Knight Rider: Season 4 DVD

[Lyn]

To Fuzzie Dice: Sorry I brought up that sore subject of D. Hasselhoff's personal situation...
I won't bring it up again anytime soon, since it's totally forgettable for me, too.

[Julius May]

I think after reading these messages I must pass buying KL on DVD because of the audio issues. It really hurts me to say this becuase I'm a huge fan of this show and one of the favorite shows I must have on DVD.

[kittknight1979]

Has anybody else had missing teasers for knight song, and scent of roses?

[LuvKITT]

I just had a thought. I wonder if David has bought all the KR seasons on DVD...hehe. I will probably order mine in a couple of weeks maybe they will have better copies. One can only hope.

[Lost Knight]

Has anybody else had missing teasers for knight song, and scent of roses?

Yes, this has been brought up and the teasers are inexplicably removed. I guess Universal found the "best available master."

Another DVD flaw: I pointed out in another thread that Season 3's "bonus episode," "Knight Of the Rising Sun," had cropping problems, particularly in the opening credit sequence. I just popped in "Deadly Knightshade" and noticed that some shots in the opening credit sequence were also a little cropped as well. In fact, the Knight Rider title was even slightly crooked. (I compared it to my VHS tape of the original airing.) I won't have the time any time soon to go through the rest of the episodes to see if there are the same cropping issues with others, though.

So, over the course of the DVD sets, Universal has: removed music (though thankfully not much), removed sound effects, removed teasers, overcropped shots, didn't bother to write an episode synopsis for any of the episodes, and downmixed the original stereo sound of Season 4. 'Nuff said.

[Scott Kirkessner]

Well since today is new release day, I went out and bought Knight Rider and Magnum! Plus the new edition of Crash and the Star Trek Borg Fan Collective.

135 bucks later... hehe

I am none too happy about cropping problems and audio disasters, but I'll still be collecting the series.

-Scott

[Lost Knight]

Well since today is new release day, I went out and bought Knight Rider and Magnum! Plus the new edition of Crash and the Star Trek Borg Fan Collective.

135 bucks later... hehe

Hopefully you didn't forget to use the Season 4 coupon from the Season 3 set like I did! It's funny that I was also interested in buying that Borg Collective DVD set. I bought Crash a few weeks ago and now of course they just came out with the Director's Cut...

[spyhunter]

This whole sound thing is ridiculous!

The entire set was downgraded to mono!? WTF

That's an interesting switch considering that Season 3 DVD was released as English Dolby Digital 2.0, which incidentally is stereo.

Again, WTF

Has anyone heard about S3 replacement discs?

-Scott

The Season 3 DVD's are mono aren't they? Its just dual channel mono, just has both of the mono channels in 2 tracks

Right, the back of the main boxes state DD 2.0 Mono, even though the 2 channels may constitute Stereo, both channels have the same program.

Season's 1-3 were originally in Mono, so they could not really be enhanced in Stereo, however Season 4 was, and should have been transferred as such, I can see no reason for them to have had to make them Mono. I think they just assumed that all Seasons were as such, it should've been clear as day though for the sound mixer...

With Season 4 in Stereo, you could tell that there was a distinct seperation of sounds especially in the Episode Intros...

Juggernaut to my knowledge was not in Stereo however, since on TV and on Columbia House DVD, it has a more muffled Mono sound to it then the rest of the season.

SH

[Scott Kirkessner]

Could it possibly be that NBC transmitted the show in stereo in 1985/1986 and Universal really didn't downmix?

-Scott

The Season 3 DVD's are mono aren't they? Its just dual channel mono, just has both of the mono channels in 2 tracks

Right, the back of the main boxes state DD 2.0 Mono, even though the 2 channels may constitute Stereo, both channels have the same program.

Season's 1-3 were originally in Mono, so they could not really be enhanced in Stereo, however Season 4 was, and should have been transferred as such, I can see no reason for them to have had to make them Mono. I think they just assumed that all Seasons were as such, it should've been clear as day though for the sound mixer...

With Season 4 in Stereo, you could tell that there was a distinct seperation of sounds especially in the Episode Intros...

Juggernaut to my knowledge was not in Stereo however, since on TV and on Columbia House DVD, it has a more muffled Mono sound to it then the rest of the season.

