Reply With QuoteThat is correct.Originally Posted by Nemescream
The complete box set that BCI later released had the corrected disc 1, and I'm sure later pressings of the first volume were corrected as well. It was only a problem with the initial pressings of volume one as far as I'm aware. BCI Guy would know for sure...
That is correct.
But is BCI's complete series readily available at retail anymore? (I don't think I even saw it at any stores when it was released) If any retailer does happen to have any of the 2002 series left, chances are it's going to be the individual volumes and possibly the first printing of Volume 1. (same goes for many online shops) I mean, was the 2002 series hot enough to sell out? I dunno. Just something to think about for those who don't shop for DVDs online. (but even places like Amazon don't have that much of a stock of BCI's complete series)
The Mill Creek set is pretty good though and a value at $20.00. The episodes look to be of comparable quality to the BCI sets and have the special features, which are the most important things, IMO. Not that I don't love the BCI sets... but I have to say Mill Creek's packaging is easier to deal with.
On a side note, I have a feeling Mill Creek's set isn't selling tons. It never showed up on their "Hot Sellers" page when they updated the site, although Dungeons and Dragons is still there.
Last edited by Tallstar; October 10, 2009 at 04:59am.
"My favorite Harry Potter movie is Troll."
Well correct me if I'm wrong but, the Complete Series for the MYP show was never released in general retail. Amazon never had a listing for it.But is BCI's complete series readily available at retail anymore? (I don't think I even saw it at any stores when it was released) If any retailer does happen to have any of the 2002 series left, chances are it's going to be the individual volumes and possibly the first printing of Volume 1. (same goes for many online shops) I mean, was the 2002 series hot enough to sell out? I dunno. Just something to think about for those who don't shop for DVDs online. (but even places like Amazon don't have that much of a stock of BCI's complete series)
The Mill Creek set is pretty good though and a value at $20.00. The episodes look to be of comparable quality to the BCI sets and have the special features, which are the most important things, IMO. Not that I don't love the BCI sets... but I have to say Mill Creek's packaging is easier to deal with.
On a side note, I have a feeling Mill Creek's set isn't selling tons. It never showed up on their "Hot Sellers" page when they updated the site, although Dungeons and Dragons is still there.
Only 2 releases I know is the BESTBUY exclusive (with the extra postcards, Skeletor keychain etc) and the Sam's Club exclusive with just the 3 volumes in a simple clipcase holding them together.
+ Amazon is out of stock of BCI MYP He-man. All 3 volumes. Gone.
(as far as the Filmation goes only the BEST OF is currently available and 2 Volumes of He-man N.A.)
I finally got my Mill Creek sets (both the origins and Complete series) in hand last night.
I ordered them from Amazon before they actually came out so they would ship right away. My wife and I were out of town for a week (left last Wednesday and returned this past Wednesday), and I got all of my DVDs/Blu-Rays that showed up while we were gone from her Grandma's house yesterday (where I have most stuff that I order shipped because receiving stuff at our place is a pain).
I just checked them out a little while ago, and did some comparisons to the BCI DVDs.... looking at a few scenes from the BCI discs, then comparing the same scenes on the Mill Creek discs.
I used my PS3 to play them on, and I have an LG 37" 720P HDTV, just to give reference to the equipment that I have. While I don't have the biggest and best HDTV around, it is still very good, and it serves well to compare any quality differences between the DVDs.
As you might recall, there were some issues with how the discs for Volume 1 of the BCI sets was authored, and there were some very noticeable issues with some pretty bad jagged lines, particularly on anything that was red like the Lava around Snake Mountain and on Orko (and this REALLY stands out on an HDTV).
This issue is not present on the Mill Creek set. Yes, being that I am watching a DVD on an HDTV (and for most of the time was close up to the screen looking for issues), these are not perfectly smooth lines and there is a certain degree of jaggedness to most things on screen. But the specific extreme issue of the reds horribly standing out is not present here, and as a result, the overall presentation is more even, at least for the episodes that were on BCI's Volume 1. And when watching it from my couch at a more proper viewing distance, it looks good overall.
I also compared parts of some episodes from BCI's Volume 2 to those same episodes on the Mill Creek set. When looking at it up close, there are parts where I can see a little more evidence of compression artifacts on the Mill Creek set than on the BCI set, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Again, if viewing from my couch, I probably won't notice that much of a difference. But, the difference may potentially be more noticeable for anyone who has a larger 1080P screen... I don't have one to make that comparison.
