studio Network released their first Blu-ray boxed set of the popular 80s program Robin of Sherwood this week. It includes the first and second seasons of the program in their entirety – the episodes featuring original Robin Hood actor, Michael Praed (replaced in season three by Jason Connery.)
The screen grabs above (from www.blu-ray.poral.net) show a very colourful but potentially problematic transfer but it’s impossible to speak to the actual quality of the image until I can see it on-screen firsthand. The liner notes state that the presentation is “a new high definition transfer and restoration from the original 16mm elements. These elements have inherent limitations but over the years a few of these have deteriorated or are missing and viewers may notice variable quality as a result of differing sources.” This “variable quality” might have resulted in some of the issues I have with what I’m seeing in the screencaps above. Those issues could also be a result of creating the JPG images themselves, so for me, only time and a viewing of the discs will tell.
TV Shows on DVD.com are reporting that North American distributor Acorn plan to release the 4-disc Blu-ray disc set domestically on May 3rd, 2011 for a suggested retail price of $79.99.
ROBIN OF SHERWOOD: MICHAEL PRAED
(November 15, 2010 – MSRP £49.99)
Video: 1.33:1 1080p
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0
Special Features:
- The Making of Robin of Sherwood – exclusive documentary
- Enhanced Dolby Surround track
- Original mono track
- Music only tracks for selected episodes
- Commentary with Richard Carpenter and Ian Sharp on Robin Hood and the Sorcerer and The King’s Fool
- Commentary with Robert Young and Paul Knight on The Swords of Wayland
- expanded version of The Electric Theatre Show documentary from 1983 (HD)
- Series out-takes
- PDF material including Richard Carpenter’s original treatment
- Extensive stills gallery (HD)
- Textless anf foreign titles
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]]>I’ve been waiting for this to materialize in some form or another. I knew it would happen some day. I just didn’t expect to be able to control my PS3 with my iPhone via a Fast and Furious movie related application.
So, it turns out that Universal Studios Home Entertainment has beaten all the iTunes App Store developers to the punch and come up with a way for us to control our Blu-ray players through an application downloaded onto an iPhone or iPod Touch. The bummer of it is that it’s such a specific and limited control that we’re offered through the device that it’s almost not worth the bother, at this point. But I see a lot of potential here. On July 28th the studio will release the film Fast and Furious on Blu-ray with a “Virtual Car Garage” bonus feature that uses BD Live technology. If your player is connected to a network, you’ll be able to manipulate this content on-screen by using a free app you can download onto your iPhone or iPod Touch through the iTunes store.
According to the article at Home Media Magazine, Universal intends to broaden their reach into our set-top boxes and connectivity through mobile devices,
- “On subsequent Universal Blu-ray Disc releases coming later in the year, consumers will be able to access bonus content found on their Blu-ray Disc releases and download it onto their iPhone or iPod Touch. They’ll also be able to use the devices as a virtual remote to control their Blu-ray Disc features and access additional information while watching the movie.”
I don’t know about you, but while I find this kind-of cool and all, I’d much rather just have an app on my iPhone that works as a full-on PS3 remote control! Why has no-one developed this yet?! I mean, Sony could have released one themselves and, at $0.99 probably made back all of their losses on the console. Why is Universal the first one to take advantage of this obvious hole in the market?
Read the full article at Home Media Magazine: Universal Bows iPod Touch/iPhone Apps for Blu-ray
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“Be seeing you.”
Remember when I was all excited about The Prisoner coming to Blu-ray in the UK? Yeah, well, that didn’t last long. Seems that publisher, Network gave the discs the kibosh pretty damn quickly. I mean, I’m sure they’ll turn up on a release list again in the near future but for now there isn’t a hint of ‘em.
So, imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered that A&E has made an early announcement that The Prisoner will be released on Blu-ray in North America on October 27th! Hot damn! Now, not only won’t I have to worry about import costs but suddenly any region coding present on the discs will work in my favour. Sadly, no other information is given but you can bet we’ll see a port of the previously released DVD features and a handful of promotional pieces for AMC’s upcoming remake which should, coincidentally enough, be released around the same time as the Blu-ray disc set.
THE PRISONER
(October 27, 2009, MSRP $89.95)
5 Disc Box-set
Speaking of Number 6 on AMC, the US cable channel recently revealed the first teaser trailer for The Prisoner remake, coming in November and starring Jim Caviezel and Sir Ian McKellen:
Via: Blu-ray.com
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]]>The Prisoner is one of my all time favourite television shows. I picked up the A&E DVD releases a number of years back and have been reasonably pleased with them despite the obvious condition of the original prints they were mastered from. I never thought we’d see a Blu-ray version as, on the list of shows that would see benefit from a new high-def transfer, the Prisoner would most likely rank quite low. Imagine my surprise when I discover this amazon listing for the entire series on Blu-ray! I’m willing to give Network the benefit of the doubt, give the discs a buy and chime in on their quality after the April 27th release date.
On a related note, AMC is remaking the series as a six-hour television mini-series to air in the summer or fall of this year. Here’s a look at a behind the scenes promo, starring Ian McKellen as Two and Jim Caviezel as Six :