New shows getting DVD-Only release (1 Viewer)

A month or two ago, I noticed that "Pretty Little Liars" Season 1.. DVD only.


Today, filling out my Amazon cart, "The Good Wife: Season 2" is going to be DVD only, no bluray in the offing.


Argh. Thankfully, I an archive my DVR recordings in HD, but I admit it's pretty sad to see a show that was filmed and shot in HD to get a DVD only release.


Is this practice becoming more widespread?

About the only studio that you can count on to do a Blu-ray release of a TV show is HBO. For the most part, the rest of the studios seem to only release their most popular shows on Blu-ray.

TravisR said:

About the only studio that you can count on to do a Blu-ray release of a TV show is HBO. For the most part, the rest of the studios seem to only release their most popular shows on Blu-ray.

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If you look closely, you'll notice that at the moment, they're still releasing shows on blu-ray that cover the male demographic. That's why we're seeing current cop and genre shows on blu (but not nearly enough of them, sadly). They're still not releasing shows that lean to female dems. That's why no "Pretty Little Liars," not to mention "Desperate Housewives" and others that are primarily female shows. I think the reasoning is that Blu is still a new toy, and they have to let the boys break in the new toys. Later on, the girls will come to play. Perhaps the studios have done research that tells them that women aren't buying Blu--men are. Well I wish they'd advance a little further. The whole blu-ray rollout is happening so slow. By now, you'd think there'd be millions of women buying Blu. I predict by the 2012 fall season, the studios will catch up and produce more female-targeted programming on Blu. Note that when dvd first rolled out, among the first tv shows released were Star Trek and X-Files; both genre shows, and then "I Love Lucy," which is probably the #1 household brand-name show and a show that appeals to millions. It wasn't until a few years later that a wider selection of programming types were made available on dvd, including all major sitcoms, women's shows, men's shows, music shows, kid's shows--everything. I think--despite the fact that blu has been around for about 5 years--that we're really only in Blu's "second" year of productivity. The format wars, the downloading craze and the crap economy have slowed down the proliferation of Blu. So going by what was released on standard def first, second and so on, we can probably predict what kinds of shows will next be released on Blu...

Great thread Matt. Its a pet peeve of mine. I watch shows originally in HD and am now stuck with DVD. Community--DVD only come on! Its even worse for the shows that get a season on Blu-ray like White Collar, Burn Notice, etc.

Then there's the opposite, where only the latest seasons are Blu-ray, and the older seasons are stuck in DVD (24 comes to mind, but the first few seasons were broadcast in 480p widescreen, not HD).

Originally Posted by Toddwrtr

Then there's the opposite, where only the latest seasons are Blu-ray, and the older seasons are stuck in DVD (24 comes to mind, but the first few seasons were broadcast in 480p widescreen, not HD).

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This I can deal with. Shows like House, The Office, My Name is Earl, The Unit, Big Bang Theory etc. My hope is that they will eventually get around to re-releasing the first seasons on Blu-ray.

Funny you should mention The Good Wife. I'm working now on the review for the Season Two set, and while the video quality is fine for DVD, it lacks some of the richness of those warm interiors that we see on the show in HD.

It's hard to believe Warehouse 13 wasn't released in Blu-ray. The show is too much fun, so I made an exception and bought the DVD sets when they were $19.99 (within weeks of their initial releases!)

"Caprica" & "Stargate Universe Season 2" were also DVD only.

I don't watch much TV, but Modern Family S1 was on Blu and S2 is going to be on Blu (according to Amazon). If it wasn't, there'd be holy hell to pay!

I too am unhappy with this trend, to wit: Lie to Me Season 1 on Blu and the remaining seasons on DVD Flashpoint ditto. Unfortunately it has now made me wait to see if additional seasons will be Blu before I purchase. Fortunately one consistent Blu series is Star Wars: The Clone Wars and I have bought every season on release day.

Toddwrtr said:

Then there's the opposite, where only the latest seasons are Blu-ray, and the older seasons are stuck in DVD (24 comes to mind, but the first few seasons were broadcast in 480p widescreen, not HD).

