[DocMartinLover]

I did a quick search for a similar topic, but I couldn't find one so here it goes...

I recently 'invested' in a Blu-ray player, after buying an LCD television a couple of months ago. I'm now quietly finding my way in this, for me, completely new format. The thing is, I've got about 200 different British TV series on DVD and I was wondering what the chances were that some if not most of them make it to Blu-ray? I've already purchased Downton Abbey and Sherlock, but what about series like Lewis, Midsomer Murders, Agatha Christie's Poirot or even the Inspector Morse HD transfers ITV is showing at the moment. Will they ever make it to Blu-ray?

Any thoughts?

[itvproducer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DocMartinLover

I did a quick search for a similar topic, but I couldn't find one so here it goes...

I recently 'invested' in a Blu-ray player, after buying an LCD television a couple of months ago. I'm now quietly finding my way in this, for me, completely new format. The thing is, I've got about 200 different British TV series on DVD and I was wondering what the chances were that some if not most of them make it to Blu-ray? I've already purchased Downton Abbey and Sherlock, but what about series like Lewis, Midsomer Murders, Agatha Christie's Poirot or even the Inspector Morse HD transfers ITV is showing at the moment. Will they ever make it to Blu-ray?

Any thoughts?

Older UK shows are not really worth releasing on Bluray.
Unlike the US where 35mm filming was par for the course since the 50's British tv largely took the cheap option of video so the quality is not there for HD.

Notable exceptions are shows from the 60's and 70's made by ABC (The Avengers) and ITC .
ITC shows like The Prisoner and Space 1999 are already on Bluray and thanks to most of these being made on 35mm film the future looks rosy for these cult shows.
The Persuaders will follow in September.

Even when British tv wanted to produce something better than video they took the cheap option of using 16mm film.

The benefits of putting 16mm onto Bluray is debateable.
The higher bitrates certainly allow for a cleaner picture than dvd but you won't get the wow factor that 35mm often gives.

The older shows like early Morse and even earlier stuff like The Professionals and The Sweeney were shot on standard 16mm film and even the best restoration won't make them outstanding.
Later productions made on super 16 were a cheap way of getting into widescreen .
The BBC have a large archive of shows shot on super 16.
As an experiment they tried out Pride and Prejudice.

Its an expensive process to return to the original negatives and rescan them to create an HD master but thats what they did as success would have opened up the market to Bluray and BBC HD repeats.

The cost was prohibitive and the BBC decided that the end results didn't justify the costs so no further 16mm material is being prepared for HD at the moment and BBC HD still has a ban on 16mm material.
Some viewers thought the Bluray of P&P was a good enough improvement but as many viewers cannot even spot 35mm quality its not surprising that 16mm HD is currently on hold.

ITV on the other hand have a raft of HD channels to fill and while they are putting on an ever increasing number of movies as expected they do also seem to be remastering some of their earlier 16mm shows.
I've not seen them so I can't vouch for them but I do have a few Blurays of 16mm films and I don't find them to be worth the investment although recent 16mm films shot with modern new equipment and film stock are better but still don't have the wow factor - for me anyway.

Once Bluray gains a larger market I can see some of the older British shows appearing but for now I think we'll have recent things only