Blu-ray Review Mission: Impossible: The Original TV Series Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

Mission: Impossible was a ground-breaking television series in its day, and many of its achievements are still a part of our culture, certainly never to be forgotten.



Mission: Impossible (1966–1973)



Released: 17 Sep 1966
Rated: TV-PG
Runtime: 50 min




Director: N/A
Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime, Drama, Thriller



Cast: Greg Morris, Peter Lupus, Peter Graves, Barbara Bain
Writer(s): Bruce Geller



Plot: An elite covert operations unit carries out highly sensitive missions subject to official denial in the event of failure, death or capture.



IMDB rating: 7.9
MetaScore: N/A





Disc Information



Studio: Paramount
Distributed By: CBS
Video Resolution: 1080P/AVC



Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1...

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[Museum Pieces]

Thanks for the review. In your opinion, given the lack of new bonus features, is the overall improvement worth a double dip? I paid $88 all in on my pre-order so I'm still feeling marginally good about it. Just wondering if I will still feel as good when I get the bare bones set.

 

[Matt Hough]

If you're a fan of the show, this is definitely the way to watch it. You see details in the hair and clothes and gadgets that DVD can't quite produce. But if you're just a casual viewer and already own the DVDs, I'd think they'd be good enough. I'll admit that if I hadn't gotten the set to review, I would have been satisfied with my DVDs, but now that I have these Blu-rays, the DVDs will either go to a friend who wants them or they will go to the public library.

 

[TravisR]

If you find a few hundred spare hours, should we expect a review of every episode and the AV quality on every episode?

 

[Sam Favate]

I never got the original DVDs, as they came out during the golden age of DVD in the early 2000s when I couldn't handle another title. But I gladly pre-ordered this, and am anxiously awaiting it.

 

[David Weicker]

With the current DeepDiscount coupon (WREATH - good until 11/19) and the change in shipping policy to allow Standard Shipping ($3.99 oversized), the set can be had for about $77 ($71.13 before tax).

I canceled my previous order to get this price.

 

[Harry-N]

I'm a little disappointed in the lack of the original mono sound track. I often find these "enhanced" audio tracks to be a bit distracting, sometimes phasey-sounding. Most of my home theater watching is fed through a 3.0 sound system, so essentially stereo with a focused center channel.

I might run some of my DVDs through the system again and compare the older surround with the mono. If I can tolerate the surround track, then I might consider this set someday if the price is right.

 

[albert_m2]

What is the packaging? Given the studio, it's this one (or two) big ass case, rather than individual season sets (or something similarly more manageable)?

 

[Dan McW]

Great review, as always, Matt. Can you check the Blu set's runtimes of each part of season 3's "The Contenders"? They were shortened on VHS and on the DVD season-3 set.

 

[BobO'Link]

Well... I'm very disappointed in the lack of the original mono audio. The DVDs have both and the remixed audio is horrid. That means for me that no mono audio = cancelled order and no purchase. I'll live with my DVDs.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

What is the packaging? Given the studio, it's this one (or two) big ass case, rather than individual season sets (or something similarly more manageable)?

Each season has its own cardboard folder, all placed inside one large box.

It's fairly cheap packaging, IMO - and the BDs slip out of their slots very easily.

Just unfolding the individual season sleeves would often allow BDs to fall out.

I guess it's a positive that they're not stuck in there so tightly that you can barely get them out, but this goes too far the other direction. I suspect discs will get damaged because they'll accidentally fall to the floor!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Well... I'm very disappointed in the lack of the original mono audio. The DVDs have both and the remixed audio is horrid. That means for me that no mono audio = cancelled order and no purchase. I'll live with my DVDs.

I didn't think the 5.1 mixes were "horrid", but I would've preferred mono.

The 5.1 largely felt like "broad mono", especially in terms of music, which didn't show much real stereo presence.

Effects had some localized material at times, but it's hit or miss...

 

[Matt Hough]

My sentiments exactly, Colin.

 

[Matt Hough]

Great review, as always, Matt. Can you check the Blu set's runtimes of each part of season 3's "The Contenders"? They were shortened on VHS and on the DVD season-3 set.

I'll dig the discs out and check the times tomorrow. Should be able to post it in the afternoon about them.

 

[Lord Dalek]

I didn't think the 5.1 mixes were "horrid", but I would've preferred mono.

The 5.1 largely felt like "broad mono", especially in terms of music, which didn't show much real stereo presence.

Effects had some localized material at times, but it's hit or miss...

The few times I watched Mission: Impossible on Prime Video before it got moved to All Access, the 5.1 seemed to be confined to the original DMEs with some reverb.

 

[Museum Pieces]

Well... I'm very disappointed in the lack of the original mono audio. The DVDs have both and the remixed audio is horrid. That means for me that no mono audio = cancelled order and no purchase. I'll live with my DVDs.

I have a mono switch on my Bose headphones, and while I realize a mono version of 5.1 is not the same as the original mono mix, it does seem to knock out the annoyances of these mixes that never existed until studios thought them a selling point. At least enough for me to tolerate. But I totally get why you canceled.

 

[BobO'Link]

I didn't think the 5.1 mixes were "horrid", but I would've preferred mono.

The 5.1 largely felt like "broad mono", especially in terms of music, which didn't show much real stereo presence.

Effects had some localized material at times, but it's hit or miss...

There's a "hollowness" of sorts to the voices with that whole "mono reprocessed for stereo" sound to it. The music isn't bad and has a deeper base end and sounds just a bit more full than the mono but that's the only thing I liked about the "fake surround" mix.

FWIW - I'm not a fan of surround sound in any capacity. I hate it in the theater (it's the primary reason I no longer see movies in the theater) and have no use for it at home (where I can at least mitigate it to a degree). That's as much as anything due to the "sound engineers" not knowing how to properly mix voices and get sound levels to something resembling something you can actually listen to without straining to hear those voices and not have your eardrums blown out when music/sfx hit. That I'm forced to use SDH/CC for the majority of releases with multi-channel sound just to know what's being said without waking the neighbors (and I live in a house with 50' between me and any neighbor) speaks loudly to the failure of those mixes. Just give me mono or a *good* stereo mix and I'd be happy. Seemingly that art has been forgotten.

 

[Bartman]

Pretty amazing value, 46 Blu-rays for $77. I purchased The Fugitive The Complete Series 32 DVD boxset for $45 this summer and I'm half way thru the final season, a rate of about one episode per day. I bought the set because years ago I rented DVDs from Netflix and knew the picture quality and stories to be good, so it would be a worthwhile buy. The DVD picture quality still looks amazing on my new OLED TV.

When the MI Blu-ray boxset was announced I purchased the MI season 2 DVD boxset (the first season in color) for a few dollars. I'm hard of hearing and listen mostly on headphones and MI's surround mix did not distract me, that is a big positive. Again the DVD picture quality is amazing but the stories are rather formulaic and I stopped watching after a couple of discs. I'll continue when I finish Fugitive but I doubt I'll buy more seasons.

I knew from my original Star Trek DVDs that these CBS/Paramount releases stood a good chance of having superb picture quality. My question is, are there other releases out there that equal or better them?

 

[Matt Hough]

Great review, as always, Matt. Can you check the Blu set's runtimes of each part of season 3's "The Contenders"? They were shortened on VHS and on the DVD season-3 set.

I checked on those running times, and you're right; they are still almost five minutes shorter than every other episode in the set.

Part I runs 45:33 and Part II runs 45:35.

 

[Dan McW]

I checked on those running times, and you're right; they are still almost five minutes shorter than every other episode in the set.

Part I runs 45:33 and Part II runs 45:35.

Thanks, Matt!