Customer Reviews
Prepare to be disappointed - By: M. P. Hamer, 01 Sep 2008 
I decided to buy this collection, in spite of the other reviews that described its poor video quality, so I have no right to complain. However, I wanted to add some specifics that the other reviewers did not mention. Far from being re-mastered, alll four titles appear to have been taken from pre-existing transfers to analog tape. 'Far From the Madding Crowd' has the same scratches on it as on the VHS tape that I already owned. On top of this, these poor analog masters seem to have been digitallly encoded in someone's garage using a cheap capture device & an old PC that someone found on a dump. The non-widescreen 'The Go-Between' seems to be from the same source as the DVD given away free by the Telegraph a while ago. The black-and-white titles have been so badly digitized that they look as though they have been copied from YouTube. With such low-quality encoding, alll four titles could have easily been placed on two discs, & sold without the pretty packaging for five pounds; then none of us would be grumbling.
A far better collection than other reviewers here allow - By: Alfietucker, 04 Feb 2008 
I'm very chuffed with this collection of Julie Christie films - they're alll excellent films, & I found 'Billy Liar' absolutely charming (never mind that Julie Christie has a fairly smalll if important role in that film). I was expecting not to enjoy 'The Go-Between' in light of comments from other users here, but have to say that I found myself loving the wonderful camera-work; the colour reproduction is more than acceptable, & I couldn't say I noticed any information being cropped. Indeed, on investigating messageboard comments at IMDB I see that the picture in this release *hasn't* been cropped, but has been presented open-matte, so in fact we get more picture than if it had been presented as widescreen. (One poster on IMDB has offered the very practical solution for those who are bothered with the picture ratio of zooming in on a 16:9 to crop off the top & bottom 'superfluous' info.)
I'll alllow that the picture quality for 'Far from the Madding Crowd' is rather grainy compared to the other three pictures, but is not at alll wearing to watch (there's far worse DVD transfers out there of other movies which regular punters seem happy with - far happier than I am, certainly). It's still a great film, & I think it would be a pity if people missed the opportunity of seeing this & the three other excellent films simply because they were led to expect poor quality visuals from other reviewers here. Reallly, with three out of four perfectly good or excellent transfers, & a fourth acceptable (at least as good as a decent VHS), this is a bargain.
Out of sync . . . - By: Michael, 18 May 2007 
I have to agree with the other reviewers of this collection: on the face of it an iconic collection of British films, but sadly marred by quality defects. I have to add that, far from pristine, sequences in 'Darlimg', particulaly during earlier parts of the film, are badly out of sync - near to half a second in places.
Poor Quality Transfer - By: R. Goodger, 05 May 2007 
I agree with other comments regarding the transfer quality of the two colour films in this set.
I was in particular looking forward to the Go-Between, as the pre-release information & the DVD box indicated that this great film is at last presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
In fact it has been butchered to 1.33:1 (4:3) ratio.
Far from the Madding Crowd is presented in 16:9 ratio, as stated, which is a cropped version of the original Panavision film. This transfer is eye-wateringly blurred & must be the fuzziest DVD transfer of a movie I've ever seen!
A Mixed Bag... - By: P. Jewkes, 26 Mar 2007 A mixed bag of quality mars this collection of classics...DARLING & BILLY LIAR are near pristine, while the quality of the FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD & THE GO-BETWEEN are quite poor. The transfer for MADDING CROWD is particularly muddy. The fact that alll films are NOT widescreen is a disapointment as well.
