Jump to content

The Official LUCY ON BLU-RAY Thread!


WELL!
 Share

Recommended Posts

I'll be waiting for the price to drop down. From what I can tell there really isn't much of a difference between the ILL DVD set and the ILL Blu-Ray set in terms of the material that is included. And besides, I don't even have a Blu-Ray player yet and there is still some shows that I want to complete on DVD first like Laverne & Shirley, Mama's Family, Batman, etc. and get more seasons of like Happy Days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The listing price has finally dropped on Amazon! Looks like it's landed on $74.96, and they've added the official cover art. Looks great, and the price is finally a little more reasonable.

Actually, according to this Amazon listing the full retail price is still an exorbitant $129.99 (!) and this rather is Amazon's current discounted offered price of about $75, for a "savings" of about $55 (around 40%) -- which is still ridiculous, IMHO, and more to the point, concerning as it may well adversely affect sales of this much-anticipated release!

 

I simply don't understand CBS' thinking as they must be the ones setting the price point for this release (along with another day-and-date release of another classic sitcom, The Andy Griffith Show, also priced at this level) as it seems to me not only exorbitant but bound to hinder sales to all but the most die-hard fan who won't be able to wait for inevitable sales/price reductions further down the line.

 

Would love to understand their logic for this as it simply is not in line with current Blu-Ray releases, whether it's for comparable sitcoms, movie releases or even multiple season series collections -- if this price were for a "complete series" release, I could more than understand it and justify it for them, but as a stand alone single-season release, I simply don't get it.

 

:lucyeww: 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The current I Love Lucy dvds can be found in stores for about $7.99 to $14.99 for a single season set.  So $75 for the season 1 blu ray is just to much. I know the new season 1 discs will have better picture quality and new features but the price must drop if sales are to be good. About $30 to $40 seems about right for the blu ray set.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just noticed on Amazon.com that both I LOVE LUCY and THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW season one Blu-ray sets seem to have been delayed a month: both now say the release date is May 6.  THE HONEYMOONERS is still listed as being available April 8.

 

CBS has a holiday tomorrow but I will inquire on Tuesday to confirm the changes and let you know for sure.

 

tjw

Link to comment
Share on other sites

CBS has confirmed that all three vintage series -- I LOVE LUCY, ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW and THE HONEYMOONERS--have been delayed until May 6...

 

That's the full retail price. Most of the vendors, including Amazon, will sell it for less. I know things like STAR TREK: NEXT GENERATION are all listed at $129.99, at least when they first come out, but usually sell for around $75...

 

tjw

Link to comment
Share on other sites

TJW, how hard is it to transfer to bluray? The old master tapes are long gone, right? Since it's already been digitized for at least 10 years? I wonder how Lucy and co. would react to this news. I bet Desi would go "I can't get over how clear the picture is!" :D If I had a tape that was digitized to dvd and I wanted it to be on a bluray disc in HD, would I have to film it off the TV with an HD camera? I have one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not the right person to answer technical questions... However, I do know that almost any material (film, tape, etc.) can be transferred to Hi-Def. Film works the best because it contains the most visual "information." Things you never noticed or could not see in standard definition are suddenly visible in high-def... Tape does not do this, at least not to the same degree, because with tape, what you see is what you have. So you can have your original master (or even a DVD copy) transferred into high-def, but it will look much the same as the standard def version... It might also look a little worse, because whatever flaws might exist will also be more prominent.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not the right person to answer technical questions... However, I do know that almost any material (film, tape, etc.) can be transferred to Hi-Def. Film works the best because it contains the most visual "information." Things you never noticed or could not see in standard definition are suddenly visible in high-def... Tape does not do this, at least not to the same degree, because with tape, what you see is what you have. So you can have your original master (or even a DVD copy) transferred into high-def, but it will look much the same as the standard def version... It might also look a little worse, because whatever flaws might exist will also be more prominent.

