How do you watch your TV-DVD sets? (1 Viewer)

[MarkHastings]

That's fine if you don't want to listen to them, but do you really not see a point in listening to commentaries??? They're informative. That's a great point.

 

[joshEH]

Cripes....you serious? In the case of Babylon 5, for instance, the commentaries are extraordinary; and as mentioned above, there are fewer of them than on many other TV sets out there. In this case, quality truly does triumph over quantity.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I usually have a collection of the latest, I'll watch the episodes in order of the course of all sets, I'm not like some who have to finish one set before watching another

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

I randomly watch episodes from at least 8 or 9 different and unrelated series, one after the other, then after a week of this I piece together a new story arc that incorporates everything I've seen so far. I track this in an Excel spreadsheet. When I've finished watching, I turn my Excel spreadsheet into a new TV series pilot and mail it to Paramount.

Some day I'll be rich.

 

[Jake Yenor]

I love movie commentaries but rarely listen to tv ones.

Though I normally watch all the extras I find appealing before the tv show to put me "in the mood" for it.

 

[JediFonger]

i only own s1 of XF and the rest i rent. i don't miss any episode. i'm one of those obsessive-compulsive (see my comments in sopranos) where if i've watched the pilot, i've got to see the entire series through no matter how bad. that's why i always refuse to watch any pilots unless i'm absolutely sure i'm going to have time to finish the series if it's cancelled or ended.

of the TV on DVD i've rented, there's barely any extras, like smallville. if i own the DVD then i'm more likely to listen to the audio commentary, otherwise i don't have time.

re: commentaries. everytime i see commentaries as an "extra" i kinda' roll my eyes. of the commentaries i've heard both on film and TV, it's mostly boring and filler. yeah it's interesting... but most of the times i don't care about wtf the film is made. i want them to talk more about the story themes/characters, etc. it's not a film-school. anyway, i don't think it's entertaining to sit through what is essentially a "pop-up video" type non-sequiter info.

for *real* extra, i much prefer featurettes that focus on a topic and talk about story elements and what the movie means to the cast&crew. i watch everything but i find the making-of stuff boring. i've seen so many fx making ofs that i know what they're going to do/say before they even say it. plus, deconstructing the "magic" of film kinda' sux because once you've seen how a shot is matted, that's what will stay in your mind everytime you watch it again. there's no more wonder. if i ever made films, i'd leave those type of things out of the movie DVD.

anyway, it's fun to have TV to watch on your own time because most TV nowadays is very filmic.

 

[Bill>Moore]

I tend to watch the episodes on a disc, then any featurettes on that disc, then move on to the next disc. I travel a lot, so when I come home, I shed the couple of discs I've watched and grab the next ones. It would be harder to come back to the featurettes on a few discs again later, so I just watch them after the eps on the disc.

At 15-16 hours (or more) per season, going back and re-watching the eps with commentaries is usually out of the question. I have 800+ DVDs and cycle through them all the time. If I did all the commentaries, I might even be going toward 3-4 years between watching some seasons. I'll listen to the occasional commentary, but I don't do it often.

I do like to mix up my TV on DVD like you would in watching shows during a season. Rather than just take four Stargate discs with me, I might take two Stargate discs and 2 A-Team discs, 2 Curb Your Enthusiasm discs and three movies. I'll watch two of this show, a movie, an ep or two of another show, back to another movie, etc. I like mixing a few up for variety. Instead of blazing through one show faster, I take longer while watching more shows at once.

 

[Eugene Esterly]

I usually just watch the episodes. I don't usually watch the extra features.

 

[Katherine_K]

I watch the episodes in order on most series, and listen to the commetaries right after watching the episode without the commentary... but this mostly has to do with the way I listen to commentaries. I generally listen to them while i'm working on other things so they're only half my attention. I'll stop watching if the commentaries aren't that intering. I've not been impressed with the commentaries on NCIS or JAG for example, and there are some CSI commentators I like better than others. Generally I like listening to actor's commentaries the most because these people are performers and usually make them entertaining as well as informative. The Andrea Thompson commentary on NYPD Blue's fourth season was really good, making me wish they'd gotten her to do a B5 one (yes, I know why they didn't).

As for the rest of the special features, I generally watch them after i watch the episodes on whatever disc they are on, and if the extras are on a bonus disc I watch that last.

 

[Wezzo]

Shows without extras/commentaries:

A half-hour show generally takes one/two days (one for all UK series, they're much shorter), at a rate of 8-24 US episodes or 6-18 UK episodes a day

An hour show takes two-four days (two for UK series, as they're much shorter), at a rate of 4-12 US episodes or 2-8 UK episodes a day

Shows with some extras and/or a few commentaries:

I usually cram in the extras and commentaries within the above times

Shows with commentary on every episode, or most episodes (+ other extras):

A half-hour show generally takes two/three days, at a rate of 8-24 US episodes a day. I watch the episode, then that episode with commentary, then the next episode, etc. All other extras are viewed at the end.

An hour show takes four-six days, at a rate of 6-12 US episodes a day. I watch the episode, then that episode with commentary, then the next episode, etc. All other extras are viewed at the end.

Times:

The times I view vary. During school time, I watch around 4 hours of TV-DVD a day, mostly in the evening; but during school holidays and weekends the time of day, and amounts I view, vary greatly.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Usually all eps in order, then the extras. I will always watch featurettes etc, with commentaries it depends on who did the commentary and what show -- I tend to avoid commentaries by the technical guys (sorry!), whereas directors, writers and actors more often get a listen.

Sometimes if I've seen the show in broadcast quite recently and it's still fresh in the memory (happens here since we get TV shows a year or more behind you lot), I actually watch extras first.

And all of the above applies to how I approach DVDs on movies as well, actually.

 

[Martin_K]

TV-DVD is great for me since I don't have cable TV. I generally will watch 2 eps a night, sometimes 3 if I'm in the mood. I try to stretch the sets I watch, sometimes even as long as 2 weeks to watch one season.

I don't really watch the extras, seeing as they're usually 8min sneak peaks of the show. It really drives me up the wall when the extras are so tame. For example, I picked up the complete 'Surface' series, the only extra on there is a 8min video. For a recent show like that you'd think that they would have some good stuff.

Commentary wise, if I really like the show and the ep, I'll listen to it.

 

[David Deeb]

 

[Steve Meil]

I usually watch the special features first- then the episodes. As far as the commentaries go I will rarely listen to them due to the constant ass kissing that goes on. I certainly get tired of hearing how great an actor this one is and we wouldn't have a show without him or her.

 

[Firebee]

I hop around...for example, on Friday, I watched two eps from Buffy's second season, then two eps from Charmed's first season, then two from Brady Bunch second season, and then a few eps from Futurama's Vol. 2, and capped that off with two eps from Brisco County.

 

[Jonathan_Clarke]

Extras first. If I bought a season set it usually means I've already seen every episode.

I don't do many commentaries except for Simpsons. On those, I don't even watch the episodes. I just listen to all the commentaries.