I ran across this interesting listing on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Hardy-Boys-Nancy-Drew-Mysteries/dp/B00EIBO8PU/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1377728565&sr=8-5&keywords=%22Hardy+Boys%22+%2B+TV) today. It lists Season 1 of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries and has it set to rerelease to DVD on October 15, 2013. Since it's a separate listing from the release that Universal did back in 2005, I wonder if this is just a rerelease of the exact same packaging and all- or if it will include a new redesign for the box art and everything? Now that all three seasons have finally been released, Universal could go back and release a Complete Series DVD box set- that seems to be a trend with companies nowadays. Maybe we could even see a complete series DVD set that would give us the unedited episodes for Season 3 (and hopefully in better condition too). I don't know, of course- but I'd love to see such a release, especially if they might include some extras- like say, interviews with the stars of the show (the primary ones, Shaun Cassidy, Parker Stevenson and Pamela Sue Martin all seem like they would be up for doing such interviews- I know Martin and Stevenson have made the convention rounds.)
Right now the home distribution rights are with Shout, not Universal, so unless Universal and Shout work together (like they did with Leave It To Beaver), there would be no Complete Series release, because Universal doesn't have the rights to Season 3.
As for the seperate listing, I'm wondering if Universal is going back and reissuing they're TV shows that they had originally released on the DVD-18's, onto standard DVD-9's. I own Dragnet 1967-Season 1 from Universal and I've had to buy 4 copies already because the discs keep getting DVD rot, and right in the same locations. DVD-18's, while good on paper, never really worked out for Universal. I know that ADV Films years ago reissued all their anime programs on DVD-9's because so many customers were returning the DVD-18's and complaining about the discs having DVD rot and not working properly. (DVD-18's are those double sided DVD's, kind of like the old HD-DVD/DVD combo discs, where one side was HD-DVD and the other was a regular DVD, but for DVD-18's both sides were regular DVD's; DVD-9/5's are your regular single sided DVD. The 18, 9 and 5 refer to, roughly, how much storage in GB each disc had.)
QuoteAs for the seperate listing, I'm wondering if Universal is going back and reissuing they're TV shows that they had originally released on the DVD-18's, onto standard DVD-9's.
Ah- you may be on to something there. Thanks for the explanation of the difference between the two. That would be nice if this is the case as I certainly would not want to have my DVDs going bad on me with the double-sided release done for Season 1.
That listing now has cover art available- it seems to be a modified verison of the original box art, compacted into a single case.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81RsAzXyi-L._SL1500_.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81RsAzXyi-L._SL1500_.jpg)
At a cost of 20 bucks, I would probably pick this one up eventually if needed to replace the original Season 1 DVD release I have. (assuming these are the standard DVD-9 releases, as mentioned before.)
I just found this listing on DVDEmpire.com (http://www.dvdempire.com/1667401/hardy-boys-nancy-drew-mysteries-the-season-one-repackage-movie.html) and it lists this item as a "repackage"- so it looks like more confirmation that it is both a slimmer case for the DVDs and hopefully also single-sided DVDs.
Ah- here's the missing clue we needed. Best Buy's listing (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Hardy+Boys+Nancy+Drew+Mysteries%3A+Season+One+-+(4+Disc)+-+DVD/21851652.p?id=2747107&skuId=21851652&st=%22Hardy%20Boys%22&lp=6&cp=1) for this item says that it's a 4 DVD set! So I think tomswift2002's theory about the DVD set having the single-sided (DVD-9) discs is probably accurate. I'd love it if bonus material was also included, but somehow I kinda doubt that would be happening.
I'm confused. I'm looking at Amazon.com's listing for both the original 2005 DVD release of Season 1 and the scheduled 2013 rerelease. The 2005 DVD release has a runtime of 1364 minutes (22 hours and about 44 minutes- which doesn't make any sense, since Season 1 only has 14 hour long episodes- and the 2005 DVD release didn't include any extras on the DVD) whereas the 2013 rerelease only has 864 minutes listed as the runtime. (Of course, the search results page lists the run time as 11 hours and 24 minutes, but 864 minutes would actually be 14 hours and 24 minutes. This would make more sense, since there are 14 hour long episodes in Season 1.)
However, I've found that episodes of an hour long show generally don't actually run 1 full hour, since commercials take up some of that time- usually it's closer to 45 to 50 minutes long for each episode. Of course, even if every episode of Season 1 is exactly 1 hour long [which I kinda doubt]- then there is still an extra 24 minutes on there. Surely commercials and promos for other DVD sets wouldn't take up all that time, would it? Would a difference in compression (the double sided DVD-18 versus single-sided DVD-9) make that much difference in run time?
