Where can I buy "Friends" on DVD by the season? (1 Viewer)

[Patrick G]

I have a multi-region player and would like to have "Friends" on dvd by the season. Where can I find them, what region are they, and any idea how much they are (in US $). Thanks.

 

[G Miller]

Patrick,
In Australia (R4) we get the friends episodes in full. There are a few on-line stores which are quite good. And with the current exchange rate, you will pick them up dirt cheap aswell...
http://www.ezydvd.com.au http://www.devoted.com.au
These are the two that I have seen which stock the series. They are $28.94 AU plus about $5 shipping, however you can take off 10% GST. All up its probably about $32 each, which in Yankee currency is $15
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I hate living in R4........

• More Expensive HT equiptment
• DVD titles released 12 months after R1

[Edited last by Gary Miller on September 20, 2001 at 07:29 PM]

 

[Patrick G]

Are you saying I can buy entire seasons of Friends on region 4 dvd for around $15 for each season?

 

[Patrick G]

After looking, I think that's $15 per volume, and it looks like about 3 volumes per season. Can I buy each season in its entirety in a single box set anywhere?

 

[G Miller]

There are 8 episodes on each DVD... and if i remember correctly i have seen box sets available... let me just do a bit of a check and i'll get back to you
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I hate living in R4........

• More Expensive HT equiptment
• DVD titles released 12 months after R1

 

[G Miller]

Looking at DeVoTeD, there are Friends COMBO packs which contain the entire season of Friends in a pack. DeVoTeD is a bit cheaper than EzyDVD aswell Patrick.. $73.04 AU buys you an entire season... For some reason Series 6 is slightly more expensive..
This is how it breaks down
Friends Series 1 - Combo pack 73.04
Friends Series 2 - Combo pack 73.04
Friends Series 3 - Combo pack 73.04
Friends Series 4 - Combo pack 73.04
Friends Series 5 - Combo pack 73.04
Friends Series 6 - Combo pack 75.20
Shipping Cost (unknown for this quantity)
Total Australian $ 440.40
Total American $ 216.93
So for $216 you get 144 episodes of Friends at approx 22 minutes each equals 3168 minutes of viewing pleasure which equates to 52.8 hours or 2.2 days... This also works out at a measly $4.10 per hour of viewing (if viewed once)....
Geez, i'm bored...
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I hate living in R4........

• More Expensive HT equiptment
• DVD titles released 12 months after R1

 

[Richard Ruffner]

They are also available from blackstar.co.uk and amazon.co.uk
Richard Ruffner

 

[Patrick G]

Thanks a bunch for the info!! Can't decide whether to get the UK versions or the Australian versions. Gonna be one or the other tho! Thanks again!

 

[SteveMc]

Patrick,
Out of curiosity, what player do you have? I have been considering getting a region free player just for the Friends sets available overseas. Especially since it seems that they are not planning them anytime soon here.
I just saw a commercial on TNT i think that said they are starting the series on Oct 1...apparently there is the "syndication" issues Warner was speaking of.
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[Patrick G]

Steve, I have THE region free player... the Malata DVD-N996.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Always buy the Aussie versions where possible. They are identical to the UK versions, except the region code is 4 instead of 2. They are also about half the price
Jeff Kleist

 

[G Miller]

I suppose that the Australian DVD market isn't THAT bad afterall. I should change my sig.
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I hate living in R4........

• More Expensive HT equiptment
• DVD titles released 12 months after R1

 

[TheoGB]

Half the price is a little optimistic. R4 is usually cheaper than our R2 stuff, it's true. What you want to check out is Link Removed
This site will compare across R1, R2 and R4 for you.
The Aussie market never seems to get any fancy packaging at all. This means that the Buffy sets over there are in Amaray packaging not the flash stuff they gave to R2.
Also, for those that care, there appear to be NO SNAPPERS in R4 land. Ameray all the way!
Finally: Friends
With Series 1-6 they should be roughly the same price. For Series 7, however, they were leading the satellite TV broadcasts so they decided to give us only 4 eps per DVD...and then give us the same 4 eps in 'directors cuts' with more footage, obviously deemed less funny or they wouldn't have cut it??? Anyhow, you'll need six volumes for those.
Ho hum - the old money machine just keeps on turning. You also might want to check up the PAL speedup thread in the Regional DVD area but I guess you've already seen it.
Theo

