TV on DVD on demand? (1 Viewer)

[Firebee]

Well, TVShowsOnDVD has finally chimed in on all of this:

Site News DVD news: Sony and HP strike a Deal for Manufacture-On-Demand DVDs | TVShowsOnDVD.com

 

[Hank Dearborn]

I should have been more specific. I meant rerun in the modern era, as in when syndicators stopped sending shows out to stations on 16mm film and went to tape.

All of this news sounds great but Sony is virtually dormant in the TV-DVD business these days. They aren't doing anything and this sounds like it would be a ton of work. We'll see but it would certainly be nice if they actually made all of their obscure series available.

 

[Jack Cleveland]

Still wondering about these two questions- Can anyone help me out?

 

[Venice-H]

Intriguing. "Parker Lewis" is a Sony product, so it got my heart racing a little. But the devil is in the details, and there just aren't many of those available yet. We'll see.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Personally, I think residuals, licencing, music licencing, etc. for shows that haven't been released yet would be so much that most people wouldn't be able to afford the price point.

Remember when Johnny Carson opened up his vault several years ago? Well, with all the licencing/royalty payment costs involved, they were charging $75-$100 per episode. Most of us couldn't (and wouldn't) pay such amounts. Heck, most of us probably wouldn't even pay $20 an episode.

Then, there's the dubious long-term durability of burnt DVDs. I'm certain, this being on-demand, they will be burn, not the longer-lasting machine-pressed discs we get in stores.

Oh, and someone else mentioned that videotaped shows need no restoration and could simply be run-off. That's not true, particurlarly the older you get. Older videotapes, particularly from the 1960s , can have really bad color that would need some restoration work to look good. You also have problems with banding, head clogs, etc.

Not to mention the fact that unless a show has already been converted for syndication during the '90s or so, older VTed shows would have to be converted from their old 2" quad format to a digital format. 2" playback equipment, I'm sure, isn't as commonplace, and is probably expensive to run and maintain. If nothing else, it adds a whole other step to the process, whereas other shows that have been converted to the newer digital tape formats (D4, etc) could simply be, as you say, "run off."

 

[David Levine]

DVD-Rs generally won't last as long, and can be more fragile. But that is most likely what they'd be sending you because you can't press discs for "custom" orders.

 

[Hank Dearborn]

Firstly, there are NO RESIDUALS on DVD sales. They were not in any contract written 40-50 years ago when home video was not even dreamed of. Secondly, other than variety shows, there really was virtually no copyrighted music used in shows of the 50s and 60s. That trend only started in the late 70s or so. As for 2" tape, that only began to be used for sitcoms in the 70s. Besides, it would benefit Sony to get those things transferred to another format while there are still any 2" machines around that still play.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Yes, it certainly would.

 

[Charles H]

I'd love to get the remaining NAKED CITYs on dvd. I would hope that this at least signals that Sony recognizes that there is a market out here for classic--and classy-movies and tv shows.

 

[Jack Cleveland]

So you would not download the product to the computer and burn it? Now I am confused... They are going to burn a DVD-R there and then send it to me?

Interesting...

So will this be similiar to the Rhino Home Made CD's?

Jack

 

[David Levine]

Yes. From everything they've said so far, they will send you physical media.

 

[MatthewA]

With the videotape shows, I realize that work is needed to correct color and banding and other defects, but it appears that they never bothered to do that when they put these shows on DVD.

 

[Hank Dearborn]

It's nice to dream but I'll believe it when I see it that they are making shows available that have not been available before. I just have this sneaking suspicion that if they do this it will be all new stuff and not the shows I want from the 50s, 60s and 70s.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Yes, that's probably right. I'll go even further than that: I'll be very surprised if they make available much of anything that hasn't been released on home video before. It's more of a hassle to sort out all the rights, music issues, mastering, etc. with unreleased stuff than with something that's already been out on VHS/DVD, has all its clearances obtained, a modern dubbing master sitting on the shelf, etc.

 

[Hank Dearborn]

For those of us who have been buying tv shows on 16mm film for years, those prices are not outrageous, depending on the rarity of the shows. And, besides, if you get a couple of friends to chip in on it with you, the price comes down. I have no problem spending $20-$25 an episode for rare series that I really want. The key is having other friends that are also serious collectors. Those prices may scare away some people but so what. This type of thing isn't going to be for the masses anyway. Don't get me wrong, I don't want it to be expensive but I'm also not afraid to come out my pockets if it is.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Well, yeah, hardcore collectors will shell out (indeed, I bought a few things from the Carson archive myself), but my point is if they can't find a way to get the price point down, it won't be a mainstream success. The general public have gotten spoiled to paying a buck or two an episode for TV.

Now, if the studios would open up their archives wide to a custom duping service (i.e. not just recent and previously-released stuff), there are certain shows I'd shell out for that I figure have little chance of a commercial release (Kenneth Johnson's Cliff Hangers, Quark, Beane's of Boston, anyone?).

Unless they pull off some sort of licencing miracle, though, I don't see how it can get down to a comparable pricing level of standard TV on DVD releases.

 

[Hank Dearborn]

Who knows the legalities of this stuff. What about all this direct mail stuff like The Dean Martin Show, Midnight Special, etc. Are they paying music fees or just flying under the radar. And what about the Carson shows? Every time someone ordered one episode, I'm sure the Carson people didn't clear all of the music from that episode for one person's order.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

It took, if I remember correctly, six to eight weeks for Carson to deliver my episodes to me. I know in their explanation of the fees, part of the reason for the high cost was music fees. Also, they said episodes had to be "cleared" and that not all episodes were clearable.

 

[Hank Dearborn]

My friend bought a bunch of early Mike Douglas shows when they used to charge $100 a pop for the 2 inch transfers. I don't think they even thought about clearing anything. They probably realized they were losing money on the deal as it was costing them way more than that to get the stuff transfered and they eventually upped the price to $400 a show. Now it's come back down to $200. But in those early days when they were doing that they didn't even have the sense to make a Beta copy for themselves when they did the transfers. On their website they list the shows that they have run off and none of the ones he had done are on there.

 

[Robert13]

I'm not so sure about this new project either. I think Sony needs to go back to releasing follow-ups and complete the series they have already started on dvd. While other companies have been making announcements left and right for releases every month, Sony has barely trickled out one release.