US Blu-Ray - Series 5 release

[Alan]

They did the sampler or combo blu Ray discs with one episode.

http://networkonair.com/shop/1291-retro ... ume-2.html

http://networkonair.com/shop/1292-retro ... ume-3.html

They did indeed, and I have each of the three Retro-Action volumes.

I thought that there were plans to release all of the series on blu ray.

There was no undertaking from Network that full series would automatically follow.

They have tended to keep their Blu-ray plans very close to their collective chests.

[Lando]

Got it.
That is too bad.

Of course since Network region locks I would have to get a mod player..

I sent an email to Lionsgate asking them to please issue more of The Avengers on blu ray.

I also let them know about my interest in The Persuaders and The Saint as well.

[MRotten]

With all of this "Walmart" talk, I looked for The Avengers on Blu-ray there, but it was nowhere to be found, apparently FAR too sophisticated for that store, which, by the way, sells a whole lot of very cheap junk. Just as well that The Avengers is unavailable at Walmart.

[Tara46]

My copy arrived care of All Your Music, which unfortunately meant it got smashed in the post due to their inept packaging. Oh well, claim raised...

In the meantime, I've taken a look at a couple of episodes and am reasonably impressed. The theme music is ruined by the 5.1 processing to the point where it sounds like it's been recorded in a bucket, but otherwise, not at all bad. There is a definite improvement over the UK DVD in terms of sound and vision, though it's not the leap I would expect in either instance. The low bitrate obviously doesn't help in this respect, but at the same time, it doesn't look artifacty or in any way compromised by it.

To my ears, the pitch issue on the sound merely makes it sound correct to me as a UK viewer.

It's encoded Region A and there aren't any of the occasional Panasonic workarounds available on these discs for Region B importers.

The simple menus are also an improvement over the slow and clunky Optimum ones.

All told, pretty pleased with this.

Good review Alan. I bought my copy directly from Amazon.com. The audio pitch, as you pointed out, sounds fine & the picture looks quite impressive. Shame the digital download code isn't valid outside the US though.

[John Johnson]

With all of this "Walmart" talk, I looked for The Avengers on Blu-ray there, but it was nowhere to be found, apparently FAR too sophisticated for that store, which, by the way, sells a whole lot of very cheap junk. Just as well that The Avengers is unavailable at Walmart.

Along with Best Buy. If it isn't the latest mindless blockbuster, then they won't stock it. They prefer to send their customers to their website. No thanks. If I want to order on-line I'll go through Amazon.

[mariocki]

Currently $20 on Amazon, or even $18 delivered if you look under 'other sellers':

http://www.amazon.com/Avengers-Blu-ray- ... 00MVIYKVE/

[denis rigg]

Recently I received this Blu Ray edition. I am quite pleased.

The picture quality is better than any DVD of Avengers, including DVD Optimum, respectively. It is looks like the British and German Blu Rays.

A&E DVD:



Optimum DVD:



USA Blu Ray:



1. It looks like the Blu-ray uses the same transfer as Optimum.
2. Based on point above, the audio pitch is exactly the same on this Blu-ray as on the Optimum discs.
3. These are the same prints of episodes as Optimum (except that the entry "The Avengers in Color" for every episode is without music cue), so there are the same pluses and minuses.

For example, plus:

It's nice to notice like Optimum DVD, that footage from scene "Mrs, Peel, we're needed" in the episode The Bird Who Knew Too Much, which, I think, mistakenly played in reverse in all home video releases of episodes before (and probably all TV versions too, which had this scene), is in right seqence.

One shot from footage:




Some minuses:

Like British DVD edition (Optimum), there are shots in the “air hole” scene of the episode The Superlative Seven that are played back to front: first, the one of aircraft steering wheels is deflected “towards itself” while the altitude barometer drops almost to the “seven” division...



...but then the steering wheel and the altitude barometer move in reverse direction.



Like British DVD edition (Optimum), there are two cuts in episode Return of the Cybernauts.

etc...