New WHV Christmas Eve on Sesame Street DVD

[jivyivy]

Can anyone please confirm whether it's the same transfer ported over from the earlier Sony Wonder DVD release, or did WHV create a newly remastered transfer for the DVD?

I'm trying to determine whether the new disc is an upgrade in terms of a/v over the old Sony release, which I currently own.

Thanks very much!

 

[jivyivy]

Nobody on this forum has seen or heard anything about the WHV disc??

 

[Oscarfan]

Warner Home Video? I'd assume it's the same as the previous releases.

 

[minor muppetz]

I assume every DVD release has been the same. Since none of these releases have bonus features, I doubt many of us here have multiple copies of the DVD (I wouldn't be surprised if maybe the menu art was different to reflect the new covers).

 

[jivyivy]

They did a new transfer for Follow That Bird (granted shot on 35mm) so I was just wondering. The old Sony disc is OK for '70s video based broadcast stuff but it's not that great. I guess there's not much profit/market value in ponying up the bread to do a proper (ie. full) restoration of an old PBS children's TV episode since families and kids don't care one way or the other, and that leaves a pretty niche sales demographic of fans. It'd probably be tough given the source and too expensive to recoup but who knows, studios are all looking forward 10 years to the high def market and how they can repackage stuff. Thanks for reaffirming what I'd already assumed though!

 

[minor muppetz]

They did a new transfer for Follow That Bird (granted shot on 35mm) so I was just wondering.

There is a difference there. Warner Bros. has always owned the rights to that movie and rereleased it on DVD a year before getting the home video rights to Sesame Street (actually the deal was announced by the end of the year but Warner Home Video didn't start releasing Sesame Street titles until the next year). I don't know if a deal was being made at the time Follow That Bird got its DVD rerelease (it was announced near the end of that year that Warner would be releasing Sesame Street DVDs).

I just noticed something recently. The recent DVD release Fairytale Fun has CinderElmo as a bonus feature, and as a feature the end credits include a 2008 copyright credit for the use of Kermit the Frog. So I'm guessing that comes from the Genius Products rerelease. Most Sony DVD releases of old (pre-2000) videos that featured Kermit don't have an additional copyright credit for the use of the character (the copyright credits don't change at all, so they still refer to Children's Television Workshop instead of Sesame Workshop). It makes me wonder if Genius changed the copyright credits on past Sesame Street titles, whether they feature Kermit or not (and Christmas Eve on Sesame Street does feature Kermit), but if so then that's one change. But just because the credits might now acknowledge who owns Kermit doesn't mean that the video itself was restored.