The Complete Series
BOX-ART
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The packaging, much like the show is black & white. Little to no color is displayed, which is a neat way to keep in theme with the macabre theme of the Addams. The slip box has the logo, with a spider spinning webs all over the box. The back has a render of the cast, with a description of the show beside them. A plaque with all the extras listed is below. At the very bottom is a grid with various technical aspects.
Each of the three disc cases inside has renders of the cast, both on the cover and on the back. Descriptions of the episodes in each case are listed next to the renders, like on the box. Again, extras & a grid with tech. specs. is at the bottom. The inner cover of each case has a list of what content is on each disc. Listing episodes, and any extras they may have with them.
I'll mention is here, but the set uses DVD-10's. Personally, I loathe dual sided discs and think they're difficult to handle without scratching or smudging.
MENUS
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Each disc has an short intro, in which you pan past a spider in its' web to reveal the Addams' mansion. It then transitions to a render of Gomez & Morticia with options to select an episode or the extras menu. When you select an episode you're taken to a sub menu that allows you to play the episode, view language options, return to the main menu, or play with commentary; provided the episode has one. You can select any commentaries via the extras menu as well.
AUDIO
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Both the English track & Spanish dub are presented as a dual mono 2.0 mix at 192 Kb/s. Strangely, there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to which episode include the French an/or Spanish dubs. However, only volume two features the French dub. The Spanish dubs' intro is fully localized.
VIDEO
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Video looks great, no major issues. Compression is good, on average it's five megabits or so, no major artifacts are visible. Each disc holds about four episodes, so compression is kept at a minimum. The presentation appears to be using a high definition film source. Contrast is great, which is a must for a black & white show. There were no huge debris, a little, but nothing distracting. Presentation is sharp, having some very slight aliasing at times. A nice fine grain structure is visible throughout, so it seems no awful digital noise reduction has been applied. The video is encoded as a 23.97 progressive scan frame-rate, so there are no interlacing issues.
EXTRAS
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There's a few extras scatted throughout, mostly novelty stuff. There's also some small documentary type material, commentaries, photo galleries, etc.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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My biggest complaint about the set is that I really dislike the dual sided discs. They could have just used DVD-9s instead, and then we wouldn't have to flip the discs every four episodes. Aside from that, the set is great!
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 9
DISC SIZE: Single-Sided/Single-Layer (DVD-10)
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English & Spanish 2.0 Dual Mono (192 Kb/s)
French 2.0 Dual Mono (192 Kb/s; Only Vol. 2)
SUBTITLES: English, Spanish, French (Only Vol. 2)
RUN-TIME: 27 Hour 18 Minutes
