ChrisRowley

Universal TV DVDs: No More Double-Sided Discs!

I just noticed this area after posting in the TV DVD forum, so I apologize.

All DVD producers, and expecially Universal Studios Television Unit: No more double-sided discs. They are an abomination. Especially coming from a major studio whose archives have yet to be fully explored for DVDs. I may never buy another collection from Universal after being burned again this past Tuesday.

I thought we had been freed of the double-sided disc except in the case of full-screen/widescreen flippers which are acceptable. But I recently spent way too much money on Law & Order S2 and Northern Exposure S1 to swallow double-sided discs. Personally I use Sony 300 disc changers (and not the onjes with the flipper feature) and have one loaded up with TV sets (seven season of friends, six of Buffy, six of Stargate, the full run of Babylon 5, and many more), but even if I was just using one of the five-changers (or the seven-changer JVC that I boughtjust because of six-disc releases) I'd feel pretty cheated here. It's not like these are cut-rate priced sets either, Northern Exposure costing more than Fox's Buffy Season 6 (released the same day) while including only three flipper discs and no insert compared with six beautiful discs and an insert that tells me where to find the episodes (though Buffy/Angel continue to ignore detailing where to find the commentaries and extras).

I want to buy and collect all my favorite shows and have them accessible when the mood calls, but for now I'll skip all the Law & Order releases and be looking out for Universal's logo on any TV set in the future. And there should be a label, and sites that relay information or handle sales should indicate this horrible packaging choice.

Chris Rowley

Jesse Skeen

DVD has been a 2-sided medium from the beginning, and they do make changers (Kenwood and Sony) that can autoflip discs. 2-sided discs are not an "abomination", they are taking advantage of the format's storage capability and reducing shelf space- I personally am sick of all the needless multi-disc sets out there- if I wanted a big box of discs I'd take them on CAV laserdiscs!
I've been buying a lot less Universal discs lately because of their forced trailers, but their recent releases with up to four movies on one disc is one of the few things they're doing right these days.

Home video oddities, old commercials and other junk: http://www.youtube.com/user/eyeh8cbs

ChrisRowley

How are they taking advantage when they are doing single-layer? Only two episodes per side of "Northern Exposure". I know I'm not the only one who likes to sit down for marathons, I remember doing it with the first season of "24" and thanks to FOX I could program-play each episode where the only function I needed was "pause", and this made that twenty-hour story play as intended. "Abomination" is the word I use as it is an insult to the capabilities of DVD and the practice of users. In the "old days" you could squeeze record eight hours on a VHS tape and run shows in a marathon. Double-sided is a step back, something technology shouldn't do in the realm of convenience.

Chris Rowley
Owner of lots of DVD players, none that can flip, and there are few that can, and Universal is alone in double-siding TV shows so why is anyone defending them (even MGM uses Dual-Layer single-side)?