Maybe Universal is actually including some new extras on this DVD set? I know- it may be nothing, so I don't want to get anyone's hopes up. But hey- I can still be hopeful it might turn out to be something- I'd love to see some new interviews with the stars of the show included. You never know- there could be something to it. :) 8) We'll see...and like The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, keep looking for more clues in the meantime.
It's probably a typo on Amazon's part.
Compression has nothing to do with time, as the compression deals with with video and audio quality. I don't see why Universal would change the compression, unless that were going down to a DVD-5, in which case they would need to squeeze more information onto a single disc, thus dropping the quality.
Okay- thanks for the information.
Well, this is supposed to release today, so I'm thinking of going to check a few stores and see if they got this in- I'll post if I find anything out. I have a suspicion though that this may not be an item I will see in stores, but we'll see. If nothing else, the option is there to order it from Amazon.com- I already have Season 1 of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries on DVD, so I'm not really wanting to get it again, but I might consider it if it does have the single-sided DVDs on this release... (and I definitely would if it had extras, but that seems pretty doubtful). Anyway, I'm still checking into this.... :) 8)
Well, I did some sleuthing and thankfully it didn't take much investigation to find this! I found a copy for sale at Barnes & Noble. And I can now divulge some more details about it. Sorry if anyone had their hopes up- it's not too much to get all excited about. According to the back of the box, the DVD specifications say that it's "Color and Double-sided". (Just what the original release says.) So too bad about that- no single-sided discs it seems. The only real difference is just the packaging- it now has both discs packed into one plastic DVD case. I wanted to be able to get a look at the inside of it just to confirm things, but there was no way I could do that unless I bought it- and I didn't want to spend about 25 bucks on it, especially since I wouldn't be able to return it then.
Anyway, I did take a few pictures of it so others curious about it can have a better idea of what it looks like and I'll try to post those soon.
Okay- here are some pictures of the packaging. :) 8)
(http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/hardyboys/images/8/81/Hbndms1dvdrerelease1.jpg) (http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/hardyboys/images/8/81/Hbndms1dvdrerelease1.jpg)
(Here's the front cover, which is the same artwork as the previous release, except it might be a bit less because the plastic box is a bit smaller than the cardboard box on the original release.)
(http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/hardyboys/images/6/6c/Hbndms1dvdrerelease2.jpg) (http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/hardyboys/images/6/6c/Hbndms1dvdrerelease2.jpg)
(Here's the side so you can get an idea of how thick it is. If you look to the right, you can see Season 2 and Season 3 on DVD that the store also has in stock. :) 8))
(http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/hardyboys/images/e/e8/Hbndms1dvdrerelease3.jpg) (http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/hardyboys/images/e/e8/Hbndms1dvdrerelease3.jpg)
(And here's the back of the DVD set.)
(http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/hardyboys/images/e/ea/Hbndms1dvdrerelease4.jpg) (http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/hardyboys/images/e/ea/Hbndms1dvdrerelease4.jpg)
(I took two pictures because I had a glare on the first one.)
Anyway, there it is. I tried to get a close-up of the back of the box but it didn't quite work too well. But the "Color/Double-sided" specification marking is on the bottom right hand corner of the back of the DVD set.
I hope that helps some for anyone else who was curious about this or perhaps still doesn't have Season 1 of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries on DVD and wanted to compare the two releases.
For comparison purposes, here are a few pictures of the original release of Season 1 on DVD.
(http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/25192742125_p0_v2_s260x420.jpg) (http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/25192742125_p0_v2_s260x420.jpg)
(Notice the larger spine because of the cardboard box which holds two separate plastic DVD boxes.)
(http://the-trades.com/hprice/DVD/HardyBoysBox.jpg) (http://the-trades.com/hprice/DVD/HardyBoysBox.jpg)
(The DVD box for all the episodes with The Hardy Boys.)
(http://the-trades.com/hprice/DVD/NancyDrewBox.jpg) (http://the-trades.com/hprice/DVD/NancyDrewBox.jpg)
(The DVD box for all the episodes with Nancy Drew.)
