[Humphrey Hacker]

filmstories.co.uk 

Why the demise of Network Distributing is a hammer blow for niche DVD and Blu-ra…
As the DVD and Blu-ray company Network reportedly goes into liquidation, a few w…
  Source: filmstories.co.uk

[IndigoTucker]

No rights issues, just no desire to sort it.

UK Gold kept using their old 1990s transfers of many shows - including burned in break bumpers - up until the launch of the HD service, presumably because it would have taken a lot of effort to order new copies from BBC archives and reconform them for broadcast.

[James2001]

Whereas recently UKTV have started getting new transfers from the BBC of some shows... which have been filmised 🤦‍♂️

[Humphrey Hacker]

Whereas recently UKTV have started getting new transfers from the BBC of some shows... which have been filmised 🤦‍♂️

I've never liked "filmised" transfers. I suppose its because I'm used to watching Dad's Army etc as studio shot productions on the whole.

[James2001]

I'm not sure if it's accidental or not, but it's been going on for months and has affected several shows across their channels. If it's accidental, it speaks volumes for their quality control that it's not been noticed and fixed, if it's deliberate then.... just why? It's bad enough so many modern shows are filmed this way when there's no need for it without slapping it on older shows as well. Especially as it's so badly done- very blocky and blurry and scrolling credits are virtually unreadable.

[WillPS]

This was what made Network special. Any other outlet, be it home media, linear channels, streaming... you can't have any confidence that any effort will have gone in to presenting things in the best quality they can.

Network is probably the only label who I know would be seeking the absolute best quality source material and then doing their best to present it as well as they possibly could, both in terms the media itself but also the extras and packaging. There just never was a doubt that I might end up being frustrated by the product with them.

Perhaps there is another niche player I'm not aware of, but for me Network was the one. I just regret not buying a few other titles I was interested in, presumably there's a warehouse of stock somewhere which will need to be emptied?

[James2001]

There are a few episodes on the Corrie 70s and 80s boxsets where they annoyingly ended up with the Granada Plus edits, which suprised me they didn't make effort to get the originals. Also the 1983 episode that's sourced from a timecoded VHS zoomed in to cut off the timecode, not sure why they didn't leave it unzoomed with the timecode and an explanation which is the way Network usually handle these things, but yes apart from that, they were usually brilliant. They even use the as-broadcast episodes of the 00s episodes that were the first of a two parter with the "continues in half an hour" caption (even though the second part isn't on the disc)- ITV3 use versions with the end credits from the second part added instead.

[WillPS]

There are a few episodes on the Corrie 70s and 80s boxsets where they annoyingly ended up with the Granada Plus edits, which suprised me they didn't make effort to get the originals. Also the 1983 episode that's sourced from a timecoded VHS zoomed in to cut off the timecode, not sure why they didn't leave it unzoomed with the timecode and an explanation which is the way Network usually handle these things, but yes apart from that, they were usually brilliant. They even use the as-broadcast episodes of the 00s episodes that were the first of a two parter with the "continues in half an hour" caption (even though the second part isn't on the disc)- ITV3 use versions with the end credits from the second part added instead.

I can't speak for the zooming issue, but my confidence with Network is such that I'd be inclined to believe that source material was all they could get ITV to give them - perhaps even all that exists in their archive?

This isn't to say they were perfect. In my opinion their remasters of Anderson stuff occasionally veered beyond remastering and in to 'improving' - for example in Captain Scarlet they changed the colour of the Martian surface to be more brown than red, and fixed a couple of minor continuity errors (I think there's a shot of Captain Blue driving a black car which then cuts to a shot of him leaning out of the window of a red one, for example). I'd prefer the errors broadcast were preserved, personally. There's also a rather naff attempt at dealing with day-for-night effects in UFO (which aren't present at all on the 35mm masters apparently).

But even with these decisions, even if I'd have personally preferred they went a different way, you absolutely knew there was a thought process and it wouldn't have been a case of "whatever's easiest/quickest/cheapest"; it would have been through genuinely trying to create the best product they could.

[James2001]

I can't speak for the zooming issue, but my confidence with Network is such that I'd be inclined to believe that source material was all they could get ITV to give them - perhaps even all that exists in their archive?

Definitely not the case with at least some of the 80s Corrie episodes, as ITV3 showed the uncut versions of all the 1986-89 episodes that Network released in Granada Plus form.

[WillPS]

Definitely not the case with at least some of the 80s Corrie episodes, as ITV3 showed the uncut versions of all the 1986-89 episodes that Network released in Granada Plus form.

Aye, although that doesn't prove that ITV were willing to provide those copies at the time Network wanted them.