There are two DVD releases that came out in February and March 2010:

Quatermass 2 - The Classic 1955 BBC Television Version Starring John Robinson:

http://www.amazon.com/Quatermass-Cla...0906689&sr=1-9

and

Quatermass and The Pit - The Classic 1958-59 BBC Television Version Starring Andre Morell:

http://www.amazon.com/Quatermass-Pit...0906689&sr=1-3

Has anyone seen these yet? What is the quality of the prints?

I am not sure who PR Studios is so am leery of the transfers.

Thanks in advance,

James

Sorry, I can't help you with reviews of those.

Together, they will run you over $30. However, the "Quatermass Collection" Region 2 DVD set that I got from Amazon UK is a great disc set and a better deal, if you can play Region 2 PAL discs. For about $20 shipped (I'm estimating here, and that price is if you order it by itself, but if you order more things from them, the shipping overhead would be reduced as it is spread out among the items; but I digress...), you get those two stories plus the surviving part of the original Quatermass serial, as well as a cool booklet with a lot of info and some good extras including scripts (on-screen, not on paper) of the four lost parts of the first serial.

And the best part, for me, is that the DVD is in PAL format, which is what it was filmed for, so it plays at the proper speed, instead of the 4% NTSC slowdown.

The transfer of Quatermass and the Pit on the R2 set is superb. The studio scenes have been VidFIREd so they look like interlaced video again, while IIRC all (I think) of the 35mm location work survives separately and has been dropped in accordingly, so it's one generation higher in quality and doesn't come from a telerecording/kinescope.

Quatermass 2 is a different problem. The film recordings are surpressed field -- only one field from the interlaced live image has been recorded onto film (rather than the usual two), so in effect there's only around 200 lines of horizontal resolution.

To be pedantic, these weren't made in PAL, but in the 405-line system, which ran at 50fps, but I get what you're saying ;^)

I have the R2 release and though it's been a while since I've seen it, I remember being quite pleased.

As for PR Studios, I've looked around and can't find a web site or any contact information. I'd love to get review copies and have one of the panel write up the releases but I can't seem to track them down.

I found another DVD release by them. The Curse of Bigfoot:

http://www.amazon.com/Curse-Bigfoot-.../dp/B001CBNO2M

One reviewer indicates it's a DVD-R so maybe that's why not much can be found on them.

Kinda risky ordering these from Amazon.

James

The very amateur cover art is another worry. I mean look at Quatermass 2. Ugh. The company doesn't have anyone that knows how to use Photoshop?? The didn't even make the background on the title transparent.