EOT not released due to not making money

This is the Goldmine

But the thing which concerns me a bit what i would like to talk about is the aspect ratio the footage was shot in

From what i understand stand it was a mixture of 4/3 aspect and 16/9 so they would have to blow the footage up.

Just look at the blu ray there is your proof.

Also i think i noticed something last night during the Airport scene maybe it's my eyes but a gun is getting taken out of the car and given to red west ?

They wouldn't blow anything up. The current trend (thankfully) is to keep the ratio as it was filmed. If that means a mix of two ratios, then so be it.

That's how the footage looks unrestored

If memory serves, our very own elvissessions learned that the reason the bonus material looks so bad is that the original elements somehow had gone missing, and that what is on the DVD is some sort of work-print, or rough video compile - or something like that! It was in one of his Elvis Week reports from a couple of years ago I believe.

That's how the footage looks unrestored

If memory serves, our very own elvissessions learned that the reason the bonus material looks so bad is that the original elements somehow had gone missing, and that what is on the DVD is some sort of work-print, or rough video compile - or something like that! It was in one of his Elvis Week reports from a couple of years ago I believe.

That sounds feasible, although strange considering the meticulous way that Turner/Warner store their material. I wonder if this reel of bonus material was the stuff that was rumoured to be extras on the original dvd release of the special edition - and it was the master of that compiled reel that went missing and so they went with the rough video rather than recompile it from the film reels. That would certainly make sense.

Either way, it begs the question as to why they didn't release bonus footage where they did have access to the original elements.

We can talk about it for days or weeks or months or even years, eventually we will
not see the complete footage. What I really hope for is a great looking import boxset, but
then they have to dig up all of the footage and not only what we got sofar. But thats just in my dreams
and i think it will never happen, sadly enough.

Grt. Michel.

As its not likely EOT will get a deluxe release because the cost of making it won't match the money it would make and it will generate $0 income just sitting in the vaults, how about just transfering all the reels digitally and sell it "as is" for $500 per person? at least they would make some money off of it and im sure there is quite a few hundred people who would be glad to have all EOT material

They'll probably sell a few copies and the people who bought it will sell DVD-R's.....

Then I wonder how 'lesser' acts (no disrespect intended) can 'afford' to keep putting out beautiful multiple DVD packages. Artists such as Deep Purple, Neil Young and others can put out regular and complete DVD packages for their fans, so there's no excuse regards cost, profit etc.

Yes there is.
The fans of these artists buy the original product, whereas Elvis fans buy CD-R's and DVD+R's.
Perhaps because a lot more Elvis product is released than Deep Purple et cetera product.
If there is a new release once a year or twice a year, you can afford to buy the product.
If releases are on an almost weekly basis, counting both official and unofficial releases, fans do not buy everything official anymore.

So are you saying that most fans have only obtained CDR and DVD-R copies of "Prince from another planet"?? The only reason fans have to buy DVD-R's is because a lot of material is not out officially or is incomplete officially. For example; the Dorsey shows, TTWII rehearsals and out-takes, the complete unedited "Elvis on tour", The Milton Berle shows, 70's concert footage. NONE of these have been released officially in an unedited form, hence the only way to obtain this stuff is to obtain a dvd-r on the pirate market.

As its not likely EOT will get a deluxe release because the cost of making it won't match the money it would make and it will generate $0 income just sitting in the vaults, how about just transfering all the reels digitally and sell it "as is" for $500 per person? at least they would make some money off of it and im sure there is quite a few hundred people who would be glad to have all EOT material

They'll probably sell a few copies and the people who bought it will sell DVD-R's.....

Then I wonder how 'lesser' acts (no disrespect intended) can 'afford' to keep putting out beautiful multiple DVD packages. Artists such as Deep Purple, Neil Young and others can put out regular and complete DVD packages for their fans, so there's no excuse regards cost, profit etc.

Yes there is.
The fans of these artists buy the original product, whereas Elvis fans buy CD-R's and DVD+R's.
Perhaps because a lot more Elvis product is released than Deep Purple et cetera product.
If there is a new release once a year or twice a year, you can afford to buy the product.
If releases are on an almost weekly basis, counting both official and unofficial releases, fans do not buy everything official anymore.