I also have yet to compare any of the episodes from BCI's Volume 3, but since the authoring for Vol. 3 was pretty much the same as Vol. 2 (as far as I know), I expect that the comparison between the releases to be about the same.
I went ahead and got both the Complete Series and Origins because I've been a near-completest on the DVD set versions/variations and exclusives (the only real notable exception being that I never bothered getting the Sam's Club BCI 200X complete series set, but do have the Best Buy exclusive version), but there's little reason to get both if you aren't a completest and don't care about slightly differing artwork.
The Origins single-disc release, side from the artwork on the case and on the disc (the disc has Beatman on it), it literally the same as disc 1 from the complete series set. I even did a test to definitively prove this. The PS3 is set up so that if you stop a DVD in the middle of the movie/TV show that you're watching, the next time you put the disc in (even if you've watched other discs in between), it picks up where you previously stopped. I put in Disc 1 from the Complete Series set, stopped in the middle of an episode, removed the disc, put in the Origins disc, and it picked up right from that same spot in that same episode.
My biggest complaint about these Mill Creek discs is the packaging. For some reason instead of having the usual disc hubs to snap the discs into, they are each in an individual paper sleeve, and the inside of the case is set up with this square thing in the middle to hold the discs inside of their sleeves. What is really stupid is that the exact same type of case (same size and all) is also used for the Origins release, just with a single disc and sleeve instead of 4. I don't understand why they couldn't have just used a normal, single disc DVD case for that one. Luckily, I have some extra 6-disc DVD cases that I bought at Frys Electronics a while back, and the overall case is the same size as these Mill Creek cases. I should be able to pull out one of the disc flaps from the 6-disc case to make it a 4-disc case, and then I can just put the 4 discs in there and move the cover art over to it.
So, overall, for a budget release, this really isn't that bad. For the most part the BCI releases are better, but for anyone who was disappointed in the issues with the Volume 1 release, this fixes them for the most part. The only problem is that if you absolutely want to get all 13 episodes from Volume 1 this way, you have to buy the Complete Series set, since disc 1 has the first 10 episodes, with the rest being on disc 2.
But still, even if you want to be really cheap about it, since the Origins release is just the same as disc 1 from the Complete Series release, you'll get at least most of those BCI Vol. 1 episodes and for really cheap, too. It's also a great option for anyone who has a BCI Volume 1 with the footage missing/being skipped over on "Courage of Adam" on Disc 1, and never got around to getting that disc replaced from BCI.
This worked out for me in a round-and-about way. Just before my wife and I left on our trip, I pulled out the BCI Volume 1 set from the exclusive Best Buy Complete Series set and found that disc 1 was physically warped. I had never watched that particular copy of it (I do have one other copy from when it first came out... I had another copy at one point but gave it away and kept the exclusive item that came with it). Being that I had at least 2 copies of each volume due to collecting all of the exclusives and wanted to keep at least 2 to have a back-up set, this was frustrating, and I was considering trying to hunt down another copy of Volume 1 at some point. But now that I have these Mill Creek DVDs and since I prefer the way those first 13 episodes look on these sets, I don't really see a reason to hunt down a replacement copy now.
I got my complete series set of the new Mill Creek release today in the mail. Of course I already had the previous releases. I just wanted to see if there were any improvements in the sound and picture quality. For the price they are selling it, the worst case scenario is that I have a backup to the first releases. The sound and picture are very similar to the BCI releases. One thing that I like about this set is that the picture fills out completely on my HDTV. The first releases had the black bars above and below, even though the tv is widescreen already. That kind of bothered me. Now I can watch these ep's a bit bigger!! They will also be easier to transport with less discs in my dvd wallet for taking trips. I always like to bring some form of MOTU with me on trips
The episodes on this new set are the exact same aspect ratio as the old set. The original BCI releases always filled up my HDTV from the time I first got them. Perhaps there was something wrong with your set up at the time you used the BCI DVDs? Or perhaps you watched them on a non-widescreen TV and your memory is somewhat fuzzy on the exact circumstances of these issues when you watched them?
Yeah, I have to agree with Eamon on this one. This person sounds very clueless.Clueless would be a better description. She actually is a terrible reviewer and makes some rather stupid points.
Like why we weren't told about Keldor's reasons.
What about the Emperor's reasons or Sauron's reasons!!
She's an amateur.
Plus, the thing to note is that most of the griping is based on what they think of the episodes, themselves. This review does nothing to discuss things like picture quality, audio quality, comparisons to the previous BCI sets, etc, which at this point is what most of us are concerned about and what is most worth reviewing.
