Is the b&w era of TV on DVD slowly coming to an end? (2 Viewers)

[Gary OS]

One of the good things about the Barnes & Noble website is that, for most DVDs, it will have a listing of the contents on each disk of a DVD set. So, for HGWT, season 4, vol. 1, if you go here http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dvd-have-gun-will-travel-the-fourth-season-vol-1/18930770?ean=97368947641 and scroll down to Menu you will see a list of each episode included and on what disk.

Ray is absolutely correct. I have the Barnes & Noble website bookmarked for this very purpose. While it's not a 100% guarantee they will have each episode listed in the dvd description, the vast majority of the time they do have that kind of precise breakdown. It's a valuable tool.


Gary "I don't buy from them anymore, but the website is still good to visit when you want to get the info Ray was talking about" O.

 

[Ron1973]

As we've talked about earlier, I figure the "on-DVD" part is slowly dying off. As I survey Netflix and how they're already showing "unreleased on DVD" seasons of Quincy, M.E., I can't help but think that's going to be the future, love it or hate it. On one hand I love the idea that I don't have to physically buy the media and can stream unlimited for $10/month. The fact I don't have the physical media is a bug-a-boo. If they discontinue the series on Netflix I'm sunk. Plus I can't take streaming with me.

 

[Vic Pardo]

One of the good things about the Barnes & Noble website is that, for most DVDs, it will have a listing of the contents on each disk of a DVD set. So, for HGWT, season 4, vol. 1, if you go here http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dvd-have-gun-will-travel-the-fourth-season-vol-1/18930770?ean=97368947641 and scroll down to Menu you will see a list of each episode included and on what disk.

That's very helpful. I need to start consulting that site. Thank you very much.

P.S. I just compared prices between B&N and Amazon. Amazon's prices are at least $10 cheaper.
Also I noticed something strange in the B&N listings for "Have Gun Will Travel." They call it "DVD (Pan & Scan)." That makes no sense. It's not "pan & scan," it's full screen, exactly how it first aired and how it was supposed to air. "Pan & scan" technically means when a widescreen image is shown in the Academy ratio (the old TV standard) and the telecine camera would shift (pan) from one side of the frame to the other to, for instance, show both parties talking in a widescreen shot (i.e. pan from one speaker to the other so that the audience sees them both--although not in the way the original filmer had intended). That doesn't apply to DVDs like these. Even "pan & scan" is often a misnomer. I've seen full-screen transfers of widescreen movies where the telecine stays focused only on the middle of the frame. In a shot of two people sitting at a table talking, we would only see the table! In subtitled movies, this means the subs. on both sides of the frame are cut off, so you only see the middle of the line of dialogue. In a Mandarin-language kung fu film, say, the hero's full line is "We will avenge the killing of our master," which means the line might read, on a standard frame VHS transfer, "ill avenge the killing of" and that's it. You get the idea.

 

[Richard V]

As we've talked about earlier, I figure the "on-DVD" part is slowly dying off. As I survey Netflix and how they're already showing "unreleased on DVD" seasons of Quincy, M.E., I can't help but think that's going to be the future, love it or hate it. On one hand I love the idea that I don't have to physically buy the media and can stream unlimited for $10/month. The fact I don't have the physical media is a bug-a-boo. If they discontinue the series on Netflix I'm sunk. Plus I can't take streaming with me.

"We have met the enemy and he is us (them)" As consumers, we have no one else to blame for the onslaught of streaming media. Unfortunately the demand for quick, cheap, easy, "quality be damned", media from the masses who just don't want the bother of having to shop for their media, and don't care about how good the picture looks. If there was no demand, there would be no product for streaming media. It's just the old market, in this case, "demand/supply". If the majority of Americans turned their back on streaming, it would end immediately and we would have racks and racks of blurays to choose from, instead of the bluray being placed on the endangered species list.

