It's on a case by case basis. The DVDs from Europe use different sources than the U.S. ones. This site offers comparisons of available DVD sources of the films: Laurel & Hardy Menu
The Laurel And Hardy Blu-Ray set has been delayed from what Sprocket Vault said. The reason for the delay is from the disc replicators plus Amazon has had some delays with ship outs due to the pandemic issues on West Coast warehouse centers. So for now, June 30th is the new street date and that the company is staying on top of it."
My dvd version got shipped, but it has been in PA for days. It just stands there! (Mad World reference thrown in)
Apparently DVD sets were completed, unknown how soon they will arrive to customers. Let us know when you have reviewed your set please! The Blu-Ray sets are possibly 10-15 days late with new June 30th updates online.
Dvd arrived today, and here's where I've been, so far. This might be a little uneven, but I'm pushed for time at the moment.. One drawback for this set is that the Cuckoo theme plays incessantly over the static main menu. That can be a little grating after one or two goes. I have not watched The Battle of the Century as I am saving that for an evening premiere tonight. What I did was jump straight to the last disc, to Way Out West. While the superb, blemish-free quality is no surprise since I've had this recorded from TCM for a while, it is such a treat to finally have the restored version on physical media without that horrible splice during The Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. On to Sons of the Desert on disc 1. I'm not so sure what the big deal about this restoration is. To be fair, this isn't the Blu Ray, so we'll wait and see how that looks, but this film still looks underwhelming. The opening credits are sharp as a tack, restored as still images, and then we get to the feature and it is just as blurry and lacking in detail as before. One or two cutaways come out looking sharper than others, but mostly the contrast is blown out, blooming, little to no facial detail even in close ups, and it all looks pretty much like a third-gen or more dupe to me. The audio of "Sons.." sounds good with some expected clipping and hiss, gently noise reduced with all dialogue very clear. The Music Box is as good as it gets as far as restorations. The third reel now matches the first two, once again, and all the "rough spots" have been ironed out (you've seen it, you know 'em). Aside from one or two brief vertical emulsion scratches, this is the definitive restoration and the Blu Ray should top this, visually, for sure. Note: The Music Box commentary track extends about 10 minutes past the short's running time, so you get a slide show after when watching normally to facilitate the disparate running times. Can't wait to listen in! There's so much to get to, here. Audio? There is noise reduction applied in varying amounts. In this regard, the features fare better than the shorts from what I've previewed, and you can judge for yourself with either a pair of headphones or your media monitor setup. The shorts tend to be more patchwork in sound and picture-- The Music Box is a good example and a great starting point for making your own judgements. For noise reduction, there's gentle application, where you hear more hiss when an actor speaks, as used in the features efficiently and effectively. Then, there's the overly-egregious (or nearly) as in The Tree in a Test Tube, where the audio is a tinny, bubbly-swirly electronic and unnatural sounding mess. I know that "Tree.." is what it is and there's only so much that can be done with it, but apart from some color boosting and cleaned up still image titles, not much has changed as far as I can tell with restoration. At this point, it is amazing that elements for the MGM shorts can still look as good as they do here, even though they still show their age. But we get presentations that are now free of many of the all too familiar defects like splices, black leader slugs, stains, blemishes and image "breathing". I really want to sit and go through this set in one marathon go but, for now, as they say: "That's that!"
I just got the DVD set today. I only watched "Sons of the Desert" all the way through so far. I was a little surprised that there was what looked like a hair in the upper lefthand corner in several frames at one point since these films were supposed to be cleaned-up. Not a big deal. The movie itself looked a little cleaner, I guess (especially the titles as previously mentioned). Maybe the blu-ray will be more demonstrative of the improved picture quality. I only flipped-through "Battle of the Century" very quickly. I will watch it later. The first part of the short is tinted yellow. I'm not sure why (maybe there's an explanation given) and it looks like there were some stills used for some of the remaining missing segments. Unlike the version used in the Youngson compilation, these scenes are in proper order apparently. Each disc has a bunch of extras including a short interview with Anita Garvin on disc one plus many photos. I'm glad to hear that "Way Out West" looks good as that's my favorite Laurel & Hardy feature but I haven't gotten past the first disc yet (and not much of that yet) so it's probably not fair for me to give such an incomplete review/preview. Anyway I'm a big Laurel & Hardy buff and I'm looking forward to delving into the rest of the set.
A Few Words About A few words about...™ Laurel & Hardy: The Definitive Restorations - in Blu-ray Harris is 100% correct
