This was posted 8 years 1 month 1 day ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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FREE to View: "The World at War" Complete 26 Episode Series (in 1080p)

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The current license holders have uploaded the entire series to their YouTube channel in 1080p. The World at War is the definitive version of one of the greatest documentary series ever made. Narrated by Laurence Olivier and first broadcast in 1973 when memories of the Second World War were still clear in people's minds and the war's veterans numerous, over 26 episodes this unique series assembled these recollections, together with archive footage, to create one of the most powerful and successful historical documentaries ever seen. The voices of those that fought, worked or watched during the war gave each episode a vivid sense of what it was like to be there and was the hallmark of the series.

The World at War Wiki
9.3/10 rating on IMDb
DVD set $86 at JB Hi-Fi

Found via HUKD

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  • +3

    Love this series!

  • +1

    TA, Great share!!

    Thank you very much,
    George

    • +32

      I love when people complain about free things.

      • +6

        He couldn't even complain correctly.

        The term is 'pan and scan', not 'cut/zoomed'.

        • Given the age of this content, and particularly the war footage, I don't think you lose a lot in a 16/9 version anyway.

        • Pan and scan relates to formatting widescreen content for 4:3 displays. This is the reverse. Apparently it's called Tilt and Scan or Reverse Pan and Scan.

        • +1

          @AdrianW: Widescreen on 4:3 with black bars top and bottom is called letterboxing. 4:3 on 16:9 with black bars on the left and right is called pillarboxing. This would be zoomed and cropped pillarboxing. There is no tilting or panning involved in the transfer from film, called scanning, so I don't know where those names came from. I've never heard it called those terms before.

        • @endotherm:

          Pan and Scan is what used to be done to a widescreen movie to get it to totally fit a 4:3 screen without letterboxing. Basically cropping the edges but panning around the image to ensure the action was in-frame.

          The same could be done in reverse to make a 4:3 movie totally fit a 16:9 screen without black bars at the sides. In this case tilting could be used to ensure any important action towards the top or bottom of the frame was included.

          I'm certainly not saying either should be used. But this TV show has obviously been cropped to fully fit 16:9 but I wouldn't call it pan and scan.

          (I'd never heard the term tilt-and-scan either, I just googled it and quite a lot of results came up).

        • +1

          @AdrianW: I'm familiar with "pan and scan" and the process used in the transfer. I've done this in a previous life. When I said there was no panning involved, I was referring only to 4:3 to 16:9. I guess what threw me was my transfers were done looking down onto a flat surface, not projecting the material onto a wall, so to speak. Using the phrase "in reverse" is misleading; it's not in reverse but a change of axis — scanning from left to right becomes up and down. I can understand where tilt and scan comes from then, tilting a camera means up and down movement, whereas left/right movement is panning. Again, it sort of loses it's meaning when looking down on the source material. Somehow I envisioned tilting to mean rotating the film sideways… In my defence, when I used to do it back in the day, there wasn't a lot of call for 16:9 transfers.

  • I have it on DVD already. Would have been nice on blu ray or digital. Love this series.

    • -2

      Why? How is the quality of the 75-year-old footage going to improve with BluRay?

      • +1

        It will improve a lot if the original 1973 version has been digitally remastered.

        The 1939 Wizard of Oz Blu-Ray is pretty kick ass.

        • No brainer; your existing DVD is already digital, and could have been digitally remastered already.

    • Big improvement

      • +2

        For those of you who want to download it and it watch it offline, ClipGrab works well on Youtube videos and is totally free (you can donate if you wish).

        http://clipgrab.org/

        Yes technically you are breaching copyright doing that, but if like me you have no intention to resell the content, just to watch it offline on the bus/train/whatever, you might want to take the risk…

        • I used to use clip grab, but it often needs updates ,then one day it installed browser hijacker.

          Not sure whats its like now as i stopped using it immediately after that… was like 2 years ago but id say be careful of malware that comes bundled with it.

        • I prefer youtube-dl.

    • I imported the BD copy from the UK a few years back. It's still great, but the series was actually filmed in 4:3, whereas the BD copy is in 16:9, with the tops and bottoms chopped off or zoomed in, depending on the individual scene. Arguably, the DVD version is superior, even though the clearer picture and audio is nice. I'll happily rebuy the series on BD again if they released a 4:3 HD version!

    • +37

      Yeah stick to your Android games - much better for your type of brain…

      • I bet he's an iPhone user

    • +34

      I think the comment reflects your age. Take time to watch an episode and see how others fought for your freedom. You may change your mind.