Anyone who really, really liked the show likely already bought the BCI sets, and are trying to see if there's any compelling reason to buy this new set when they already have the previous ones.
Anyone who really, really hated the show probably already know that they hate it by now, and won't be buying these regardless.
I can really only see this review maybe being being persuasive to those who are more "middle of the road" on whether they should get this or not. But odds are those who are "middle of the road" have been for some time, and probably already had an awareness of the series, have read previous options, reviews, etc. of the show, itself, so really even in that sense, this review is MORE than a day late and a dollar short. The middle of the road people likely just found the BCI sets to be more than they wanted to pay for a show they were iffy about in the first place, and might be debating giving it a shot at this new price point.
Last edited by Dynamo of Eternia; October 10, 2009 at 06:11pm. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
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I have the SAM's club also for completist purposes and bought Origins and Complete series from Mill Creek as well.
Are we the only two members on the .org forums to be like that?
I guess so.I have the SAM's club also for completist purposes and bought Origins and Complete series from Mill Creek as well.
Are we the only two members on the .org forums to be like that?
My biggest reason for getting the Mill Creek complete series set was to take the gamble at hopefully having the corrected versions of the first 13 episodes that were authored poorly on the BCI Volume 1 set.
And then I just went ahead and got the origins release as well since at the time I ordered it, it was only $5.
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Thanks for the detailed review Dynamo. Been waiting for someone to really compare the picture quality, and your tip about buying the origins disc as a fix for BCI's Vol 1 is brilliant. Thanks!
A boy and his cat versus the world...
http://www.jaybellbooks.com/the-cat-in-the-cradle/
OK, I'm starting to notice a couple flaws on the Mill Creek set, which I don't remember seeing on the BCI ones. (I'll have to go back to compare later)
For example, in the episode "Turnabout", there's a black screen with the word "BREAK" that appears for a split second after Skeletor says: "Take me back".
Then in an earlier episode, when the credits are appearing in the beginning, there's a mirror image of one of them that shows up at the top of the screen.
"My favorite Harry Potter movie is Troll."
I am creating a custom cover for a slimmer case as we speak..
EDIT: and here are the results!
I took the spine and simply made it thinner:
if someone wants the cover for print I can post it here if there are no objections from the board's moderators..
Last edited by demiscy; October 16, 2009 at 03:41pm.
Wal-Mart has a slightly different version of the Origins release in their $5 DVD bin. Sadly, I picked it up.
It's in a regular DVD case with the cover artwork formatted to fit that type of case.
The disc sits in a regular hub like the vast majority of DVD releases.
So, it's kind of like demiscy's custom case, only the actual DVD case is black, therefore not transparent, so there's no artwork to see on the inside.
I will try to post some comparison pics between the 2 versions later today. I would do it now, but I think my wife has our digital camera in her purse, and she is at work right now.
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What do you guys mean volume 1 was authored wrong? Do you mean about the massive pixelation and lines that flash by during fast motion sequences? I thought that was just my player being dumb.
Does the Redbox version come with a case? You completists better pay the late fees and get one of those as well if it does.
Finally Amazon delivered my pre-order...
I am making a custom cover as we speak....
Mill Creek has a brand new website and Facebook page if you guys would like to join ans express the need for the series to come to BLU-RAY!
http://www.facebook.com/MillCreekEnt
Last edited by demiscy; January 19, 2010 at 04:12am. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
I remember reading an article that Mill Creek said there were no plans for Filmation Blu-Rays, but did they ever comment on the MYP series?
In Midwinter, the heat from the oven baking my Shrinky Dinks is all I need!
I emailed Mill Creek about a possible blu-ray release of the MYP Series. They said
they are looking into it in the future. Wouldn't hold my breath but better answer than nothing. Maybe when the new movie comes out as a tie in!!
That would be nice. Thanks for reaching out to them.I emailed Mill Creek about a possible blu-ray release of the MYP Series. They said
they are looking into it in the future. Wouldn't hold my breath but better answer than nothing. Maybe when the new movie comes out as a tie in!!
Regardless of what people say cartoons do look bettter in HD (might just be because I have a 65 inch screen, but colors and clarity are both better). I realize that the original MOTU episodes might never get the treatment since the source resolution is so low, but the MYP show seems like it would benefit from a HD transfer.
In Midwinter, the heat from the oven baking my Shrinky Dinks is all I need!
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