 

[BobO'Link]

^I actually "blame" the under ~40 crowd. My son (32) and many of his friends don't have that collector mentality about TV programs and/or films. They don't want the "clutter" such a collection can bring into the house. While he's seen my collections grow he doesn't fully understand *why* I have book/CD/Album/DVD/Comic collections as to him it's all disposable. He has 3-4 TV shows that he owns on DVD because they are *absolute* favorites. *Everything* else he's content to stream if/when available. He doesn't get that same "comfort" as do I from being able to pick a old favorite from among the thousands on the shelves and listen/watch/read when *I* want, *not* when a license allows. Because of my collections I'm able to intoduce favorites from my youth to my grandkids, who have yet to watch something from my library they don't like. Many of these programs are not on *any* streaming service. I discovered that simple fact when we stayed with my son and daughter-in-law for a week before Christmas. He has Netflix and Amazon Prime - I looked for *dozens* of old series and films I had a desire to watch and came up empty handed 90% of the time. It was a highly frustrating experience.

 

[Matt Hough]

That's very helpful. I need to start consulting that site. Thank you very much.

I reviewed both volumes of season four of Have Gun Will Travel for HTF, but the (admittedly problematic) search engine here only brought up reviews for seasons one and five. At any rate, I checked my own database here, and I did list the titles of the nineteen episodes in each of the volumes. However, I didn't mention in the review which ones featured the actress in question.

 

[Ockeghem]

My memory was faulty. In fact, both halves of the season are even at 19 episodes each.

Lee,It's a good thing it was faulty in this thread and not in the other one.

 

[JoeDoakes]

Also I noticed something strange in the B&N listings for "Have Gun Will Travel." They call it "DVD (Pan & Scan)."

Barnes & Noble always does that for anything that is not in widescreen. It's frustrating, but there are a lot of people who misuse the term (including those who use it to refer to open mat transfers of movies released theatrically in a widescreen format).

 

[Vic Pardo]

I reviewed both volumes of season four of Have Gun Will Travel for HTF, but the (admittedly problematic) search engine here only brought up reviews for seasons one and five. At any rate, I checked my own database here, and I did list the titles of the nineteen episodes in each of the volumes. However, I didn't mention in the review which ones featured the actress in question.

Would you by any chance remember if Lisa Lu (as Hey Girl) had a significant role in any of those episodes? Or did she just do glorified walk-ons? I watched one of the episodes in question (I taped them off the Western Channel), "The Tax Gatherer," and she had only one scene right at the beginning and only one line of two words, "Eternally, Master." And then she went off to help Paladin pack and that was it. They did give her some nice closeups in compensation, though.

 

[Matt Hough]

I wouldn't swear to it since I watched them so long ago, but it seems like one episode did sort of spring from her presence on the show (maybe she talked Paladin into taking a case he wasn't all that keen in accepting). Most of the time, it was just at the beginning of the episode.

And I did note in the review for Season 5, Volume 1 that Hey Boy had returned for all of the episodes in that set.

 

[Ron1973]

"We have met the enemy and he is us (them)" As consumers, we have no one else to blame for the onslaught of streaming media. Unfortunately the demand for quick, cheap, easy, "quality be damned", media from the masses who just don't want the bother of having to shop for their media, and don't care about how good the picture looks. If there was no demand, there would be no product for streaming media. It's just the old market, in this case, "demand/supply". If the majority of Americans turned their back on streaming, it would end immediately and we would have racks and racks of blurays to choose from, instead of the bluray being placed on the endangered species list.

I'll have to disagree. Yes, I would love to be able to afford every series I want but the reality is I can't. $10/month is a great price for me to watch shows I love every night.

I also think this gives us the opportunity to possibly see shows streaming that we never would have seen on DVD. I know Gary wants Ozzie and Harriet on DVD/Blu and it's on his holy grail list. If Sam sees this thing to fruition, what if it were cheaper for him to stream these as opposed to chancing them going belly-up in stores? I would at least rather see them streaming than never having them at all.

