Whew! Time flies when you're enjoying yourself. And among the greater pleasures in modern life is enjoying your favorite TV show. But fans of
Combat! are up in arms over the fact that the
new DVD releases this past Tuesday are a bit speedier than they ought to be.
Raise your hand if you're familiar with the process that syndicated shows are subject to that's called "time compression"? Anyone? Anyone? Okay, for those of you with your hands down, here's what it is: When a television show is in first-run broadcast, it runs a particular length of time and fits in just so many commercials. When the show is syndicated into re-runs, they are usually edited down a bit, in order to shave off a few minutes of running time and squeeze in an extra commercial or two.
A different, more modern way of making room for extra commercials in syndication is "time compression." Simply put, the footage is sped up a bit, played at a slight faster speed, to achieve the same end result. It's like speeding up a vinyl record (you remember those, right?) from 33 1/3 RPM speed to, say, around 35 or 36 RPM (or thereabouts...I'm being metaphorical, not scientific). Not enough to notice, except for the very most discriminating ears (who claim that the actor voices sound more high-pitched and whiny, but it would take a sensitive person indeed to discern that).
Combat! on DVD seems to have been subject to that process, and die-hard fans talking on the internet are upset that distributor Image Entertainment didn't go back to the original film elements on this project.
This week, our friend Randy A. Salas - the Entertainment Wire Editor/DVD Columnist for the
Minneapolis Star Tribune - posted
his take on the DVD release, and managed to get Image Entertainment to go on-the-record about this situation. Here's what Salas says in his article:
The extras are really inviting. They include more commentary by cast and crew members, interviews and retrospectives, galleries and trivia for each episode drawn from (Jo) Davidsmeyer's book.
The image quality is fine -- a bit soft but surely the best the show has looked. Unfortunately, the episodes all come from syndication prints that were time-compressed, or sped up slightly from their original 50-minute duration, to shave two to three minutes for longer commercial breaks. Nothing appears to be cut, though.
"Image Entertainment is releasing its licensed 'Combat' DVDs from masters provided by Buena Vista Television, the show's licensor/copyright owner," an Image spokesman explained. "While Image Entertainment was not responsible for the show's time compression for syndication, the company is releasing the best available prints on DVD."
Recommended, with that caveat.
Thanks, Randy...that surely helps everyone understand the situation. Steve Dawes, who provided some materials for extras on the release, also had this to say on the matter: "
The extras alone are worth the cost of the sets. The picture on these DVDs is the best you will find verses any other form of distribution."
Well, it's hard to argue with that! Each fan will have to make up their own mind, of course, but one thing's for sure: this is quite the best you will get for years to come.
CORRECTION:
Steve Dawes is not the leader of the
Combat! Yahoo! Mailing List. Jo Davidsmeyer runs that list, as well as the CombatFan group and web site. Davidsmeyer also consulted on the
Combat! DVD release for Image. TVShowsOnDVD is responsible for and regrets the error. The wording above had been corrected.