Tom, thanks as always for all your work on these and everything and knowing you're working for CBS this may not be fair to put you in this position, but as a life-long fan who's already spent thousands (literally!) of all the video forms the show has come out on (in?) -- and not to put you on the spot but perhaps you know what the logic is -- do you have any idea why they've set the price point so (sorry, but) ridiculously high for these upcoming 3 separate single-season Blu-ray releases?  I'm just asking what most all of us here are thinking -- and can't comprehend -- when at $130 they are totally out of line with current, comparable price points.

 

Any insight would be sincerely appreciated.  (This is also asked out of concern as I do NOT want this venture to fail, I want to see the entire ILL series released this way, if not her entire TV series canon. :))

 

Thank you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tom, thanks as always for all your work on these and everything and knowing you're working for CBS this may not be fair to put you in this position, but as a life-long fan who's already spent thousands (literally!) of all the video forms the show has come out on (in?) -- and not to put you on the spot but perhaps you know what the logic is -- do you have any idea why they've set the price point so (sorry, but) ridiculously high for these upcoming 3 separate single-season Blu-ray releases?  I'm just asking what most all of us here are thinking -- and can't comprehend -- when at $130 they are totally out of line with current, comparable price points.

 

Any insight would be sincerely appreciated.  (This is also asked out of concern as I do NOT want this venture to fail, I want to see the entire ILL series released this way, if not her entire TV series canon. :))

 

Thank you!

Hi Joe,

 

Two things:

 

(1) I know/understand what you are saying. My Dad felt the same way 35 years ago when he was "asked" to repurchase his favorite Sinatra/Crosby/Jolson/Big Band records from the 1940s yet again on CD. He'd already bought them on 78rpm shellac discs, then on 45rpm discs and 33 1/3 rpm albums, then on stereo (real and manufactured)... And in his way of thinking, it was all the same material...

 

But each time the "sound" was better, cleaner, crisper...

 

Now we are doing much the same thing with video formats rather than audio...

 

(2) I am not sure to what you are comparing the cost of these sets? To the cost of movies on Blu-ray?  to Blu-rays of current TV shows?

 

As I mentioned earlier, I believe these are in line with the other TV-on-Blu-ray sets that CBS is doing, at least on the Vintage side... Movies usually include only about 2 hours of material, plus whatever "extras" are added in... Brand new/current movies AND TV shows have the advantage of being produced in a high-def format to begin with...

 

Our set has 35 half- hours of material as its base, plus the "extras" that we are adding in... I cannot be specific about the extras until the CBS publicity department puts out our official press release, but let me just say that MOST of the extras (which should be read as any material above and beyond those initial 35 half-hours) have all been remastered in high-def. (Not all, but MOST.

 

Our biggest "cost" is labor (man hours)... We started the Season One set in January, 2013, and we still are not finished -- which is probably why the set got postponed a month... Last night, while watching ice skating on the Olympics, I received a new batch of materials that needed to be proofed and returned to CBS early this morning... In the past 13 months there have been literally dozens of people involved with the preparation of this set (and all three vintage sets, I am sure): video and audio engineers, editors, colorists, menu artists, authoring craftsmen, artists to create the packaging, etc., etc., etc.  While I earn only a very modest consultancy fee, I know that the decisions I recommended the past 13 months have cost the company thousands and thousands of dollars...

 

We are not just going to a vault or storage closet, taking out the 35 shows, slapping them on some discs and putting them out... There ARE companies that do just that, but that is not what CBS Home Entertainment is all about. 

 

Quite honestly, I am astonished that CBS and the other major companies are even embracing TV-on-Blu-ray... As recently as 5 years ago, when we started work on THE LUCY SHOW, the consensus of opinion in the industry was that TV shows would NEVER be released on Blu-ray... They did not think there would be enough people interested, and were fearful that the then exorbitant production costs would not come down... Those costs have come down quite a bit over the last few years, but Blu-rays are still more expensive to manufacture than DVDs... Thankfully, too, there is a lot more interest among the public in seeing these vintage programs in High-Def, which makes these projects possible...

 

All of which is a very long winded way of saying that no one is deliberately price gouging... But these sets are very expensive to produce...

 

Hope this explains it, Joe...

 

tjw

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...