SH[/quote]

[Lost Knight]

Well, it seems it's just one thing after another. Tried watching "The Scent Of Roses," but could only watch up until the part where Devon and Bonnie are at the hospital. After that point the disc skips through scenes. There's no fingerprints or scratches on the disc as it's brand new and I just first took it out of the case tonight. Those are the consequences when Universal chooses to use cheap, double-sided, made in Mexico discs. You would think simply sitting down, popping in a disc, and enjoying an episode wouldn't be a hassle. Universal's entire home video department is an atrocity in every sense of the word.

I seriously don't know how much more I can take from these people.

[Akaihiryuu]

Well, it seems it's just one thing after another. Tried watching "The Scent Of Roses," but could only watch up until the part where Devon and Bonnie are at the hospital. After that point the disc skips through scenes. There's no fingerprints or scratches on the disc as it's brand new and I just first took it out of the case tonight. Those are the consequences when Universal chooses to use cheap, double-sided, made in Mexico discs. You would think simply sitting down, popping in a disc, and enjoying an episode wouldn't be a hassle. Universal's entire home video department is an atrocity in every sense of the word.

I had that happen twice with season 2. Two different sets. On one of them, disk 3 was bad. On the other, disk 2 was bad. Sadly, I didn't wait for the second set to come in before I sent the first back, and amazon wouldn't do another exchange, so they just had me send it back and gave me a refund. Before I sent the second back, I went and got another copy at Best Buy and mixed/matched disks to make sure I had 3 working ones. I didn't have that problem with seasons 1 or 3, and hopefully I won't with season 4 (knock on wood, mine arrives tomorrow). I dislike double sided DVD's...they are a LOT more prone to manufacturing defects than single sided ones. Case in point: I bought all 8 seasons of SG-1 on DVD, plus season 1 of Atlantis. 50 DVD's in total (Stargate uses single sided DVD's). Only one of them was bad...the last disk of SG-1 season 7. I just went to Wal-mart where I got it and exchanged only that one disk. When that happens, and there aren't any fingerprints or scratches, it's a manufacturing defect. I tried the 2 bad KR disks and the 1 bad SG-1 disk in PS2, my computer, and my little portable DVD player, and the picture would pixelate, turn to random gibberish, then give me a disk read error in exactly the same spots in all 3 players. But still...look at the difference. Knight Rider had a total of 7 disks at that point (4 for season 1, 3 for season 2), and I ended up with 2 bad disks out of that (technically 2 bad disks out of 13 since I went through 3 copies of season 2 to get a good one). But even being that generous...2 bad disks out of 13 (double sided) versus 1 bad disk out of 50 (single sided). MGM isn't exactly known for their good quality DVD stuff either...just go to gateworld.net and see how many complaints there have been about the Stargate DVD's. Though, to be fair, most of the Stargate DVD problems haven't been actual manufacturing defects rather than design defects (including the 42 minute syndicated version of an episode instead of the full 63 minute version...this was a season 8 episode, missing extras, things like that).

[MIKEMAC]

I noticed that only one sound effect was missing from KOTJ, and the teaser was cool with Devon's voice on it, and the intro with no SPM was really cool, but I thought it would be all messed up with no sound effects, but it was only one I heard, so that and the fact I got to see like 10 more minutes that I never seen was worth the 28 bucks I spent for the dvd set already!!, this season I only seen like 4 episodes so this will be the best KR set for me as it will be like watching it as it was on TV today, so I can't wait for the other ones. I will save "Scent of Roses" for last as it's the last episode in my mind as many fans belive.

[LuvKITT]

I have only had 1 disk to be bad and that was from season 1. I couldn't get the first of the episode to play. I thought oh well at least most of the show I could see. I might get a new set one of these days.

[spyhunter]

Could it possibly be that NBC transmitted the show in stereo in 1985/1986 and Universal really didn't downmix?

-Scott

In order to be in Stereo, it has to have 2 distinct channels of audio. The source has to be that way in order for the network to have been able to transmit it that way, and so Universal must have took those 2 tracks and merged them together to make it a 1 channel Monaural soundtrack, and that single channel of audio is coming through both channels of DD2.0...

You can really tell when watching Season 4 before, the sound is spread out and more spatial then the other Seasons, and even the Treble and Bass seem more defined...

Just because the technology supports 2 channels of audio or you have 2 speakers doesn't make it Stereo, just the same way as having a 5.1 Surround Setup doesn't mean you are always hearing true 5.1 sound, every channel has to be distinct for this to happen...

