LAND OF THE GIANTS! - Where Are You? (1 Viewer)

[Harry-N]

For reference, I've sorted out the titles of the LAND OF THE GIANTS episodes by their production numbers, giving the order in which they were likely produced. I'll post it here in case anyone's interested in watching them that way:

2401The Crash2402The Weird World2403The Trap2404The Bounty Hunter2405The Golden Cage2406The Lost Ones2407Manhunt2408Framed2409The Creed2410The Flight Plan2411Underground2412Double-Cross2413On A Clear Day You Can See Earth2414Ghost Town2415Brainwash2416Terror Go Round2417Sabotage2418Genius At Work2419Deadly Lodestone2420Night Of Thrombeldinbar2421Seven Little Indians2422Target: Earth2423Rescue2424Return Of Inidu2425Shell Game2426The Chase4701The Inside Rail4702Chamber Of Fear4703The Mechanical Man4704Collector's Item4705Giants and All That Jazz4706Six Hours To Live4707The Unsuspected4708A Place Called Earth4709Deadly Pawn4710Land Of The Lost4711Every Dog Needs A Boy4712The Clones4713Comeback4714Nightmare4715Home sweet Home4716Our Man Reilly4717Panic4718Pay The Piper4719The Secret City Of Limbo4720Doomsday4721Wild Journey4722The Deadly Dart4723Graveyard Of Fools4724A Small War4725The Marionettes

Harry

 

[Bob Gu]

Thanks for the production list,Harry. Watching LOTG in production order does make the show more enjoyable.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Has anyone checked out the eBay prices lately for this set? Some of the listings (low $) are hard to believe for this set. Supposedly they are the original studio sets. This set is one that I want but was waiting for a sale at one of the online stores but I may have to "eBay" this one.

I've bought on eBay sparingly in the past with mostly satisfactory results but I'm a little apprehensive to pull the trigger on this one at the low prices for some of the listings.

 

[Regulus]

The last time I bought a Video on Ebay (A British Sci-Fi Movie BTW) when I got it delivered, although it was of excellant quality the way it was packaged gave me a strong feeling it was a BOOTLEG! Hence, I haven't bought anything else from them. I have no hard feelings for Ebay, (I'm sure they have some terriffic Bargains) however, remember that famous Caviet, "If it's too good to be true, it probably is!"

 

[RickER]

Dont do it Jeff. It will be a boot recorded off TV. Edited, and low quality. William is 100% right. It is to good to be true. The official release has killed the bootleg price, guaranteed.

 

[Jeff Willis]

You guys are probably 100% right about this one. The eBay listings that I've looked at are pictured with the original wood case, including all of the "extras" inside. Sure looks like the real thing but then, we can't view the DVD's which are what matters, from our PC's.

The only thing that really made me consider that route is that there's a couple of eBay members that offer money-back guarantees on their listings.

It's somewhat "interesting", if that's the right word here, that I'd been thinking of the eBay route for this set since I'm a studio-release buyer for 99% of my other DVD's and 100% on board for all TV/DVD sets. (the 1 eBay set that I recently bought was a complete film series that we're 99% sure won't ever see a studio release).

I guess the higher price for LOTG tempted me at eBay for a while.

Thanks for the advice. I'll pass on the eBay's at least for now. I almost bought the set at Amazon's 1-day sale but, for me, I needed to see it below the $90 range for this set. I'm needing this one around the $70-75 range, maybe $80, before I click the "buy" button for it. Perhaps that won't happen for a while yet. I do understand the LTOG "holy grail" group that bought this one at its release and I think that's . That's what makes the HTF TV Bd a great place to "reside"

If Time Tunnel had been released in a "collector's" package similar to LTOG, then....SOLD for me no matter what the price, since that one's on my "grail" shelf . That's the same reason that I bought all of the Combat! series regardless of the "time compressed" issue with most of the B/W episodes. Now, if that set had contained the "edited" (missing scenes) versions.....that would have been a VERY decision for me.

Bottom line, I

for all of you LTOG fanatics that saw this one released.

 

[david_hu]

Dont sweat- I suspect a complete Irwin Allen set will come out when Voyage finishes its release. All 10 seasons in one set for some outrageous price.

 

[Harry-N]

I just gave a quick look at a number of the different offerings of LAND OF THE GIANTS on DVD on eBay and virtually all of them look legit to me. It appears that a number of "entreprenuerial" types might have ordered extra sets on Amazon during the one day sale and are selling them off at around the $100 price point. With late bidding, I suppose the hopes are that people will pay them more than what they paid for the set.

