Is burn-on-demand the future?

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

Sorry, double post.

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

The only plus to this burn-on-demand concept that I see is would be the day that I can finally purchase vintage Fox TV broadcasts of the Hour Of Stars program.

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

Hey Arnold! S1 is already available. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001EO5JJS

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

I appreciate what you are saying, but in 2008, except for the new shows being released to DVD in September and October every year, what about the fans who want the older shows which have either not made it to DVD or never got finished? I'm not even talking obscure shows, I'm talking about things like the last volume of Animaniacs, Mary Tyler Moore, The Bob Newhart Show, The Drew Carey Show, Welcome Back Kotter, Gummi Bears, Part 2 of Season Two of Gargoyles, the remaining part of the Huckleberry Hound Show (well, that last one may be a bit)...

You also have shows like Maude which they put out a first season release for which while they were good shows, they didn't really have great syndication so it is going to be a hard sell. They gave Chico And The Man a WB Favorites tryout too but nothing ever came from that.

I agree with you, I'd love for them to get the works, special clean ups and some extras, but aren't we realistically getting to the end now except for the newer shows?


I think it is a lot harder to sell people on an old tv shows than a book because with schools, colleges and book clubs, it keeps the interest fresh and the older the book, the cheaper it is to print.


I think there is a difference between casual fans and hardcore fans. The hardcore fans is a much smaller based so it would still benefit the major companies to put the shows on the stories so people see them on the shelves when shopping and decide to pick them up.


2002 was six years ago now and technology does improve over time. It might be at least be worth revisiting.

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

You couldn't get the rest of Huckleberry Hounds via burn on demand because you still have the music issue

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

I love the idea, I want a physical product in my hand not a file on my computer. This is what studios/networks should be doing, offer their TV titles/episodes with individual sale and the opportunity for fans to buy their own put-together collections.

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

Let's see. Buying things from the internet might save you, at the same time, a lot of money. First, you are not going to pay shipping costs, high taxes (specially if the product you are interested is not available where you live, and the whole bunch of things like media/package/royalties/store revenues that can rise all prices.

You might also choose what kind of contents you are going to buy - only the movie (no extras?), how many audio tracks, subtitles, etc. And why not - the whole "package" separately? How many covers/cases are considered bad and how much space you are going to need to store all of them? I have more than 500 discs and I am actually removing my rack. Physical media will never cease to exist, unless you don't care about making backups and preserving your copies (fair use).

We can't decide what we want today. Sometimes they just offer you the entire boxset (including the whole season, or movie collection), and you are forced to buy the whole thing (even if you only need one disc). You are stuck with what they are offering. And if you are going to quote DRM, I might as well say the region codes are equally stupid, and they are still there.

Have you looked the DVDCompare website? How many different (and bad) releases were made on different countries by different companies? Even if there's no reason for that. Right, we can buy these bootlegs from eBay or hope in a very distant future all the local companies will release them. That's not going to happen. eBay copies will not speak your language, therefore you will need to edit them and insert subtitles (or rip into your hard-drive). Suuuure, it's a very easy process...

If you are using the internet, just purchase that version, with everything you need and being offered for a better price). After you received the files, just burn the disk and voila!

Need I remind you that most bootlegs are also overpriced? Since the companies are making a very limited number of copies, we are being extorted by the so-called "collectors".

Being realistic, if tomorrow everyone starts selling movies over the internet, we might not have any major improvement over the current model, but at least we will have that option. While technology progresses at the speed of light it's implementation is filtered through the speed of bureaucracy.

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

Someone posted an excellent review + some nice screencaps, the back cover, and the discs for the Hey Arnold! season 1 release...and I must say, I'm very impressed. Not only does the packaging appear to be the standards you'd expect from a retail release, but Amazon is underselling this by claiming a 116-min. runtime, when in fact that's the approximate runtime for each disc, not the entire set. Which makes much more sense and was the big question mark for me regarding these releases.

I really look forward to seeing what else comes out in this manner; while bare bones DVD-Rs are hardly my first choice, I'm really not seeing much of a problem with it considering it meets Amazon.com's usual high standards.

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

very nice... thanks for the link to the images. So what exactly is wrong with a set like that ? My hope is Gord/Dave will get a hold of a set themselves and inspect the quality. Then maybe re-consider covering these releases with news and whatnot.

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

Doug & Hey Arnold! were shows on Nick I really used to like when I was a kid. I'll probably pick one of these up pretty soon to try em out and see how the audio/video quality is and stuff. but the packaging looks great from the pics that were put up on the one Hey Arnold listing. The lack of extras and stuff doesnt bother me much, but there are at least a couple things I know could be included for Hey Arnold....that character was around for years before the show got off the ground. I hope they keep this up with some of the other classic Nick shows like Salute Your Shorts or All That!

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

Ok, this is a thorny issue for me.
Let me just say that I don't know anything about what a company that burns on demand is using to do the burning.
Now wait. Is it like my equipment that I have here at my house?
It must be much better than what I have. Right?
I don't particularly like the thought of a burn on demand service because of what I use to burn discs with.
If it is much superior to what I have, then I might have to rethink.
The Doug and Hey Arnold! example looks quite fabulous, and thus the rethinking, but only if the discs would last longer than the freaking discs I use on the freaking apparently inadequate system I burn them on!
If it can be proved someway that this is true.....well, I just might believe it.

Until then.....I just don't know. I just don't know.

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

Okay... so where's Hey Dude?

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

I'm curious on how the "burn on demand" format will be accepted....