SH

[Lost Knight]

I dislike double sided DVD's...they are a LOT more prone to manufacturing defects than single sided ones. Case in point: I bought all 8 seasons of SG-1 on DVD, plus season 1 of Atlantis. 50 DVD's in total (Stargate uses single sided DVD's). Only one of them was bad...the last disk of SG-1 season 7. I just went to Wal-mart where I got it and exchanged only that one disk. When that happens, and there aren't any fingerprints or scratches, it's a manufacturing defect. I tried the 2 bad KR disks and the 1 bad SG-1 disk in PS2, my computer, and my little portable DVD player, and the picture would pixelate, turn to random gibberish, then give me a disk read error in exactly the same spots in all 3 players.

I also have this same problem with the Season 3 episode "The Ice Bandits," but it only skips over about a minute or two of footage in the same spot every time. I just don't have the time to watch every single episode all the way through as it normally takes me weeks or months to get around to watching an entire season, so I think I'm going to try and exchange the whole set altogether at Circuit City.

I have a bad feeling that the next set I exchange it with will be even worse, and if that's the case, I'll just try and get a refund and completely give up with the DVDs. One minute of missing footage I can deal with; not being able to watch "The Scent Of Roses" (arguably the best epsiode of Season 4) is just unacceptable. Even its missing teaser could be overlooked in all honesty, but not being able to even watch some of the episodes is just going too far.

[Skav]

Could it possibly be that NBC transmitted the show in stereo in 1985/1986 and Universal really didn't downmix?

-Scott

In order to be in Stereo, it has to have 2 distinct channels of audio. The source has to be that way in order for the network to have been able to transmit it that way, and so Universal must have took those 2 tracks and merged them together to make it a 1 channel Monaural soundtrack, and that single channel of audio is coming through both channels of DD2.0...

You can really tell when watching Season 4 before, the sound is spread out and more spatial then the other Seasons, and even the Treble and Bass seem more defined...

Just because the technology supports 2 channels of audio or you have 2 speakers doesn't make it Stereo, just the same way as having a 5.1 Surround Setup doesn't mean you are always hearing true 5.1 sound, every channel has to be distinct for this to happen...

SH

It's quite odd, my amplifier says KR dvd sets 1-3 are stereo when playing so I switched on the dolby prologic 2 which shouldn't be activated if the source is just mono.

Maybe my amp is being fooled into thinking it's stereo, being that the sound is coming from two front speakers?

[spyhunter]

I don't know how an amp would distinguish between a Stereo signal and a 2 channel mono signal. Radios, TVs, and VCRs can distinguish between the two, but for some reason an amplifier alone cannot do it...

I still can't believe Universal screwed this up, the soundtrack for S4 should have been glaringly obvious that it was in Stereo, and designated as such, or in some way very different from the other Seasons...

Too bad they didn't just give us pure Dolby Digital 5.1 like what is on the Universal HD channel, and then they would have been able to play S3 and S4 on UHD, because so far they are only playing Season 1 over and over again, evidently they won't master the rest until later... This way we would get even better than Stereo sound on the DVD...

SH

[rulloa81]

I have the season four DVD and I've seen about 3 episodes and I think it's awesome!

[Skav]

If KR was to be remixed in 5.1, there would have been a risk that foley effects would have been inserted like they did with such film classics as Jaws.

It takes away the true atmosphere of the film/show.

Universal are known for doing this to old films quite often and being that they have already said they can only find the "best possible masters" with it's true audio source, it wouldn't bode well for the show's original audio effects to be retained with a 5.1 mix.

[spyhunter]

The 5.1 on UHD Channel sounds fine to me, but that would not be good if they added sounds...

SH

[kittknight1979]

Hey Scott,

I talked to a universal studios rep on tuesday, and he said that they are working on S3 replacement disks. TVShowsondvd.com has the number and email address for universal studios. You can email the rep and he will send you an email when the replacement disks will be ready to ship out.

[LuvKITT]

Oh good. Thanks for the info!

[FuzzieDice]

What about the season 4 issues?

[KRAvengerII]

On the bright side, it looks like they cleared up that muffled soundtrack on "many happy returns." that plagued all previous broadcasts and tapes/dvds.

[Sgt_BFG]

Woah, Season 4 is out already? O.o, and I only have the first 2 seasons! need to catch up...