The World at War Ultimate Restored Edition

[IanC]

Friends,

Has anyone bought this yet? The reviews on Amazon seem pretty mixed:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-revi...DateDescending


What's your view?

Regards

Ian

[AFF96]

Ian,
I haven't bought the DVD's, but the entire series has been playing in the USA the last few months. I found the series to be very well done & quite outstanding! It covers not only the war itself but the politics and home fronts throughout the war. I give it a big
Greg

[IanC]

Ian,
I haven't bought the DVD's, but the entire series has been playing in the USA the last few months. I found the series to be very well done & quite outstanding! It covers not only the war itself but the politics and home fronts throughout the war. I give it a big
Greg

Many thanks for the reply Greg I totally agree with your comments it's my favourite WW2 documentary.

I should have have made my question clearer. The whole series has been recently been re-released after extensive (according to the marketing bumf ) "remastering" of both the audio and visual tracks and I was wondering if anyone has bought this remastered version and what their thoughts of it were.

All the best

Ian

[sparks]

it was watching that series when it was a new programme and i was a kid, that helped get me into this hobby.
cant comment on the remastered version, but the originals are still great.

[Hoss]

it was watching that series when it was a new programme and i was a kid, that helped get me into this hobby.
cant comment on the remastered version, but the originals are still great.

Me to Sparks
This and the other series The Great War pretty much doomed me to a lifetime of collecting.
I,ve got the re-mastered dvd. Brilliant narrated by L. Olivier. Its sharper and better audio also has bonus documentaries narrated by E. Porter. Best of all I like the recorded interviews of that generation who are no longer with us.
Its not a hard complete study of the War, never meant to be a point made by J. Isaacs in one of the interviews. Probably accounts for the mixed reviews.

Eric

[Woolgar]

it was watching that series when it was a new programme and i was a kid, that helped get me into this hobby.
cant comment on the remastered version, but the originals are still great.

Me too sparks, it got me into WW2 and I have never forgotton it..and the haunting theme music!

Nick

[RommelPlatz]

The picture enhancements are incredible but as you probably read/heard, the blu ray version deviated from the orginal 4:3 format to the widescreen 16:9 format.

Because of this, you are losing 1/5 of the picture. In interviiew scenes, people's forehead or chins are cut off and in other scenes you don't see the dust fly off the tank tracks. A lot of purist did not buy the blu ray based on this fact. There is hope that they will re release a blu ray version where the original aspect ratio (OAR) is kept at 4:3.

If you have the dvd already, I don't recommend unless they re release on 4:3.

[feldpost 58]

Hi all,

I say keep this amazing documentary series as it stood, a pionerring show bringing WW2 to life for those too young to have a conception of the times.
I remember watching the programme as it was first shown, and then the "special" extra shows - the best overall documentary series on WW2!
There have been better, on specific subjects - but as an overall history of WW2 this cannot be bettered; in my humble opinion.

Best wishes,


John.

[JaimeH]

I remember when it came out in the early 70s, loved then and love now in rerun. I'll buy the new DVD. The narration by Sir Lawrence Olivier is what makes it!

[Darrell]

Am I reading this correctly? They cut off the top and bottom portion of the original 4:3 view to have it fit a 16:9 aspect ratio?

Hmm .. that WOULD bother me a lot. I own a set of DVD's of the series from several years ago and am quite happy to see ALL the original picture regardless if the sound is a little lower quality than the "restored" version.

[Hoss]

Hi Darrell
Apparently blu-ray version sucks mate. I have the DVD series, received as a Christmas gift a few years ago. 26 episodes..22hrs 37mins of it! its very good.
My earlier comparison (apologies) is between the DVD set and my VHS set Hah!! remember those? which I wore out!!!!

Eric

ps Are those old VHS worth anything, maybe I should put em on e-stand? I have a few that still work including Titanic and the Sound of Music.