So are you saying that most fans have only obtained CDR and DVD-R copies of "Prince from another planet"?? The only reason fans have to buy DVD-R's is because a lot of material is not out officially or is incomplete officially. For example; the Dorsey shows, TTWII rehearsals and out-takes, the complete unedited "Elvis on tour", The Milton Berle shows, 70's concert footage. NONE of these have been released officially in an unedited form, hence the only way to obtain this stuff is to obtain a dvd-r on the pirate market.

Tony, the hard fact that no-one seems willing to admit is that there are very few die-hard Elvis fans. Yes, there are people who like Elvis and have a modest collection of a hits collection and, say, half a dozen albums, but they are not the ones who are going to want to buy an EOT package when they already own the main movie. I would suggest that, as strange as it seems, when it comes to die-hard fans, the other artists that have been mentioned probably have more when it comes to those who buy everything. Remember that, to a die-hard Deep Purple fan, a new release is special as there aren't many of them. The fans probably keep up with each and every release. With Elvis that's unlikely. Plus, as it has been said, video as opposed to film is much cheaper to restore etc

As its not likely EOT will get a deluxe release because the cost of making it won't match the money it would make and it will generate $0 income just sitting in the vaults, how about just transfering all the reels digitally and sell it "as is" for $500 per person? at least they would make some money off of it and im sure there is quite a few hundred people who would be glad to have all EOT material

They'll probably sell a few copies and the people who bought it will sell DVD-R's.....

Then I wonder how 'lesser' acts (no disrespect intended) can 'afford' to keep putting out beautiful multiple DVD packages. Artists such as Deep Purple, Neil Young and others can put out regular and complete DVD packages for their fans, so there's no excuse regards cost, profit etc.

Yes there is.
The fans of these artists buy the original product, whereas Elvis fans buy CD-R's and DVD+R's.
Perhaps because a lot more Elvis product is released than Deep Purple et cetera product.
If there is a new release once a year or twice a year, you can afford to buy the product.
If releases are on an almost weekly basis, counting both official and unofficial releases, fans do not buy everything official anymore.

So are you saying that most fans have only obtained CDR and DVD-R copies of "Prince from another planet"?? The only reason fans have to buy DVD-R's is because a lot of material is not out officially or is incomplete officially. For example; the Dorsey shows, TTWII rehearsals and out-takes, the complete unedited "Elvis on tour", The Milton Berle shows, 70's concert footage. NONE of these have been released officially in an unedited form, hence the only way to obtain this stuff is to obtain a dvd-r on the pirate market.

Tony, the hard fact that no-one seems willing to admit is that there are very few die-hard Elvis fans. Yes, there are people who like Elvis and have a modest collection of a hits collection and, say, half a dozen albums, but they are not the ones who are going to want to buy an EOT package when they already own the main movie. I would suggest that, as strange as it seems, when it comes to die-hard fans, the other artists that have been mentioned probably have more when it comes to those who buy everything. Remember that, to a die-hard Deep Purple fan, a new release is special as there aren't many of them. The fans probably keep up with each and every release. With Elvis that's unlikely. Plus, as it has been said, video as opposed to film is much cheaper to restore etc

Have you SEEN how many Deep Purple live concert CD's are out there?? I would guess that nearly 100% of them contain "Smoke on the water" and they range from 1970 to the current day with all (approximately) 12 different band line-ups.

As its not likely EOT will get a deluxe release because the cost of making it won't match the money it would make and it will generate $0 income just sitting in the vaults, how about just transfering all the reels digitally and sell it "as is" for $500 per person? at least they would make some money off of it and im sure there is quite a few hundred people who would be glad to have all EOT material

They'll probably sell a few copies and the people who bought it will sell DVD-R's.....

Then I wonder how 'lesser' acts (no disrespect intended) can 'afford' to keep putting out beautiful multiple DVD packages. Artists such as Deep Purple, Neil Young and others can put out regular and complete DVD packages for their fans, so there's no excuse regards cost, profit etc.

Yes there is.
The fans of these artists buy the original product, whereas Elvis fans buy CD-R's and DVD+R's.
Perhaps because a lot more Elvis product is released than Deep Purple et cetera product.
If there is a new release once a year or twice a year, you can afford to buy the product.
If releases are on an almost weekly basis, counting both official and unofficial releases, fans do not buy everything official anymore.