It's a double-edged sword in my opinion. I do fear we'll revert back to the days when our favorite program simply wasn't available. I remember the days when The Beverly Hillbillies would disappear from the local lineup and wondering when or if they'd come back on. It did eventually come to that point; they left the air, went to another local station (this time in the form of butchered syndication masters) and finally disappeared from local TV forever.

 

[Richard V]

I'll have to disagree. Yes, I would love to be able to afford every series I want but the reality is I can't. $10/month is a great price for me to watch shows I love every night.

I also think this gives us the opportunity to possibly see shows streaming that we never would have seen on DVD. I know Gary wants Ozzie and Harriet on DVD/Blu and it's on his holy grail list. If Sam sees this thing to fruition, what if it were cheaper for him to stream these as opposed to chancing them going belly-up in stores? I would at least rather see them streaming than never having them at all.

It's a double-edged sword in my opinion. I do fear we'll revert back to the days when our favorite program simply wasn't available. I remember the days when The Beverly Hillbillies would disappear from the local lineup and wondering when or if they'd come back on. It did eventually come to that point; they left the air, went to another local station (this time in the form of butchered syndication masters) and finally disappeared from local TV forever.

The same thing will happen with streaming. At some point they will just stop streaming certain shows. Netflix and other services do it all the time. Who knows if they will start streaming them again. Owning a physical copy removes that problem, but I realize as you said that not everybody can afford every show they want.

 

[Ron1973]

The same thing will happen with streaming. At some point they will just stop streaming certain shows. Netflix and other services do it all the time. Who knows if they will start streaming them again. Owning a physical copy removes that problem, but I realize as you said that not everybody can afford every show they want.

Like I said, a double edged sword. I prefer having physical copies. When I download an mp3, I automatically make a backup copy to my external hard drive. What if, God forbid, I had an electrical surge or house fire? I'd lose both copies. The same thing worries me on online streaming. If they pull it, how can I be assured I'll ever have it again? And purchasing shows online is totally confusing to me. I wound up with a credit to my Amazon account and dutifully "purchased" S3E1&2 of My Favorite Martian. For the life of me I don't understand how I "own" it since I can't find a way to download it to my hard drive.

 

[Rick Thompson]

Has anyone else noticed that the future is taking us to the past? Think about it.

Computers: It used to be you had a dumb terminal with all the storage downstairs, controlled by someone else. Then came the personal computer; everything was on your computer on your desktop. Now we're getting low-power netbooks, iPads and Googlebooks with all the storage "in the cloud," controlled by someone else, who may or may not make it available.

Television: We used to watch content on TV -- basically streamed -- that was controlled by someone else at NTSC quality. Then came VCRs, DVDs and Blu-rays, with higher resolutions on big screens. Now it's predicted that we'll be watching streamed content, access to which is controlled by someone else at NTSC or lower quality (nowhere near the bandwidth), on screens smaller than those old 19-inch jobs. There is a difference: TV was free then; Now, unless you live in or near a city, you have to pay for satellite or cable because digital is line-of-sight and not there unless perfect.

Yes, we have seen the future. It's beginning to look a lot like the past.

 

[Vic Pardo]

Has anyone else noticed that the future is taking us to the past? Think about it.

Computers: It used to be you had a dumb terminal with all the storage downstairs, controlled by someone else. Then came the personal computer; everything was on your computer on your desktop. Now we're getting low-power netbooks, iPads and Googlebooks with all the storage "in the cloud," controlled by someone else, who may or may not make it available.

Television: We used to watch content on TV -- basically streamed -- that was controlled by someone else at NTSC quality. Then came VCRs, DVDs and Blu-rays, with higher resolutions on big screens. Now it's predicted that we'll be watching streamed content, access to which is controlled by someone else at NTSC or lower quality (nowhere near the bandwidth), on screens smaller than those old 19-inch jobs. There is a difference: TV was free then; Now, unless you live in or near a city, you have to pay for satellite or cable because digital is line-of-sight and not there unless perfect.

