Bad news: Region 1 Buffy DVDs postponed
Jonathan Black
following post over at the Home Theater Forum:
<http://www.hometheaterforum.com/uub/Forum10/HTML/001722.html#3>
|
| Re: Fox: A Plea to Save the Buffy DVDs!
| posted on November 01, 2000 10:18 AM CST (US)
|
| First the good news:
| The R1 product has been developed to be exactly the same as
| the R2 product.
|
| Now the bad news:
| It is looking like we will have to delay the release of the
| R1 DVD because of some issues with TV syndication rights here
| in the USA. It will not affect the R2 release as they are
| obviously not affected by US TV Syndication deals. We may
| have to wait until late in the year (2001) to release the R1
| set.
|
| As a fan of teh show myself, I am a bit pissed that this
| issue rose up to bite us at the 11th hour. But there is
| little that can be done at this time. An official
| announcement will be forthcoming.
|
| Sorry for the bad news,
|
| Peter Staddon
It seems almost unimaginable for this thing to get cancelled like
this so late in the day, but unfortunately you can bet that this
is true; Peter Staddon is something like the head of 20th Century
Fox Home Video himself.
So, as much as it pains me to do so, it looks like I'll be buying
the R2 release after all; a year is too long to wait.
Damn, this was by far my most anticipated DVD release ever. I
just *knew* something had to go wrong. Oh well, on the up side, I
should now have those PAL discs in my hands in 26 days' time and
counting...
;(
--
J o N a T H a N
reluctantly heading over to BlackStar.co.uk
Mattia Valente
Really? So that means that we'll get the rest of the season on DVD as
well? :-))
Seriously though, this is extremely annoying and most distressing, I
must say. Grr...
> So, as much as it pains me to do so, it looks like I'll be buying
> the R2 release after all; a year is too long to wait.
I'll second you on that. I don't have a DVD player yet, but that's sort
of besides the point: I've put off buying the tapes because of the fact
there was a DVD in the making; another whole year is, I fear, too long
to wait.
Oh well, I'll just have to watch it at the same pitch I've always
watched it at after all ;-)
> Damn, this was by far my most anticipated DVD release ever. I
> just *knew* something had to go wrong. Oh well, on the up side, I
> should now have those PAL discs in my hands in 26 days' time and
> counting...
Hmm...gotta get my act together fast then, don't I? Just a question
here, though: does a Hollywood Plus decoder card have the ability to
select the output mode (can it code/decode modes?) If so, couldn't you
just set the output to PAL 60, to correct the speed up? I'm guessing a
big fat no here, but you just can never know..don't have the card myself
so I can't exactly read the manual or anything like that...
Mattia
ReplyMeister[tm]
Marcel Burgstad
Dutch release is postponed until january 2001. Very strange, because
the Dutch and the UK editions are identical.
Marcel
On Wed, 1 Nov 2000 21:36:50 +0100, Jonathan Black
<jona...@ch.twi.tudelft.nl> wrote:
>I'm just come from almost having a heart attack upon reading the
>following post over at the Home Theater Forum:
>
> <http://www.hometheaterforum.com/uub/Forum10/HTML/001722.html#3>
> |
> | Re: Fox: A Plea to Save the Buffy DVDs!
> | posted on November 01, 2000 10:18 AM CST (US)
> |
> | First the good news:
> | The R1 product has been developed to be exactly the same as
> | the R2 product.
>
P@rick
[Buffy R1 DVD's postponed]
Yet another reason to buy a region free player. Regional
division was introduced to make sure people can't buy DVD's of
movies that haven't played in their country yet. But what does
that have to do with S1 of Buffy? Why have region coding for the
Buffy DVD's? I wonder whether this breaks some international
rules on free availability of information. And I can imagine
there are some international rules against regional division as
well.
> So, as much as it pains me to do so, it looks like I'll be
buying
> the R2 release after all; a year is too long to wait.
>
> Damn, this was by far my most anticipated DVD release ever. I
> just *knew* something had to go wrong. Oh well, on the up
side, I
> should now have those PAL discs in my hands in 26 days' time
and
> counting...
<JC> Elk nadeel heb z'n voordeel </JC>
I hope you enjoy those DVD's in spite of the wrong playing
speed.
Bye, Patrick
Jonathan Black
> Jonathan Black wrote:
>
> > <http://www.hometheaterforum.com/uub/Forum10/HTML/001722.html#3>
> > |
> > [...]
> > | As a fan of teh show myself, I am a bit pissed that this
> > | issue rose up to bite us at the 11th hour. But there is
> > | little that can be done at this time. An official
> > | announcement will be forthcoming.
> > |
> > | Sorry for the bad news,
> > |
> > | Peter Staddon
> >
> > It seems almost unimaginable for this thing to get cancelled
> > like this so late in the day, but unfortunately you can bet
> > that this is true; Peter Staddon is something like the head
> > of 20th Century Fox Home Video himself.
