Part 1 has been released in the U.S., it can be ordered through Acorn, www.acornmedia.com, or at www.amazon.com. Amazon.com is already allowing preorders for part 2 set to be released in October of this year.
Incidentally it also pays to search out those E-bay ads where ideally they’ve had the full set of the 8 tapes in the same family since new, rather than buying them all separately as any general wear should then be more or less the same. I saw one recently on E-bay where the son was selling them for his mother and they were still in the original unmarked boxed set, which you could tell from studying the enlarged picture at the bottom. Obviously these are worth a bit more.
However it seems there are quite a lot of experts out there who can restore period video tapes back to almost original condition. I’ve no idea of costs but you might be able to find someone, hopefully locally via Yellow Pages etc. who does this specialist service and get some free advice first. At least it looks as though you always have the option to create new back-up tapes or DVD’s from your originals.
I’m definitely no expert but out of interest I did a quick Google search.
2. “Old Video Hardware FAQ’s” - a UK site. A lot of technical facts and details with several UK tape conversion services. (Plus JOE PAGANO, Obsolete Tape Transfer Service, RGB Broadcast Service Co., 1234 Southampton Rd., Philadelphia, PA 19116, USA. +1 215-464 3158.)
http://www.bvws.org.uk/405alive/faq/video.html
3. Though apparently not for TV (?) there are 3 USA Video Tape Restoration specialists near the bottom.
http://www.radiocraft.co.uk/directory/formats.htm
As it’s all way out of my league can anyone offer any expert help and advice on this ?
Anyway be interested to know how you get on, as this might turn out to be our best long term option one day
Hope this helps !
Greg
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She had said to him: 'Well, boy,' and his life had changed.
Thanks Greg for the tip! I was just hoping to avoid buying video tapes (expecially used ones), but it looks as if that may be the best solution with all the DVD editing that you and Ken mentioned. Thanks again.
For your info. Play.com has them, but if you look closely at the top of the enlarged photos of the box covers you can just make out they're the latest ones by Playback, who I'm certain edited out even more than before.
No idea about USA releases but you could have a look on E-Bay (enter Poldark) as there's always plenty of videos and DVD's for sale on there, however I think that the latest DVD's had quite a few scenes edited out from the older ones. I've the full set of the 1990's UK VHS videos and even they were pruned down a fair bit from the original TV programmes aired in the '70's ! Also check the three video postings above for possible further info.
Before doing anything though check out all the technical differences between USA systems and UK ones as I've no idea I'm afraid.
Greg (UK)
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She had said to him: 'Well, boy,' and his life had changed.
I've just finished reading the 12 books in the Poldark saga and would dearly love to watch the old BBC miniseries but it doesn't seem to be available in the US (at least not on DVD). The DVDs have been released in the UK; does anyone know if there are plans to release them here? Thanks.