Universal Studios & Warner Brothers Reissued DVD Sets (3 Viewers)

[jcroy]

Just wondering out loud after reading some of the previous posts - why can't these geniuses at the studios leave well enough alone and release these shows in packaging which not only doesn't damage the discs , but helps preserve them? Aren't we buying these DVD's so we can have them to watch any time we want to in the future, without having to be concerned they'll be damaged in the packaging ?

One word: hubris.

 

[jcroy]

Besides outright hubris, the only other reason I can think of offhand is a possible revolving door in the home video division of the large movie companies. With dvd declining over past decade or so, the home video division is probably not a popular place for aspiring executives to spend their careers on for the long term.


With every new regime change and/or employee changes in the home video division, the newer guys might not have the "institutional memory" of their predecessors. Easy to repeat mistakes when one doesn't know (or care) about past errors. As with many large corporations/organizations, there's no great penalty for messing up dvd releases unless it makes front page news in the entertainment industry publications. (ie. MBAs failing upwards).


These days it wouldn't be surprising at all if the home video division is the next step up from "janitorial" duties, where the "janitorial" divisons of a large company is stuff like bookkeeping, HR, secretarial, computer sysadmin, etc ... or any other lowly white collar task.

 

[jcroy]

For anybody who is interested in the Lionsgate dvd re-releases of Little House on the Prairie, here's an unboxing video of the complete series dvd set.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdqlPAhnI_Y


Watching the unboxing video, it appears the complete series set uses foldout cardboard pockets type packaging for each season set. (ie. Very similar to the packaging of the Futurama dvds and various Eone 10-movie dvd sets and 5-movie bluray sets I've been complaining about recently).


Most likely some of the dvd discs in this re-released LHotP complete series set, will end up being slightly warped by the cardboard pockets packaging. Blah blah blah ..... grrrrrrrr !!!


In the same video, the reviewer mentions that the post-series movies are included in the season 8 and season 9 sets, most likely on the respective 6th discs. (IIRC, the re-released seasons 2 to 7 are five-disc sets, while the re-released season 1 has six discs including the pilot).


If I were to purchase the re-released LHotP on dvd, I would prefer to buy the individually released dvd season sets which are packaged in generic 5-disc (or 6-disc) viva dvd cases. (Assuming one is not interested in the bluray versions, for whatever reasons).

 

[bmasters9]

Watching the unboxing video, it appears the complete series set uses foldout cardboard pockets type packaging for each season set. (ie. Very similar to the packaging of the Futurama dvds and various Eone 10-movie dvd sets and 5-movie bluray sets I've been complaining about recently).


Most likely some of the dvd discs in this re-released LHotP complete series set, will end up being slightly warped by the cardboard pockets packaging. Blah blah blah ..... grrrrrrrr !!!

It seems also that Lionsgate has pulled a M*A*S*H with that Little House full release, per what I saw.

 

[jcroy]

It seems also that Lionsgate has pulled a M*A*S*H with that Little House full release, per what I saw.

With Fox as our current whipping boy, here's a list of Fox complete series sets according to package design and crappiness (according to various reviews, pictures, unboxing videos, etc ...).



Foldouts with cardboard pockets


- MASH
- Stargate SG1
- Stargate Atlantis (dvd)
- How I Met Your Mother
- Futurama



Difficult to take discs out of digibook


- Sons of Anarchy (dvd and bluray)
- Lost In Space (bluray)



Old season sets put into a giant box


- Angel
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer
- The Unit
- Ally McBeal
- 24
- Glee
- Burn Notice
- Stargate Atlantis (bluray)



(unknown)

- Millennium
- Daniel Boone (might possibly be dvd-r)

 

[The Obsolete Man]

With Fox as our current whipping boy, here's a list of Fox complete series sets according to package design and crappiness (according to various reviews, pictures, unboxing videos, etc ...).