>
> Really? So that means that we'll get the rest of the season
> on DVD as well? :-))
'Cause he says he's a fan, ya mean? Heh heh, I guess so. Mr
Staddon is a really great guy, one of the few studio
representatives who actually takes the trouble to respond to the
questions feedback over there on the Home Theater Forum. Once
there was a guy who posted to the forum that his entire DVD
collection had been lost during a house move, and Mr Staddon
jumped in offering to replace all the Fox titles in his
collection free of charge. He was completely serious! It didn't
happen in the end, 'cause the guy's discs turned up after all,
but wow, you don't see people like that in positions like that
very often.
> Oh well, I'll just have to watch it at the same pitch I've
> always watched it at after all ;-)
Yep. I'll probably still get the R1 when it eventually comes out
and then sell my R2 box (or not ;)).
> > Damn, this was by far my most anticipated DVD release ever. I
> > just *knew* something had to go wrong. Oh well, on the up
> > side, I should now have those PAL discs in my hands in 26
> > days' time and counting...
>
> Hmm...gotta get my act together fast then, don't I? Just a
> question here, though: does a Hollywood Plus decoder card
> have the ability to select the output mode (can it
> code/decode modes?) If so, couldn't you just set the output
> to PAL 60, to correct the speed up? I'm guessing a big fat no
> here, but you just can never know..don't have the card myself
> so I can't exactly read the manual or anything like that...
Big fat no, indeed. While you can select the output mode (NTSC /
PAL50 / PAL60), it does not change the speed, it just does an
up/downconversion of the resolution from 480 to 576 lines or
v.v., and a rather jan-boeren-fluitjes frame rate conversion,
which results in jerky motion, especially when playing a "PAL"
disc in NTSC or PAL60.
Bye,
Mattia Valente
"P@rick" wrote:
>
> Jonathan Black wrote:
>
> [Buffy R1 DVD's postponed]
>
> Yet another reason to buy a region free player. Regional
> division was introduced to make sure people can't buy DVD's of
> movies that haven't played in their country yet. But what does
> that have to do with S1 of Buffy? Why have region coding for the
> Buffy DVD's? I wonder whether this breaks some international
> rules on free availability of information. And I can imagine
> there are some international rules against regional division as
> well.
Oh, it does, IIRC. The Word Trade Organization is not happy with
regional coding, but it's not something they can actually do anything
about, not really. Region Free players are the only way to go, IMHO, out
of practical and ideological reasons. Still don't know what to buy,
though..if you decide on one (and make sure the region free thingy means
you can manually set the regions, not only auto-detect them) let us
know..
> > So, as much as it pains me to do so, it looks like I'll be buying
> > the R2 release after all; a year is too long to wait.
> >
> > Damn, this was by far my most anticipated DVD release ever. I
> > just *knew* something had to go wrong. Oh well, on the up side, I
> > should now have those PAL discs in my hands in 26 days' time and
> > counting...
>
> <JC> Elk nadeel heb z'n voordeel </JC>
hehe...
> I hope you enjoy those DVD's in spite of the wrong playing
> speed.
I'm sure I will...it's just a semantic difference. I mean, has any of us
even seen a Buffy ep played at the 'correct' speed? Thought not...
Mattia
ReplyMeister[tm]
Jonathan Black
> P@rick wrote:
>
> > I hope you enjoy those DVD's in spite of the wrong playing
> > speed.
I'm sure I will. It's not as though it's stopped me enjoying them
before.
> I'm sure I will...it's just a semantic difference. I mean,
> has any of us even seen a Buffy ep played at the 'correct'
> speed? Thought not...
Well... that's not entirely correct. Some of us, who will remain
nameless, have from time to time endulged in donwloaded episodes,
have we not? Those are of course correctly speeded, having been
encoded from NTSC broadcasts in the Land of the Brave and Free.
Mattia Valente
>
> Mattia Valente wrote:
>
> > P@rick wrote:
> >
> > > I hope you enjoy those DVD's in spite of the wrong playing
> > > speed.
>
> I'm sure I will. It's not as though it's stopped me enjoying them
> before.
True enough...will you buy the R1 set as well though? (IOW, do you have
too much disposable cash?)
> > I'm sure I will...it's just a semantic difference. I mean,
> > has any of us even seen a Buffy ep played at the 'correct'
> > speed? Thought not...
>
> Well... that's not entirely correct. Some of us, who will remain
> nameless, have from time to time endulged in donwloaded episodes,
> have we not? Those are of course correctly speeded, having been
> encoded from NTSC broadcasts in the Land of the Brave and Free.
Hmmm...point taken..just that the sound quality (and video quality) of
the downloaded eps I've viewed leaves much to be desired (these are 220
meg asf versions..)
And please don't refer to the US as the Land of the Brave and Free..it's
annoyingly patriotic, and you're not even a merikin (which means it can
be forgiven ;-)
<ducks>
Mattia
ReplyMeister[tm]
Mattia Valente
>
> Mattia Valente wrote:
>
> > Jonathan Black wrote:
> > Really? So that means that we'll get the rest of the season
> > on DVD as well? :-))
>
> 'Cause he says he's a fan, ya mean? Heh heh, I guess so. Mr
> Staddon is a really great guy, one of the few studio
> representatives who actually takes the trouble to respond to the
> questions feedback over there on the Home Theater Forum. Once
> there was a guy who posted to the forum that his entire DVD
> collection had been lost during a house move, and Mr Staddon
> jumped in offering to replace all the Fox titles in his
> collection free of charge. He was completely serious! It didn't
> happen in the end, 'cause the guy's discs turned up after all,
> but wow, you don't see people like that in positions like that
> very often.
