Mayday! S3/4

If you are a fan of Mayday or Air Crash Investigation or Air Emergency or one of the other titles of the show (depending on where you live), then you will like this set. Most of the episodes are about air crash investigations, including a helicopter crash, but there are a couple of train crash investigation episodes. I'll leave others to comment on each episode, as I am here to review the set, as I purchased it.

I happened to see this 10-DVD set on a shelf at a local big box store in January 2012. I was perplexed because the Amazon ordering page listed this as a pre-order for April 2012. The set I purchased looks exactly the same as in the Amazon photos and the episode list is the same as listed on Amazon. The copyright for the set I purchased is 2011. The episodes in the set I purchased have the Mayday television show introduction on each episode and are narrated by Jonathan Aris. Each disc simply goes to home page view that lists each episode. There are also episode specific disc pages that list the 4 chapters per episode. I did not see any subtitles or audio options. Pretty basic. You are getting the episodes with no extras.

All of the episodes are in widescreen format, but there seems to be a stray line at the bottom of the screen. It reminds me of the early transfers of VHS tapes to DVD, with the different resolutions and screen sizes, and there would be a flashing line or two at the very bottom of the picture. Most of the episodes on the set I purchased do this. I don't have much trouble with it and the line isn't really that distracting to me, but I would expect with a new product like this that the transfer would be better. The rest of the picture is fine, however. Thus, I dock the product 1 star (along with the packing). I'd give the episodes and series five stars, because I really like them, but I am rating the product as a whole, not just the TV show.

The packaging from the set I purchased is a bit different than other sets I've seen. The 10 DVDs come in two DVD cases that hold 5 discs each, each disc getting it's own page (i.e., no disc stacking). The cases are labeled VI and VII, which is a bit confusing. According to the packaging, the VI means Volume I and VII means Volume 2, but I keep thinking it they are roman numerals indicating 6 and 7. The VI set is listed as "Air, Land, and Sea Disasters," and the VII set is listed as "Air Disasters." The episode listing for each disc is on the fold out sections of the cases. The DVD cases are made of dense, thick cardboard. The DVD trays are also made of the same cardboard with a little piece of white foam in the center that holds each DVD in. The DVDs seem secure in the packaging, but something is different about putting DVDs up against cardboard. I haven't seen any scratches on the discs, but it reminds me of some of the Simpson's DVD sets where you slide the DVDs into cardboard sleeves. There are no sleeves on the Mayday set I purchased, but putting discs against cardboard is just different.

I have watched these episodes many times throughout the years on television and was excited to see them coming in DVD format. I wish more episodes would be released for us to purchase. I enjoy the style of documentary and recreations of this series.

UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM REGARDING THE DVD VERSION OF THIS RELEASE

As an avid fan of this series, I was thrilled to see them announce a blu-ray release. I've been patiently waiting for this release to show up on my doorstep, and my copy arrived today. Sadly, this is a massive disappointment. For starters, there's the fact that the blu-ray is absolutely only season 3, and has nothing from season 4 (episode/disc breakdown at the end of this comment). But that's not my main problem. I was kinda figuring that was going to be the case, given the low disc count and the wildly conflicting info on various sites about this release (Image Entertainment's own site gets the info wrong about this release, for crying out loud).

No, the real problem with this release is the quality. It sucks. As somebody who owns the season 1 DVD set (USA release) and the season 7 DVD set (Australian release), which are the only 2 previous home video releases of the show, I figured this blu-ray ray set would be at least somewhat better quality. Not only is it not better, it's significantly worse. These encodes are SEVERELY plagued by interlacing/combing problems. I have no idea how many different frame rates and encodes this was pushed through to get to the form it is in now (29.97 fps 1080 interlaced), but it must have been a mess of a transfer process. Like the other commenter said about the DVD version of this release, it also has a flickering couple lines across the bottom. That's not a big deal for me, as it can be matted/cropped off. But the main interlacing problem is unbelievably bad. It's actively distracting. Every edge of every object in a frame has jagged lines, and the heavy motion sequences and cuts between scenes have a massive amount of interlace "tearing". I've tried re-encoding parts of one of the episodes and pushed it through all manner of deinterlacing, decombing, detelicine and other various filters (in many different combinations, via multiple encoding/editing apps). Some do better than others, but nothing I've tried, messing with it for hours, can eliminate all this crappy interlacing. I'm thinking that this has multiple stages of different interlacing mixed together, transferred from one to the next. I've tried playing the discs in a couple different set-top players, but the interlacing problems are just as obvious there. I'm going to try to contact Image Entertainment/Madacy about the issue and see what they say. This release clearly went through little-to-no quality control. I have to wonder if anyone actually bothered trying to even try watching the discs. Unlike the 2 previous DVD sets I own, which are quite nice, this set sucks.