I was browsing in Target the other day and I happened to come across an interesting find. They are apparently selling Season 2 of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries for 20 bucks right now. Nice deal! :) 8)
But I noticed that the box art is different from the original release. I got the Season 2 DVD set back when it released in 2007, so I didn't need another copy of course- but someone who hasn't picked this up yet might enjoy this. It's not really a huge change and I don't think the contents are any different- but I took a few pictures of the DVD set in any case. (Target is known for sometimes carrying exclusive DVD releases, so it's possible this may be a Target-only thing- I'm not sure.)
(http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/hardyboys/images/b/b2/HBNDMS2DVDrerelease1.jpg) (http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/hardyboys/images/b/b2/HBNDMS2DVDrerelease1.jpg)
(front cover- note the white background- the original release was brown in those spots.)
(http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/hardyboys/images/0/06/HBNDMS2DVDrerelease4.jpg) (http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/hardyboys/images/0/06/HBNDMS2DVDrerelease4.jpg)
(Back of the box- as far as I can tell, it's the same as the original release. This release is copyrighted 2007, just as the original release is as well.)
(http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/hardyboys/images/b/bc/HBNDMS2DVDrerelease2.jpg) (http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/hardyboys/images/b/bc/HBNDMS2DVDrerelease2.jpg)
(Another view.)
(http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/hardyboys/images/2/20/HBNDMS2DVDrerelease3.jpg) (http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/hardyboys/images/2/20/HBNDMS2DVDrerelease3.jpg)
(Here it is for sale at the store.)
Here are pictures of the original Season 2 DVD release box set to compare.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kaD8GWSlL.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kaD8GWSlL.jpg)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61v8G7810iL.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61v8G7810iL.jpg)
(http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/25195004589_p0_v2_s600.jpg) (http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/25195004589_p0_v2_s600.jpg)
It almost looks like the Target one also has a thicker border on the front, since if you look right be Nancy's circle at the left, the border is cutting of the circle a lot more (of course it also looks like the Target one has the Nancy and boys part printed on cardboard inside a plastic shell, kind of like the early "Flintstone" releases).
Yeah- the border is thicker on the Target release, definitely. I don't think anything else is really different other than the cover and the packaging- I'm pretty sure it's all still the same material inside. So nothing to really get excited about- it was just interesting to note, especially after Season 1 recently got a rerelease too. Now if Season 3 were ever to get rereleased (hopefully with the episodes in better and uncut condition)- I would get much more excited about that. :) 8)
But I'm happy that all the episodes are available in any form on DVD honestly.
I don't see Season 3 getting any decent releases soon. Shout probably has an exclusive contract for Season 3 for a few years now, and considering that Universal has only handled the broadcast rights over the past 30 years themselves, unless Universal remastered the entire series for HD syndication(which they could since it was shot and edited on film), I don't see any other company issuing anything better than those washed out prints.
Well, I have an interesting update on the Season 1 rerelease DVD box set. My local library got a copy of it and so I was able to check out some of the DVDs. I watched some of it this weekend. I rewatched the pilot in its entirety and maybe my memory is just off, but it seemed like it was a little fuzzier than what I remember on my copy of the 2005 original release. Maybe it's always been like that though- unfortunately, some of the scenes set at night tend to be a little hard to make out sometimes- but it only seemed that way right at the start- the rest of the episode was fine.
Anyway, here's the big news with it- The DVD rerelease set does indeed have single sided discs! So I don't know if fans who already have the 2005 DVD set will want to rush out and spend another 20 bucks on this, but I just thought I'd put that out there so people know.
Also, the discs are now orange colored - I suppose to match the color of the box set. There are two separate discs for all The Hardy Boys episodes- and I presume two separate discs for the Nancy Drew episodes as well. (I didn't find those at the library at the time, so I just have The Hardy Boys episodes for right now checked out.)
The menu design is also totally different. The menu now comes up with the same picture of Frank and Joe used on the individual box for The Hardy Boys episodes from the 2005 DVD release. Also, the theme music plays repeatedly in the background. The same options for language settings are there, as well as a "Play All" feature. But you don't get the same episode synopsis for each episode like what they have on the 2005 DVD release. Oh well.
Once I can get my hands on the Nancy Drew episodes, I'll add more details about that. I did take a picture of the new menu screen for The Hardy Boys episodes; when I can get it transferred, I'll add it to The Hardy Boys wiki and post it here.
I've always found the image on Mystery Of The Haunted House to have been rather low in contrast, especially right at the start there. They only other thing to check would be to pop the DVD into a computer and see just how much memory the computer says the DVD holds. If it's 4.7 Gigabytes or less, then the video is probably suffering from compression issues (the original releases on the DVD-18's had almost 9 Gigabytes per side): 4.7 GB discs can hold 2 hours of video alright, but anything more and you start running into compression artifacts, especially with low contrast night time shots.
