The Original Knight Rider should have been on Blue Ray Disc

This forum contains discussions about all things Knight Rider.

Moderators: neps, Matthew, Michael Pajaro

Post Reply
kitt34
FLAG Recruit
Posts: 342
Joined: Sun Jun 29, 2003 1:42 am
What year did the original Knight Rider start: 0
Location: Lusby, MD
Contact:

The Original Knight Rider should have been on Blue Ray Disc

Post by kitt34 » Sat Feb 19, 2011 7:43 pm

They should have put the original knight rider series on blue ray disc.
plus added even more changes.

DLAspider
Rookie
Posts: 80
Joined: Tue Dec 23, 2008 4:19 pm

Re: The Original Knight Rider should have been on Blue Ray D

Post by DLAspider » Mon Feb 21, 2011 10:30 pm

You are clearly either trolling or don't know much about bluray (or how to spell it correctly).

User avatar
Knight_Rider_Fan
Volunteer
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2004 11:19 pm
What year did the original Knight Rider start: 0

Re: The Original Knight Rider should have been on Blue Ray D

Post by Knight_Rider_Fan » Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:27 am

Anyone know how much longer we wait to go on sale on blu-ray the original series of Knight Rider??

I already want to leave ..

User avatar
Victor Kros
FLAG Operative
Posts: 1600
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2007 7:10 am
antispam: No
What year did the original Knight Rider start: 1982
Location: Knight Manor

Re: The Original Knight Rider should have been on Blue Ray D

Post by Victor Kros » Tue Feb 22, 2011 2:57 am

Universal won't even put the new Knight Rider on blu-ray and that was shot in HD! What makes you think they'd spend the money it would take to restore the original 84 episodes of Knight Rider to meet the clarity blu-ray demands?

It wouldn't be in widescreen and would look absolutely horrible with all the dust and grain the original film prints had.

Universal would have to go the Star Wars: Special Edition route and go in and clean up the original masters and remove all the dust, scratches, grain, and do color corrections and then would likely letterbox them into some hybrid pan and scan widescreen which would alter the original presentation to begin with. If they chanced putting the episodes out in full screen, the quality would still look terrible and not to mention they would have to remaster the audio as well to meet our HD standards today. Also consider that people like to point out how cheesy some of the miniature effects shots were on television - imagine how much worse it's going to look when you can see every little detail.

The producers of Knight Rider banked on the idea that you could hide certain things with broadcast resolution. Unless they tried to replace certain things with CG updates (like Star Trek), I just don't see it working well.

While all of this would be "nice", I don't see them ponying up the costs to do it right any time soon. The most we MIGHT get is a cleaned up/restored re-release on blu-ray of Knight of the Phoenix marketed as "Knight Rider: The 2-Hour Movie", like they are doing with the pilot episode of Airwolf later this month in the UK.

=VK=
:dash:

User avatar
Josch Schulz
FLAG Operative
Posts: 1187
Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2005 9:00 am
What year did the original Knight Rider start: 0
Location: North Carolina

Re: The Original Knight Rider should have been on Blue Ray D

Post by Josch Schulz » Tue Feb 22, 2011 5:33 am

Good point Victor and guess what, It would destroy the 80s feeling also :good: :mrgreen:
There's nothing worse than a smart-ass automobile

User avatar
Skav
FLAG Operative
Posts: 1999
Joined: Thu Mar 21, 2002 1:01 am
What year did the original Knight Rider start: 0
Location: England, UK
Contact:

Re: The Original Knight Rider should have been on Blue Ray D

Post by Skav » Tue Feb 22, 2011 7:57 am

I collect BD (because it's the next big thing) but I'm one of those that fall into the category of saying that "there's not much difference between the pic quality of DVD and BD." You can clearly see the faults and goofs in the series on the DVD's, anyway, BD won't expose them much more.
Love boxing? http://www.ringnews24.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

User avatar
WIBoomer1
FLAG Recruit
Posts: 296
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2008 1:00 am
What year did the original Knight Rider start: 0
Location: WI

