News: SPACE: 1999 Year 2 Blu-ray Update

The TV Shows On DVD website has an update today on the long-promised Year Two high-def Blu-rays for Space: 1999. Apparently, due to the high cost of converting the audio to digital, production on the discs has slowed to a crawl: 

Essentially, here's deal: When Network (which does all the production and remastering on the BDs under license with ITV) went to produce the Season One set, they discovered that all of the mag tracks (that make up the audio on the first season episodes) had already been digitized, so the company didn't have to take on the cost of doing it themselves in order to create new 5.1 audio mixes for each episode (in addition to the original mono). However, those tracks haven't been converted yet for Season Two and the high cost of digitizing this material has caused the budget for the BD production to become quite expensive. Network has informed me that they're definitely committed to releasing the season on Blu-ray and they're talking with ITV and New Video about the best way to make it happen affordably while ensuring that the set is of the same high quality as Season One.

Network is projecting a release date of late 2013, or possibly even sometime in 2014!

Man, that sucks. I really loved the first season Blus, and while I don't like the second season of 1999 as much as the first, I still would like to replace my existing standard-def DVDs with Blu-ray versions. It looks like it's going to be a very long wait.

For the full story, CLICK HERE.