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I'm not sure if 24's earlier seasons can ever be upgraded to 1080p. It depends on how those earlier seasons were shot. I think it's nice that with certain shows like Supernatural--they're going back and re-releasing the older seasons on blu. But they can't do enough, IMO.

This is my pet peeve. There should be a sticky for abandoned Blu Ray's of TV Shows.

Community (already mentioned above) -- check. Caprica (though it IS coming out on BD in Europe next month) -- check. The other big genre show which may still be years away from a Blu-Ray release is Babylon 5, which would essentially require a massive, Star Trek: TOS-level redo of its visual effects in order to look decent in HD. Long story short -- the original CGI files were lost over a decade ago, and entirely new VFX work (five seasons' worth, plus the TV movies) would have to be commissioned by Warner Bros., which would be a significant financial factor. Not sure if they're willing to go to the expense, except maybe releasing Season 1 as a "trial balloon," with future seasons dependent upon previous ones' sales-figures.

Yep, a total redo would be needed. At least all the models have been recreated by fans over the years, and some even professionally by the team that did The Lost Tales. The DVDs were even worse than they needed to be, see here: How B5 Is Transferred to DVD A B5 trail balloon would do the show a disservice by doing S1. While the show was written as a giant five-year "novel," demanding chronological viewing for proper context, it's not unfair to say that the first season was far from the show's finest. IMHO, doing any one season first would be a bad gauge. Perhaps the Hugo winners "The Coming of Shadows" and "Severed Dreams," or the season "title episodes" would be right (those would be S1: "Signs and Portents," S2: "The Coming of Shadows," S3: "Point of No Return," S4: "No Surrender, No Retreat," S5: "The Wheel of Fire"). The movies are too uneven overall to be the test, perhaps the original DVD trail balloon In the Beginning would be good, perhaps the Crusade lead-in Call to Arms. J. Michael Straczynski, the show creator, distinguished some episodes as important to the larger narrative by calling them "wham" episodes. These are the larger pool from which to draw. I'd love to see the bombardment of Narn or the climax of the Shadow War in HD. Probably moot, as I would expect the original cut of The Magnificent Ambersons before I would expect to see this. Happy to be wrong, though.

It is and its stinks, even a Number 1 show like the new Hawaii Five O goes DVD only, Warehouse 13 a big hit, nope to blu ray. I've started buying these in Itunes for my Apple TV as even 720p is better than 480p SD.

Dave Scarpa said:

It is and its stinks, even a Number 1 show like the new Hawaii Five O goes DVD only, Warehouse 13 a big hit, nope to blu ray. I've started buying these in Itunes for my Apple TV as even 720p is better than 480p SD.

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That´s wrong. Hawaii five 0 will be released on blu-ray in the USA as well as a "Best Buy Exclusive"(September 20th).

24 was shot in 3perf 35mm. some of the first seasons mastered in HD may have only been mastered in 1080i, rather than 1080p, so they'd need a new telecine and master produced. Some of the last seasons might have been mastered in 1080p the first season or two might have only been mastered in 480 (widescreen) and thus would need an all new telecine and master produced, so probably a couple hundred thousand per season for the first couple seasons to bring it to blu. The whole point of such remastering wouldn't be to bring it to blu anyway, but to sell the series for syndication as fully HD. I imagine fox has invested some money into market analysis and realized that most people don't rebuy TV the way they rebuy films, and most tv fans don't buy in to already completed shows. 24 is now in a limbo zone between being a 'classic TV' status market and contemporary market. So don't expect much movement on it. regarding the OP question. I don't really buy TV on bluray, I did for Pushing Daisies and for HBO because I think it makes a difference on a handful of shows. But when my fiancee brought me modern family season one when we were in B&N I balked at the $60 price tag. I told her to go get the DVD instead, which was only $30. "I thought you'd want the bluray because that's what you always want?" she asked, and I told her that bluray was great especially for movies, but DVD was probably fine for most all TV shows. I also decided to get BBT season 3 on DVD because the first two were dvd only and it was significantly cheaper.