DVD News and Reviews

Well, I've received a couple of e-mails about this, and bought the DVD myself, so I thought I'd pass the news along for the other dvd weenies. I've only viewed "A Scandal in Bohemia", but the video quality is nice and clean (compressed a little high, but only the super-fussy-anal will notice those tiny supernaturally still holds :-). The audio's as good as can be expected from a show filmed in 1983. In 16mm. (oi). And sounded quite fine to me on the one episode I've viewed so far.

The Extras are essentially nothing. The "promo" is one that MPI cobbled together on their own, their "stills" are essentially video footage of stills, not a gallery of still images, and the biographys are the usual text-only stuff. The subtitles are great, though! English, Spanish and French.

Jeremy Ellis sent me e-mail also pointing out that the labelling is incorrect on the discs. The sides are labelled wrong (i.e., if you want to view Episodes 1 and 2, you have to put the disc in with the side labelled Episodes 3 and 4 on top. Hopefully, they'll get better as they go.

Also, several people on alt.video.dvd, where a whole population of those super-fussy folk live, have mentioned very poor sound quality ("midrange, tinny and thin", with quavering on the end credits, etc.) on "The Naval Treaty", and one posted a reply they received from MPI's customer service: 

   We are sorry that you are not happy with the quality of our Sherlock Holmes
   DVD.  Granada apparently did not take good care of the original 16 mm films
   and some of the music tracks were damaged.  The digitally remastering
   process is not a restoration process ... and we did not find out until it
   was too late that there was some warbling of sound.  The picture, however,
   is superb isn't it?

   We have already requested the original films for the next four programs.  We
   will not release the next DVD until the sound quality is satisfactory (which
   may take awhile!)

   Natalie Olinger Boden
   Director of Public Relations
   MPI Media Group
   (8:30a - 3:00p CT)
   p:  708/873-3192
   f:  708/873-3177

My verdict? Not bad for a bargain dvd. Set your expectations at Anchor Bay heights, and you'll be rewarded. This isn't any special whizz-bang SE multiple-menus type stuff a la the Matrix, but given the amount of money I paid, and the number of episodes I can now retire from my tape library, I'm more than happy.

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