Buffy Season 7 coming out earlier than expected? (1 Viewer)

[Matt Stone]

Dammit. Fucking non-anamorphic and window-boxed. WTF was Fox thinking.

 

[Dave Mack]

And what's crazy is that there IS an anamorphic stand-alone disc in R2.

This is an american show, why can't Fox release it here as well...???

or... AHHHH! Yes they will! So people who have S6 will buy both! Watch.....

 

[Adam_ME]

Non-anamorphic? Figures. I guess that means I'll be sticking with the R2 set, PAL speedup be damned.

BTW Dave, I took a look at "Potential" and "The Killer In Me" on Disc 4 of the Season 7 set last night and I see what you mean. Some of the scenes look downright dreadful with distorted colors, edge enhancement, and excessive grain(at least it looks like grain). I'm gonna give Fox the benefit of the doubt though and chalk it up as lousy source material.

 

[Geoff_D]

Just got my S6 set, and I immediately checked OWMF to see what it looks like when "zoomed in". It's certainly watchable, but the lack of detail lets it down. Whedon's 16:9 framing looks so darned natural, so it's a great pity that the only Buffy episode which was genuinely framed for widescreen has gotten such disappointing treatment on R1. Now I'm gonna have to pick up the stand-alone R2 disc to make up for it. Still, at least my S6 set made it with no scratched discs and all the inserts are present and correct. October for S7? Can't wait.

 

[Ryan_Guah]

Would anyone be able to scan this insert that says "October 2004" for S7?

 

[Adam Tyner]

I know several other reliable posters have already said the same, I just got my copy in the mail today and can confirm that it's not 16x9-enhanced.



I can try to remember to hook my scanner up later and scan the October insert.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

Uh oh. Careful with that statement. Those on up High may be pissed.

 

[Joshua_W]

Buffy and Angel are among Fox's best-selling TV-on-DVD product, yet they seem to receive generally shoddy treatment.

1) At least two eps from "Angel" are missing scenes.

2) The "Previously on..." intros have been removed, even though many lead directly into the episodes.

3) Improper flagging.

4) And now this. Why on earth would they not present this in enhanced widescreen?

 

[Matt Stone]

Wow, that is some awful window-boxing.

WTF, Fox?!

 

[Robert Ringwald]

It seems like a problem happens with every set.

They're all missing trailers for other sets from the show (I'd certainly like them on there) that are on the R2 sets. Season 1 is missing a music video (could be rights issues, but still). Season 5 is missing the gift intro, and they're all missing "previously on" segments except the season 1 episodes, and 1 from season 2.

Those angel scenes that are missing...

It's just really pathetic the kind of treatment these shows are getting.

 

[Scott_F_S]

Season 1 doesn't have previously on ...

 

[Christopher Carr]

I remember there being SLIGHT windowboxing during the airing of Once More With Feeling, but it wasn't noticable. That picture on the other hand, um yeah VERY noticable. Does it look like that when played on a TV screen or is it only that noticable when played on the computer? Because even if I didn't have a Widescreen TV that can zoom and possibly get rid of that, I am watching the series with a friend and when I return to college we only have a regular TV which isn't that big and if the screen is mostly black bars coming from all angles, then what's the point of watching the episode when you cant see it at all!? I am a HUGE supporter of widescreen in fact I get into arguments all the time over it, but if I can't see an episode due to stupid windowboxing...argh- this really pisses me off. Oh and one more question. I went to DVDEmpire the other day and it listed a feature that I don't remember being listed at all on any news site etc. It was the Biography special and the special feature says "'Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Television With a Bite' as seen on TV-Ography on the A&E Network". I don't remember seeing this feature listed anywhere for the R1 release. So it would be great if anyone could confirm this.

Argh I'm really pissed off about the non-anamorphic treatment. We just recently got a widescreen TV, ok well Christmas time, but I've been away at college so I haven't been able to watch it and I just came back and was so excited to see Season 6 with the one episode anamorphically enhanced and everything. But this is just ridiculous. Does anyone else find it a bit hypocritical for any studio to release anamorphically enhanced menu screens for shows or movies that are specifically released in full frame? I don't know if it is just me that finds it hypocritical- I also find it quite annoying and entirely too much of a big tease.

 

[Eddy-C]

It was on the R2 set and on tvshowsondvd.com when it says for disc 6 "2 Featurettes" I think its referring to the biography special and season 6 overview.

BTW, if anyone wants to see what the inside of the digipack looks like its up on Link Removed

 

[Robert Ringwald]

The season one episodes didn't have "Previously-ons" per say, but they did have "In Every Generation..." segments, and they were all included to the best of my knowledge.

Also, I have a feeling that the windowboxing won't be that noticable on most TVs due to overscan.

 

[Natalie F]

This is true. As far as I know the previouslies on the R2/4 weren't included until season 3 because Fox UK was getting complaints. So they actually listened to the fans and started including them.

 

[Joshua_W]

No, the windowboxing shouldn't be visible on most sets due to overscan. On my set, when I'm watching anamorphic 1.66:1 discs, the black bars on the sides aren't visible at all.

And, yeah, it seems strange that, in the first two seasons, they would remove each episode's unique "Previously" but leave on that annoying little "In every generation," tag.

 

[Adam_ME]

Fox did the same thing with Season 1 of 24. They kept the "longest day of my life" intros for each episode, but removed the "Previously on 24". Fortunately, they corrected this oversight for Season 2. The same can't be said for Buffy, Angel, and Firefly.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

They probnably went non-anamorphic so they could use their existing transfer from the Emmy screener. Anyone have good contact info for Fox DVD so we can complain about this?

 

[Ryan_Guah]

The A&E Biography/TvOgraphy was renamed "Buffy: Television With A Bite" and IS included in the set. It's the same thing, running at 43m2s, as broadcast on May 14th, 2003, and was included in the R2 set as well. It isn't referred to in most sites as appearing on A&E, but rest assured, it's the same thing. I did some serious digging on this, because some places said it was, and others said it wasn't.

I'm not too worried about the issue with OMWF. It would be nice if it was anamorphic, but one of my DVD players zooms in automatically for some reason, and even though I wish it wouldn't, it will be nice for this particular reason because it will get rid of those bars without distorting the picture at all.


I realize you would like this fixed, as most would, but we all know we're going to buy the sets regardless, and it wouldn't really be feasible for Fox to go back, correct this, and then re-release the set when most die-hard fans have already boughten it. And besides, I don't understand why people complain about things, when there is no reason why they should be getting this extra feature. I mean, I can see if Fox advertised it as being anamorphic, and then it wasn't, but they haven't advertised it that way.

 

[Adam_ME]

I think this is more about the R2 and R4 sets being consistently superior to their R1 counterparts. Why does Region 1 have to put up with missing scenes, deleted intros, and a lack of anamorphic enhancement? Fox is releasing the show in every region, so there should be some consistency here.

Also, haven't we reached the point where non-anamorphic DVDs for movies or TV shows in 1.78:1 or wider have become unacceptable?