thundercats bluray?

Hi
is there a thundercats HD bluray?
will they make one or will we have to stay just with a SD DVD version?

Unfortunatelly not...
We'll have to make do with the Standard DVD, maybe after the New Series, WB will release a HD version, Hopefully:)

"Lordore, post: 30043" said:

Unfortunatelly not...
We'll have to make do with the Standard DVD, maybe after the New Series, WB will release a HD version, Hopefully:)

for the new series or the old? :p

"JekylHyde, post: 30046" said:

for the new series or the old? :p

There isn't anything official, in case i am misunderstood, but the chances of seeing the old Series in better quality video are higher after the New Series gets aired. I believe then the younger generation will be interested in the 1985 cartoon as well and probably WB will decide the release.

Many members here have a keen interest in a HD format for Thundercats

Hope our prayers are someday answered :thumbsup:

Chris here...

To be honest, I think the only way it would ever happen would be if the new series became absolutely massive in terms of popularity - I don't mean big like a series like Ben 10 or whatever, I mean a phenomenon like Star Wars or something! :)

The reason why I say that is because the only way the original series of ThunderCats could be released in High Definition would be if the whole series, all 130 episodes, were digitally remastered into HD, which would be a very expensive and time-consuming undertaking. So, whilst I'd love to see ThunderCats released in HD, realistically it's not going to happen anytime soon IMO. :(

Take care... :)

Personally, I'd really like to see them release the Exodus Movie on Blu-Ray. It is a different version of just the first 4 episodes, so much less work to do it. So even those of us who have the 4 DVD sets would have a very good reason to buy it. And as a bonus, they could use it as a test to see if there'd be interest in doing the entire series.

Maybe a double-feature... Exodus movie and pilot for the new series in a 2 for 1 deal.

While my DVD sets play fine, I see no point in buying a new release. I think many fans who have the normal DVD's will feel the same. I very much doubt the sales will be there (even if the new cartoon is a success)

Besides I have no interest in Blu-Ray when DVD is perfectly fine. Cool you can store more on a disc, but for me that's the only plus....

Digital remastering would be only the first step Chris. A high definition upscale similar to what Shout! Factory (yes I love plugging them) did for G.I. Joe the movie would also need to be factored in since the source material itself is not HD. What would be feasible in terms of cost for a single disk movie, would absolutely not work for a 130 episode series with costs what they are today for the process. In all honesty it really wouldn't look much if any better than a digitally remastered DVD release.

That's where I think sales could be though. The original DVD set's video and audio quality could use some touching up (particularly in the first few episodes of Season 1). I will continue to plug Shout as a company WB should seriously consider granting rights to the original series for a box set. They listen to fans and put out the best possible DVD sets for the money you can get for the licenses they are granted and they were able to improve on the video and audio quality of the Rhino release for Transformers.

But I wouldn't look for a blu-ray set for Thundercats for at least another 10-15 years, if ever (and I, like the rest of the forum members fall into the 'if ever' category). It would probably take at least that long for the price of producing the set to come down to a level to where WB could even possibly make a profit off of it if they priced it right to sell enough units.

Another thing that doesn't help matters is that you can still find the old WB DVD sets at Wal-Mart for less than $20 depending on your location (I believe I remember seeing them as recently as this summer for $15.99 a volume).

Its a shame as either the Thundercat fan base isn't as big as WB thought, or they aren't as loyal when it comes to purchasing DVD's. Either way it hurts the chances of any future media releases for the show (other than possibly digital download).

Hi, this is a tricky issue and more complicated than it may seem.

Here is the principal problem. ThunderCats was final-assembled, graded and edited on 1 inch NTSC videotape. As such, this isn't a HD format and there is no 'natural' way to upscale the material. SD material upscaled is just a poor illusion and is pretty pointless.

However, the good news is that the animation from ThunderCats was originally photographed on 35mm film. As such, the original material could be retrieved and HD prints acquired. The BIG PROBLEM, is that this would require the original footage to be 'recreated' and tweaked to match the original broadcast tape (in a similar way to Star Wars when it underwent restoration for the DVD releases of the 'Special Edition'). This would be hugely time and cost intensive and, in reality, is unlikely to happen.

The other major stumbling block is that even if the above process was undertaken by Warner (presuming the original negatives had survived in reasonably good condition in their archives), the source material was only ever intended to be seen on an SD-TV screen. The (relatively) small cels wouldn't look great at that resolution and, the earlier episodes in particular, would show up a lot more animation errors. This wouldn't be such a problem in later episodes because the standard of work increased as PAC got to grips with their techniques, but for early shows it would just highlight problems that are already there. Of course it would have benefits as well - the background art, for instance would come up wonderfully and you'd be able to see a lot more detail (akin to scans you see online from cel collectors). Equally individual cel paintings would look great on a frame by frame basis, it's really the motion and interpolation that might struggle.

As others have mentioned, this could probably only be feasible for feature-length specials or maybe a new Bluray version of ThunderCats Ho! (on the assumption the s2 animation fares better than early s1).

Cheers
Dave

[FONT=Tahoma]I think it was a blessing just to have all the episodes/seasons on standard dvd. I think it's fair to say that the new series will probably see a blu-ray release. [/FONT]

"Snake-Eyes, post: 32757" said:

[FONT=Tahoma]I think it was a blessing just to have all the episodes/seasons on standard dvd. I think it's fair to say that the new series will probably see a blu-ray release. [/FONT]

The olds might... Theres always hope, lol

I don't think it's a good idea for the old series to be released in HD.

It aged well for DVD but blu-ray will dramatically enhance all the defects of a series made for view on old TV sets.

If WB actually threw some money behind it, they could digitially remaster it, upscale it, smooth out the audio, and put out a decent set.

One argument I'll submit for Thundercats on Blu-Ray even if NONE of that happens. The entire series right now is on 24 DVDs (6 DVD's per volume x 4 volumes). That means unless you have a ridiculous multi-dvd disc changer, you have to get up, pop a DVD out, put another DVD in 23 times to watch the series.

Using rougher and older estimates, the DVD holds about 8GB vs. 50GB for a blu-ray disc. That's about 6x the capacity.

Meaning you could do the following math: 24 DVDs*8GB = 192 total GB

192 total GB/50GB per Blu Ray disc = roughly 4 Blu-Ray discs at an equivalent bit rate for the video and compression.

So much more appealing, so much less shelf space :):):):)

(it isn't like the spines of the Thundercats set make a great mural like the BCI Masters of the Universe did).

I would love a blu ray release.

I would buy any Blu-Ray release of the original Thundercats series, but I am content with the entire show being on DVD. The case against a Blu-Ray release is too big I'm afraid. I agree with Snake Eyes that we are fortunate to have the entire series released. Too many of my favorite series aren't completed on DVD release (Adventures of Pete and Pete and the animated Tick series off the top of my head).

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"Booshman, post: 124924, member: 25641" said:

As with all my video projects and fanedits in general, these are available for free. There is a lot of work that goes into them, but I don't own Thundercats, I just expect that if you want to watch this project, you have at least bought the official DVD's. I'll PM you.

Can I have a link?

I've been holding off buying the DVDs hoping for a Blu-ray release. Batman the Animated Series releasing on Blu-ray has renewed my hope, even though it was after I already finally gave in and bought the DVDs (and kept them sealed only to find at least two of the volumes were damaged after the return period).

And it looks like the DVDs might be going out of print. I haven't seen Season Two, Volume Two for less than $100 and only sold third-party in the last two years. I'm hoping that means they'll release an updated set soon.[/FONT][/LEFT]