What about discs where you have no choice but to sit through the FBI Warning, Previews, The Following Commentary. . ., etc. Fast Forward doesn’t work, the menu button doesn’t work. Fuck it, I bought the goddamned DVD, I don’t need to see that shit over and over.
“Original cut” as in the original 1977, 1980 and 1983 versions? How can I possibly have missed this?
My sentiments precisely! I’ve got an Outer Limits disc on at the moment, and I forgot about their “disable the menu button” trick … so I got five Dire Copyright Warnings screens, in three different languages, before I could get to the next episode.
(And I’m lucky, at that; I sat through all the copyright warnings on one Region 2 disc, once. Twenty-eight different languages … )
Why do the major DVD manufacturers feel this is necessary? I respect copyright and intellectual property rights, you can tell this by the way I pay for the bloody DVDs. Smaller DVD companies don’t seem to find this necessary. And it doesn’t happen with other products … I have several hundred books around here, all of which have copyright information on one easily-ignored front page. I bought a chicken and mushroom pie from the Co-Op, this afternoon, and they somehow managed to sell it to me without making me watch an informative video on the evils of shoplifting first … But with the big media companies, I can’t get away from these effing copyright warnings, which say, to me: “Oh, you paid honest money for our product, did you? WELL, WE THINK YOU’RE A LOW-DOWN NO-GOOD LOUSY THIEF!”
Bah, I say, bah. And likewise tchah. A pox and a murrain on 'em all.
Ugh, tell me about it. I have one DVD which is really weird about this (It’s a six-ep series, but it’s divided into 12 parts, I have no idea why). If I try to chapter skip through the opening of an episode, I’ll get thrown into the mid-point of it–so in ep 2 (parts 3 & 4) if I try to skip the opening, I wind up halfway through, at the beginning of what’s listed as part 4.
The really stupid part? If I go to the scene selection screen and pick part 3, I’ll wind up at the beginning of the episode, right after the credits. It’s a good series, but the DVD is screwy.
The pilot is available as an import.
You should really go more into this, because it’s probably the most incompetent handling of a DVD release ever made.
Twin Peaks, for those who don’t know the series, is a mystery. But the brilliant TV producers couldn’t get the rights for the Pilot ep, so they released an incomplete season 1, missing all the backstory and setup contained in the first episode. And there’s a lot to miss in an episode of Twin Peaks. The pilot ep has been released, standalone, but only in Europe, IIRC.
And now they won’t release Season 2 because Season 1 sold so poorly.
Mine is from I think Hong Kong.
I thought the latest story was that Paramount was in the process of putting together season sets because the rights have finally reverted.
(tap,tap…is this thing on…tap)
Ready? All together…
“They’re creepy and they’re kooky,
mysterious and spooky…”
for gods sake, I can find Petticoat Junction on DVD! The entire bloody Andy Griffiths show is on DVD. But not one of the best TV comedies ever. No, they release the Munsters.
It’s just not fair.
SULK.
Exactly. The argument is that the people who illegally copy DVDs also buy/rent them first, to have something to copy from. My reply: is anybody such a naive numbskull that they think a pirate is going to rent a DVD with intent to copy, see the warnings and change their mind?
this why i own 1 share of stock of paramount, 1 of warner and 1 share of several other companies. i write and bitch to them as a stockholder. at least they answer me now.
I know reviving dead threads is bad form, but I wish to un-pit Fox from this OP.
Fox, this is the perfect way to treat the loyal fans. Class act, guys. Thanks.
I don’t know if I should be angry or happy about the release of Flags of our Fathers this week. I’m annoyed that they released it with zero (that’s right - zero) special features of any kind. However, I’m happy that they made it so goddamn obvious that they’ll later release a “collectors edition” so I can know to skip this one right out of the gate.
Not to mention that they bowdlerized Touched… not that I am big on W/K, but it’s the principle, gosh darnit.
PS, sorry for any typos I haven’t noticed, I have the brightness on my screen turned waaaay down because I am being kept up by a migraine and can barely see anything. (file under: you know you are addicted to the Dope when…)
Jeez, my room mate and I were sitting through one of those commercials on a DVD I had just brought home from the store.
My response? “Man, I already own this, and I feel like downloading this movie from the internet just to SPITE these guys.” 
Seriously, that kind of stuff just pisses me the hell off. Like when you have to sit through the commercials in the movie theater too. I’m surprised the concession stands don’t make me watch a video telling me about how I shouldn’t sneak in food from outside.
While we’re talking about crummy DVD releases, let’s talk about Due South, shall we? One of the greatest cop shows ever made, it told the epic tale of a Canadian Mountie who lives in Chicago (it makes sense if you watch the show) and helps his friend, a Chicago detective, solve various crimes and right wrongs.
Anyhow, I loved this show. They finally release it on DVD in the US, and Atlantis apparently decided to give the DVD rights to the lowest bidder. The box art for EVERY SINGLE SEASON is identical, with Paul Gross and David Marciano on the cover… even though David Marciano isn’t even in the last season of the show! Callum Keith Rennie, the co-star in the third and final season, gets totally shafted, only mentioned in the fine print on the back of the box, even though he’s the only one of the three actors who even still shows up on TV in the US as far as I can tell.
And don’t even get me started on the “Fruit roll up” style DVD case they use, where all the DVDs are on one long sheet that folds up into the box. I freaking hate those, cause they suck at keeping the discs in place, and guarantee that they’ll get scuffed on each other if any of them falls off. Oh, and the DVDs are all identical in appearance, except for a number identifying which disc you’re holding.
I’m really glad that Alliance Atlantis and Echo Bridge Entertainment spent less money on these DVDs than they did on tipping the pizza guy.
They did? What got nuked?
I’m the same way. I never buy new release, full price dvds. 90% of the time I buy the blowout sale dvds and used dvds.
I suppose the point is that enough people buy the DVDs that it is financially in the company’s (short term) interest to do it.
Original, IIRC, as not even cleaned up and remastered.
So, consider it a warning.
-Joe
The release date looks like April 3 or 10 depending on what way the wind blows when you check. Amazon is taking pre-orders for it now.
You’ve got to be kidding, right? Night Court kicked ass. Remember John Astin? “But I’m all better now!”
Or “Dan Fielding was-a mammal!”