Re: The Original Knight Rider should have been on Blue Ray D

Post by WIBoomer1 » Tue Feb 22, 2011 2:48 pm

Skav, you do realize that BD will be the last physical format of media, right? All the money that you are spending on those discs will be rendered (pun intended) useless, since it'll all be available as a stream or download directly to your tablet of choice. As bandwidth gets larger and larger, and devices faster and faster, it's only a matter of time.

p.s. when was the last time you pulled out your special edition star wars VHS box set? Save your money for your KITT, you'll be happier! ;)

User avatar
Skav
FLAG Operative
Posts: 1999
Joined: Thu Mar 21, 2002 1:01 am
What year did the original Knight Rider start: 0
Location: England, UK
Contact:

Re: The Original Knight Rider should have been on Blue Ray D

Post by Skav » Tue Feb 22, 2011 4:24 pm

WIBoomer1 wrote:Skav, you do realize that BD will be the last physical format of media, right? All the money that you are spending on those discs will be rendered (pun intended) useless, since it'll all be available as a stream or download directly to your tablet of choice. As bandwidth gets larger and larger, and devices faster and faster, it's only a matter of time.

p.s. when was the last time you pulled out your special edition star wars VHS box set? Save your money for your KITT, you'll be happier! ;)
I don't understand the SW comment. And I'm not really a big fan of SW.

And it may eventually be rendered useless, but not right now, and not for some years.

When it comes to technology it is almost always eventually made useless since it is always updated.

It's a natural evolution of the way technology is, and it's something I've always, obviously been aware of.

By the way, I don't know if it happens where you are, but we have restrictions put on our internet bandwidth over here in the UK if we download over a certain amount. Ain't no way they are letting us download infinite amounts of HD without slowing bandwidth down!

For that reason alone, I will still keep purchasing movies, physically, if I am allowed that choice.
Love boxing? http://www.ringnews24.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

User avatar
WIBoomer1
FLAG Recruit
Posts: 296
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2008 1:00 am
What year did the original Knight Rider start: 0
Location: WI

Re: The Original Knight Rider should have been on Blue Ray D

Post by WIBoomer1 » Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:39 pm

Skav, point taken about the differences in bandwidth regulations. I think as time marches on, you'll see that either tighten or decrease. Tighten, as ISPs will figure out how to squeeze every last profit, or decrease, as everyone will need to have some sort of highspeed connection in order to exist and function with the rest of civilization. Right now I'm paying $20US for unlimited Cable bandwidth at 6 MB/s. I was only paying $14 for DSL for 2 MB.

The reason that there will not be physical media is 2 fold. 1, it doesn't cost anything to the distributor to manufacture. So no inventory, shipping, very minimal personnel costs, just pure profit for the distributor. 2, since there's no physical media, it can be licensed vs. sold to the consumer.

User avatar
james olden
FLAG Recruit
Posts: 458
Joined: Tue Mar 10, 2009 11:04 pm
What year did the original Knight Rider start: 0
Location: Las Vegas,Nevada

Re: The Original Knight Rider should have been on Blue Ray D

Post by james olden » Tue Mar 01, 2011 5:21 pm

yes they should have. blue ray and additional communtary from each season start wouldve been great but we all know why nbc didnt. nbc cares nothing about anything but thier own profit. i just dont know why the original series doesnt air on sci fi no more in the u.s. nbc couldve at least put knight rider the original series in a time slot on the universal channel,hey if they can put the original charlies angelas and tj hooker on universal channel then they could've been put knight rider on the same channel !!
On the Quest for filling in the gaps from right after after Scent of Roses 1986- Knight Rider 2008

annericelover
Volunteer
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2011 9:47 pm
antispam: No
What year did the original Knight Rider start: 1982

Re: The Original Knight Rider should have been on Blue Ray D

Post by annericelover » Thu Mar 03, 2011 9:41 pm

I'm still impressed at how much of the original music was kept in the DVD releases, I mean you had Billy Idol, Bananarama and many other popular 80's songs on the original series and you heard almost all of them. Not many do that for old shows, especially shows that are in the early 80's and older.
A Blu-Ray release is fine, but leave it to be the same release, because not everyone can afford a Blu-Ray player or Blu-Ray movies or an HD TV to watch them on.
I recently got All Star Superman as a 2 Disc DVD and was pissed off cause the commentary was a Blu-Ray only feature, I mean why? It doesn't take HD to hear people talk. I think that's a pretty bad and desperate way to get people to buy a whole machine just for one new extra.