So are you saying that most fans have only obtained CDR and DVD-R copies of "Prince from another planet"?? The only reason fans have to buy DVD-R's is because a lot of material is not out officially or is incomplete officially. For example; the Dorsey shows, TTWII rehearsals and out-takes, the complete unedited "Elvis on tour", The Milton Berle shows, 70's concert footage. NONE of these have been released officially in an unedited form, hence the only way to obtain this stuff is to obtain a dvd-r on the pirate market.

Tony, the hard fact that no-one seems willing to admit is that there are very few die-hard Elvis fans. Yes, there are people who like Elvis and have a modest collection of a hits collection and, say, half a dozen albums, but they are not the ones who are going to want to buy an EOT package when they already own the main movie. I would suggest that, as strange as it seems, when it comes to die-hard fans, the other artists that have been mentioned probably have more when it comes to those who buy everything. Remember that, to a die-hard Deep Purple fan, a new release is special as there aren't many of them. The fans probably keep up with each and every release. With Elvis that's unlikely. Plus, as it has been said, video as opposed to film is much cheaper to restore etc

Have you SEEN how many Deep Purple live concert CD's are out there?? I would guess that nearly 100% of them contain "Smoke on the water" and they range from 1970 to the current day with all (approximately) 12 different band line-ups.

According to Amazon there are about 50 DVDs available at the present time, but many are repackaging of the same concert or anthologies etc. But, as has been stated before, it depends on how the concerts are taped (1 camera or 5), on what they are taped, how they are edited together etc. It's cheap to put together a concert dvds these days - a couple of cameras, a decent computer and someone who has the editing knowhow and it's done - for probably about 5% of what it takes to restore the EOT footage.

As its not likely EOT will get a deluxe release because the cost of making it won't match the money it would make and it will generate $0 income just sitting in the vaults, how about just transfering all the reels digitally and sell it "as is" for $500 per person? at least they would make some money off of it and im sure there is quite a few hundred people who would be glad to have all EOT material

They'll probably sell a few copies and the people who bought it will sell DVD-R's.....

Then I wonder how 'lesser' acts (no disrespect intended) can 'afford' to keep putting out beautiful multiple DVD packages. Artists such as Deep Purple, Neil Young and others can put out regular and complete DVD packages for their fans, so there's no excuse regards cost, profit etc.

Yes there is.
The fans of these artists buy the original product, whereas Elvis fans buy CD-R's and DVD+R's.
Perhaps because a lot more Elvis product is released than Deep Purple et cetera product.
If there is a new release once a year or twice a year, you can afford to buy the product.
If releases are on an almost weekly basis, counting both official and unofficial releases, fans do not buy everything official anymore.

So are you saying that most fans have only obtained CDR and DVD-R copies of "Prince from another planet"?? The only reason fans have to buy DVD-R's is because a lot of material is not out officially or is incomplete officially. For example; the Dorsey shows, TTWII rehearsals and out-takes, the complete unedited "Elvis on tour", The Milton Berle shows, 70's concert footage. NONE of these have been released officially in an unedited form, hence the only way to obtain this stuff is to obtain a dvd-r on the pirate market.

Tony, the hard fact that no-one seems willing to admit is that there are very few die-hard Elvis fans. Yes, there are people who like Elvis and have a modest collection of a hits collection and, say, half a dozen albums, but they are not the ones who are going to want to buy an EOT package when they already own the main movie. I would suggest that, as strange as it seems, when it comes to die-hard fans, the other artists that have been mentioned probably have more when it comes to those who buy everything. Remember that, to a die-hard Deep Purple fan, a new release is special as there aren't many of them. The fans probably keep up with each and every release. With Elvis that's unlikely. Plus, as it has been said, video as opposed to film is much cheaper to restore etc

Have you SEEN how many Deep Purple live concert CD's are out there?? I would guess that nearly 100% of them contain "Smoke on the water" and they range from 1970 to the current day with all (approximately) 12 different band line-ups.

