Has anyone been completely satisfied with a TV DVD release? (1 Viewer)

[Nick Martin]

Syndicated cuts, removed recaps, music replacements, lack of extras, poor video, incorrect aspect ratio, etc, etc...Since there are so many things that go wrong with TV DVDs, I wonder if anyone ever picked one up and had no issues with it - everything was done right.

I'm sure it's probably a hard question to answer, but it might be interesting to see if the responses share the same TV titles.

"Firefly" was at least, a near-perfect release. Great A/V quality, great extras, but didn't (understandably) include the brief introduction to the universe of the series...a small gripe, in an otherwise perfect TV DVD.

And yours are?

 

[Jay_B!]

Seinfeld (these sets are amazing)
Buffy/Angel
Desperate Housewives
Facts Of Life (yes, I know there's an edited season 1 episode, I don't care for pre-Jo episodes anyways)
Supernatural

 

[Nick Martin]

I cannot believe you have those Buffy/Angel DVDs on your list.

Are you serious?

 

[Josh_LaF]

The Lost season sets are probably the best TV sets on the market today. In fact Buena Vista IMO seems to do a great job with their sets on the newer shows like Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and more or less Scrubs (the improper episode order on the third season set bothered me).

 

[Dorrie_W]

I'm really easy to please. But I have been pleased with the following shows

Degrassi Junior High Seasons 1-3
Degrassi The Next Generations Seasons 1-3
She-Ra Princess of Power Season 1 Vol 1
He Man and the Masters of the Universe (all seasons)
Punky Brewster (all seasons)
Whats Happening and Good Times (all seasons)
Fraggle Rock The Complete First Season
Brady Bunch all seasons

I'm just a woman sitting at home watching TV, I don't know anything about picture ratio and I'm a bit too bubbleheaded to remember missing scenes (i can't recall what I had for lunch yesterday) LOL

But I really like when it seems like some effort was put into the sets which is why Fraggle Rock and the He Man DVD sets came to mind immediately.

Good Times and Whats Happening may be bare bones but at least I was able to complete the series.

 

[Scott_J]

I'll agree with the Seinfeld sets. And I'll add Clerks the Animated Series - 2 discs with all 6 episodes, commentary for all eps, and some other extras.

 

[Henry Gale]

Ditto.

I was happy with Season 1 & 2 of Deadwood.

The Buffy collection is a pain in the ass.

 

[TravisR]

Seinfeld and The Twilight Zone re-releases are as close to perfect as could be. 24 has great video/audio and really good in-depth extras and they look at less highlighted departments in the making of episodes. Lost has great video/audio and decent extras as well.

But to answer your question, no- most people (on the internet) are never happy with a DVD release.

EDIT: I just noticed Sean's post below and want to amend mine to include The Simpsons too. Great, great sets.

 

[AnthonyC]

The Office season 2 is the single best TV DVD release ever IMHO. Tons of extras, great PQ and sound, unaltered episodes...

 

[Mike*SC]

Yes, completely satisfied, many, many, many, many times.

 

[Jay_B!]

why wouldn't I be? Okay, I don't care for the lack of "play all", but they were manufactured back before play all was the norm for TV-DVD's. Outside of the menus for Buffy season 2 (which took a long time between episodes), I never had a problem with anything on those sets.

 

[TravisR]

I'd assume one thing that Nicholas is referring to the missing 'Previously On's for Buffy and Angel.

 

[seanOhara]

I never liked the intro, since the idea of a single solar system with dozens of habitable planets was silly, and by not including it I could just pretend it had never been part of the show.

Then the movie came out.

Frack.

But something that did annoy me was the removal of the fade-to-leather effect used at commercial breaks. Whedon did it because he wanted a pause at the end of the act before the commercials started, but Fox used a compression program that removed all black frames. But still, it really added to the ambiance of the show.

As to the question at hand, I think animated shows have faired the best -- Futurama, The Venture Bros., The Simpsons, The Critic, Home Movies, and Mission Hill are what TV on DVD should be. In live action, The Twilight Zone discs are near perfect, and I have no complaints about I Love Lucy.

 

[Linda Thompson]

The Adventures Of Brisco County Jr. - simply marvelous

La Femme Nikita - one singular (and totally unavoidable) music replacement in 5 seasons, in a show which used music VERY extensively

Alien Nation - more extras and commentaries would've been nice, but it's great as is

24 - excellent

Hercules / Xena - great sets (I hate fold-outs, but that's mostly a quibble)


I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the Dick Van Dyke Show sets yet. I don't have them (yet), but I've only heard wonderful things.

 

[mannix]

I have scenes on my dallas dvds which were not on the tapes when I taped
them on tnn

 

[Jay_B!]

ohhh, I'm not a big "previously on" person so it doesn't bother me. Buffy and Angel are two shows that really have to be viewed in order so if one who is new to either show decides to pop in and start with episode 14 of season 5 (just an example), then it's their problem for being lost. I felt the same way with Veronica Mars season 2.

 

[Paul Miller]

Simpsons
Futurama
He Man and the Masters of the Universe
Dick Van Dyke
I Love Lucy
Shout's You Bet Your Life Volumes 1 & 2
Newsradio
Fraggle Rock
Harvey Birdman
Greg The Bunny


Paul

 

[JohnMor]

Very satisfied, many times over. I don't let little imperfections affect my state of mind or enjoyment:

Absolutely Fabulous
Angel
Bewitched
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Desperate Housewives
The Dick Van Dyke Show
I Love Lucy
Leave it to Beaver
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Office (British series)
Seinfeld
The Simpsons
That Girl
The Twilight Zone (Definitive Edition sets)

and a few guilty pleasure series that have excellent video/audio quality:

Gidget
Gilligan's Island
The Munsters

RE: The "previously on's" for Angel and Buffy, I can't think of anything MORE irrelevent to want, including the vaunted Season Five finale one, which was great but not essential to the episode.

 

[Nick Martin]

And how on the ANGEL sets they cut into the teasers, so in certain cases, lines of dialogue and even an entire scene (the season 2 episode "Over The Rainbow") end up removed as well....they will always be considered deeply flawed for that. If they were removed with even the slightest care and precision, then I could accept it.

So I don't mind that their gone so much as I mind that they cut too much.

 

[Scott_F_S]

The only issues I have with any of my sets are in the packaging, not with the content. I hate the double-sided discs, and I really hate those packages that include two overlapping discs in one tray.

I don't get worked up about extra material. I watch the featurettes, docs, deleted scenes or whatever once when they're there, but I don't miss them when they're not. I never listen to commentaries.

All I want is the best possible presentation of the episodes themselves. As long as that's there, only the inconvenient packaging bothers me.