The other category are the used sets, probably close to perfect in every way. This category seems to pop up with all kinds of new releases - the people who go out and buy a set, get it home, make themselves, sall we say, a "souvenir" of the desired work, and then sell off the original, hoping to recoup as much of the cost as they can.

I've bought a few STAR TREK: TNG and STAR TREK: DS9 sets through eBay sellers, and all were just fine. The retail costs of those sets were just too high, and having missed out on some release week specials, I went the eBay route to fill in the rest of the seasons I didn't have.

Naturally, with eBay sellers, one needs to be careful. Give a potential seller an email or two with questions. Allow them to allay your fears with either money-back guarantees or other assurances of the "genuine" nature of the set in question.

Furthermore, avoid foreign sellers (usually Asian), with deals too incredible to be true. Those are likely boots or cheap knock-offs.

Basically, with LAND OF THE GIANTS, right now, expect to get an eBay set for around the $100 price point. It's what these sellers paid on Amazon during the one-day sale, and they're just trying to recoup their costs, maybe make a little profit.

If I hadn't pulled the trigger on the one-day Amazon sale, I'd be scouring eBay looking for that "almost-as-good" deal right now. And I know how hard it must be to be sitting on the sidelines, kicking ones' self for not getting that one-day deal. I came "this close" to not doing it, because frankly LAND OF THE GIANTS just wasn't that important to me. I'd tried, and failed, to get interested in it before, but as I detailed earlier in the thread, seeing these magnificent transfers in the proper "production" order has made a big difference, and through the first ten or more episodes, I'm really enjoying it and looking forward to each 'next' adventure. Moreso than the stories themselves, I'm also enjoying the overall "Irwin Allen" experience a great deal with LAND OF THE GIANTS. Familiar guest actors, props, and even music help this series blend in with TIME TUNNEL, VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, and even LOST IN SPACE.

While it's certainly not out of the question that Fox will repackage this set in a more economical way, there's simply no guarantee of that. Because of the way that this set is mastered, with all of the episodes in chronological ABC order, even starting up season two episodes right after the season one episodes are done on the same disc, and with all of the extras shoved to the second side of disc nine, it would take a remastering job to split the set up into seasons or half-seasons. They couldn't simply split up the existing discs into smaller sets, at least not without total disregard for what's on those discs. The only way I see for Fox to repackage the existing discs would be a simpler outer package of the entire series - basically just the nine discs as they are in a standard package design without the fancy cage-box and trinkets. That's what I would be hoping for, anyway, had I not already bought the set. But there's little precedent for it. Fox has never split up that first season of LOST IN SPACE, despite the high price point. The only comparable situation would be the Cylon-head pack that Universal later offered as just plain DVDs. But that's Universal, not Fox.

As for this set, even with a future 40% off sale at DDD, 40% off the 'list' of $229 would only bring the cost down to $137.40.

Given all of that info, if I were still in the market, I'd go the eBay route, (or Amazon Marketplace), being cautious with the sellers, relying on a few emails to better judge which one to buy from.

Harry

 

[Harry-N]

Apparently Amazon is having another sale on LAND OF THE GIANTS:

http://www.amazon.com/Land-Giants-Fu...dp/B000P5FH2Q/

It's $115.49 with free shipping. Grab 'em while you can.

Harry

 

[DeWilson]

Including unaired pilots, It works out to 278 episodes!

 

[Helena]

I really want this set, and have been severly tempted with the Amazon sales, however I keep resisting because of the double-sided disks. At the price they are charging I can't believe they were too stingy to use single sided disks.

I nearly always have problems with double-sided disks. I was so enjoying my "Leave it to Beaver" S1 set, until I encountered the dreaded freezing problem, right in the middle of the episode were the Beaver gets his brother to give him a haircut. The rest of the episode, plus the one following it just refuse to play on any of my DVD players.

Even at just over $100 for Land of the Giants, this is just more than I am prepared to risk, no matter how much I love the show. Living in Australia, returns to overseas vendors are just so much trouble and can be really expensive if the vendor wants you to return the faulty item before they will replace it.

I guess I will just have to wait until they (hopefully) re-release the set on single sided disks ...