User avatar
Lost Knight
FLAG Special Ops
Posts: 2719
Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2004 7:45 pm
What year did the original Knight Rider start: 0
Location: Long Island, NY

Re: The Original Knight Rider should have been on Blue Ray D

Post by Lost Knight » Fri Mar 04, 2011 1:01 pm

annericelover wrote:I'm still impressed at how much of the original music was kept in the DVD releases, I mean you had Billy Idol, Bananarama and many other popular 80's songs on the original series and you heard almost all of them. Not many do that for old shows, especially shows that are in the early 80's and older.
A Blu-Ray release is fine, but leave it to be the same release, because not everyone can afford a Blu-Ray player or Blu-Ray movies or an HD TV to watch them on.
I recently got All Star Superman as a 2 Disc DVD and was pissed off cause the commentary was a Blu-Ray only feature, I mean why? It doesn't take HD to hear people talk. I think that's a pretty bad and desperate way to get people to buy a whole machine just for one new extra.
Well that's because most songs used in the original series were cover songs, and maybe only about 3 songs in the entire series were the real songs sung by the original artists (Prince had 2 songs that were omitted in the DVDs I remember off the top of my head). So these cover versions obviously must have been much, much, cheaper for the DVDs.

As for being ported over to Blu-ray, that will likely never happen. And it's not just the new Knight Rider series not making it to Blu-ray, but most television shows altogether. I've noticed that the only shows that seem to make it to the format are newer shows (or the latest seasons of newer shows if other seasons have already been out on DVD for awhile, like 24, for example). So it really is saying something that the 2009 KR shot in HD and being a fairly new series STILL isn't being ported over to Blu-ray. Also take into account that the primary focus in restorations and remastering is on feature films. Even classic films like the Back To the Future trilogy and Taxi Driver took YEARS to even make it to Blu-ray in the first place, so imagine how daunting the task of porting over every episode from every television series would be. Even some old shows still have yet to even make it to DVD, let alone Blu-ray!

In general, the leap from DVD to Blu-ray was not as revolutionary as VHS to DVD was, and I don't think Blu-ray will ever really take off the way DVDs did. Especially since you can't even see any real difference unless you at least have a 42" HDTV. I get the impression most consumers are just weary from the money they spent on their DVD collections to go and buy the same movies all over again, and others probably would rather just rent movies from Netflix.

As for physical discs being a dying format, I am not so sure that's going to be the case. Netflix may be interested in eventually using streaming-only movies, but its customers aren't ready for that yet and won't be until at least every film is available on Instant Queue and in HD. Not to mention that it actually helps other businesses, like the U.S. Postal Service. And take a look at CDs. Most people just download music from iTunes or other Internet services rather than actually buying the disc, but they're still around. I think the same will be true for Blu-ray. I personally prefer having the physical disc and never having to worry about wi-fi signals flaking in and out and interrupting my movies (can't tell you how many movie nights with the girlfriend were ruined because of streaming interruptions).
“Gimme maximum turbo thrust and blast me outta here, will ya!?”
:kitt: :dash4:

annericelover
Volunteer
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2011 9:47 pm
antispam: No
What year did the original Knight Rider start: 1982

Re: The Original Knight Rider should have been on Blue Ray D

Post by annericelover » Fri Mar 04, 2011 1:40 pm

Lost Knight wrote:
annericelover wrote:
Well that's because most songs used in the original series were cover songs, and maybe only about 3 songs in the entire series were the real songs sung by the original artists (Prince had 2 songs that were omitted in the DVDs I remember off the top of my head). So these cover versions obviously must have been much, much, cheaper for the DVDs.
True, I'm not surprised on Prince being the only one whose music had to be left out, he has to be one of the hardest people to do business with. I was amazed that the music videos for Batman was included on the DVD Special Edition, even if the PartyMan that was on there was an edited version of the video