 

[Iain Lambert]

Play 247 had these on special offer recently; they also might be worth checking.
(edit) I just checked for you; £10 for each disc, or you the first 6 series are $36 each. Yes, you're paying an extra £6 a series for the box, it would appear.
[Edited last by Iain Lambert on September 21, 2001 at 03:59 AM]

 

[EricW]

just wanted to point out that you'll need to have a player that can play PAL discs and change it to NTSC output, and someone already mentioned the speedup. you can also use a computer DVDrom and output to TV, which is what i do.
also, there is a small difference in R2/R4 discs in that the British ones come in the Warner snap cases, while the Australian ones come in the amory keepcases (at least that's been my experience).
and, finally, you may want to check on ebay for good deals (if that's not been mentioned yet).
if you want to avoid the speed up (which can be really annoying), there is always the Japanese Friends DVDs, though i think that's more expensive. ~BUT~ it's NTSC and any region-free player can play them perfectly.

 

[Patrick G]

Believe it or not, I was NOT aware of this PAL speedup thing. Does this affect any and every PAL dvd? Do you think I would notice too much on the Friends discs? Keep in mind, I'm not doing a one-to-one comparison here. Anyone have a PAL Friends dvd?

 

[James Nguyen]

PAL by its nature runs quicker by a few frames per second than NTSC, about 4% if I recall correctly. So in general, the voices may seem a bit high pitched to you. Some viewers are never aware of that until it's pointed out, your mileage may vary. Those actors/actresses whose voices you are quite familiar with though will probably be an easy place to see how acute you are to the speedup.
As such, for all intents and purposes, this affects all PAL material. There exists software (at least for the HTPC route) that can try to accomdate for this and do a pitch correction. I've heard mixed reviews on the quality of the resulting audio playback on this however.
With regards to a good quality player that can handle PAL discs and output as NTSC, look no further than the Malata N996.. Region free and does the conversion between both formats pretty damn close to flawlessly. (The occasional title seems to result in some artifacting) The player also allows for a scaling feature similar to that found on the RP91, except that you can independently control how much to scale on the X and Y axis. I've both the RP91 and the N996 and I love them both, but if you're going to seriously consider expanding your collection to include region free as well as PAL discs, I can't recommend the machine enough.
(avdeals.com is the primary retailer for the Malata)

 

[andrew markworthy]

Oh pulllease, not the PAL speedup thing again.
The best bargain I've seen recently for Friends is Play 247.
The marketing of Series 7 was a rip-off IMHO; the 'director's cut' episodes were slightly better than the cut versions, but there is *no way* that they were worth doubling the number of DVDs per series.

 

[TheoGB]

Like I said there is a thread all about PAL speedup in the Regional area. Essentially the differences between PAL and NTSC are:
PAL - greater resolution and no pulldown but speed increase which can affect the pitch (though is occasionally corrected) and makes the movie/program run smoothly.
Some prefer it, some don't care and some hate it, it seems. Pulldown is cause in NTSC by the repetition of frames to make 24 fps run to 30 fps, which gives a slightly flickery effect to pans and movement. Unless you actually compared two discs you probably wouldn't notice the effects that much.
To be fair, I don't know what happens with the resolution increase for PAL in the states as the TVs would have to be able to actually do the extra 100 lines of resolution to use it in the first place. However, it can make a difference. I know that the already fantastic NTSC picture of the Se7en SE was meant to be markedly better on the PAL version.
Theo

 

[Andy_MT]

WARNING : picture quality on these r2/r4 discs is 'utter crap'. there is no way warner can justify such a shoddy product. i'd try one disk first before investing in boxsets.
[Edited last by Andy_MT on September 22, 2001 at 11:19 AM]