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- Verified Buyer
Here's Season Six of Alfred Hitchcock Presents arrived today.Season Six contains thirty-eight episodes on five discs:Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's CoatThe Doubtful DoctorA Very Moral TheftThe Contest for Aaron GoldThe Five-Forty-EightPen PalOutlaw in TownO Youth and Beauty!The MoneySybillaThe Man with Two FacesThe Baby-Blue ExpressionThe Man Who Found the MoneyThe Changing HeartSummer ShadeA Crime for MothersThe Last EscapeThe Greatest Monster of Them AllThe LandladyThe ThrowbackThe Kiss-OffThe Horse PlayerIncident in a Small JailA Woman's HelpMuseum PieceComing, MamaDeathmateGratitudeThe Pearl NecklaceYou Can't Trust a ManThe Gloating PlaceSelf DefenseA Secret LifeServant ProblemComing HomeFinal ArrangementsMake My Death BedAmbitionIf online ratings are any reflection, Season Six is probably the second most loved season of Alfred Hitchcock's half-hour long format television show after Season Five. His stories certainly picked up speed and the style of them in Season Six have gotten grittier, more "American" and less "British".The discs are exactly what you expect out of a DVD-R, which is a custom-manufactured DVD that lacks anything other than the material. They are made to keep costs down for titles that are expected to be slow sellers; they are the hallmark of the decline of the DVD and recorded media in general.I understand everyone's complaints about the DVD-R format. I hate it too. Reality has to set in though. If Season Six doesn't sell well there may not be a Season seven or Universal Editions of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour either. These discs don't have anything except a "Play All" or play a specific scene selections. DVDs are in decline, sales are down, and if all trends continue, they will continue to decline. Studios can't afford to spend all the setup costs to make DVD sets for TV shows (or movies) that aren't going to sell enough units to recoup costs. So, short of everybody wanting a copy buying three or four sets, DVD-R is the least risky move the studios can make. I'll keep buying them, if they come out, in summary. I'd rather have a s***ty DVD-R set than nothing. Really, at the end of the day, the reason I think people are upset by the DVD-Rs is that its insulting. Universal almost wants to be saying "You're love of our shows isn't enough. There aren't enough of you and there isn't enough demand for the show(s) you love." I get how the critical reviewers feel, I feel the same way.I have another complaint, one that is special to me. I like subtitles (English SDH) on DVDs. These (or no other DVD-Rs that I've seen) contain the formatting necessary to have subtitles. If Universal reads this, English SDH subtitles are a must have! Yeah, I don't think Universal cares about the reviews either. If they did, they would release full sets. I should add that the case, which is consistent with DVD-Rs...crappy. The back of the case claims that the DVD has subtitles. Even a bigger disappointment from the transient flash of hope that they had put them on even though the product description didn't mention or list them. Even worse, the back cover of the case looks like they just "copied" the back of the case from an earlier season without really checking what information was correct and what wasn't, hence the mistake regarding having subtitles. The case is a standard type set plastic case with clear outer cover, a paper insert outside with graphics consistent with the other seasons of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Inside the case are flip leaves holding the discs. Not impressive, to say the least. Functional, however.I also get the complaints about the quality of the DVD-Rs "lasting" and dying. I'm seeing that with new DVDs as well. The problem isn't the DVD-Rs, in my opinion, its quality of the pressings. I've gone through four copies of "The Wedding Singer" and they keep going bad. DVDs, R or Not are not as good as they were. Some studios like Warner and 20th Century Fox are turning out inexcusably bad quality DVDs. Universal a little bit. I'm sure somebody more informed than myself could explain why thats the case, but it seems to coincide with pressings in Mexico. Perhaps they're using poorer quality plastic to save money? Its a side point, I think.Other details regarding the release:The video quality: Varies, obviously. Some of the film stock is a little damaged, but the remastering job is decent. I'd say the video quality on my clanky old DVD players, not enhanced Blu-Ray, is about B to B+. Its not sweet, sweet remastering, but its not a half-burned film dropped in a vat of vinegar either. Universal didn't churn and burn this one. The video quality actually seems better than on some of the earlier seasons. I don't want to praise the purveyors of DVD-Rs, so I'll just say its not a disappointment.Sound Quality: Its not bad. Its clear, doesn't distort too badly or have excessive static. There is a little static here and there and the normal "hiss" for the period. I will make a complaint the levels vary somewhat. The levels on the first disk, for instance, got progressively louder for the first five or six episodes and then tapered back off a little. I'd give the sound about a B+ as well. I can't help but remembering that the television show is from more than fifty years ago.The season contains "The Pearl Necklace" which is easily one of the best of all the Alfred Hitchcock Presents Episodes of all time. "Sybilla", "The Horse Player", "The Landlady" and "Incident at a Small Jail" are all top flight episodes in this season. Other notable episodes are "A Crime for Mothers", "Self-Defense", "The Gloating Place" and "Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat". The quality of the material alone is worth buying the set, damned be the the DVD-Rs. If they had switched to DVD-Rs around Season Two, there wouldn't be a Season Six to review I would wager.Update: Like so many people, my first set came with a defective disc 4. I returned it to Amazon, got a new set and now disc 5 is defective, but only because of my Sony DVD carousels on random. The disc selected on random doesn't produce sound. The original discs from the first set with the defective disc 4 didn't play at all on random. So, this is a vast improvement. Will attempt to actuate the return/exchange function on Amazon again and see if disc 5s are all defective.For the record, I think I had to go through three sets of Season 1 (with their crummy double-sided discs) to get a full working copy.
