On the Record  Posts: 6071 Joined: 25 Jan 2008     | |
Muckraker Posts: 242 Joined: 4 Nov 2008     | Quite right, I was fooled by those bastards when I first started watching the show, bought Season 1 and Season '2.5' on DVD, assuming that '2.5' was a re-released version of season 2, with more bonus features or something like that. But no, not only did I only have half the season, but it was the 2nd half. Now, I just download episodes out of spite. I won't buy them until they're released in a 'normal' box set, containing the entire season. |
BANNED  Posts: 2994 Joined: 16 Aug 2008    | Why Buy DVD Box Sets? User was banned for: Ketchup Packets... Why in the heck are they sooo small?. (Permanent) |
BANNED  Posts: 1266 Joined: 19 Dec 2008     | And this my dear friends is why I am currently donning a eyepatch and ebaying for a parrot. YARRRRR!!! User was banned for: Soldier rushes to defend post in pink boxers. (Permanent) |
On the Record Posts: 6071 Joined: 25 Jan 2008 | Well piracy ain't my thing. As an avid collector, there's just so much more pride in my DVD collection knowing that every single one of them is a legit and legal copy. Also, while I am having some issues with how BSG has been released, I do love the show, and show my support by purchasing it. But there's a fine line between supporting my favorite shows, and being screwed out of $25 because the made-for-TV movies get re-released in the box set. Babylon 5 handled their films well, setting five of them together in one box set, instead of having to buy individual ones which singly wouldn't be worth the price. $50 for 5 films is a much better deal than $15-20 each. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1670 Joined: 31 Mar 2008    | As far as I can tell the only reason they release the seasons in halves is because thats how Sci-Fi aired them in the first place. The situation is kind of a "lose-lose". We either by the season apart in separate sets or have to wait twice as long to get the entire season in one box. |
Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 800 Joined: 25 Nov 2008     | I didn't realize that they sold half-seasons. That seems pretty stupid and I definitely would have been pissed off. |
On the Record  Posts: 5011 Joined: 28 Feb 2008  |
You technically don't have the right to be a dick in that manner... |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1295 Joined: 19 Dec 2008    |
2 episodes per DVD? That's a ripoff. FLCL is awesome, but this takes it too far. I was also suprised when I saw the BSG DVD sets. I watched the show on TV so I'm not too keen on the DVDs but I was quite unsure why they broke it up. I figured it was high-quality video taking up too much space or something. Things like this are just encouraging piracy. I'm not saying it's ok or acceptable, just that those who get pirated lose some of their complaining rights. It would be like Jack the Ripper complaining about getting mugged ;) |
Press Junketeer  Posts: 443 Joined: 1 Feb 2008   | Excellent rant Khell, you will find no disagreement from this fellow fan of television that doesn't claim to be reality. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1670 Joined: 31 Mar 2008 |
At this point in the conversation I'm going to point out that pirating something as in act of protest to make a statement always backfires and usually has the complete opposite effect. Stealing something to make a point usually ends up hurting your own cause mainly because the company your stealing said product from lumps the "iconoclasts" in with the people who pirate just for the sake of being dickwads. Oh, and I'm going to double back to a previous point I made in this thread just to make sure we have all the bases covered. With the exception of the first one seasons of Galactica were actually split up and aired in halves. I've never been quite clear on what their reason for that was, but all I know is that was just how they did it. So, as annoying as it may be, they're simply releasing the seasons in the same way they were aired: in halves. There's probably close to a six-month gap or more between the release of the two different halves (both on the air and on shelves) so at least stop and be happy that they were trying to release episodes as fast as they bloody well could. /rant |
On the Record Posts: 6071 Joined: 25 Jan 2008 |
See, I can't simply be happy that they released it in halves... What good are these ten episodes to me without their followup? If I just start watching them, I'll hit S4E10, then be back to square one of waiting for the next half. Season finale episodes, even though often rife with cliffhangers, do offer some closure to the show each time. Ending off just mid-season however, is unbearable. I'd rather they released the whole thing in August than get half now, half later. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1670 Joined: 31 Mar 2008 |
I can understand the rage a lot more after a quick check on Amazon where I saw that they're selling the halves for 50 bucks a hit. This all wouldn't be as much of an issue if they just charged about $20 for each half. I think that would be an easier amount to accept for what your getting. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1227 Joined: 18 Jun 2008  | Nice rant. Not as great as your rant on charity, but still entertaining and very, very true at the same time. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2801 Joined: 20 Jul 2008     | Nice rant as always Khell, I have to agree that the whole "adding the movie Razor" bit to the dvd set feels like a slap to the face of the fans who bought it when it first came out as it's own stand alone casing. |
On the Record  Posts: 5901 Joined: 7 Mar 2008   | yeah like they are the ONLY company to ever do this star trek was released per episode on both dvd and vhs this isn't limited to bsg only, it's happened for many many years and many different tv shows |
Anonymous Source Posts: 2 Joined: 17 Jan 2008  | Honestly, I'm just going to wait til they release an "entire series" set, possibly in a Galactica-shaped box or whatever, and just buy that. |
On the Record Posts: 6071 Joined: 25 Jan 2008 |
Star Trek was the same company as Galactica. Anime I will concede are bad for this kind of thing, which brings up Farscape... Farscape was originally released through an anime distributor (AD Vision). Stargate, no. My roommate owns all seasons except the last one or two, and for at least the 10 or so he has, they've all come full-season per box set, and at a better price than most other shows. Can't comment on MST3000, never watched it, never bought it.
