Reel Classics DVDs, 5 shorts on each

[rascalwatcher]

Has anyone bought or heard anything about the Reel Classics DVDs? They each have 5 silent episodes on them, in no particular order. I am curious about the quality of the prints - if they are complete, or if I would be better off with another company's prints.

Here is the link: www.amazon.com/OUR-GANG-COLLECTION-Greatest-Funniest/dp/B0037B0EV4/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1313169962&sr=8-4

Now that I have the Roach talkies (with the new DVDs Vol. 1-7), I want to work on building up a collection of silents. Does anyone know if the Laughsmith set is still going to be released?

[mtw12055]

This ought to help you.
theluckycorner.com/vc/reel.html

Sorry to say, but the Laughsmith set won't be released. Laughsmith and its distributor, Macinak (I probably spelled that wrong) parted ways about a year or two ago, and Macinak wound up with the Our Gang material. There was a rumor that a new set of all 66 Pathes was in production, but I haven't heard anything about that since around the time Macinak showed the silents on TCM. However, Robin Cook plans to release a few silents on DVD-R.

A little bit on Reel Classics, you can't go wrong with them. While the company strictly releases PD material, it's very careful to actually use original source material, and restore and remaster each print.

Here's a 71 silent shorts collection from ioffer. Though this isn't an official release, and the quality varies on several of these (most of which are supposedly from VHS), it's might be a nice way to start. Especially since there's no telling when an offical 'complete' collection will be released. Though I'd also definately consider the Reel Classics releases.
www.ioffer.com/offer_transactions/show/9996369

By the way, I don't think that link you posted is working. It appears that one of the URL symbols is in the way.

[zootmoney]

Interestingly, when Paul Gierucki left Laughsmith, he mentioned that an unnamed company was going to release a more complete Our Gang silent set. However, he recently posted a list of upcoming releases for his new company, on Nitrateville.com, and there was no mention of Our Gang. Hopefully, it will be released some day, especially since Paul commented that what was shown on TCM was far from complete.

[OPT]

Mark Roth's site Reelclassicdvd.com is a labor of love. The quality he puts out is pretty good for what it is. I do buy from him time to time be it film or DVD's. He is one of the only two places I have trusted with my own personal films for transfers so they can up their inventory for DVD sales. (Grapevine is the other) The only complaint I would have would be his DVD artwork is plain...but on the other hand most people don't care about that anyhow...it is take it from the case and shove it in the player.