The Complete Series (Mill Creek Box-Set)

 

BOX-ART

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The slip box has a red gradient background with pictures of the Conner family, and in laws. The back has a description of the series, with a few images underneath. At the very bottom are tech. specs and logos on top of a render of the iconic afghan blanket. The inner box is sort of reminiscent of some sort of vinyl collection, where you flip threw and slide out the cardboard case you want. Each card has a slot on the font and back for one disc, for example: side one has disc one of season one, with the flip side holding season one disc two, the next card holds disc three with the flip being season two disc one. It's kind of a pain and I think later editions use different packaging, and for obvious reasons. You could easily scratch the discs if you're not careful!

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MENUS

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The menus are all mainly the same, clips from the show with the theme music play and you can select play all, episodes, with some discs have an extras menu.

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AUDIO

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There's nothing special about the audio, just typical sitcom stereo, at 192 KB/s. It sounds fine, no issues here.

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VIDEO

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The entire series, safe for the intros, was recorded on tape and it definitely has that analog 80's/90's look. Tape grain, haloing/ringing, fuzzy, muted colors, dull contrast. It may have been a hit show, but the video quality doesn't hold up very well. It's unfortunate that shows from this era weren't using film, and it would look so much better if there was a higher quality source to return to. The video is comparable to pretty much every other sitcom at the time. One thing I can say is that it always has this warm color scheme that, I think, gives the show a sort of cozy feeling. I supposed that is the idea with sitcoms, to make you feel at home while you're watching!

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As for compression, well, with about nine or so episodes per disc it's not amazing, but not horrible either. Honestly, the source is just so abysmal you can't really tell if what you're seeing is compression or tape artifacts.

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EXTRAS

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Various featurettes, interviews, and video commentaries are included throughout the series.

FINAL THOUGHTS

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N/A

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TECH. SPECS.

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                                                                  ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
                                                            NUMBER OF DISCS: 27

                                                                        DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer
                                                                   REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC

                                                                             AUDIO: English 2.0 (192 KB/s)

                                                                       SUBTITLES: English Closed Captions
                                                                        RUN-TIME: 87 Hour 53 Minutes