Also, with Season 3, over the Christmas holidays I finally realized why Season 3 looks so poor. Back in the 70's Universal probably made 16mm syndication prints of the episodes, and the U-Matic masters were probably source from the 16mm syndication prints. Over Christmas I was watching a few public domain Christmas cartoons and shows that had been sourced from 16mm and 8mm prints, and the shows were looking very washed out and very much like the Hardy Boys Season 3 episodes. So I wouldn't be surprised if the original 35mm negatives for Season 3 haven't even been touched since 1978-79 when Universal had the 35mm masters transferred to U-Matic for broadcast.
QuoteAlso, with Season 3, over the Christmas holidays I finally realized why Season 3 looks so poor. Back in the 70's Universal probably made 16mm syndication prints of the episodes, and the U-Matic masters were probably source from the 16mm syndication prints. Over Christmas I was watching a few public domain Christmas cartoons and shows that had been sourced from 16mm and 8mm prints, and the shows were looking very washed out and very much like the Hardy Boys Season 3 episodes. So I wouldn't be surprised if the original 35mm negatives for Season 3 haven't even been touched since 1978-79 when Universal had the 35mm masters transferred to U-Matic for broadcast.
Sounds quite plausible. Even with washed out looking prints [and edited episodes], I'm still glad Shout! Factory took the time to make an official DVD release of Season 3.
I can try to check the compression rates on the DVDs later on and report back.
Here's that menu screenshot though.
(http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/hardyboys/images/thumb/6/61/IMG_2128.JPG/1000px-IMG_2128.JPG) (http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/hardyboys/images/thumb/6/61/IMG_2128.JPG/1000px-IMG_2128.JPG)
Kind of looks plain when you think that the original menu used a fingerprint to select the different episodes.
Yeah, it is kind of a letdown from the original menu screen- but it's not too bad overall. The big upside is that you get single-sided discs with this set and it's more compact so it can fit more easily on your shelf...But I don't think I would bother buying this rerelease of Season 1 when I already have the original on DVD- if that one dies on me, then at least it's good to know this one is available.
Here are some more menu screen shots from the Season 1 DVD rerelease and of the DVDs themselves. :) 8)
(http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140224230909/hardyboys/images/6/6b/IMG_2254.JPG) (http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140224230909/hardyboys/images/6/6b/IMG_2254.JPG)
(http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140225000021/hardyboys/images/b/b3/IMG_2258.JPG) (http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140225000021/hardyboys/images/b/b3/IMG_2258.JPG)
(http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140225000400/hardyboys/images/c/ce/IMG_2260.JPG) (http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140225000400/hardyboys/images/c/ce/IMG_2260.JPG)
(http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140225000809/hardyboys/images/c/ce/IMG_2261.JPG) (http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140225000809/hardyboys/images/c/ce/IMG_2261.JPG)
(http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140225202231/hardyboys/images/3/32/IMG_2256.JPG) (http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140225202231/hardyboys/images/3/32/IMG_2256.JPG)
(http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140225202332/hardyboys/images/1/19/IMG_2257.JPG) (http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140225202332/hardyboys/images/1/19/IMG_2257.JPG)
I was just thinking, with the new Nancy Drew series and possible a new Hardy Boys series on TV, it's too bad that Universal wouldn't remaster the series in HD for a Blu-Ray release. Considering the wide degree of video quality that we saw on the DVD releases (from 16mm-syndication-prints-that-were--shot-off-the-wall in Season 3, to a digital 35mm film scan of select episodes in 2004/2006 (such as "The Disappearing Floor") to transfers from 1985 for episodes that were released on VHS/Betamax (quite possible "The Mystery of the Haunted House" was transferred in 1984 but was not released then). It would be really nice to have high quality video for the series.
I would gladly welcome a remastered release if it is released to both DVD and Blu-Ray. A complete series set could now be released and maybe it would be an opportunity to get uncut Season 3 episodes released if that's possible. It would also be nice to finally have some special features, like interviews and episode commentaries from Shaun Cassidy, Parker Stevenson and Pamela Sue Martin. I think all three would probably be willing. I would be interested to see some features on the history of the books and the conversion from books to television and the creation of the opening theme song credits. (Particularly the process of putting the Cassidy's, Stevenson's and Martin's images into the book covers.) And if there is any truth to the talk of reviving the show back around 1988 during the writers' strike, I'd love to see any unused scripts that were considered.