This page last updated 12/6/00
In my theoretically infinite series on video idiocy, I come now the the incomprehensible mess that is the video release process. I will concentrate on DVDs as they are the future of video, and I've never regarded VHS as anything but an insult to the eyeballs.
I was talking to a friend the day before I first typed this page. He was telling me about a friend of his. This friend told him that she wants to see the TV show Babylon 5 issued in a DVD box set for about $45. All five seasons in one box. Barring some unlikely events with odds that make an Armageddon-type asteroid strike seem likely, this will never happen. Unfortunately, is is also unlikely that sane release and pricing policies will ever happen.
As I mentioned kind of indirectly in Video Idiocy 1 - Copy Protection, the entertainment industry has revenue expectations that make The Lord of the Rings look like a documentary of modern life. In attempting to produce these impossible numbers, the entertainment industry is actually costing themselves money.
Example: Paramount Pictures is releasing the original Star Trek TV series on DVD, they are doing this at 2 episodes per disc, using a single-layer single-sided disc. By investing in a couple of cents more per disc for the reverse-spiral layer, they could put 4 episodes on a disc? and sell it for just a bit more. Now the obvious comment here is "but they get less money that way than if they make you buy two discs". Which is exactly the logic used by the studios. What they fail to consider are a few things: This annoys the fans of that show. This can affect sales of other titles from that studio out of that annoyance. Another factor is that people value thier money, and marginal fans may not buy the discs as they see insufficient value for money in two episodes per disc. Now, Paramount will probably issue another set of discs later, with 4 episodes per disc, at a rather higher price. They will be confused when these do not sell very well. Why? Well, all those who have the original discs will have no interest, and most of those who might have bought a 4-episode disc at a reasonable price to begin with will have either pirated it or just continue not to be interested at the unrealistic prices being charged. This is assuming that these people look closely enough at the release to be aware that it is a new release, and not just a re-package.
Now the BBC has done a much better job. They have released The Black Adder, Blackadder II and Blackadder the Third on DVD in the United Kingdom. (Region 2 PAL format, for those who know what it means.) Each season of the show consists of 6 episodes, and the whole season fits on a disc. It took doing a reverse spiral layer on the discs, but this allowed them to sell an entire season as one neat package. They could have done two disc sets of three episodes each, but they had more sense than that.
Another good job from the UK is the Thunderbirds box set. The whole series has been released on seperate discs, nine discs, the first eight with four episodes per disc, the final disc with supplements, and as a nine-disc box set. The series is supossedly due in the US in late 2001, how that will be handled is open to question.
I will update this page further later with more
coments about release issues.
Update 11/14/00? : Clues are appearing. In the
last year, The X-Files has been released as a single-season box for season 1,
and season 2 is coming soon.
?