Now that these are for sale, has anyone bought any of the titles and can you give us your review / feedback?

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

I got Hey Arnold! S1. Discs played fine on all five players I tested (including Philips, Sony, Panasonic and two budget makes) and on my PC's DVD drive. The discs were DVD-Rs that are purple on the reflective side. Not sure about what brand they are. The AV quality of the shows was better than I expected, pretty solid, although I don't have a high-end system to really test them on (though we are talking mid-1990s Nicktoons here, so don't expect miracles).

The packaging was good - the cover looked professionally printed, the disc label art was good and the actual case was sturdy. Menus were alright.. I noticed one error where a long word wrapped onto the next line but other than that there were no problems there. On HA!, at least, the opening credits played only once at the start of each disc, but the end credits played every time they would have originally aired (usually after every second story) - presumably to ensure no-one's name was lost, which might happen if they combined five lots of credits into one lot at the disc's end.

Overall, I'm really happy with the set, and I'd say it's worth the money. I've since ordered Hey Arnold! S2 and Doug S1-S2.

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

Is Nickelodean the only company doing this right now? I'm hoping for releases by Sony and CBS/Paramount properties. This could be a great way for them to make rare shows available in a less-costly way.

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

I just got the second season of Doug as a belated birthday gift (season 1 is on its way as well )...I did a quick test, and it plays on both my computer and my Toshiba D-VR600 (which is not a play-only device, so that warning is probably a "just in case" disclaimer and not a rule). The packaging is very nice, the discs themselves look superb. One plus that I think everyone can agree on with these releases? The menu pops up instantly, no sitting through FBI warnings, logos, etc.

I obviously haven't gone through the entire set, but from what I've checked out so far, the sound and video are about what'd you expect--not amazing but definitely above VHS quality. I doubt that Paramount would've gone through any effort to improve upon this if it were a standard retail release.

While I would love to have extras, the overall package exceeded my expectations for sure. In fact, my only real complaint--and this is more of a pet peeve than anything--when you select an episode and it finishes, it goes directly into the next episode. Not a big deal at all and I know that I'm one of the few people here who doesn't swear by "Play All" so I won't really consider it a mark against it.

Now please, bring out Survivor and Amazing Race already!

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

I finally ordered South of Nowhere #1; amazon said it will be delivered 11/3-11/5. A whole month?? Sheesh, amazon--get busy and burn the stupid thing already. After all I DEMAND it. hahahahahaa~~~

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

Got it yesterday. Okay; you wanted a little review, here it is. THIS SET IS TERRIFIC! There is nothing whatsoever about it that is shoddy or amateurish, or "homemade." It doesn't say what kind of discs they are, but they are certainly not "burned" discs; the backs look like any pre-recorded disc you've ever seen. They are not bluish or purplish. The printing on the discs looks silk-screened like most discs; it's not a sticker/label. The cover art did not look like it came out of a laser printer or anything; it looks like it came from a professional printing company.

The discs have warnings that they might not play on certain equipment, like PCs. So, I tried the disc on the following: a standard dvd player, my Playstation 2, my dvd recorder, a portable dvd player, and my laptop. The discs played on ALL of these, just fine!

Dvd image/sound quality: about 9 out of 10. The show looks like it was completely, professionally authored. Terrific image and sound; the show looks 5X better than it did on Noggin.

So? This is a major plus. I want to publicly allay any worries about the quality of these particular burn-on-demand dvd sets. These are not second-tier products; they are highly professional and attractive. This is a great way to start amazon's burn-on-demand program; they hit the ground running. I urge you to try some for yourself (if any of the limited number of shows now available do interest you). The main reason for this is--that if people are showing "demand" for this kind of product, you'll just see it more and more. Maybe the vaults will get unlocked on those obscure or commercially unviable programs that we dedicated fans all want. We all have a huge laundry list of shows we want that we don't think will make it to our local Wal-Marts anytime soon. Maybe this is a way to get them.

This is a sensational product; don't worry about the quality!

***Rave over. Now get back to whatever it is you were doing...

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

Really? The Doug ones are purple. Either way, they play perfectly and I have no complaints.

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

The South of Nowhere ones are whitish, or silvery, just like most pre-recorded discs. It doesn't look like any kind of inferior media at all. In fact, I have a feeling these are NOT "burn on demand." It looks more like a limiting pressing. Maybe they have some sort of program where they produce the sets (in the traditional manner) when they get enough orders. Maybe it's more like "manufacture on demand."

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

I just received Doug Series 1 and 2. Neither will play on my Denon DVD3910. Checked on the Denon website which says it may not play 'poorly finalized' DVD-R discs. Damn thing cost me nearly £1000 when it came out.
The discs play fine on my daughters £50 Sony DVD player !!!
The look of the discs is fine by the way. They look no different to any other DVD package.
Another problem I had was that all the discs were loose owing to the fact all the disc tray splines ( the cases are cheap things - NOT AMARAY) were broken so I need to get new cases.
If you can play DVD-R on a more recent player this is a great show to own.
Cheers, John

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

cool i want to get the south of nowhere discs but cause they currently cost over £20 will get a customs charge on them so need them to come down to £18 or less, but not sure if they will

Re: Is burn-on-demand the future?

Sounds like Doug was done totally differently than South of Nowhere. It says on the amazon page, however, that the discs might not play on dvd recorders; it's a good strong warning that the media might be dicey, and yes they do returns. But South of Nowhere played on five different players including my recorder and my laptop, so good going there.