The only good thing about it is that it seems to feature extended cuts of the episodes. Each clocks in around the 50 minute mark, and I definitely pick up on scenes that I don't recall being in the broadcast versions (I've seen these episodes numerous times).

This is a fantastic series, but this blu-ray set is anything but. Avoid it. I'm probably going to give the DVD set a shot (for one thing, it should have the season 4 content as advertised, hopefully). I can only hope it doesn't suffer the same horrific interlacing problems.

Anyway, here is a list of the episodes on the blu-ray version, broken down by disc:

Disc 1:
- Hanging By A Thread
- Attack Over Baghdad
- Out Of Control
- Fight For Your Life

Disc 2:
- Bomb On Board
- Mistaken Identity
- Helicopter Down
- Death And Denial

Disc 3:
- Kid In The Cockpit
- Head On Collision
- Collision Course
- Runaway Train
- Ocean Landing

UPDATE: OK, so my copy of the DVD version of this set arrived yesterday. Put simply, this is a major improvement over the awful blu-ray release. First, to get it out of the way, yes the DVD version does in fact have both seasons 3 & 4. Each is in a separate fold out box, and both seasons are contained in a larger gatefold box. I've only watched 5 of the episodes so far, but they are all generally good quality. As is true of the other DVD releases of the series, and of the blu-ray set of season 3, the episodes are longer cuts than the aired versions. The good news, though, is that the DVD's do not suffer from the unbelievably bad interlacing/combing problems that the blu-ray set has. These DVD's aren't 100% perfect. They suffer from a very mild, occasional frame rate jitter, but it is a minor thing. I believe the symptom is also a result from poor frame rate conversion and/or deinterlacing. But in this case, it's hugely improved over the blu-ray. It only becomes noticeable if you're looking for it. All in all, these are perfectly acceptable transfers. Hardly home theater demo material, but decent enough for a marginal budget documentary series. It's a fantastic series, and I highly recommend it. I'm happy that this format release is one worthy of recommending to folks. I'm not going to change the star rating, because Amazon is only allowing me the one review for the product (regardless of format) and I really want to make it clear just how bad the blu-ray is. The DVD version, however, get's a 4/5 recommendation for me. It would be nice if that slight jitter wasn't there, and would help me give it a 5/5, but don't let that minor little issue stop you from getting this set. It's truly pathetic that a DVD release of the same content would be so vastly superior to a blu-ray release, but in this case that is absolutely the case. Whoever produced that blu-ray version should never be allowed to work in the industry again. I'd also blame whomever did the quality control step, but there was clearly NOBODY doing that job in any way.

I'm simply going to repost the review I made of this Blu-ray set on blu-ray.com:

"Let me preface this by saying I am a big fan of Air Crash Investigations/Mayday. I've watched every episode to date and am keenly awaiting the release of series 12. But...

Don't buy this set. Do not even contemplate buying this set. It is an absolute joke. I don't know who was in charge of producing this Blu-ray, but they should be barred from having anything to do with the home video market for the rest of human existence. First off, despite advertising to the contrary, this set does NOT include Season 4, only Season 3. Next, all the episodes have absolutely ridiculous levels of interlacing and combing problems. Even with a deinterlacing filter on, every single movement in the picture produces extremely obvious interlace patterns. I have examined the frames and can plainly see that these interlace lines are actually IN the picture. In other words, there is no way to remove them. To add insult to injury, at least one of the episodes, 'Attack Over Bagdad', has a serious audio sync problem. The video starts and plays for a full 10 seconds before the audio kicks in, remaining out of sync for the entire episode.

To think a product was produced with this level of incompetence and released to the public is absolutely insulting."

To their credit, Amazon did give me a full refund, so I have no issue with them or their service. I simply want to warn others about the absolutely appalling quality of the Blu-ray. I have not seen the DVD version, so I can't confirm if it suffers from the same issues.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 7 reviews  2.9 out of 5 stars