Rumor: Friends, West Wing on Blu-ray in 2010 (Update: Rumor Denied)

Warner Home Video will reportedly intends to start releasing two television series from its catalog on Blu-ray in 2010: the sitcom 'Friends' and the drama 'The West Wing'. No other release details are available, and this information must be considered unofficial until there is an announcement from the studio. It must be noted that both series were shot on film, not video. Update TV Shows on DVD followed up on this story and contacted Warner Home Video regarding this rumor. A studio executive promptly replied that there are no 2010 plans at this time, and said specifically of 'Friends' and 'The West Wing': "These have been discussed, but we're still looking at our TV BD catalog release plans." Hence, no dates have been set, for Europe, the US or anywhere else in the world. However, the representative also remarked that he was "not saying it won't happen some day. Just that we don't have [these] planned for 2010 at this point." Blu-ray.com thanks TV Shows on DVD for its factfinding efforts and for promptly relaying their outcome.
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tbizzle  » Nov 30, 2009
WOW, I'd be all over Friends. Hopefully they will release all the seasons in one giant collectors set, or at lease release them all at once. Hope they will be a part of some crazy Warner sale too, cuz lord knows how damn expensive these are gonna be

garlad  » Nov 30, 2009
Sorry, but what is the importance of the last line? "..both series were shot on film, not video."

tbizzle  » Nov 30, 2009
Garlad, if they were shot on video, they wouldn't be able to convert them to high def. I'm not a pro at this stuff, but I think it's because video doesn't have anywhere near the high resolution that film does. Seinfeld was also shot on film, thank god!!

-Sandro-  » Nov 30, 2009
omg here we go! YES!

garlad  » Nov 30, 2009
Thanks tbizzle! I was thinking that was the case.. but wasnt 100% sure! For some reason I thought that there were fears Friends wouldn’t look so good if brought to BD.. But good to know that it has been confirmed that it was shot on film!

Darkthrone  » Nov 30, 2009
tbizzle, thats true...and i expect very good transfers for both seinfeld and friends (the broadcast hd versions thats out of those series look pretty good) NBC made a wise decision by using film!

Grubert  » Nov 30, 2009
tbizzle, technically you can transfer anything to hidef but if the source is low-res the benefit would be insignificant. For example, shows such as Roseanne or Red Dwarf (or most of BBC's older sitcoms for that matter) were shot on standard-definition video so they will never look much better than what they do now.

KamiAmaya  » Nov 30, 2009
West Wing! I'm actually watching that now lol! Day one purchase as long as each season has it's OAR and they're not all converted to wide (first 2 or 3 seasons were full screen). EDIT: @ obriensg1, really? for some reason I was thinking more than one season was full. My bad

tbizzle  » Nov 30, 2009
Glad I got my facts right. Well I hope this gets confirmed, I'm already stoked!

bookcase  » Nov 30, 2009
Wouldn't you know, I just purchased the Friends box set at Amazon last night ($99.99), only to wake up today to see they might be releasing it on Blu-ray. Ugh.

James Hetfield  » Nov 30, 2009
West Wing, greatest show on Blu-Ray? I wet myself.

obriensg1  » Nov 30, 2009

KamiAmaya, actually only Season One of West Wing was 4x3. The rest were widescreen. Still, iTunes version of season one is widescreen and doing a comparison it seems they did a truly good job. It's not a crop per se. They went back to the original negatives and pulled off material from the edge of the shot that weren't used before. "ER" did this for their DVD releases too and it looks fantastic. Also "Thirtysomething" on iTunes is 16:9 and a comparison to the 4x3 version shows that remarkably, the widescreen version does show more. So I am REALLY REALLY REALLY hoping that "West Wing: Season One" is in 16:9. Also, a friend of mine who had HD early on is positive that the last season or two of "Friends" was 16:9 but the DVDs were releases in 4x3. I know for a fact thats the case with "Will & Grace". Maybe the last couple years of "Friends" will have the rarely seen widescreen versions.

Chaddius  » Nov 30, 2009
I'm just glad I held off on Friends during the Black Friday craziness. I'd heard rumors that it might be towards the front of the line for Blu-ray treatment. Granted this announcement itself is a rumor, it still gives more hope and makes me happy with my decision to hold off a bit longer

digitalbabe  » Nov 30, 2009
Sweet-in for West Wing!

PowellPressburger  » Nov 30, 2009
hope everyone stays sane when they announce Season by season releases. I would NOT hold my breath for a complete set until they release them as sep. season sets.

hijeff1  » Nov 30, 2009
I have the complete box set of Friends already, but if this is true... I'm ALL OVER THIS!!!! I'll double dip for this series in a second.

monkeyjb1988  » Nov 30, 2009

Glad to hear Friends getting the HD treatment. I'm sure it'll look as good as Seinfeld, which looks great on TBS HD. This is actually great to hear as a few months ago I watched Seinfeld, Everyone Loves Raymond, and Friends on TBS HD. While Seinfeld and Raymond were in HD glory, Friends was upconverted SD. Glad to hear that's being changed (or possibly already changed, since it's been a while since I watched TBS HD).

JLant19  » Nov 30, 2009
Im def going to double dip on Friends. Probably my favorite show of all time.

ehtamgnie  » Nov 30, 2009
Friends is the only show I continue to re-watch on DVD so I am looking forward to a collection set.

Y?E  » Nov 30, 2009
Yes! at last Friends on Blu-Ray!!!

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