Thanks Universal Italia!
Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 6:57 pm
Hi there,
how's it going? Hope well.
I want to tell you my experience with the italian DVD release of MPI series.
As I said in my introduction post, since I saw it as a child I have always been a fan of MPI.
Here in Italy the series was aired starting from 1982 (I was 9 years old) and I loved it. Everyday there was a new episode.
During these years the series has been broadcasted several times, but often early in the morning or when it was not possible for me to see it.
So, my memories on the series dated back to those years in my childhood, when there was great shows on the tv, like The A-Team, The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, The Dukes of Hazzard and many others.
MPI has never been relesed on VHS tapes here, but I had a few episodes recorded from TV.
Several years ago, in the DVD era, it came a 2-discs set, "The best of Magnum p.i.", which of course I bought.
I must say that, at the starting of the "Don't eat the snow in Hawaii" opening theme tears almost came to my eyes.
For some years, that was the only Magnum DVD available.
Thanks to Internet I discovered that, first in the US, then in the UK, Universal was releasing the series. At this point I began to think about buying it in UK (Region 2 like Italy). I can follow the episodes in english, but I wanted to have the italian audio track too, let's say for sentimental reasons (those were the voices I grew up with and I think they did a great job in the casting of the italian actors), so I waited.
Some years ago, at last, Universal Italia released the first two seasons.
I bought the boxes and I must say I appreciated the good quality, not only the a/v quality, but the way the boxes were made. Each disc had its tray in an elegant boxed digipack. The menus and episode titles were in english but that was fine for me. I think they were problably the exact replica of the US/UK release.
Now begins the sad story.
After those two first boxes it seemed Universal had no plan to release the remaining seasons.
Some more years the third season was released but with an authoring issue on one of the discs. One by one, the remaining seasons saw the light, until the 8th, released some months ago.
After the first two seasons, I decided to wait until all the remaining boxes were available and buy them all at once. So I did it.
The good news is that I'm watching the entire series right now for the first time (I'm at the 6th) and I discovered that there are several episodes which I have never seen, so they are completely new to me.
I am watching with great pleasure many classic episodes which I haven't seen in many years, and this remains one of the best series of TV history!
The bad news is that the quality of this DVD edition is unacceptable, coming from a great major like Universal (I want to remember that the first two seasons were a/v perfect).
1) The rib of the 1st box says "Stagilone 1" invece di "Stagione 1" (it is like "Seaszon 1" instead of "Season 1"). More, the season is indicated by a number, while on all the other boxes it is indicated by letters (like "Two", "Three", etc...)
2) The Magnum P.I. and season writings on the rib of the 1st season box are reversed, contrariwise the other sets.
3) The first two seasons were in nice digipacks, the others are ugly black amarays (which are shorter than the digipacks). In the first two boxes, each disc has its tray and the releasing mechanism works well. In the amarays the discs are positioned in couples, one disc over the other, and to release them you have to risk to break them (I wonder if they have quality checkings at Universal).
4) The ribs of all seasons are black, except one (3rd), which is red.
5) The "Magnum P.I." logo has been rendered in three different ways and the season logo in four different ways, from season 1 to season 8.
6) There is no consistency in the disc labels, nor in the layout neither in the content (some have pictures, some graphics, some a mix of them).
7) 1st and 2nd seasons have italian and english subtitles, the other seasons have none.
8) The menus of the first two seasons were good (as I said, I think they are just from the US or UK release). From season 3 to 8 they have changed totally, and the new menus are ugly. More, in some season there are the episode titles, in other there is "Episode 1", "Episode 2", etc...
9) The authoring of seasons 1-2 discs is different from that of seasons 3-8.
10) The audio/video quality of the 3rd season (and several episodes from other seasons) is much worse than the first two seasons.
(Some episodes are so poor they look like VHS tapes).
I could go on but I think you got the point.
Totally amateur-like work.
how's it going? Hope well.
I want to tell you my experience with the italian DVD release of MPI series.
As I said in my introduction post, since I saw it as a child I have always been a fan of MPI.
Here in Italy the series was aired starting from 1982 (I was 9 years old) and I loved it. Everyday there was a new episode.
During these years the series has been broadcasted several times, but often early in the morning or when it was not possible for me to see it.
So, my memories on the series dated back to those years in my childhood, when there was great shows on the tv, like The A-Team, The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, The Dukes of Hazzard and many others.
MPI has never been relesed on VHS tapes here, but I had a few episodes recorded from TV.
Several years ago, in the DVD era, it came a 2-discs set, "The best of Magnum p.i.", which of course I bought.
I must say that, at the starting of the "Don't eat the snow in Hawaii" opening theme tears almost came to my eyes.
For some years, that was the only Magnum DVD available.
Thanks to Internet I discovered that, first in the US, then in the UK, Universal was releasing the series. At this point I began to think about buying it in UK (Region 2 like Italy). I can follow the episodes in english, but I wanted to have the italian audio track too, let's say for sentimental reasons (those were the voices I grew up with and I think they did a great job in the casting of the italian actors), so I waited.
Some years ago, at last, Universal Italia released the first two seasons.
I bought the boxes and I must say I appreciated the good quality, not only the a/v quality, but the way the boxes were made. Each disc had its tray in an elegant boxed digipack. The menus and episode titles were in english but that was fine for me. I think they were problably the exact replica of the US/UK release.
Now begins the sad story.
After those two first boxes it seemed Universal had no plan to release the remaining seasons.
Some more years the third season was released but with an authoring issue on one of the discs. One by one, the remaining seasons saw the light, until the 8th, released some months ago.
After the first two seasons, I decided to wait until all the remaining boxes were available and buy them all at once. So I did it.
The good news is that I'm watching the entire series right now for the first time (I'm at the 6th) and I discovered that there are several episodes which I have never seen, so they are completely new to me.
I am watching with great pleasure many classic episodes which I haven't seen in many years, and this remains one of the best series of TV history!
The bad news is that the quality of this DVD edition is unacceptable, coming from a great major like Universal (I want to remember that the first two seasons were a/v perfect).
1) The rib of the 1st box says "Stagilone 1" invece di "Stagione 1" (it is like "Seaszon 1" instead of "Season 1"). More, the season is indicated by a number, while on all the other boxes it is indicated by letters (like "Two", "Three", etc...)
2) The Magnum P.I. and season writings on the rib of the 1st season box are reversed, contrariwise the other sets.
3) The first two seasons were in nice digipacks, the others are ugly black amarays (which are shorter than the digipacks). In the first two boxes, each disc has its tray and the releasing mechanism works well. In the amarays the discs are positioned in couples, one disc over the other, and to release them you have to risk to break them (I wonder if they have quality checkings at Universal).
4) The ribs of all seasons are black, except one (3rd), which is red.
5) The "Magnum P.I." logo has been rendered in three different ways and the season logo in four different ways, from season 1 to season 8.
6) There is no consistency in the disc labels, nor in the layout neither in the content (some have pictures, some graphics, some a mix of them).
7) 1st and 2nd seasons have italian and english subtitles, the other seasons have none.
8) The menus of the first two seasons were good (as I said, I think they are just from the US or UK release). From season 3 to 8 they have changed totally, and the new menus are ugly. More, in some season there are the episode titles, in other there is "Episode 1", "Episode 2", etc...
9) The authoring of seasons 1-2 discs is different from that of seasons 3-8.
10) The audio/video quality of the 3rd season (and several episodes from other seasons) is much worse than the first two seasons.
(Some episodes are so poor they look like VHS tapes).
I could go on but I think you got the point.
Totally amateur-like work.