    • +4

      What are you? A blissfully ignorant spoiled little twinkie?

      • To know war is to live war. Beyond this, it's just a show on TV.

      • -4

        That's a real mature answer

      • +9

        Wow the reaction was so unexpected.

        I think the reason you got this reaction to your comment was the flippant way you dismissed it for no apparent reason.

        I guess everyone has a different taste.

        So why the original comment? If you advise a sale on soap opera DVDs or free "reality" TV series, I won't be commenting. If you're not interested personally, just ignore the article.

        I hate history

        Those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

        I hate wars. There are no heros in war, just losses on both sides. For the same reason, I don't enjoying watching shows about war

        Please don't even hint that those who enjoy watching such docos are pro war or love war. Such an argument is incredibly insulting and equivalent to saying that people who watch crime shows love crime. No sane person loves war.

        I didn't know it was documentary when commenting at first. That's why I said it was boring.

        Again, that's why you shouldn't have commented at all…

    • +5

      As a young computer nerd, I had ZERO in history. Technology is the future, why would anyone bother looking back?

      But now that I'm older, I really appreciate history and docos. Humans make the same mistakes over and over again, it good to learn from them.

  • +9

    I don't think the series owners are posting this, some parts have been silenced due to licensed music which would not happen if the owners broadcast it.

    Anyway, as others have said, this is the definitive video history of WWII, not for casual viewers as it is long and hard going at times. Young people complaining about first world problems should look at a few parts of this to get some perspective on life.

    • … the definitive video history of WWII
      Well in 1973 it could certainly be called this and as an overall history of World War 2 there probably hasn't been anything better made, but it is outdated and missing a lot of information such as Ultra and Soviet archive access. Would love to see a remake on the scale of the original.

      • +4

        Guess the one thing you couldn't replace and what makes this series so good is all the interviews with people who are now no longer alive.

      • A remake will probably be worse than the original, besides the fact that those in it are dead, the recent remake of Carl Sagan's Cosmos was a very poor sequel/remake.

        For those interested in the more technical side of the war, the BBC series Most Secret War from 1978 is probably the best coverage, available on Youtube https://youtu.be/Uf5caj9ZhpQ?list=PLBYclEE4V19AiC_aSv3vbc6v0…

        More info https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_War_%28TV_series%…

      • +1

        There is some slightly outdated or slightly misleading info (i.e. it's from the 70's and doesn't have the most up to date scholarship on everything obviously), but I have never to this day seen a superior documentary overall. It is very comprehensive for a documentary on the war in general. Obviously you can get specific documentaries that cover one particular thing in great detail, but for the war as a whole, this remains untouched.

    • +2

      Bit of a leap, there's plenty of cases where TV series have been amended due to music rights not being held (eg. Married with Children).

    • -5

      Youtube is full of copyright infringing material - as this may well be

      I hope the mods have done their due dilligence and double checked that the copyright owners are willingly allowing their content to be viewed on youtube?

      If not, then you may as well have links to torrent sites on the front page.

      I think this kind of post is a very slippery slope - i mean youtube literally has millions of hours of free "bargain" content "deals". A lot of old tv series and documentarys are on youtube - you can even find new release movies if you are quick enought before they get taken down….for copyright infringement

      If people start posting this type of thing on ozbargain, the front page will be full of youtube links, in between all the free phone apps

      EDIT: if you are going to neg this constructive comment, please Share your opinion, dont just hide in anonymity like a school girl

      • +2

        some good legitimate points…

      • -1

        I would much rather these links than "free" Steam games that are total rubbish and get a rating of ~50%. There is a flood of those Steam game deals….

        Same applies to links for crappy free IOS and/or android games…

        I am pretty sure if you don't like a particular poster or genre you can block yourself from seeing it, just like I have just done to all your comments - you live up to your name…

        • -4

          Your loss pal, i got some great comments coming up in 2016!

          But i guess you wont see this comment either :(

          Thanks for the advice on blocking deal content - pretty sure that youtube content is not a category though…but i guess you wont see the thanks either

          I see your are in sydney - anyone know of a deal on skywriting?