More often than not, they don't sell "complete series" sets for a show until it's well passed the 10-years-old mark. You might be waiting for quite a while. |
On the Record Posts: 5901 Joined: 7 Mar 2008 |
no they not. Star Trek was/is Paramount and Galatica is NBC/Universal
actually no and here's proof. there's more too a lot has been discontinued but they did release smaller sets previously |
Press Junketeer Posts: 443 Joined: 1 Feb 2008 |
This is entirely why Khell's rant is so poignant, it is not just BSG that does this. I honestly don't care who does it, I think it is a terrible practice. I encountered it with Ghost In The Shell animated series when I goofed up and bought it when I was trying to get the movie and it has pretty much turned me off of ever bothering with anime by way of DVD sets again. I have similar feelings toward buying individual comics versus a graphic novel purchase. Edit: Heck, some movie trilogies are terrible for seemingly using this practice as well. What can I say, I at least like the remote feeling of a complete story arc. |
On the Record Posts: 6071 Joined: 25 Jan 2008 |
Oops. All this time I thought Trek was MGM/Uni, you're right, it's Paramount. But to the latter part, on a technicality, I'm still right. Stargate did sell episodic single DVDs for season 1 (possibly more than S1, but I only ever saw it for thus). But the discussion and my point was boxed sets or boxed seasons. Stargate was never released as partial season boxes. Every box set they made was 5 discs, full season.
Oh gods, Ghost in the Shell could be a rant on its own. You have SAC 1st and second gig, in three different releases plus the story-arc sets of Laughing Man and Individual 11... My roommate has been screwed on double purchases with that series more than once. And it's not the same as how say Southpark or Star Trek will release a select-episodes disc. The Passion of the Jew or Cult of Cartman for instance, WAS three episodes you knew you would get in the full season. They never played dumb or mislead you into thinking the Imaginationland trilogy would be absent from Season 11's box, or so on. |
Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 768 Joined: 9 Apr 2008   | I never had problems with this. Watched the first three series and then bought the boxed set that had all the series plus films with them, though that may be just a UK thing. I do agree its silly that they produce the seasons in halves, but its all to do with scheduling apparently. They make the seasons so they match the scheduling that Sci-Fi and Sky want. Oh and the producers have cited spiels about how in depth the are with the shows etc etc yada yada...so take you're pick of excuses, of which there should be none. Now, what I really want to know is why dexter is a whole season behind in the UK... |
Copy Clerk  Posts: 75 Joined: 18 Jun 2008    | I have to agree that the whole Half-Season Box Set is a pain in the arse, but the fact is a load of people do this kind of thing these days, and the way it's justified in most cases is the 'Mid-Season Cliffhanger' so they can split the season and go away for 3 months to go on holiday/take some time off/nail the wife/nail the mistress. But it's not just BSG doing it. Look at CSI, Prison Break, Lost (Although that went to full series later on) and even The Sopranos did the half-season box set for a while. For the real hardcore fans who want to see it as soon as it's launched then we're forced to pay for it otherwise we'd have to wait another few months for the full season box-set which undoubtedly follows. But hell, it beats the fact that I remember paying £15 every two weeks for a VHS of 2 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes before they were shown on TV. And I've still got about 5 seasons of them in my wardrobe. 5 x 12 videos @ £15 a pop. |
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Ok, I want to know something people... When did it become acceptable to release HALF season box sets? Seriously, when Battlestar Galactica released season 2.0 (a half-season box) I was pissed. Now, season 4 just released and I was hoping to have the final conclusion to this, the awesomeist show on the air, but no. It's not season 4, it's 4.0, as in they're only giving us half again, with 4.5 TBA.
So season 3 comes out, and it's all good. $50 again, but a full 21 episodes over 6 discs. Figure at this point, they were done with their half-season BS. The writer's strike set it back in release date, but to make up for it, they sold a 2-hour eppie/movie Razor. So shell out $25 for that. Well guess what boys and girls... For the fourth and final season, they're back to the half-season BS, and just to be extra-spitefull, this nice $40 box set includes, you guessed it, Razor. So lovely... Not only will this mean they're getting $80 instead of $50 for the final season AGAIN, but any of us diehards who bought Razor - never having been forewarned that 4.0 would include it - essentially got screwed out of a further $25.
Seriously, what the fuck? This series, four seasons in all plus one movie, will have cost me $285, which is around $71 a season. Ok, that wasn't an unreasonable price back in 2003/2004, but with new release TV-DVD seasons launching at around $40 each these days, you'd think MGM/Universal would want to remain competitive to Fox, WB, and all the other distributors...
Oh wait, this is the same fucking company that used to ask $250+ per season for Star Trek TNG, and only in the last year dropped that figure to $75 each, only 188x the price of a new season of most anything else, for a show that's a little over two decades old.
Don't know if this rant has much of a point other than MGM/Universal being very schizophrenic with their pricing/distribution policies, having no regard for the customer's dislike of purchasing something twice, and worst of all, now I have to wait until mother-fraking August to finally see the end of the show, and fork out yet another $40 for the privilege.