The Prisoner on Blu-ray?*

The picture quality looks marvelous. A wondrous difference over the older dvd sets. A must-purchase for anyone interested in the show that is Blu-ray capable.

 

Just got this Blu Ray yesterday, and was wondering if it could live up to all the hype ive been reading........


YES..!! It has picture quality that is TRULY amazing.!!!

Its almost like seeing the show for the first time it looks so great! What amazes me most is not just increased detail and so on, but the COLORS! They are not just more saturated, but they look likelike, shiny and real. The change in colors compared to my old DVD is Truly night and day.

The whites are truly bright white and not yellow tinged or red tinged anymore, and you can see the sheen of surfaces on EVERYTHING reflective. It looks as if the old DVD was 4 generations worse for quality or more compared to this fantastic Blu-Ray.

I cant believe im saying this, but honest to god, this new prisoner I would almost nominate for picture quality of the YEAR! It looks better than many new release feature films even. Never expected the HUGE increase in clarity, realism and detail!!

Cant say enough for this release!

 

As for the sound...hmm...hard to explain.....


The 5.1 DOES have some great surround and atmospheric effects and the low bass in the control room scenes is decent, but overall has a boxy strange effect on most interior dialogue scenes. Its not bad per se, but a strange phasey effect when you hear clapping and music on occasion. Overall id say the sound is improved in SOME ways, and in other ways made worse.

Overall the original mono has a more Natural and realistic sound in some ways but its less involving overall. You have the option for both so its not a big deal.....

My biggest surprise was hearing the Helicoptors and rover and birds and wind in the surrounds!!

 

Indeed. I've been kind of alternating watching Prisoner and Star Trek Season 2 episodes. The Star Trek PQ is very impressive, but The Prisoner is even more stunning.

I watched one or two episodes in my HT, and echo the comments about the boxiness in the 5.1 mix, but most of the time I'm watching on a standalone TV. There, the BD player is mixing the 5.1 down to 2.0. It sounds soft and faint, but when I switch to the mono track on the disc, it sounds much better.

Doug

 

Bump - by another new Blu-ray adopter who's blown away by this set.

I got a Blu-ray player for my birthday - a Sony BD-570 - a really nice player with some interesting Internet features. But a year or so ago when this thread was ongoing, I felt a bit left out, as I'm a big fan of THE PRISONER. I'd hoped that the new remasters would also hit the DVD market, but they never did. In fact, I was fooled by the new repakaging of the A&E full series set with the blue/yellow/white cover that matches the Blu-ray's color scheme and bought that set thinking I was getting an upgrade.

No such luck - it was just a repackage of the same old DVDs from A&E that had been around since DVD's early days.

So, after getting the player for my birthday, the first thing I did was investigate the price on Amazon - found it for around $44 - and had it shipped to me.

Anxious, I put on the first episode, "Arrival" and sat there open-mouthed as I witnessed what looked miraculous to me. The colors, the detail, the sharpness - it's redundant to say, but it was like seeing this show - which I thought I'd seen many times before - for the first time.

I'm now through the first three episodes - all of which are just astounding. The faked 5.1 sound mixes are not quite my cup of tea, so I choose the mono sound.

Today I detoured to the extras disc (Disc 5). It played just fine in this new player, and I thoroughly enjoyed the 94 minute documentary on the making of the series. Hearing the stories from those that were actually there added great weight to information we'd heard about over the years. I'm amazed that Annette Andre said that she actually hated her experience on the show, and rather thoroughly disliked Mr. McGoohan, yet participated in the documentary.

I've yet to experience "Arrival" in its pre-release form, but am anxious to do so. I remember the thrill of seeing the alternate "Chimes Of Big Ben" back in the VHS days and seeing the differences.

I'm also intrigued by having this set be in yet a different episode order. The old VHS tape volumes (and Laserdiscs, I believe) were in American televised order. The DVD sets from A&E came out in a fan-reorganized order (that was questionable in spots). Now we've got the Blu-rays in British televised order.

I've spent a literal fortune on this little 17-episode series over the years, and it's still worth every penny(farthing).

One really odd coincidence: this Sony Blu-ray player has an odd Village-like message everytime you turn it off, as the display reads: SEE YOU

Harry

 

Another thumbs up form me on this set, the picture quality is simply stunning. My wife is a die hard fan and has watched this many times and she too is amazed at the quality of this set on BR.

 

Harry, congrats on getting a Bluray player and this set!

 

for anybody interested, the US blu ray set is now $35.74 on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Prisoner-Comp...8WOG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297048727&sr=8-1

 

I'm through seven episodes and continue to be dazzled!

Harry

 

......ooh and by the way.....It looks fantastic....!!

Seriously im still impressed by how good this show looks!

For whatever technical reasons, its one of the most impresive Blu-Rays Ive seen. And Ive seen several hundred, and this im some ways, bests many newer movies made on recent equipment with no time to degrade and im sure multi-million dollar budgets!!

 

hmmm I dont have a blu ray player yet but this set will be one of the first discs I buy, hell at under $40 I might have to pick it up early.

 

Thanks for the tip. I've been wanting to replace the humongous 10-disc DVD set with something slimmer for awhile, and at this price I leaped.

Great series - the 2nd to last episode has some of the most intense moments I've ever seen on a TV show.

Mark

 

Now OOP and jumping up in price. 50th anniversary in 2017.