User avatar
WIBoomer1
FLAG Recruit
Posts: 296
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2008 1:00 am
What year did the original Knight Rider start: 0
Location: WI

Re: The Original Knight Rider should have been on Blue Ray D

Post by WIBoomer1 » Fri Mar 04, 2011 7:50 pm

Lost Knight wrote:As for physical discs being a dying format, I am not so sure that's going to be the case. Netflix may be interested in eventually using streaming-only movies, but its customers aren't ready for that yet and won't be until at least every film is available on Instant Queue and in HD. Not to mention that it actually helps other businesses, like the U.S. Postal Service. And take a look at CDs. Most people just download music from iTunes or other Internet services rather than actually buying the disc, but they're still around. I think the same will be true for Blu-ray. I personally prefer having the physical disc and never having to worry about wi-fi signals flaking in and out and interrupting my movies (can't tell you how many movie nights with the girlfriend were ruined because of streaming interruptions).
It's only a matter of time. There's less and less places to purchase physical media from, because companies realize that there's more money to be made in not having personal, media inventory, physical stores, etc. I agree that until all the movies that Netflix has in it's inventory are able to be streamed, then that's the nail in the coffin. The only time I purchase a physical CD is when it's not available on iTunes, like AC/DC, Journey, etc...but that's it. I will admit that I did purchase a Blu-Ray copy of my favorite film, the Towering Inferno, because my master copy on DVD got bite by my dog....really! I needed the replacement, and only had to pay $15 bucks for it!

User avatar
Iron KITT
Rookie
Posts: 56
Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2010 7:44 am
antispam: No
What year did the original Knight Rider start: 1982
Location: UK

Re: The Original Knight Rider should have been on Blue Ray D

Post by Iron KITT » Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:33 am

Interesting discussion.

It has been discussed at great length within the Airwolf community regarding the new release, which if you havent heard has been pulled.

Airwolf the movie is the shortend version of the original full 2 parter Pilot Shadow Of The Hawke, the movie verison is an edited alternative to the pilot in the sense its put together in a way to be more a self contained movie with some scenes removed and other ones put in etc.

Google it yourself and you will see about the blu-ray, not a Universal release I might add.

I dont know if Universal will release any of these classics on blu-ray, in order to do it right they would have to go back to the source material, the originals and start from there. The cost involved would be pretty huge.

Also bear in mind these negitives and masters are nearly 30 years old, what condition they are in is anyones guess, time is a factor for these shows too, at some point Universal is going to have to invest in restoring them in order to future proof the shows for the generations to come.

I think if done right with time and effort put into it blu-ray for these shows would be a good investment long term, maybe do some test shots to see how it looks.

Allot of old films such as Bullitt and The Towering Inferno, The Dirty Harry Collection etc are all out on blu-ray, I do know that Bullitt is supposed to be outstanding on blu-ray, WB are really into the format and have put out allot of great titles.

So it's not impossible but question is will Universal do it or are they even interested in it?.

Yes I can see their point too, the costs involved in a time when things globally arent exactly what they used to be, the recession and everything, so you cant really blame them for holding back, at the same time its going to have to be done sooner or later and the longer they leave it the more work will need done. These prints, the orginal negitives have been stored for nearly 30 years.

Anyone remember the Superman II The Richard Donner Cut?.

Well for those that arent firmillar, just a quick note then, with Richard Donners superb Superman The Movie doing well on dvd, the film was remastered and restored to its full extended edition, well the fans started asking what about the second film, Richard Donner was signed to direct both Superman 1 and 2, now he did part one and also filmed a good portion of 2, but Richard Lester was brought in and finished the film etc, there is a whole other discussion on what happend there, but the thing is Richards Superman II never was released properly.

Well WB who were very pleased with the first film on dvd and how well it was recieved got allot of fans asking about this mysterious lost Cut of Superman II, Richard Donner and his key collaberator got together again and with WB they did a full re-assembly of all the footage he shot of Superman II, the film was restored and had to be remasted, they used all the original material, negitives, tapes everything, the negitives which hadnt been looked at since it was made had allot of mostiure etc, so they had to bake it all and start from scratch.

