Those familiar with the ORIGINAL 50s Superman Cartoons on DVD
 

I'm considering picking these up, but there are tons of different versions out there. It looks like there are two that seem to be the "best". Are anyone familiar with these enough to speak a bit on them? Both look to be from Image.

Complete Superman Cartoons: Diamond Anniversary Edition
Superman Cartoons of Max & Dav

If interested, I'd go for the Diamond Anniversary Edition. I've got one of the releases that offers up several of the cartoons, and it's fine, but if you want them all at a good price, just go with the Diamond Edition. All the others feature cartoons that can be found on this edition.

Thanks Al, but simply having the episodes isn't my primary concern fully.

I apologize for not making this clearer, but what I meant by my question is which one has the best image / video quality (since both have all the episodes)?

I would say go with the Diamond Collection. These are complete and per the box restored. The only problem and it is a big one is that that the cartoons have a bug on the lower right side of the screen.

By the way these cartoons were produced in the early forties not the fifties .

What do you mean "bug" on the lower right side?

A bug is sort of like an icon or image that seems to creep in a few DVDs of late. Rocky & Bullwinkle is a good example of this. Most network and independent broadcasts now have some sort of bug stamped on their shows. Their netwrok logos for example...

Another term for bug would be watermark as they did on the Rocky & Bullwinkle set.

the Diamond collection (image/bosko) is widely regarded to be the best available edition of these.

i haven't noticed any 'bug' on any of the ones i've watched so far, but i haven't gone thru the whole disc yet.

btw, the cartoons were produced in the early 40's.

Anothe :up: for the Image Diamond Collection.

yep, the Diamond Anniversary Edition is the best on all fronts. Make a search for it and you'll find other threads.

coincidentally, i'm watching it right now as I type. I just received it from Deep Discount DVD for thre reasonable price of $7 dollars and change plus free shipping! And yes, the Diamond Anniversary Edition is the one to get.

I also got the Captain Marvel Serial DVD for the same price :)

I have Max Fleischer's Superman 9 episodes,Superman Lost Episodes 8 episodes. Is it worth upgrading to the Diamond Collection

yes

I have two discs of the GoodTimes edition...great discs if you ask me...the picture is wonderful...looks bright and bold...and the two-pack was just $5 at Wal-Mart...

This is really a simple question to answer. This disc from Image:

http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=IMA009574

is the one to get.

It has the best picture quality, is dirt cheap, and includes every episode.

Here are some reviews of some of the Superman discs:
http://www.toonzone.net/brian/video/dvd/index.html
The Image disc The Superman Cartoons of Max and Dave Fleischer is presumably very similar to the later Diamond collection release.

I'd also recommend the Diamond Collection. It's really pretty amazing that cartoons from the 40s (and not owned by either Warners or Disney) look this good.

Anybody wish Warner Bros. rereleased these with some brand new redubbed audio? The images rock but the sound is pretty bad. Flame on, purists.

ummm....no!

I aqm quoting a customer review of the Bosko (Diamond edition) on the amazon.com site:

Reviewer: James S. Jones, Jr. (see more about me) from Athens, GA
I've bought complete collections of these Superman cartoons 5 times now. Twice on VHS and now 3 times on DVD. The cartoons themselves are great, but look out for which DVD edition to buy. Since these reviews seem to come up no matter what DVD edition is selected on Amazon, this should be helpful.

The set from Win Star Home Entertainment (1998/99)features all 17 original cartoons in very good picture quality. The drawback is that the audio has been remastered to surround sound (!) with added sound effects. While to some this may enhance the enjoyment of these cartoons, frankly I find it annoying. The enhanced sound is quite obviously fake and not original, and it was certainly not how these cartoons were meant to be viewed/heard.

A similar set was put out by GoodTimes Home Video in 2002. It also features audio restoration with added sound effects. Video quality is generally very good. However, some openings and closings are missing.

The third DVD set is from Bosko Video and I believe it is the best one. It (thankfully) does not feature any unneeded jazzing up of the soundtrack, and the picture quality is superb. IT IS THE DEFINITIVE SET TO GET!!!!!

I bought the "Lost Episodes" edition of WinStar edition before they sold all 16 episodes on the same disc. I can vouch for the cheesiness of its "Feel the Sound" process. The soundtrack is already loud, busy and noisy enough without those added distractions.

I finally bought the whole thing on Image (not mentioned in this review) and I wonder if it's really different from the Bosko?

I came home tonight and I popped both the WinStar Lost Episodes edition and the Image Complete Collection in my player. It confirms my opinion. Even though I had never heard the WinStar edition on my new sound receiver in Dolby 5.1, the total effect is a little jarring. The Image collection offers uncompressed PCM sound on 2.0 mono which translates well in the "mono" mode of my receiver.

An image comparison shows that both editions feature the same restored film elements. Same scratches, same dots, same fine hairs here and there in the same locations. Even though these films were restored, the restoration was not digital and both editions show graininess and exagerated, oversaturated blue and red hues in darker passages and there are a lot of those where the blacks and the shadows are murky. So, you can't decide on the picture quality alone. Both are equal and even have very similar bitrates so the transfer is probably the same. If there is a difference, it could be that the WinStar is a tad hazier and the Image a tad cleaner, but not by much and I can't really vouch for that.

The only important difference is the sound treatment of the WinStar which comes in both Dolby Pro Logic stereo surround (2.0), which plays in stereo in the absence of a receiver, and Dolby 5.1 with added sound effects and tremendous sub-woofer activity. This is compensated by the fact that the WinStar edition (at least in the Lost Episodes I bought which contains only half the collection) has a lot of production note information on each and every one of the cartoons and on the series in general, which are totally absent form the Image edition.

So... you decide. If you are a sound freak, you might want to go with the WinStar.

And all this also depends on whether the Image edition is exactly similar to the Bosko "Diamond" edition.

Hope this helps.

WHAAAAA?!

i can't believe the Bosko edition is so cheap now.
i paid about $25 for it a yr and 1/2 ago (and that was from DDD as well).

absolute no brainer now.

I actually saw the winstar one for $35 at Suncoast a couple of months back :rolleyes:

Re: Those familiar with the ORIGINAL 50s Superman Cartoons on DVD
 

First, these were made in the 1940's, not the 1950's. Second, I recommend the Complete Superman Collection Diamond Anniversary Edition. I picked it up on Deep Discount DVD for $7.32.

EPKJ, thanks for being the 3rd person in this thread to mention that I got the decade wrong. :)