According to Amazon there are about 50 DVDs available at the present time, but many are repackaging of the same concert or anthologies etc. But, as has been stated before, it depends on how the concerts are taped (1 camera or 5), on what they are taped, how they are edited together etc. It's cheap to put together a concert dvds these days - a couple of cameras, a decent computer and someone who has the editing knowhow and it's done - for probably about 5% of what it takes to restore the EOT footage.

So I wonder how much it cost someone to 'steal' the "On tour" footage from under MGM's noses, then present it to fans and collectors via a series of DVD-R's including different camera angles, split screening etc??

I agree with a previous poster that stated that the film is just sitting there, worthless. Why don't they just give it to somebody or EPE and they can decide whats best. If it in fact is worthless (meaning it's to expensive to make money on) give the rights away and let some young guns make some money off the thing. I'm sure someone out there will take a chance to try and make some money off the King.

I agree with a previous poster that stated that the film is just sitting there, worthless. Why don't they just give it to somebody or EPE and they can decide whats best. If it in fact is worthless (meaning it's to expensive to make money on) give the rights away and let some young guns make some money off the thing. I'm sure someone out there will take a chance to try and make some money off the King.

It may not be able to make money at the moment, but five years down the line that may not be the case. All you need is a resurgance in popularity (for example an Elvis soundtrack to a blockbuster film) and the film suddenly becomes a viable proposition. The 80th birthday in 2015 will generate a lot of publicity for Elvis, for example, and Warner may very well decide to ride that publicity wave and do something with EOT for then. You can't expect a company to give away or sell its property just because it is not making money for them at this precise moment. The film reels are stored in ideal conditions thanks to Warner's archive programme, and so there is no clock ticking for them. they just wait for the right moment.

Well that right moment has more then likely passed. Maybe 11 years ago or even in the early 90's when Elvis sort of had a rebirth of sorts. As stated earlier most of the die hards from that era are aging or passed already. More then likely EOT was a missed oppurtunity but somebody may still in fact save it.

Well that right moment has more then likely passed. Maybe 11 years ago or even in the early 90's when Elvis sort of had a rebirth of sorts. As stated earlier most of the die hards from that era are aging or passed already. More then likely EOT was a missed oppurtunity but somebody may still in fact save it.

Yes, it's 40 years old now this footage; WHEN IS the right time to release it? When Elvis fans / collectors are dead and gone? The 80th anniversary? The 100th anniversary? The 40th anniversary of the film (no, that's been and gone). The 50th anniversary of Elvis' passing??
And how long until the historic Dorsey TV shows are released properly and completely? Those are only 56 years old I suppose, so there is no rush!!!

Well that right moment has more then likely passed. Maybe 11 years ago or even in the early 90's when Elvis sort of had a rebirth of sorts. As stated earlier most of the die hards from that era are aging or passed already. More then likely EOT was a missed oppurtunity but somebody may still in fact save it.

Yes, it's 40 years old now this footage; WHEN IS the right time to release it? When Elvis fans / collectors are dead and gone? The 80th anniversary? The 100th anniversary? The 40th anniversary of the film (no, that's been and gone). The 50th anniversary of Elvis' passing??
And how long until the historic Dorsey TV shows are released properly and completely? Those are only 56 years old I suppose, so there is no rush!!!

The Dorsey shows are known to be caught up in legal wrangles over ownership.

By suggesting the 40th anniversary of the film was a good time to release it misses my point entirely. That is an anniversary solely for hardcore Elvis fans. Warner need to jump on a big anniversary that rises Presley's profile and gets people interested again. The 35th anniversary of his death has not done that. Yes, it may have made the news for two minutes, but the number 35 is relatively unimportant for most people.

Did they miss the boat in 2005 or 2007? Possibly. But after barely recouping costs for TTWII, it's hardly surprising they didn't want to get their fingers burnt again - and they did release all remaining Warner films on dvd 2007 with the exception of EOT. Once again, considering their way forward with classic movies is the burn on demand series, that release of Elvis movies was a relatively big step, and included two special editions (Viva Las Vegas and Jailhouse Rock).

Well that right moment has more then likely passed. Maybe 11 years ago or even in the early 90's when Elvis sort of had a rebirth of sorts. As stated earlier most of the die hards from that era are aging or passed already. More then likely EOT was a missed oppurtunity but somebody may still in fact save it.

