Earlier this month, on December 8th, the folks at Davis-Panzer and
LegendaryHeroes.com began shipping the long-delayed Blu-ray Disc release of
Highlander: The Series - Season 1. Since then, message boards, Facebook posts and other feedback venues have seen a number of discussions about this release, regarding the audio/video quality of the set, especially as compared to other TV-on-Blu-ray releases.
While very few people would dare to try to compare this release to the BD release for latest season of
Lost (which is filmed in high-def), folks have in some cases looked at the stellar Blu releases for the original versions of both
Star Trek and
The Prisoner, and wondered how these 1966 and 1967 shows can look better on BD than a 1992 program like
Highlander. The immediate assumption from some of our readers and other fans of the show, frankly, is that the folks at Davis-Panzer - despite the long delays in the production - must not have put any real effort into this Blu-ray release.
I've spoken at length to Davis-Panzer about these criticisms, and I judge the "little or no effort" criticisms to be simply untrue. In fact, they began to come to me before I had a chance to finish my research into this matter (no worries; I've gotten what I need since then). My copy of the release arrived a bit later that many others did (possibly due to all the holiday shipments the carriers have to deliver at this time of year). So while I was checking out my own copy on both my PlayStation 3 (firmware-current Profile 2.0) and my Magnavox-brand/Funai-built inexpensive "for the bedroom" second player (original Profile 1.0 level; yes it worked fine on that player), the studio got in touch with me and wanted to discuss the criticisms in the online postings.
On several non-technical matters, the folks at Davis-Panzer I spoke with agree that more can, and should, be done. Efforts are being made, for example, to make shipping and customer service information more prominent and visible at the online store. More to the point of the main topic here, there was an acknowledgment that perhaps more could have been done up-front to let customers and fans know what the release would be like from an A/V standpoint, and set the proper expectations in advance (after all, the specs weren't even listed on the back of the box, and nobody at the studio reined me in when I mistakenly mentioned "1080p" in one of my news posts about this title).
Still, it all comes back to the fact that the show was originally shot on 16mm film (like
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was at first, and which yields a lower resolution than the 35mm film which
Star Trek and many other programs were shot on). And that the episodes weren't finished on film, but instead used digital special effects on videotape to put those important opticals on the screen. And while
Star Trek: The Next Generation has the same issue with SFX being finished on video, the folks at CBS can potentially invest a LOT more money into re-doing the
ST:TNG effects from scratch if they ever decide they eventually want to (much as they did for the original series); their resources are far greater than Davis-Panzer's are. Finally, it should be noted that the sound was broadcast in 2.0 stereo, and was remixed to 5.1 for the original
Season 1 DVD release, but fans were highly critical of that mix. So instead of re-using it, and without technology available just yet to provide a better 5.1 mix, Davis-Panzer's Blu-ray Disc producers elected to go with the 2.1 mix that is found on the Blu-ray.
But all of the above is just my own words. And, like many of you reading this, I don't claim to be a guru or expert on how the technicals of the high-def world and film-production world actually work in all the detail; I know just enough of the basics to be "dangerous." So below you'll find the official statement provided by Davis-Panzer to address the technical criticisms, and acknowledge that the Blu-ray release is in 720p high-def resolution (the same HD resolution that over-the-air broadcasts are usually shown in for programs such as
Lost), and the sound is a 2.1 mix. As Davis-Panzer continues moving forward with future releases, we at TVShowsOnDVD have offered to continue to work with the studio to improve the releases as much as possible (for instance, by adding a simple "Play All" feature to the menus, so episodes don't have to be selected individually unless desired).
That could *possibly* involve reader surveys posted here, to get fan input before the studio makes a crucial decision. We're not sure yet that all of that will happen, we just wanted to make sure you knew that it's open for discussion, and to stay tuned for (possibly) more on that. I'll conclude my own thoughts by noting that Davis-Panzer is not doing me any favors to give them any sort of positive feedback here. Yet I'm convinced that they're trying to bring fans the best possible releases, given the limitations of how the show was produced. Which I'll now let them say in their own words:
Official Statement
In response to the postings regarding Highlander Season 1 Blu-ray release, we would like to say (as the people who have lived with this show for 17 years), that our goal has been to deliver the very best product for our fans to enjoy. With respect to the Blu-ray version of the series, we did as much research as possible to come to a decision as to how to release the newest box set of the series.
In our opinion, the solution we came up with, will give our fans a great Blu-ray experience. We produced a product with quality that can best be described as follows: what the standard-definition DVD was to the VHS version of the show, our Blu-ray (digital 720p) release is to the standard-definition DVD (digital 480i).
We took the original digital masters that were made from 16mm film negative, removed grain, up-res'd and tweaked the original 720x480 image (480i) to 1280x720 (720p) progressive scan. In our opinion 720p gave us the best results from the material we were working with. Once again, our goal was to give our fans a great Highlander Blu-ray experience.
Another question was why we didn't go back to the original film negative. Primarily, once the film was transferred to digital, it was vaulted. The technology at that time has made it extremely difficult to trace back from the digital masters to the original film negative. Also, the visual effects, which were done digitally, in a standard-def (480i) format, would not up-res to the quality of original negative re-transfer to HD. To redo all of the effects, transitions, Quickenings, etc. would be incredibly cost prohibitive. So the original film solution was not a realistic option for us and our 720p solution achieved the best and most consistent quality overall.
We also tried various options to enhance the original stereo audio track (to 2.1 or 5.1), and decided on Dolby Digital 2.1 audio as the best solution. We are currently testing some new hardware to see if we can provide a more realistic Dolby Digital 5.1 audio experience for the next releases.
A final thought: we too are big fans of the Highlander series, and as fans, we believe we have brought you what will be a terrific Highlander Blu-ray experience.
Donald Paonessa
Producer, Post Production
Highlander: the Series
