I had tried to find out when the set was first announced, and wasn't successful at the time. Honestly, I have moved on to chasing other things and hadn't thought of this in a while. Since the release is roughly 6 weeks away now, I'm getting in the mindset of "we'll probably find out when it ships", but I'll try to take another stab at finding out, as much as time allows me to.
This is the reason why I won't purchase any of these funky sets. This set is just the latest in a long string of poorly designed packaging for complete series sets.
Just by looking at the image it's easy to see that the DVD's could very easily slip out of their pages and get bounced within the factory sealed packaging, easily scratching the DVD's. As for the binder? Goodness grief, already. I can go down to Office Max or Staples and buy a cheap binder for $2 and that's what this packaging looks like, cheap binder packaging.
Why Lionsgate? They're just distributing it for ImaVision.
And for that matter, why ImaVision? They're the poor indie company that took whatever meager scraps they were provided with after scoring what they thought would be a really cool license to release this beloved show on DVD.
Nope, it's them that did the providing what should get the rabid racoon.
Thanks David! I saved a ton of money on this. I can't believe they are not including the small DVD sized 88 page paperback book that was included in the Season 9 box...
I'm guessing they're also not including the pilot which wasn't on the season 1 dvd nor the retrospective episode they decided not to include in whatever season it was (sorry the name eludes me). That I'm sure was Imavision's decision.
This has to be one of the bigger mishaps on DVD. The picture quality is miserable, episodes are CUT! They should be ashamed of themselves treating a wonderful show with such disrespect. With each season I bought I got more frustrated. I was hoping for a remaster.
Well, I'll call UPS and have the "ship to" address changed. Lionsgate is safe. although ImaVision made a lot of claaaims on the box... Sooo... how about we steal a few of their chickens?
This is disappointing, but I suspected they would be the same transfers. I agree that its a shame such a beloved show got such shabby treatment on DVD. With TV on DVD, I've somewhat grudgingly come around to being happy with a few seasons of a show if it ends up abandoned, with less than perfect picture quality, and even with sets where a few cuts have been made, but I actually ended up selling my ImaVision Little House sets because I just couldn't stand to watch them! Aside from the picture quality issues and the fact that pretty much every episode clocked in under 45 minutes, the jarring way these episodes were edited just drove me crazy! I have Seasons 1 and 2 from the UK, which are said to be uncut, although there has been absolutely no work done to the prints that I can see. They still seem somewhat better than the ImaVision prints though, more natural looking, grainy as opposed to fuzzy! I really only did a comparison between the UK Season 1 and the ImaVision set, which I had heard was actually uncut, and found one episode (Town Party, Country Party) that had a missing scene on the ImaVision set but was in the UK set, although I believe the first season ImaVision eps are time compressed and also have the missing titles issue. I think they are up to at least Season 5 in the UK, so I will most likely buy those to at least get the episodes uncut.
I have to concurr with yous[sic] guys.... I bought all the individual sets of LHOTP used and watched the series through once- and I'm not some perfectionist with a big-screen TV or a $1000 sound system....but I just can't bring myself to watch these DVD's again, as much as I love the show. (Haven't been able to bring myself to sell them, either...YET...but I'm thinking I'd better...as they're gonna be worthless once the new set comes out))
The sound quality is horrendous- and so many dark scenes (The picture quality isn't much better than when I used to watch the show through an antenna on an old TV in the 70's)
And now....what do they offer us? The same crap, repackaged in soime cutesy piece of junk that no straight guy (especially a bachelor like myself) would dare to put anywhere in their hoime, other than a deep dark closet!
Very disappointing.
Between stuff like this, and all the stalled series and all, I'm just so disgusted, I no longer check TVSonDVD every day like I used to- and I haven't purchased a DVD in months.
Other than the final season of the Odd Couple which I have pre-ordered....I just don't see myself purchasing many more DVDs in the future, because of the way these studios are making such a mess of what could otherwise be a wonderful thing.
Some of the posts in this thread (and in a few others) have got me thinking that it might have been better for me to have waited for the 'second' releases of several shows. A few that come to mind are Adam-12, Charmed, The Fugitive (maybe?), Little House On the Prairie, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E., among others.
I bought seasons 1 and 2 through Amazon UK. They sometimes have some really good sales prices on these if you keep checking. I see that they have the first 2 seasons at 50% off right now and season 5 at 40% off.