Latest on Beatles Anthology DVDs

Received this E-mail Tuesday from Beatles.com. I must be on their mailing list or something.

AT LAST

THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY ON DVD

On March 31st, eight years after The Beatles themselves told the story of the world's greatest rock and roll band in The Beatles Anthology, EMI will release the complete work on DVD - but now featuring the final chapter; never-released footage of the last jam session of Paul, George and Ringo, playing non-Beatles material.

The Beatles Anthology DVD boxset features all of the original eight episodes that candidly reveal the story of how the four lads from Liverpool changed everything.

The Beatles Anthology was shown in 1995, when John, Paul, George and Ringo told The Beatles' story for the first time. At that time the Anthology project caused a worldwide sensation as it launched a TV series, three double-CD sets that each topped the album charts in the USA, plus Free As A Bird and Real Love - the first new Beatles recordings in 25 years. All 10 hours of the original Anthology series will now be released across four DVD discs, plus an additional disc with 81 minutes of Special Features. Nearly all of the material included on this 5th disc has never been seen before.

For years, rumour has been rife among fans of the existence of intimate footage of Paul, George and Ringo jamming together during breaks in the making of the Anthology. This session and other get togethers were filmed over a 12-month period when the three Beatles met in private and at Abbey Road studios. It includes the trio warmly remembering personal moments from their early days, reflecting on how they made their music and footage of them shot in the studio as they recorded Free As A Bird and
Real Love.

Technically, the DVDs offer a spectacular audio/visual experience, featuring re-graded picture quality and new audio mastering including 5.1-surround sound and a new stereo PCM soundtrack.

The Beatles Anthology DVD will be released on March 31st, 2003

Check out the new look at www.beatles.com and keep checking back over the next few weeks as the site will develop.

More news soon......

www.beatles.com

 

I'm wondering how much the DVD collection will set me back...

 

Can't wait!



Party!

 

Most prices I have seen online run between $53-57. I'm sure Best Buys will have it for $50-55. Question is if there will be any extra's like a cd sampler and such. I'm getting mine for $28 delivered overnight...thanks to Digital Eyes Frequent Buyers Club .

http://www.digitaleyes.net/

April 1st.........so far away

 

Here is Digital Eyes description:

Street Date: 04/01/03

Retail: $79.98
Our Price: $55.99
Save $23.99!

Rating: Not Rated ; B&W and Color
Language:
Original: English

Studio: EMI Video
Year of Release: 1996

Notes:
25 years after their breakup, the surviving members of The Beatles, one of the most prolific, influential, and charismatic rock groups of the century, reunite to offer new perspectives on their lives and bitter breakup in 1970. The television version aired over the ABC Television Network in three, two-hour time slots, November 19, 22, and 23. The video version, released in September 1996 is 10 hours. "The Beatles Anthology" (on CD) is a collection of rare and unreleased Beatles recordings; a companion book is also planned. Among the rare materials on the first CD volume are recordings by The Quarry Men (a band featuring a teenaged John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison); five songs from The Beatles' unsuccessful audition for Decca Records on January 1, 1962; live tracks from various television appearances; and alternate versions of several early Beatles songs. "The Beatles Anthology" also traces the roots of the group (as well as wonderful archival footage and photographs of them as children and teenagers), tapping a rich motherlode of unreleased early Beatles material, some of it long presumed lost and some of it available only from bootleggers. There are pre-Ringo Beatles practice sessions that show them dreaming of being Elvis, Buddy Holly and countless American rhythm and bluesmen. Amazingly well-preserved tracks from the early 1960s show them starting to let their Beatles hair down, while rocking merrily through such pop standards of the time as "Ain't She Sweet" and "Besame Mucho." The Beatles were an electrifying live band, and among the treasures here are Ringo tearing through "I Wanna Be Your Man" and "Boys" at a 1964 TV taping, and John ripping into "Twist & Shout" at the band's 1963 Royal Command Performance.

Writer Bob Smeaton was also the series director. Two new songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, "Free As a Bird" and "Real Love", debut in this documentary. The following people appear in archival, taped segments: John Lennon, Brian Epstein, Dudley Moore and Morecambe and Wise. Broadcast over the ABC Television Network November 19, 22, & 23, 1995. The video releases has five hours not shown on television. The Compact Disc went on sale in the USA at midnight, November 21, 1995. "The Beatles Anthology" was nominated for the following Emmy Awards: Best Documentary Series; Outstanding Informational Series; Outstanding Picture Editing; and Outstanding Sound Editing Archival material for the production was obtained from the following sources: Estate of John Lennon and Yoko Ono Lennon MPL Communications, Ltd.; Apple Corp. Ltd.; Archive Films; BBC Sound Archive; BBC Television; Jerry H. Bishop; British Movietonews Ltd.; British Pathe News Ltd.; CBC; CBS News Archive; The Daily Mirror; Dennis Elsas; The Evening Standard (Solo Syndication Ltd.); Flower Films; Granada Television Ltd.; Huntley Film Archives, Ltd.; ITN; Larry Kane; KCNC-TV 1994 NBC Subsidiary; KLOS-LA; KRON TV; Las Vegas News Bureau; Mark Lewisohn; Lumiere Pictures Ltd.; The Manila Chronicle; Brian Matthew; MGM Inc.; Elliot Mintz; NBC Inc.; Reuters Television Library; David Sheff; Sherman Grinberg Film Libraries, Inc.; Sony Music; Subafilms Ltd.; Tyne Tees Television; Walter Shenson Films Ltd.; WCPO-TV Cincinnati; Scripps Howard Broadcasting; Jann S. Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine; WGN-TV; WISH-TV; WNEW FM; Worldwide Television News Corp.; WPLJ FM; WTMJ; and Footage from the 1968 Comeback Special courtesy of Lightyear Entertainment and Elvis Presley Enterprises. Filmed by Apple Prods. Volume 1: Cat.# 3392V; ISBN: 0-7806-1493-3, 79 minutes, covers July 1940 to March 1963 Volume 2: Cat.# 3393V; ISBN: 0-7806-1494-1, 72 minutes covers March 1963 to February 1964 Volume 3: Cat.# 3394V; ISBN: 0-7806-1495-X, 73 minutes covers February 1964 to July 1964 Volume 4: Cat.# 3395V; ISBN: 0-7806-1496-8, 71 minutes covers August 1964 to August 1965 Volume 5: Cat.# 3396V; ISBN: 0-7806-1497-6, 72 minutes covers August 1965 to July 1966 Volume 6: Cat.# 3397V; ISBN: 0-7806-1498-4, 71 minutes covers July 1966 to June 1967 Volume 7: Cat.# 3398V; ISBN: 0-7806-1499-2, 74 minutes covers June 1967 to July 1968 Volume 8: Cat.# 3399V; ISBN: 0-7806-1500-X, 81 minutes covers July 1968 to the End Copyright 1996 Apple corps Ltd.

"Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands, and the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry." (John Lennon to the audience at The Royal Command Performance in 1963)

A deluxe, eight-volume chronicle of the complete history of the Beatles, this definitive collection features ten hours of footage culled from interviews, live concerts, studio sessions, feature films, home movies and more. The home video release contains five hours of exclusive material not seen in the television broadcast.

DVD Features:

Region 1

Boxed Set

Full Frame - 1.33

Audio:

Dolby Digital 5.1 - English

DTS Surround 5.1 - English

PCM Surround 5.1 - English

Director:
Geoff Wonfor

Star:
Beatles

And here's the link:
Beatles Anthology

GM

P.S. Best Buy pre-order is $57.99

 

Shouldn't that PCM entry read stereo and not 5.1? I suspect lots of you are very happy that there will a standard two channel mix.

If the price is roughly $60. U.S. on sale, looks like Gary, John, myself and the rest of our Canadian contingent will be paying close to $90. Ouch! But it will be worth every penny.

HMV and A+B Sound do not have a listing yet.

 

Keep in mind that this is a Dolby Surround mix, NOT a straight stereo mix.

 

That's what the original soundtrack was. The Dolby logo is even in the end titles.

 

I guess I'm a tad confused. I never bought the video set in '95 and the press release I posted above says, "a new stereo PCM soundtrack". When I see the word stereo, I automatically think 2 channel mix, front speakers.

 

This isn't correct. 5.1 PCM is not part of the DVD-V standard.

- Gabe

 

Dolby surround is derrived from a stereo source. I am somewhat concerned over the "NEW" in the press release though. I wonder if it's a fold down of the new 5.1 mixes? I sure hope not.

 

What no widescreen for this DVD especially in this day and age. Full Frame how boooooring.

 

I'm sure the press release is wrong. I wouldn't worry too much about the PCM track. Not only are many press releases regarding dvd specs wrong, many times the disc covers themselves have wrong info.

- Gabe

 

Well, pretty much everything on there originated in 1.33:1, so full frame is the best way to present that material without cropping.

Ryan

 

But wasn't Anthology produced in full frame in the first place? It was made for television, most of the clips come from television sources. Why would you do widescreen (with perhaps the exception of the clips that come from their actual motion pictures)?

We seem to have this idea that if it's on DVD, it should be letterboxed, and I'm all for widescreen presentation when that's the way the film was intended to be seen (and I wouldn't buy a full-screen DVD version of a movie that wasn't meant to be seen that way) . As far as I can tell though, Anthology was made specifically to be seen on television, so shouldn't the DVD be in that format, as it was originally intended? It's not like they're doing a pan and scan version of it, it's just open matte.

Would you letterbox The Simpsons DVD's?

 

I'm curious how the Anthology series was broadcast in the UK. Was it shown in widescreen or 4x3??

Todd

 

I didn't think someone would post Digital Eyes description of the DVD's..
They used the original press release for the VHS set. As mentioned above the PCM track was remastered and there is NO fold down of the DD track. But you can bet the farm that the DTS track will blow your socks off(least I hope it will).

 

You're right to counter-act this idea! The justification for letterboxing is the preservation of the original presentation's image -- which in this case is of course full-frame. Maybe some DVD fans think all visual materials have a 70mm widescreen original somewhere in their heritage, but it is of course not so. (What will our old square-ish movies and TV shows look like on the rectangular HDTV's of the future -- big black matte 'wings' on either side the image?)

No, I would RELEASE them! ... Come on, Season Three!!

 

Any clue on the cheapest price available?

 

For right now, yes. But I fear that they'll eventually be vertically pan-and-scanned to fit the 16:9 ratio, in response from people complaining that they want the picture to "fill the screen."

Ryan

 

If they hacked this release to make it widescreen I'd boycott it and keep my laserdiscs!

 

Geez, I hope not!!!!

 

Yup! Full Frame...

 

That's the one everyone wants, isn't it?

Heh, Sideshow Bob and the rakes...

 

The only reason they would hack The Anthology set is to please the Moaninjoan12pacs who whine everytime a Full Frame DVD is released...Widescreen is GREAT but not for WIDESREEN sake or to please a certain group...A good example of a widescreen hack is The Evil Dead "Book Of The Dead"...