Joe Karlosi wrote:
Well, at least I am relieved that I seem fine with the PAL speedup issue. It's not that glaring (yet?) that I cannot enjoy the show. I notice it here and there, and sometimes only if I concentrate more on it. So right now, not a deal breaker. However, I'd still probably buy a US collection if there was ever a nice one like this.

Yesterday I got the PAL discs of THE BLACK CAT and THE RAVEN. I played a good chunk of both of these, and I'd say I notice the speedup but again, it doesn't kill the movies for me. While THE RAVEN visually looked about the same as I'm used to on the R1 release, I could swear that THE BLACK CAT looked really good, maybe better on R2 than the R1 version (this was the stand-alone release). I don't know if this is the same print used or not, but I did like the UK copy better. I guess others' mileage may vary.

Today I received the R2 discs of DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS and FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN.
It's funny, the guys who used to own film-on-film are the ones who don't sweat the speckles and reel-change marks, or grain but are majorly concerned about detail, framing, sound sync, and contrast.
I know whenever I got a new print of something like these on film, I was very concerned if the actual print I bought had any damage, but not so much the originals from which it came. I was more looking at weather-or-not in long shots that the detail in everyone's face was solid or if people's heads bump the top of the frame due to tight cropping.

Those are still my primary concerns, sometimes these shorts are tightly cropped, in one bit Stan's sock gets pulled off because Ollie's standing on it, but it happens so close to the bottom that you don't fully see it. Now that bugs me.
 
In that OUR GANG box, I presume in an effort to remove grain and damage they crank their clean-up filters so high that tree-leaves, and even facial-features are scrubbed away whenever the computer can't discern between surface abrasion and detail , that does more than bug me, it ruins the whole experience, especially knowing it didn't have to be that way at all. I'd have taken a hail-storm of grain and specks not to see the kids faces occasionally look like they are pressed up against a pain of glass.  The L & H box is pretty-much what the OUR GANG box could have been if they woulda just backed off on all the digital manipulation BS and spread them out over more didks.
In short, I'd rather be occasionally reminded I'm watching old film, than be reminded that I'm watching video of old film.  

THE BLACK CAT is the one feature where I am most aware of PAL speed-up, I guess it doesn't help that I have another NTSC copy, and I've seen the film a dozen or more times. Maybe it looks a little better, because although they are the same transfers, it might be more compressed for the DVD-18, or it may just seem better. In theory a PAL speed-up could provide a slight boost in detail because there are more frames on the screen at a time, thus concentrating the image, but to me that would seem harder to detect than the audio speed-up.

I'm still waiting for my HAMMER Box, I'm surprised you didn't consider it since you get 21 features almost as cheap as the L & H box. It pretty-much has all the Anchor Bay releases, but is for some reason minus THE MUMMY"S SHROUD (which I really like).