The film went through a pain saking process, and then re-edited the movie with Donner and the editor team present, Donner having to go back over every frame he shot and edit the movie on how he would have invisioned the picture all those years and get into that groove again.

They made a documentry for the dvd showing how they did it, amazing story and the film was awsome.

Amazing thing was in the process of all this they found loads of missing footage with scenes of Brando etc, scenes that never saw the light of day, awsome discoveries.

With Knight Rider both original and 08 version, I would like to think that one day we will see such a thing, other studios have released their old catalogues and given them the respectable treatment and its worked, blu-ray offers allot for the medium, Im sure there are members here who are probably more knowledegable than me and can share their thoughts on this.

Universal have the capacity to do great things, their Scott Pilgram blu-ray is amazing and so is Kick-Ass, now I have their Heroes season 4 on blu-ray and I have to say while I enjoyed the final season I was dissapointed with the blu-ray set itself if anything my season 9 dvd boxset of Smallville looked just as sharp and crisp as the blu-ray of Heroes.

I have heard excellent comments on Universals complete Battlestar Galactica collection of the new series on blu-ray, so I am definately getting that.

If anything I would imagine they would release the new Knight Rider series on blu-ray first to test the water, see how it fares up against the market, would be a good test run.

I think it will be a long road for us fans in general wide spread, ie Knight Rider, Airwolf, Miami Vice, The A-Team, Magnum P.I., The Equalizer, Street Hawk, Auto Man, all the gems of the 80s, thing is we are all in this together as communites wanting the same thing our beloved shows to get the treatment they so rightly deserve, but maybe one day our dreams will come true.
Michael Knight: "KITT is the worlds greatest automobile"

My Movie Review Blog:
Sentient Saviour's Movie Wold!. http://sentientsaviourmovies.blogspot.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

User avatar
KITTfan
FLAG Operative
Posts: 1045
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2002 1:01 am
What year did the original Knight Rider start: 0
Location: Finland

Re: The Original Knight Rider should have been on Blue Ray D

Post by KITTfan » Sat Mar 05, 2011 5:26 am

I don't think the physical media is going anywhere anytime soon, there's still some rural places where wired internet connection is too expensive to build and even wireless 3G net isn't worth to expand to cover the entire country. Even where wireless 3G does work, the constantly alternating speed causes streaming videos to stop waiting too often if internet traffic is heavy or even lost the stream completely.
Maybe in the next decade the streaming works good enough to phase out physical media but I still doubt it. Even if it does, it doesn't render anyones collection useless as long as players for the physical media exists.
For example I still have working VHS video, multiple CD & DVD players and my PS3 acts as Blu-Ray player :)

User avatar
jup
FLAG Operative
Posts: 1777
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2002 1:01 am
antispam: No
What year did the original Knight Rider start: 1982
Location: SD, CA. USA | Web site: http://www.jupircbot.8m.com (jup's KR game project 'ghosts' here)
Contact:

Re: The Original Knight Rider should have been on Blue Ray D

Post by jup » Wed Mar 09, 2011 4:09 pm

annericelover wrote:I'm still impressed at how much of the original music was kept in the DVD releases, I mean you had Billy Idol, Bananarama and many other popular 80's songs on the original series and you heard almost all of them. Not many do that for old shows, especially shows that are in the early 80's and older.
A Blu-Ray release is fine, but leave it to be the same release, because not everyone can afford a Blu-Ray player or Blu-Ray movies or an HD TV to watch them on.
I recently got All Star Superman as a 2 Disc DVD and was pissed off cause the commentary was a Blu-Ray only feature, I mean why? It doesn't take HD to hear people talk. I think that's a pretty bad and desperate way to get people to buy a whole machine just for one new extra.
I've been noticing that, too.

It was one thing to offer extra features on DVD over VHS, as the cassette's were rarely anything more then just the movie, anyhow. But, to slim down DVD content to make Blu-Ray more attractive, just sucks. Worse yet, they super-slim some DVD's that are meant to be rental, only. While the menu's show what could be available, the selections just go to a 'purchase version' notice. A few years down the road, that stuff ought to really tick off buyers of used discs.

Post Reply