Holy Crap....$ 400 for the entire series. What a ripoff!
Twelve O'Clock High has not been officially released yet on DVD. That one, plus everything you see on the internet, are bootlegs, recorded off of t.v.
I don't think TOH has been shown recently digitally, so all of those episodes were very likely recorded from a VCR.
I have bought the entire series of TOH from two different companies off of the internet. Both have extremely poor visual quality. On one of my boxed sets, it looks like it was recorded with an early generation VCR from about 1982 or so. These bootleggers don't want to waste any more money than they have to, so they compress the h3ll out of the episodes to cram as many episodes on per disc. All of mine look like crap and I regret spending the several hundred dollars on them.
From that link, it looks like they were done pretty professionally though, at least as far as the menus look. But that doesn't mean that the actual episodes are any good. It still could be the same old poor quality 80's source, highly compressed and pixellated.
For those of you who have a hard time recognizing what is a legitimate release, I have two hints for you:
1) First, check on amazon.com. They have virtually every studio t.v. show and movie ever released on DVD, VHS, or Blu-ray. If it's not on amazon, there is a 99% chance that it's a knock-off.
2) If any of the shows are in DVD+R or DVD-R formats, they are more than likely knockoff bootlegs, with one exception - the History Channel DVD's. History Channel has been releasing individual episodes from some of their series on +R format. This is legit and acceptable. If it's not from the History Channel and it's +R or -R, then it's most likely a knockoff. This rule ONLY applies to the major studios. Individual or independent filmmakers don't always use "pressed" discs. The reason that Hollywood/Major studios don't use the +R or -R formats, is because it is technically impossible to put any copy protection on it. Anything, yes, anything an +R or -R format is copyable with no special software required.
I don't know what to tell you. For sure, it's a pirated version, and buy at your own risk. I guess it depends on how much of a hard-core fan you are. Myself....I sure wouldn't waste that kind of money on potential garbage.
My two cents.
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! some episodes are definately better than others and some of them sure look much older than others. some of those really old ones have the production quality of the original scrooge movie. all in all i am glad that i have them to watch on an evening where ive had one too many, or on a rainy day. i would gladly buy a dvd set, but certainly not for 400.00 !!! 