Hmmm...there should be way more people like him in the industry,
methinks...I don't even know him, but I like him already :)
> > Oh well, I'll just have to watch it at the same pitch I've
> > always watched it at after all ;-)
>
> Yep. I'll probably still get the R1 when it eventually comes out
> and then sell my R2 box (or not ;)).
Right...or not, of course. What will be worrying me a little is if it
gets postponed for too long, will the second season box also be half a
year or more behind? What to do at that point, eh?
> > Hmm...gotta get my act together fast then, don't I? Just a
> > question here, though: does a Hollywood Plus decoder card
> > have the ability to select the output mode (can it
> > code/decode modes?) If so, couldn't you just set the output
> > to PAL 60, to correct the speed up? I'm guessing a big fat no
> > here, but you just can never know..don't have the card myself
> > so I can't exactly read the manual or anything like that...
>
> Big fat no, indeed. While you can select the output mode (NTSC /
> PAL50 / PAL60), it does not change the speed, it just does an
> up/downconversion of the resolution from 480 to 576 lines or
> v.v., and a rather jan-boeren-fluitjes frame rate conversion,
> which results in jerky motion, especially when playing a "PAL"
> disc in NTSC or PAL60.
Hmmm...oh well, can't have everything. One would think that a decent
software converter would have show up by now, seeing as we have the
processing power avaliable (new machines, anyway..) to do what we want
with it..
Ah well, better get the box set ordered before its released, so I can
get the nice little Blackstar discount..
Mattia
ReplyMeister[tm]
Jonathan Black
> What will be worrying me a little is if it gets postponed for
> too long, will the second season box also be half a year or
> more behind? What to do at that point, eh?
I know... The vibes we're getting on the future UK R2 releases
are that it's apparently pretty sure they'll be releasing a
half-season box set every three months, much the same as the VHS
releases have been, giving the following schedule:
BtVS Season One Nov 2000
BtVS Season Two, Part 1 Feb 2001
BtVS Season Two, Part 2 May 2001
BtVS Season Three, Part 1 Aug 2001
BtVS Season Three, Part 2 Nov 2001
BtVS Season Four, Part 1 /
Angel Season One, Part 1 Feb 2002
BtVS Season Four, Part 2 /
Angel Season One, Part 2 May 2002
... etc., etc., ad infinitum ;)
So with this delay of the R1 S1 release until "late 2001", it
could mean that R2 will have completed the first 3 seasons before
R1 even gets S1. It's hard to see them ever recovering from that
kind of a lag...
Rhodanos
wrote:
>Although it seems that S1 will be released on Nov.27th, I think the
>Dutch release is postponed until january 2001. Very strange, because
>the Dutch and the UK editions are identical.
>
>Marcel
>
>>So, as much as it pains me to do so, it looks like I'll be buying
>>the R2 release after all; a year is too long to wait.
>>
>>Damn, this was by far my most anticipated DVD release ever. I
>>just *knew* something had to go wrong. Oh well, on the up side, I
>>should now have those PAL discs in my hands in 26 days' time and
>>counting...
>>
>>;(
There is a possible explanation, lack of production capacity. Several
other dvds has been postponed for this reason.
Pieter
Mattia Valente
> Mattia Valente wrote:
>
> > What will be worrying me a little is if it gets postponed for
> > too long, will the second season box also be half a year or
> > more behind? What to do at that point, eh?
>
> I know... The vibes we're getting on the future UK R2 releases
> are that it's apparently pretty sure they'll be releasing a
> half-season box set every three months, much the same as the VHS
> releases have been, giving the following schedule:
>
> BtVS Season One Nov 2000
> BtVS Season Two, Part 1 Feb 2001
> BtVS Season Two, Part 2 May 2001
> BtVS Season Three, Part 1 Aug 2001
> BtVS Season Three, Part 2 Nov 2001
> BtVS Season Four, Part 1 /
> Angel Season One, Part 1 Feb 2002
> BtVS Season Four, Part 2 /
> Angel Season One, Part 2 May 2002
>
> ... etc., etc., ad infinitum ;)
Well, I don't know about ad infinitum, but...;-)
All of this is, of course, good. The US has a terrible track record
where Buffy on Tape is concerned (no boxed sets. None. Just a few
videos, something like 5 total or so..)
> So with this delay of the R1 S1 release until "late 2001", it
> could mean that R2 will have completed the first 3 seasons before
> R1 even gets S1. It's hard to see them ever recovering from that
> kind of a lag...
More importantly, it's hard to see me actually waiting that long before
buying again. Grrr...
Mattia
ReplyMeister[tm]