Where to find best picture quality for Road to Avonlea?

My understanding is that the series was never filmed in HD so there can never be a "true" HD restoration. The best we can hope for is that the series is cleaned up as best as possible.

In a September 2005 chat at the now defunct Avonlea Message Boards, Sullivan responded to a question regarding the inferior DVD quality and the difference between the seasons in quality:

Disney has exactly the same source materials we do in creating DVDs. I have much debate on this subject. Their digi-betas are clones of ours. I think the debate on DVD quality has to do with the fact that even though the show was shot on film it was mastered on 1-inch analog tape in the early seasons. Unless all of the film that was shot for seasons 1-4 was completely re-duplicated digitally, the quality that you see on the current DVDs is really the best that the show will ever look. Season 5-7 were mastered digitally and have a completely different look. However, please note, the Avonlea movie was also mastered digitally and has a quality of the later seasons. Please have a look at it and you will see what I mean.

Despite Sullivan's claim that the quality is the "best that the show will ever look," they were improved since the first DVD releases.

Original 2005 DVD release:


2009 DVD release ( from Lifestories91 Road to Avonlea reviews ):


Original 2005 DVD release:


2019 Gazebo TV Comparison:


For the early DVD releases, I always considered HD to mean "Highly Degraded." I was very disappointed that the first DVD release was so grainy with VHS style quality.

It still bothers me that the set was released in that condition. Sullivan describes the restoration process of removing dirt frame-by-frame in this 2009 wide-screen release feature (It starts around the 3 minute mark). It contradicts the claim that the 2005 edition was the best we we're going to get.