 

[Darby67]

Since the price dropped to $115 recently at Amazon, I ordered this set which I have desired for a very long time. It arrived fine, but on Disc #1 in the episode entitled "The Crash" at time interval 48:53, the screen pixelates and the disc freezes and stops playing altogether. I returned it promptly and when my replacement arrived, the same defect was present. When I requested yet another replacement, Amazon's response was "I'm sorry to hear the replacement item had the same problem as your first order. This usually doesn't happen. Since it's likely another replacement would arrive defective, I won't trouble you with another order. Please return the item for a full refund. We do need you to return the entire set. We'll pay for the return shipping costs."

While I appreciate a full refund, I really would like to purchase this set. Is anybody else experiencing the same defect as described above?

 

[LeoA]

Out of curiousity, have you tried it in a different DVD player?

Might be all it takes to get by this issue (For example, Universal's universally hated double sided release of some shows like season 1 releases of Emergency! and Adam-12 play back just fine on my Xbox 360, but have issues with about every other episode on dedicated DVD players I own).

Seems doubtful it's a player issue though when two different copies of the same disc fail at the same spot, but you have nothing to lose giving it a try if you want to keep it.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

It's the damn Double sided disks, I hate them I have several VTTBOTS disks that do the same. If they split the seasons and put them out in Regular box set I'd bite on the show, otherwise I'll pass. Too expensive for getting disks that may or may not work.

 

[smithb]

Originally Posted by Dave Scarpa

It's the damn Double sided disks, I hate them I have several VTTBOTS disks that do the same. If they split the seasons and put them out in Regular box set I'd bite on the show, otherwise I'll pass. Too expensive for getting disks that may or may not work.

Have you tried playing them in a computer? While it could just be the disks themselves, it could also be a combination of the disks and your DVD player having difficulty. Double sided disks and DVD-18's seem more sensitive to playback in some players. So you might want to consider a different DVD player at some point since your player may be at fault as well.

I have had many TV series and movies that have come double sided and as DVD-18's and I've never had a playback issue with any of them regarding the style of pressing. Just a thought.

BTW, what DVD player do you have?

 

[Darby67]

I have tried it in two players (Sony and Panasonic) and my computer (Dell) and it had the same issue each time : - (

I am going to put in a new order with Amazon tomorrow and hope it comes from a different stock/inventory then the first two sets I received.

Darby

 

[dhammer]

I can understand your frustration. It is probably the disk but I'm not sure. My experience is that professionally produced disk usually are ok. It is usually the player. We all know that there are mass defects that rarely affect disks. Usually the studio acknowledges these defects and makes some adjustment.

I can remember how maddening it was when dvd's first came out and we were buying many burned disks off the internet. If I could have half of the money I wasted on bogus disks. Plus, dvd players were temperamental and often had a hard time reading burned disks.

Try it on a third player or xbox. If this doesn't work and the disk is clean (oil from hands is notorious for scanner reading problems), it is the disk.

 

[Darby67]

Thanks for the advice/input folks! It is deeply appreciated.

Darby

 

[Darby67]

Well, the third time from Amazon does seem to be the charm...so far (I've watched 4 of 9 discs so far and I certainly hope I'm not jinxing anything with this post! LOL!).

However, there has been some aberrant behavior on the discs (not enough to warrant a return to Amazon just yet) that really looks like disc manufacturing issues:

a. On Disc #5 Side B in the episode entitled “Inside Rail” at time interval 30:23 a frame from time interval 30:34 briefly appears for a split second. The disc does not freeze or pixelate and the time display on the DVD player does not jump ahead or get interrupted in anyway. Truly bizarre.
b. On Disc #5 Side A at the very end of the disc after all the episodes are finished, when the Deluxe Digital Studios logo/promo plays, the disc pixelates and freezes. If this is due to trying to cram too much content on a DVD-18, the irony of this happening during the Deluxe Digitial Studios is truly a stroke of genius! LOL!

While I'm a perfectionist at heart and would love a completely error-free set, at least I can somewhat (but grudgingly) bear the flaws mentioned above because they do not fully interrupt the viewing of each episode.

On a positive note, the digital clean-up on the episodes by Fox looks every bit as great as what they have done on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and The Time Tunnel sets.

Darby

 

[PianoPlayer]

The Region 2 release of LAND OF THE GIANTS: Complete Series is available at Amazon for a mere $23.39. If you have a multi-region DVD player, is this version worth buying? (e.g., is the video & audio quality on par with the much more expensive "Giants" version?)

Or ... is a Blu-ray coming?