[mikegambit]

Networks long awaited set is out in a couple of weeks and its been announced that the US set from A&E is a collaboration with Network and all the extras from the UK set will be on the US set too - although I don't think the book will be included.

No news on region coding .

UK set is £48.99 on Play and US set is £41.99 on Playusa with possible extra charges when importing

[captainarchive]

It's only £42.98 at Amazon.uk. Also I could have sworn it was the same price at Play but it's coming in at £47.99, a quid cheaper.

[ARNOLD AKIEN]

Just in case people encountering this thread haven't come across the news releases on this ....


" The Prisoner US BD Edition Gets Detailed " ....


Blu-ray.com - The Prisoner US BD Edition Gets Detailed


In my opinion its highly likely that the UK release will have the same content as the US of Aliens release. And that the US TV remake will look like the clip in this linked site ..... PEOPLE OF A SENSITIVE DISPOSITION SHOULD AVERT THEIR EYES NOW ....

" Speaking of Number 6 on AMC, the US cable channel recently revealed the first teaser trailer for The Prisoner remake, coming in November and starring Jim Caviezel and Sir Ian McKellen: " ....


The Prisoner Confirmed for Blu-ray in October | The Blu-Ray Blog



Be Seeing You,



Arnold.

[mikegambit]

No mention of the book for the US and surely the most important thing for most people will be whether its region coded

[HummerUK]

My copy is on its way from Amazon UK

Be seeing you...

HummerUK

[mikegambit]

No news yet on whether the dvd cockups have been corrected but its confirmed as region locked to B

[captainarchive]

Originally Posted by mikegambit

No news yet on whether the dvd cockups have been corrected but its confirmed as region locked to B

What cock-ups do you mean? I never got round to getting theDVD set but the BD is a must have. A comprehensive look at it here:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content/id...te-series.html

[mikegambit]

Originally Posted by captainarchive

What cock-ups do you mean? I never got round to getting theDVD set but the BD is a must have. A comprehensive look at it here:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content/id...te-series.html

The DVD Times review makes no mention of the dvd cockups but a post on the forum there says that the cock ups have been corrected

[HummerUK]

I Am In The Village

Yes they are indeed in original 4:3 aspect ratio with sound re-mixed into DD 5.1

Disc play 24P, MPEG-4 AVC, Sound also in Original Broadcast Mono and at least Ep 1 has a commentary track.

I can find no fault with the picture quality

Disc 1 of the 6 has Arrival, The Chimes Of Big Ben, A.B.and C, Free For All and The Schizoid Man.

Some extras also on Disc 1

Flat, well 1.25" high boxset and over 12" wide also has a 285 page paperback book by Andrew Pixley.

http://www.networkdvd.net/product_in...roducts_id=970

HummerUK

[Keith Hurst]

Just had my Amazon ordered, UK set delivered.. it's lush to say the least. Might give shelving issues, but it's a cracking boxed set.

Can't wait to dive into those episodes once again and take in all the additional extras. The only set I had prior to this was the rather lackluster Carlton boxed set from quite a few years ago.

Be seeing you...

KH

[HitmanKelly]

Any chance of some pictures please lads

Thanks in advance

[captainarchive]

By the way that review at DVD Times could result in a massive spoiler for those of you who have never seen the show. Might be worth avoiding the second paragraph.

[Keith Hurst]

Here you go...

6 discs in total, apt I suppose... 4 Blu-rays, locked to Region B, and 2 Region 2 DVDs with extras.

KH

[John Hodson]

Several folks have reported problems playing (ironically) disc six of the set on their BD machines. When my box arrived, I thought I’d better check it out as a matter of priority on my Samsung BD-P1500, and sure enough, after whirring uselessly for a few seconds up popped a terse on-screen message - ‘This disc can not [sic] be played’ - and it was disdainfully spat out.

Disc six, being one of two DVDs of extra features in the set (the only extras in hi-definition I can find thus far are the on-set photographs), was quickly popped into my DVD player…and accepted without problem. Very odd; so I contacted Network via email, and in just a few minutes received a reply that they were ‘looking into it’. Within the hour came this thorough reply from Production Assistant Tim Berry, to whom I’m very grateful:

Following my previous email, we have looked into the issue you raised with the final disc of the Prisoner blu-ray set and have a likely explanation for your problem. We suspect it may be because the final disc includes the PDF content for PC/Macs, and it appears that this may not be compatible with all BD players, depending on the manufacturer.

To put PDF content on a DVD we make the DVD into what is called a ‘hybrid’ so that it can contain both ‘DVD video’ and ‘DVD ROM’ content. As a blu-ray player is more computer based than it is DVD (using more codes, etc.), all blu-ray discs are effectively BD-ROMs, so players need to read both the ROM and video elements on a blu-ray disc in order for it to play. It would appear that some companies are manufacturing BD players that first try to read the ‘ROM’ content on any disc – whether blu-ray or DVD - as opposed to the video element of the disc first. With disc 6 of The Prisoner, your BD player appears to be trying to read the PDF files, which are only playable on PC/Macs and declaring the disc unreadable before attempting to read the DVD content.

We are unsure how many players would behave in this manner. Blu-ray technology is still in its infancy and some manufacturers are still working out how to make their players compatible with previous technology; we do know, however, that the PS3 and Sony350 are able to play these discs. We can only apologise for any convenience caused but I hope that this email goes some way towards answering your question.

…Blu-ray production is completely new territory for a lot of companies and inevitably, just as when DVD replaced VHS, there will always be an element of trial and error - both on the part of the distributors and the BD player manufacturers - in order for the technology to develop and improve.

