Awesome. Can't wait for the end-of-year 50% off HBO deals.

My heart skipped two beats - announcement of the year for me!

Dennis Potter's Lipstick on Your Collar and Karaoke / Cold Lazarus on their way.

Based on only watching these when first shown, Lipstick is a great series (in the same style as Pennies from Heaven and The Singing Detective), Karaoke is well made but Potter on auto-pilot (it really feels like second rate Potter pastiche) whereas Cold Lazarus has a much more interesting script, but suffers from an a general embarrassment over the fact that it was Science Fiction - and some really weak acting. Still, worth catching for Potter fans.

Excellent news! My main interest is in "Cold Lazarus", precisely because it is SF. However, I'll be getting "Karaoke" too, as its companion piece. BTW, the 2 series are also being released separately, and are available for pre-order for under £12 each (but not yet from Amazon, in the case of Karaoke).

Remember that Karaoke and Cold Lazarus were a co-production between the BBC and Channel 4 back in 1996 (BBC 1 had the rights to premiere Karaoke first on Sundays, with a Monday repeat on Channel 4, then Cold Lazarus received its first showing on Channel 4 followed by a BBC 1 repeat the Sunday after). Albert Finney's character is the unifying element - his novelist troubled by his creations taking on real life significance in Karaoke then turns up as the cryogenically preserved severed head that the scientists of Cold Lazarus are trying to extract memories from (perhaps the biggest mistake was to try and extract 'pure' memories from the head of someone whose idea of reality and fiction were already so blurred together, apparent from the first Blue Remembered Hills-esque childhood in the Forest of Dean flashback).

I still have some old issues of SFX magazine going in depth on the making of the sci-fi models for the Cold Lazarus series. Both series are certainly the most ambitious British television of the 90s, and one which in its layers of time, memory and realities blending into each other feels slightly similar to World On A Wire. Though I agree that it was unfortunate it came out in the period where the BBC in particular were embarrassed about anything sci-fi tinged (and the same year that their half-hearted attempt to re-start the Doctor Who franchise with that misconceived Paul McGann starring Americanised TV movie featuring Eric Roberts as the main villain totally tanked, which cannot have helped their confidence about making other sci-fi and fantasy productions).

Plus any series that features Richard E. Grant, Hywel Bennet (as the thuggish nightclub owner/pimp Arthur "Pig" Mallion), Diane Ladd, Alison Steadman and early roles for both Saffron Burrows and Natasha McElhone has to be worth a look!

It's official: Deadwood is out on Blu on Nov 23 - Christmas coming a month early for me!

http://homecinema.thedigitalfix.co.uk/c ... ember.html

Don't go crazy Finch, remember: HBO releases are typically 50% off 'round Christmastime.

Ah but can I wait for 4 weeks?

Thanks for reminding me though, mfunk (if November becomes loaded with new releases I absolutely must have, I may well put the Deadwood set off until Christmas or after).

Does anyone know if there is any news on HBO releasing The Sopranos or The Wire on blu-ray (other than the series of the Sopranos that they have already released)? In particular I want the bonus material that is on the complete Sopranos box set but I don't want to duplicate by buying the dvd if a Blu-Ray is coming.

I am under the impression that The Wire will never be released on Blu, or that if it was, it wouldn't be improved. It was apparently shot in 480p.

And HBO is planning on milking The Sopranos, re-releasing each individual season and then surely re-releasing the Complete Series set seperately right around the time of the change to a new format.

It was definitely shot on 35mm so a Blu will happen. It will still be in 1.33:1 though.

You wouldn't happen to have a source that really puts this whole thing to bed, would you?

I have found this

which definitely leads me to believe you are correct. And that is wonderful news to me. And considering that this will be broadcast in HD, could that mean HBO has taken the trouble and a BD box set is coming sooner than later?

That TV Predictions article is misleading: if the series was shot on 35mm, then it was filmed in HD, although the original broadcast/cable masters may have been standard def.

Thanks - that article also points out that all of the broadcast masters were standard definition so, yes, they would need to go back and scan the Super 16 and 35mm footage to make a credible Blu-ray release. A similar HD scan was done for the TWIN PEAKS series, but for complicated composite shots or montage sequences involving multiple dissolves, the producers stuck with the original video masters...and, unfortunately, it really shows.

Yeah, TV on Blu is going to be a long and frustrating saga due to how shows were mastered in the 20th century. I can't think of many shows that would really benefit from the extra resolution though.

Since The Wire is a pretty straight up, non-effects driven show, its safe to say we'll see it eventually. Can't say the same about something like Sliders.

I see that Season 1 of High Chaparral has been released in Germany, available here.

I'm probably the only one on this board that this interests, but the first three seasons of Boy Meets World have recently been re-released. Slimmer cases and slimmer prices. You can find all of them for less than $15 each.

I picked up a 2 dvd set of The Best of The Johnny Cash Show (1969-71).
It's a great time capsule of music and fashion.

I started off with Derek & the Dominoes doing the great old Chuck Willis tune It's Too Late. I thought it mighty odd that the bass player was stashed behind the drum kit. Turned out the reason was that Cash and Carl Perkins came out and joined the band for a version of Matchbox.

I'm just getting started with this, but looking forward to Roy Orbison, Neil Young, Ray Charles, CCR, Kristofferson, Bill Monroe, Waylon and Merle Haggard. Hell, even Satchmo does a duet with Cash, and Stevie Wonder does Heaven Help Us All.

Damn, Uncle Ray does a soulful bit of Walk the Line on piano.
Then does Ring of Fire with a full band, on his 40th birthday.

I got excited then I saw the link: Amazon UK. I hope this gets a R1 release at some point. Even the return of the Emma Peel megaset would make me happy.

What's wrong with the UK release? In a few months this will be about £80 or less and a US release won't have been announced by then.

True, but £80 is still kinda steep for me. And this is a show that I'd like to share with friends - many of whom, unfortunately, are region-locked.