And I'm reluctant to order the Shout Factory version, as I've heard the overall quality is not very good, and the episodes appear to have been taped from television broadcasts, not created from the master tapes. That means all the material edited for commercials in syndication (and I've read that some syndicated Barney Miller eps have as much as three minutes of footage sliced out of them) is not restored, and the picture/sound quality is uneven. The Antenna TV reruns use the Shout Factory DVD's, and the degredation in quality is easily noticed, particularly in some of the later eps.
I wish Sony would have just released the whole series from the master tapes, dammit.
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wbf200
11 years ago
Not sure where you read the negative reviews, but I have the Barney Miller box set and the episodes are definitely not the syndication cuts; most episodes run about 25 minutes in length. Video/audio quality is about average for shows from this era and the later seasons are no different from the early seasons. For those who don't want to buy the complete series, Shout Factory has decided to resume release of the individual seasons and will be retailing Season 4, I believe by year's end.
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amyghost
11 years ago
I may try to hold on and wait for Sony's release of the series on blue-ray, which was announced a while back, though I'd be tempted to buy a disc or two of the SF releases in the meantime, quality issues notwithstanding.
I have the first three Sony releases (S 1 through 3), but I'd get the Shout edition of S1 if it has the original pilot episode (the one that stars Abby Dalton as Liz, instead of Barbara Barrie) as an extra, which I've heard it does.
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wbf200
11 years ago
Shout's box set does include the original pilot episode. Abby Dalton certainly made for a much less grating Liz than Barbara Barrie, but overall the home scenes still dragged in comparison to the work scenes.
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