While we at Network are aware of how a blu-ray disc is read, we had never been in any situation to made aware that some manufacturers may not have taken into account, when making a BD player compatible with previous technology, that it will need to read video elements first. The variety of players we used to make and check these discs worked were programmed to read them correctly, with no problems and it is the aim of manufacturers to ensure that DVDs can continue to be played on BD players. We put a lot of research into our release and it’s a problem that has never been brought to our attention up until now.

This is obviously an experience we will learn from for our future releases and I’d be surprised if the manufacture [sic] who made your BD player was not already aware of this flaw in their production also. It may be worth contacting them directly though, to make clear the specific problems this has caused you - they may even be able to offer you a suitable solution to this problem.

[mikegambit]

There are plenty of "hybrid" discs out there including many from Network and a large amount of the BBC's original Dr Who discs.

So if you have any its a good way of checking out player compatibility.

However - I'm not so sure thats the answer.
I get the Prisoner set later this week so I should be able to play all the discs if that is the real problem

[Pecker]

Thanks for that, John.

Steve W

[HummerUK]

Disc 6 is okay on my Panasonic BD35 machine.

As are all Doctor Who DVD's with PDF's on them.

HummerUK

[mikegambit]

Originally Posted by HummerUK

Disc 6 is okay on my Panasonic BD35 machine.

As are all Doctor Who DVD's with PDF's on them.

HummerUK

That's good as I have a Panny too.

[John Hodson]

Originally Posted by mikegambit

There are plenty of "hybrid" discs out there including many from Network and a large amount of the BBC's original Dr Who discs.

So if you have any its a good way of checking out player compatibility.

The plot thickens. Stap me for a fool, but it didn't occur to me until I saw your post to try other 'hybrid' discs in the BD player to see if Network's finger pointing holds water. 2|entertain's Doctor Who discs of Inferno and Genesis of The Daleks are hybrid discs and Network's own Man In A Suitcase set also contain discs containing PDF content. All booted up in the Samsung in a trice; oh dear...

[mikegambit]

So my theory that the Network excuse is suspect is proven immediately.

That will save time for many people and must be worth a return email to Network to dig deeper

[John Hodson]

Originally Posted by mikegambit

So my theory that the Network excuse is suspect is proven immediately.

That will save time for many people and must be worth a return email to Network to dig deeper

Well, fool I may be but at least I have thought of that...

[neeek]

Disc issues aside, the picture quality is super-duper-duper on this. I had it running on a 110" (16:9) screen and it was a real sight to behold with great sharpness and wonderful colour rendering. Top stuff.

[John Hodson]

Well, re the above problem with disc 6, the silence from Network is a little deafening. I asked Gary Tooze over at DVDBeaver to test disc 6 in his Momitsu (the Curtis, which also spits the disc out, is very similar) and he's now added the following note to his The Prisoner review:

Disc 6 is a 2.84 Gig single-layered DVD that some players have had issue with because of the inclusion of the imbedded [sic] PDF documentation. It played fine though on my Oppo Blu-ray and Malata DVD players but the Momistu treated it as it would when you use the Flash Drive input asking whether content is "Audio" or "Video".

Gary did tell me that this was first problem he'd ever had with the Momitsu.

I've emailed Network three times since their last reply to me to tell them that other hybrid discs work fine in my Samsung and suggesting, gently, that it could be an authoring fault? Nothing; I hope it indicates that they're beavering away trying to get to the bottom of the issue.

[mikegambit]

Perhaps you should let Gary know that it looks like the PDF material is not the problem

[John Hodson]

Originally Posted by mikegambit

Perhaps you should let Gary know that it looks like the PDF material is not the problem

I did, but that's how he's worded it; and then it does look like some discs containing PDFs *are* the problem not because of the documents themselves but how such are authored and in a way, I suppose, he's correct.

[mikegambit]

Originally Posted by John Hodson

I did, but that's how he's worded it; and then it does look like some discs containing PDFs *are* the problem not because of the documents themselves but how such are authored and in a way, I suppose, he's correct.

So the PDF's are authored differently on Networks Prisoner dvd's than they are on Networks Man In A Suitcase set?

Got mine to day and the picture quality is a real jaw dropper.

On the opening episode once No.6 steps outside into Portmerion the image detail is incredible.
You can see the leaves on the flora and the detail of the brickwork and in A,B and C while McGoohan is on the table you can almost see every pore on his face

Stunning.

Not sure how else they could have packaged the book but the damn great box is a bit of a pain really

Disc 6 plays ok on my player but there is far more PDF material than I will ever want to view as I'm not into scripts but the promo brochures and TV Times/Tornado covers are nice to see

[John Hodson]

Originally Posted by mikegambit

So the PDF's are authored differently on Networks Prisoner dvd's than they are on Networks Man In A Suitcase set?

Not the PDFs, but, goes the theory, the disc itself. But what the hell do I know...

[tvmonkey]

I've always been intrigued by The Prisoner and i'm very tempted to blind-buy this. I have always been put off by the bouncy ball shenanigans though...

[mikegambit]

If you've never seen it I think you will have a useful 4 letter word to describe half the series - which is what the masses did in 1968.

I've grown up with the show so it's a nostalgia trip aswell but I still find several of the episodes hard going

I would read up on it first so you can get at least a rough idea of what its about

[captainarchive]

Originally Posted by tvmonkey

I've always been intrigued by The Prisoner and i'm very tempted to blind-buy this. I have always been put off by the bouncy ball shenanigans though...

What could you possibly mean?