Foldouts with cardboard pockets


- MASH
- Stargate SG1
- Stargate Atlantis (dvd)
- How I Met Your Mother
- Futurama



Difficult to take discs out of digibook


- Sons of Anarchy (dvd and bluray)
- Lost In Space (bluray)



Old season sets put into a giant box


- Angel
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer
- The Unit
- Ally McBeal
- 24
- Glee
- Burn Notice
- Stargate Atlantis (bluray)



(unknown)

- Millennium
- Daniel Boone (might possibly be dvd-r)

Millennium complete is discs in thinpaks slapped into a single flimsy cardboard box.


Also, you have Ally McBeal backwards. The complete series set came first, with all 5 seasons in one big box. The single seasons came later.

 

[jcroy]

Has anyone noticed this lately? Recently, and I've glad that they are doing this, studios like Universal Studios and Warner Brothers have begun reissuing their TV Shows with a lower price as well as with single sided DVD's. I noticed this trend started with ALF, then we saw such shows as Magnum P.I., Gilligans Island, CHiPs, Dukes of Hazzard, Buck Rogers and so on. But, what I have noticed is that while these studios are ditching the double-sided DVD sets and reissuing their shows as single sided DVD sets, I have also noticed that they are only releasing the first season or the first two seasons and then ending right there.

(I don't know what happened to our OP. He/she seems to have been MIA for over a year).


Anybody know whether ALF was originally released as double-sided flipper discs?


The ALF season sets I've seen in the local dump bins, all indicate that they're 4-disc sets.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

(I don't know what happened to our OP. He/she seems to have been MIA for over a year).


Anybody know whether ALF was originally released as double-sided flipper discs?


The ALF season sets I've seen in the local dump bins, all indicate that they're 4-disc sets.

ALF was released by Lionsgate. Did they ever do flippers?


In fact, they've always been 4 disc sets. Here's the TSOD article from a decade ago, with box art


http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/ALF/1626


/too bad the sets were crap and you had to eventually buy them from Germany if you wanted unedited episodes.

 

[jcroy]

ALF was released by Lionsgate. Did they ever do flippers?

The only Lionsgate flipper disc I have, is a rather forgettable movie which had the pan-and-scan fullscreen version on one side and the widescreen version on the other side.

 

[jcroy]

Came across another complete series set with really annoying packaging: Smallville.


I was very tempted to buy it, until I did some more research and saw that the packaging was a giant digibook where the discs were difficult to take out. Blah. (ie. Tons of 1-star/2-star amazon reviews complaining about the packaging, glue damage, discs difficult to take out,etc ....).


I figured I could always wait until all ten Smallville season sets show up for $10 or less at the local bargain bins, or on amazon. Blah blah blah ....

 

[bmasters9]

I was very tempted to buy it, until I did some more research and saw that the packaging was a giant digibook where the discs were difficult to take out. Blah. (ie. Tons of 1-star/2-star amazon reviews complaining about the packaging, glue damage, discs difficult to take out,etc ....).


I figured I could always wait until all ten Smallville season sets show up for $10 or less at the local bargain bins, or on amazon. Blah blah blah ....

Looked it up on Amazon, and most of the 1- and 2-star Amazon reviews bear out that very complaint (although there are a few reviewers on there who didn't like the series, let alone the packaging). I also researched it on EBay, and there are entries with pictures that bear out the packaging complaints.

 

[BobO'Link]

This past weekend I picked up the Rockford Files complete series set, and the Six Million Dollar Man set a few weeks ago.


Previously I didn't have any of the post-series movies, nor some of the later seasons of these two shows. (The complete series sets were on sale at around the price point I was looking for them). I didn't have the final seasons.


The Six Million Dollar Man set appears to just be the previously released seasons sets, all put into a big box.



The Rockford Files set was somewhat more interesting.


Season 1 was reissued as single-sided discs, with some minor reauthoring such as the newer Universal logo and changing stuff like "disc 1 side b" and "disc 2 side a" respectively to "disc 2" and "disc 3" etc ...


Something else I noticed was that the season 2 set also had some reauthoring on all six discs, with the newer Universal logo. The picture quality of the episodes don't look much different than old original version. (Though I would have go through my old season 2 set to check for sure).


For the rest of the seasons, they look like they're just straight duplicates of the old discs, except for the the first discs of each season set. Apparently the first discs were slightly reauthored, with the new Universal logo. I went through my old copies of seasons 3 and 4, and noticed the new versions entirely dropped the "new and upcoming releases" previews.