      • +1

        Responding in mature style -
        Sometimes people apply a cost and benefit analysis to situations. Are the owners (if such still exists) of the copyright of this 40+ year old production likely to suffer a measurable loss of revenue as a result of public distribution of this work? A little background is that similar productions - eg "Victory at Sea" had the last dribbling juices of revenue squeezed out by a marketing campaign at throwaway prices about 10 years ago, before abandonment to such as no budget community TV. There would be no measurable revenue loss.
        Those responsible for the original production could not reasonably be called revenue hunters. The subject is not a box office winner - it would better be described as a social education initiative. Any thought that those involved with the original production, including those contributing input, would be unhappy with wide public distribution is wrong.
        Clearly new release movies, or most old release movies, or indeed any fictional works…. are not types of material created with a motive of social betterment, but rather to raise a dollar. This is what should be considered "protectable copyright materials".
        There is no slippery slope of judgement, unless the judger is very lacking in judgement skills. If the pointless commenter has ever in their responsible reasoned life …..(ie when they attained skills of understanding and reason - sometime before or at the time of attaining adulthood)…. has ever jaywalked (that is, walked across a road in any way rather than at a right angle… at 90 degrees to the direction of the road) then that is the very slippery slope of judgement that they should consider at length, rather than their post above.
        In the interests of responding in a mature way to the post above, I've taken some time to respond in this fashion.

        TMI DNR
        Constructive comment? language seeking a rational response? I don't think so. Instead of banging on about the topic, and calling posters who don't agree with you pitiful school girls etc…. why don't you spend your time in a more socially constructive way, like perhaps collecting barcodes and forming a club for your peers.

        • just skimmed that wall of text…perhaps it was brilliant , perhaps not….seems to be more about your moral stance and understanding of copyright than the core issure i put forward of youtube vids being a front page deal….but in the summary at the bottom you surely have reached the depths of miscomprehension and and sarcasm you think im at….and as for time spent? Well i just bang out the first ideas that come to me - no real thought or time is involved

          Hope the irony aint lost on ya pal!

        • +2

          @pointless comment:
          It's pretty clear that you bang out the first ideas that come into your head
          pity
          lucky there ain't more of you

        • -1

          @rooster7777: cmon man…now ur just repeating what i said back to me….when it gets to that point its not really worth your time

          No hard feelings, have a great night

      • +1

        I really dont get how a comment about youtube and ozbargain site content, which is directly addressing the OP is deemed as off topic?

  • Will it always remain free? Or should I watch them asap?

  • How many GB download?

    • I downloaded the first one which was around 1GB.. so I'd extrapolate to ~26GB for them all.

    • I have Internet Download Manager (IDM) Chrome plugin, whenever there's a web video it pops up a download button and you can select quality as well

  • Thanks TA, been on my IMDB watch list for a while

  • +2

    One of the greatest documentary series ever made about one of the greatest wars ever made.

    • +1

      WW2 was the best war.

  • well worth watching, would recommend to all

  • -1

    Is the series Unbiased and Propaganda free?

    • +3
      • The creator of the above linked series comes across as a bit of a fruitcake (conspiracy theories, apologist for hitler) - which is a shame. It's important to not be a gateway to revisionism.

        Many documentaries do have victor's bias but the World at War is better than most.

        • Have you ever heard of 4chan's bait?

          *trolling intensifies

          "Many documentaries do have victor's bias"
          -" But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.” ― Andrzej Sapkowski, The Last Wish (Witcher inspiration)

        • +1

          @rodinthink:

          TWAW contains a huge amount of interviews etc from people who were there - germans, japanese and allies. Considering it was made 20 years after the war ended they did a very good job of maintaining an even keel - way better than most jingoistic docos made today.

          "The great war" is another documentary (about WW1), while nowhere near as good - is also worth it for the interviews with people who were actually there.

          And if you were trolling by linking that doco, it's not very smart thing to do - as one way or another you are actually promoting it.

    • +1

      yes, i would say it was a fair and unbaised look at the war. Towards the end of the series a person is interviewed who states that given the human lives lost, Russia didn't really get much out from the war. But in comparison to the US, who lost of fraction of the lives, the got alot more from it.

      Would definitely recommend this series to anyone, even those who dont think this would entertain them.

      • Russia fought the war in a completely different way to the Americans. They both won but I would of much rather been fighting the American way.

  • +6

    For anyone who likes the dramatised versions of history, I would heavily suggest watching Band of Brothers. It's a 10 part mini-series that is mostly historically accurate. Pretty sure it's ranked #1 on IMDB (TV section).

    • +1

      Maybe its on youtube?

      • I just love your comments.