Yes, it's 40 years old now this footage; WHEN IS the right time to release it? When Elvis fans / collectors are dead and gone? The 80th anniversary? The 100th anniversary? The 40th anniversary of the film (no, that's been and gone). The 50th anniversary of Elvis' passing??
And how long until the historic Dorsey TV shows are released properly and completely? Those are only 56 years old I suppose, so there is no rush!!!

The Dorsey shows are known to be caught up in legal wrangles over ownership.

By suggesting the 40th anniversary of the film was a good time to release it misses my point entirely. That is an anniversary solely for hardcore Elvis fans. Warner need to jump on a big anniversary that rises Presley's profile and gets people interested again. The 35th anniversary of his death has not done that. Yes, it may have made the news for two minutes, but the number 35 is relatively unimportant for most people.

Did they miss the boat in 2005 or 2007? Possibly. But after barely recouping costs for TTWII, it's hardly surprising they didn't want to get their fingers burnt again - and they did release all remaining Warner films on dvd 2007 with the exception of EOT. Once again, considering their way forward with classic movies is the burn on demand series, that release of Elvis movies was a relatively big step, and included two special editions (Viva Las Vegas and Jailhouse Rock).

general point - there are plenty of Presley fans - but they are not buying for some reason, either not interested or info not reaching them, etc - you would think that with the numbers visiting Graceland , heavy promotion there might help. How about a ticket deal with an added CD or DVD, is that a possible way to market things?

the screw up turner did was show the ttwii new transfer a few days before the dvd release most fans probily recorded it off tcm and didn't buy the dvd.You are right someone at EpE should offer the owners money to buy
the ttwii and eot footage since the idiots who own wb wont do anything with it.

I simply do not understand why they wont released it.
TTWII and EOT are very important in Elvis his life and our life.
Next to the 68 Comeback and The Aloha these 2 things are the milestones in his career.
There is so much footage from TTWII, they simply can make a 4 dvdbox with 4 complete shows.
And do the same thing with EOT, include some backstage and rehearsal footage.
Get our man back in the list and give us what we want, just released it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Grt. Michel

I simply do not understand why they wont released it.
TTWII and EOT are very important in Elvis his life and our life.
Next to the 68 Comeback and The Aloha these 2 things are the milestones in his career.
There is so much footage from TTWII, they simply can make a 4 dvdbox with 4 complete shows.
And do the same thing with EOT, include some backstage and rehearsal footage.
Get our man back in the list and give us what we want, just released it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Grt. Michel

Because they will lose money. We have been through this time and time again. As I have said earlier, one hour of footage to restore costs approx $75,000. Each show is filmed from four or five camera angles. So that makes it $350,000 PER CONCERT just to restore the footage, without editing it together, or doing an HD transfer which, if memory serves me correct is approx $200,000 per hour to do. That's over half a million pounds for a one hour concert to be restored and transferred to HD without any editing, artwork, pressing or mastering of dvds.

This is not unusual is it? Beatles fans are going throught he same thing with Let It Be. The original film was NEVER released on DVD and there is a load of additional footage to boot. No reason for this.

This is not unusual is it? Beatles fans are going throught he same thing with Let It Be. The original film was NEVER released on DVD and there is a load of additional footage to boot. No reason for this.

Did you not read the above?

A few points in respect of other's comments:

Let it Be - the fact this has not been released has nothing to do with restoration costs otherwise, all 3 other Beatles feature films would not have been released. Let it Be never even received a VHS release. My understanding is that this is more due to legal wrangles as well as the Beatles (particularly Macca) being of the view it does not represent the band and their relationships, at the time, very favourably. The out-takes would be a different story.

The bonus disc from TTWII does not represent how the unrestored elements look as posted in a recent similar topic by myself and on this post by another member. This was from the VHS copy of a warner exec who said that the 'master' meant for the original 2001 release had been lost. Some, at the time, felt that this was a cop out and the out-takes were being saved to milk the cash cow in a future release and it may have been a bit of revenge from Warner with regard to fans supporting all the illegal out-takes from both documentaries. It does seem strange that with modern archive systems that Warner could have lost these post 2000 ( we are not talking a 1970's RCA storage vault here). You just have to look at some of the out-takes available on bootlegs from both EOT and TTWII to see that the quality of the unrestored elements at source is good. The source has been direct from the Warner footage which has then been copied and sold by a warner or subcontracted employee. What we see on the bootlegs is downgraded considerably from the original source.