Yes, we have seen the future. It's beginning to look a lot like the past.

This is why I've stocked up on enough VCRs and DVD players to last me well into my retirement. I've got enough physical media (tapes and discs) to last me the rest of my life as it is. And enough books to read as well. Sure, I may have to rely on the "cloud" every so often for something very specific that's not in my collection, but I'll never be dependent on it.

 

[LouA]

To show that the era of B&W TV on DVD isn't totally dead, a company called Film chest is releaseing the completen 1950's children show "Adventures Of Champion " series later this month.

 

[Rick Thompson]

And another way the future is becoming the past:

Telephones: We used to have a monopoly called AT&T. It got broken up into five "Baby Bells" and AT&T long distance. Over the years it's turned into Verizon as a near-monopoly, with AT&T (the name attached to what was originally Bell South), T-Mobile and Sprint. The future? Don't be surprised if Verizon becomes a full-fledged monopoly, bigger and more expensive than AT&T ever was.

But hey, we'll be able to play approved games on our phones!

 

[Professor Echo]

Don't anyone believe that the dreaded "Streamageddon" from last spring was all media hype, as Netflix tried to counter in response. My queue dropped from over 200 titles to 75 overnight. And virtually none of the titles have returned nearly a year later. The studios have NEVER EVER wanted you to own their media. They couldn't ignore the potential profits from it and played along, but the lawyers were always kicking and screaming behind the scenes. Streaming is what they have dreamed about since the first studio issued Beta and VHS tapes appeared in 1976. This is it, folks. They will seek nothing more than total control of their properties from now on. Just watch how fast Warners closes up the physical media archive once their streaming channel gets more popular. And they will only be the first to shut down physical media, but the other majors will all follow. If you want a physical media collection, start stocking up now because it's fading away faster than you think.

 

[Gary OS]

Don't anyone believe that the dreaded "Streamageddon" from last spring was all media hype, as Netflix tried to counter in response. My queue dropped from over 200 titles to 75 overnight. And virtually none of the titles have returned nearly a year later.The studios have NEVER EVER wanted you to own their media. They couldn't ignore the potential profits from it and played along, but the lawyers were always kicking and screaming behind the scenes. Streaming is what they have dreamed about since the first studio issued Beta and VHS tapes appeared in 1976. This is it, folks. They will seek nothing more than total control of their properties from now on. Just watch how fast Warners closes up the physical media archive once their streaming channel gets more popular. And they will only be the first to shut down physical media, but the other majors will all follow.If you want a physical media collection, start stocking up now because it's fading away faster than you think.

Well said, Glen. At the risk of being called a "Chicken Little", I do believe what you've said is indeed the mindset of the studios. It's what they want for sure. It's a matter of when, not if.


Gary "definitely not a streaming-only fan" O.

 

[Neil Brock]

Don't anyone believe that the dreaded "Streamageddon" from last spring was all media hype, as Netflix tried to counter in response. My queue dropped from over 200 titles to 75 overnight. And virtually none of the titles have returned nearly a year later.The studios have NEVER EVER wanted you to own their media. They couldn't ignore the potential profits from it and played along, but the lawyers were always kicking and screaming behind the scenes. Streaming is what they have dreamed about since the first studio issued Beta and VHS tapes appeared in 1976. This is it, folks. They will seek nothing more than total control of their properties from now on. Just watch how fast Warners closes up the physical media archive once their streaming channel gets more popular. And they will only be the first to shut down physical media, but the other majors will all follow.If you want a physical media collection, start stocking up now because it's fading away faster than you think.

Agree 100%. The studios sued to have VCRs taken off the market and they lost on a narrow decision. Then when they finally started to release their movies, out came the macrovision to prevent copying. Luckily, most of us here have enough in our personal collections to watch for the rest of our lifetimes. Other than a handful of titles that I'd love to complete my collection on or upgrade the quality on, if it all shut down tomorrow, I could live with it. And as far as streaming goes, if I can't own it then I ain't paying for it.