        • -2

          Thanks mate , i really dont aim to please!

          and im committed to keeping the real-o-meter turned up to 11

        • @pointless comment:

          I have to laugh when someone making pointedly controversial or anti-social comments claims the old "just keeping it real" line…

        • +1

          @papachris: did you actually laugh? If not, Maybe you are not keeping it real enough

    • Them Yankee visited us, the Down Under, in "The Pacific".
      Not sure why it's not as good as BoB

      • Not sure why it's not as good as BoB

        Sequels usually aren't. My friend was an extra in 1x01 at the very end. They filmed very close to where I lived (FNQ). I was too young at the time to realise how significant that was.

    • -1

      I love Band of Brothers, but you won't get any real notion of history from it. You'll get a pretty abridged view of what the war was like for soldiers on the ground (it sucked), and how it can affect a man. But don't look here for big picture stuff.

  • Nice, thanks for sharing!

  • Have the DVDs - watching Episode 1 right now on the stream

    • -5

      You may be the only one on this page with a case for viewing it legally then!

  • This is a great series. Not for the faint hearted. The few sections in the Holocaust left me feeling really down. Highly recommended.

  • It's sad to think that the sacrifices that were made for the freedom we enjoy are now being eroded by a new form of tyranny:
    http://tinyurl.com/h36cg4r

  • since when is a youtube video a bargain?

    • I agree - please read my post above and let us know what you think…there are several issues here concerned with the legality of such content and also the overall integrity and quality of content ozbargain itself

    • +13

      Seems to depend on who posts it.
      I reckon if someone new posted this (like me) they would be negged into oblivion.

      • +5

        exactly correct. If anyone else posted this crap as a 'bargain' and linked to someones youtube channel, it would be deleted or moved to the forums at the most.

        • -1

          Exactly. I have raised silimar issues over how this kind of deal being on the front page actually devalues ozbargains quality somewhat, and that there are perhaps copyright infringement issues to also consider.

          My comments in this post have since being marked as 'off-topic' or simply as 'collapsed'

          i realise that TA has a bit of a cult following, and rightly so - he has a history of alot of great deals and generally has a pleasant disposition but the bargain lemmings upvoting free content on youtube really need to question the validity of the deal itself - not the poster

        • @pointless comment: I think the "bargain" here is that you can watch the series here for free without paying for an alternative (DVD etc) saving $$. It differs from someone posting a Taylor Swift video because there isn't really any paid alternative for a comparative saving. If it were posted, I am sure it would not receive the same number of upvotes as this post, dropping off the face of the front page and off your radar. If you have an issue with the post being inappropriate, report it to the mods and let them decide. If you have a problem with the copyright, cite a source or some supporting evidence rather that all this "maybe" guessing. Nearly 400 people disagree with you though.

      • Seems to depend on who posts it.

        This. When I was running Esio Entertainment (CD key website), I had the worlds cheapest price for Watch Dogs + Season Pass for $6.65 and got 15 upvotes. Fast forward a few months, a deal is posted for the same thing for almost $0.80 more and it gets 242 upvotes.

  • It's scary to think that if this series never existed how much less I would know about WW2.

    Everyone needs to watch it. 70 years ago we were killing each other like animals - it could happen again so easily.

    • +2

      You do realise mass genocide and international warfare has been/is happening long before and long after WW2 began and ended yeh?

      • +4

        Imagine tomorrow someone said you had to drop everything to go overseas and murder people you never met. Even if you had never held a gun before.

        This happened to real people - and hasn't happened to most of the civilized world for a long time.

        I think you know what I mean.

        • -1

          and hasn't happened to most of the civilized world for a long time.

          what about Korea and Vietnam?

        • +1

          @Makoto:

          Comparing WW2 with korea or vietnam? Even if you were drafted you could object (and my father was, and went).

        • @Makoto: modern warfare is quite different - less troops on the ground and more missiles and air bombings

          But mass death and destruction all the same

          By civilised world im guessing you are thinking of western europe and other anglo / christian settlement such as Australia and the US

          But eastern europe and the middle east are very much civilised and have very much been hotbeds of political instability and violence along various ethnic / religious lines since the close of WW2 until this very day

          So the concept of "lets all remember WW2 so it doesnt happen again" is fundamentally flawed and innacurate - similar attrocities have been repated again and again since the dawn of the 1950's and will continue to do so well into the future

        • +1

          @pointless comment:

          Civilized countries are not supposed to behave like barbarians by definition (I include religious/ethnic violence here).

          We might kid ourselves that we are beyond it, but we really aren't.

          I'm basically in agreement with you - but disagree if you say that everyone realizes this already.

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