With regard to restoration I am no expert but surely the restoration is done in HD as opposed to restoration being done and then having to be transferred to HD. The film negative is scanned to a very big computer system and it is then digitally restored eg colour correction, scratches and damage being digitally corrected painted over (a bit like photoshop). So the negative would be scanned at 4k (HD) and then the digital files would be restored. Still an expensive process though but it's not like the old method of literally painting the negative by hand and then it having to be digitally transferred all over again.

In relation to the amount of die-hard fans who would buy an EOT special edition we need to remember that more diehard fans would by this than say a typical FTD. I am obviously more than a casual fan, my family and friends would consider me diehard but by comparison to other fans I would consider myself lightweight/moderate. Do I have a very large Elvis collection - Yes, do I buy every FTD - No, would I buy and EOT special edition - absolutely. Would a very casual fan buy a 1/2 disc special edition of EOT and TTWII - Yes. I can think of two colleagues who would come into the 2/3 Elvis cd category of fan who both bought the TTWII DVD. At one point it was reported that in the UK 100,000 units of TTWII SE were sold though I have never heard that confirmed. However if true world-wide sales could not be as bad as we are led to believe. The bigger problem for such a project now is the decline in physical format sales in the last 4 years, however digital downloads, streaming, TV showing have the potential to subsidise the falling physical sales.

A few points in respect of other's comments:

Let it Be - the fact this has not been released has nothing to do with restoration costs otherwise, all 3 other Beatles feature films would not have been released. Let it Be never even received a VHS release. My understanding is that this is more due to legal wrangles as well as the Beatles (particularly Macca) being of the view it does not represent the band and their relationships, at the time, very favourably. The out-takes would be a different story.

The bonus disc from TTWII does not represent how the unrestored elements look as posted in a recent similar topic by myself and on this post by another member. This was from the VHS copy of a warner exec who said that the 'master' meant for the original 2001 release had been lost. Some, at the time, felt that this was a cop out and the out-takes were being saved to milk the cash cow in a future release and it may have been a bit of revenge from Warner with regard to fans supporting all the illegal out-takes from both documentaries. It does seem strange that with modern archive systems that Warner could have lost these post 2000 ( we are not talking a 1970's RCA storage vault here). You just have to look at some of the out-takes available on bootlegs from both EOT and TTWII to see that the quality of the unrestored elements at source is good. The source has been direct from the Warner footage which has then been copied and sold by a warner or subcontracted employee. What we see on the bootlegs is downgraded considerably from the original source.

With regard to restoration I am no expert but surely the restoration is done in HD as opposed to restoration being done and then having to be transferred to HD. The film negative is scanned to a very big computer system and it is then digitally restored eg colour correction, scratches and damage being digitally corrected painted over (a bit like photoshop). So the negative would be scanned at 4k (HD) and then the digital files would be restored. Still an expensive process though but it's not like the old method of literally painting the negative by hand and then it having to be digitally transferred all over again.
In relation to the amount of die-hard fans who would buy an EOT special edition we need to remember that more diehard fans would by this than say a typical FTD. I am obviously more than a casual fan, my family and friends would consider me diehard but by comparison to other fans I would consider myself lightweight/moderate. Do I have a very large Elvis collection - Yes, do I buy every FTD - No, would I buy and EOT special edition - absolutely. Would a very casual fan buy a 1/2 disc special edition of EOT and TTWII - Yes. I can think of two colleagues who would come into the 2/3 Elvis cd category of fan who both bought the TTWII DVD. At one point it was reported that in the UK 100,000 units of TTWII SE were sold though I have never heard that confirmed. However if true world-wide sales could not be as bad as we are led to believe. The bigger problem for such a project now is the decline in physical format sales in the last 4 years, however digital downloads, streaming, TV showing have the potential to subsidise the falling physical sales.