Ironically, one of the old preview ads was for HD-DVD. In these HD-DVD ads, they mentioned outright that the then-upcoming Universal releases were going to be done as double-sided flipper discs with the dvd copy on one side, and the HD-DVD version on the other side of the same disc! If this was indeed the case back 2006-2007, then I wouldn't be surprised at all if this changed some people's minds in favor of bluray. About a year or so earlier in 2005, there was already a lot of bad publicity about Universal flipper discs. (ie. Once burned, twice shy).


(I don't know much about HD-DVD. Did Universal actually release tons of HD-DVD movies as double-sided flipper discs back in 2006-2008? )

Amazon had this at a too-good-to-let-pass price ($59.99) a short while back so I ordered a copy as I don't have S1 or either of the 2 movie sets. That makes the whole series only a few $$ more than those purchased separately *if* S1 was available in SS discs, which it's not at the moment. It's not yet shipped.


One "review" on Amazon says the authoring is worse (much worse) on the complete series set which has me somewhat concerned. With your mention of the re-authoring it's a bit more concerning. Of course I can always keep S1 and the movies to go with my old seasons and not even bother with the new ones but part of me would like to know more before cracking the seals on any of them (I still have the single releases unopened awaiting a "good" copy of S1).

 

[jcroy]

Got two more complete series sets: Rawhide and Walker Texas Ranger.


These came in the following case configurations:


Rawhide


seasons 1-3 = 23 discs case

seasons 4-6 = 24 discs case

seasons 7-8 = 12 discs case



Walker Texas Ranger


seasons 1-3 = 21 discs case

seasons 4-7 = 24 discs case

season 8 + tv movie = 7 discs case

 

[jcroy]

Robocop


- complete series

(ASIN - B003H9LIZW )


....


Of these four titles, so far I have only seen Robocop and season 2 of The Hunger in the old crappy atrocious packaging..

Against my better judgement, I recently picked up the Alliance 2010 release of "Robocop: The Complete Series" in the atrocious clip style packaging which is prone to warping the discs inside.


(It appears Robocop has not been re-released in a generic viva 6-disc multidisc case. It might also be out of print).



In a local dump bin, I came across a copy which made quite a bit of noise when the package was shaken. In any other situation, discs sliding around in the packaging is usually cringe inducing. But in the case of this atrocious clip style packaging (which is prone to warping the discs), a scenario of loose discs sliding around slightly in the packaging usually means the discs are not clamped down tightly, and hence the discs are less likely to be warped by the packaging.


When I opened up the package, the discs were loose on both panels. These discs went straight to some surplus dvd cases.


I checked all 6 discs on the computer, where they could be read without any errors. (Two discs showed telltale signs of being slightly warped, but were still playable without any major problems).

 

[jcroy]

I guess I got very lucky this time around.


The previous two times I purchased "Robocop: The Complete Series", the discs were warped beyond repair. I ended up returning them for a refund the two previous times. (The computer couldn't read the warped discs at all from these two previous sets).

 

[jcroy]

This may be superfluous.



The Golden Girls seasons 1 to 7 are being re-released on March 15, 2016.


Most likely they'll just be straight repackagings in generic viva three-disc dvd cases.



(Won't bother with amazon links).

 

[BobO'Link]

I saw this afternoon on tvshowsondvd.com that Universal is *finally* re-releasing S6 of Xena: Warrior Princess with a May 17th, 2016 release date!

It's available for pre-order at Amazon, along with the "Complete Series." Current price for S6 is $22.98 and the Complete series is $129.98.

 

[jcroy]

American Gothic is being re-released as a 6-disc set on May 24, 2016.

http://www.amazon.com/American-Gothic-Complete-Gary-Cole/dp/B01CE8QRW0


It was originally released as three double-sided flipper discs back in 2005 during Universal's "flipper mania" era.

 

[paul pisano]

still hoping for season 1 of kojak and black sheep squadron on single sided discs.

 

[alovera1]

has any season of WONDER WOMAN or complete series been released on single sided discs ? or are they just still on those disgusting flipper discs ?