If the blowing up to HD is approx $200,000 per hour of footage, then your method (if correct) would make the process even more expensive. The problem with these concerts is that they are not already edited - so each camera used would have 60 minutes worth of footage for each concert. To make all of this footage into HD and then edit it and restore it would be more expensive and complicated than restoring and editing it before blowing up into HD. I don't know the answer either. But the clear problem with EOT concerts is that they are not already pre-edited. Had there been a nice multi-camera edit of each concert sitting in the vaults, no doubt we would have these shows out on DVD already. And not know the order in which things are done makes estimating costs expensive. Is the editing done before the restoration, and then only the restoration of the edited footage? Or are all the negatives restored before editing is done? I have no clue, but the answer either way is quite clearly that it ain't cheap.

A few points in respect of other's comments:

Let it Be - the fact this has not been released has nothing to do with restoration costs otherwise, all 3 other Beatles feature films would not have been released. Let it Be never even received a VHS release. My understanding is that this is more due to legal wrangles as well as the Beatles (particularly Macca) being of the view it does not represent the band and their relationships, at the time, very favourably. The out-takes would be a different story.

The bonus disc from TTWII does not represent how the unrestored elements look as posted in a recent similar topic by myself and on this post by another member. This was from the VHS copy of a warner exec who said that the 'master' meant for the original 2001 release had been lost. Some, at the time, felt that this was a cop out and the out-takes were being saved to milk the cash cow in a future release and it may have been a bit of revenge from Warner with regard to fans supporting all the illegal out-takes from both documentaries. It does seem strange that with modern archive systems that Warner could have lost these post 2000 ( we are not talking a 1970's RCA storage vault here). You just have to look at some of the out-takes available on bootlegs from both EOT and TTWII to see that the quality of the unrestored elements at source is good. The source has been direct from the Warner footage which has then been copied and sold by a warner or subcontracted employee. What we see on the bootlegs is downgraded considerably from the original source.

With regard to restoration I am no expert but surely the restoration is done in HD as opposed to restoration being done and then having to be transferred to HD. The film negative is scanned to a very big computer system and it is then digitally restored eg colour correction, scratches and damage being digitally corrected painted over (a bit like photoshop). So the negative would be scanned at 4k (HD) and then the digital files would be restored. Still an expensive process though but it's not like the old method of literally painting the negative by hand and then it having to be digitally transferred all over again.

In relation to the amount of die-hard fans who would buy an EOT special edition we need to remember that more diehard fans would by this than say a typical FTD. I am obviously more than a casual fan, my family and friends would consider me diehard but by comparison to other fans I would consider myself lightweight/moderate. Do I have a very large Elvis collection - Yes, do I buy every FTD - No, would I buy and EOT special edition - absolutely. Would a very casual fan buy a 1/2 disc special edition of EOT and TTWII - Yes. I can think of two colleagues who would come into the 2/3 Elvis cd category of fan who both bought the TTWII DVD. At one point it was reported that in the UK 100,000 units of TTWII SE were sold though I have never heard that confirmed. However if true world-wide sales could not be as bad as we are led to believe. The bigger problem for such a project now is the decline in physical format sales in the last 4 years, however digital downloads, streaming, TV showing have the potential to subsidise the falling physical sales.

I was just informed by my Beales friend that Let It Be is being held back by George's widow because it shows a rift between George and the rest of the band, specifically Paul. He told me Paul, Ringo & Yoko have agreed to have it released, but Mrs Harrison and her son have not due tot he negative image of George in the film. Whether ot not this is true , I do not know..

LET IT BE actually did have a legitimate VHS release in the U.S.. It was released by Magnetic Video way back in the early days of pre - recorded tapes being licensed and sold. It also appeared on LaserVideo disc. The same company issued Elvis' earliest releases on home video (King Creole / Blue Hawaii/ G.I. Blues/ Paradise, Hawaiian Stye & Fun In Acapulco). I actually have a copy of LET IT BE...it is pretty rare these days. The releases were all pretty low quality, but for some reason LET IT BE looked pretty good for the time.

Does anybody know how many songs they restored for the Lost Preformance VHS back in the 1990'? Did they only do the songs in the show for that program or did they do more? With This is Elvis and Lost P surely some of these have been looked at and finished, who knows?