Television is taking a licking, but it keeps on ticking these days, even with all the entertainment options we have. Video games, movies on DVD that we can either rent or buy for a good price, TiVo and the handy channel surfing remote control are creating challenges for broadcasting. Not to mention the Internet and all that it brings with music, news, video, information and software. In fact, I can't watch a movie on television any more, because of the mind numbing and rapid-fire succession of advertisements. So numerous and lengthy are they nowdays, that a movie is nearly doubled in length. In addition, we often wait for a favorite sequence to come up in a film, only to discover it has been cut to make room for yet another advertisement.
Adding insult to injury are the ever present logos and now the "cute" animated annoyances that often play in place of the logos to inform us what's on next in the lineup. Also, during the news, I find myself in some sort of self-induced trance state designed to tune out ads every 7 minutes. Unfortunately, I often will miss the weather forecast when I for whatever reason, fail to return my attention to the screen. Apparently my technique needs a little honing, or I could just look up the weather on the Internet, which is what I ususally do anyway.
But I digress. There have been upon occasion some pretty darn good TV series. So it's pretty cool that we can purchase these for playback on our awesome rigs, sans commercial interruption. But, what is interesting is the disparity of pricing between season sets! This is something that this reporter has discovered and would like to share with us in this interesting article at the Sun Sentinel.com. We can learn some of the hidden reasons why one show costs more than another to offer on DVD. But, we can also learn that there is little method to the madness of determining the retail cost point.
| "A season of The X-Files is possibly the most expensive box set you can find," said David Naylor, president of the DVD Group, which produced it. "In some stores, I've seen them at around $120."
The X-Files has an obsessively loyal fan base and there is a certain amount of "what the market will bear" strategy. However, Naylor says, "There are a lot of cost factors on a box set that the public generally isn't aware of." In the case of The X-Files, the box itself is a big part of the price. "The packaging alone can cost about $40 to the studio, hard cost," Naylor said. "That's before the marketing or any other payments." |
Yes, 120 dollars is a little steep all right. Especially since we have seen the shows already. However, just like movies, these compilations do offer some cool extras sometimes, like interviews and the infamous "bloopers". I must admit that I am a huge Seinfeld fan and I was happy to see it come out on DVD. Unfortunately, I was a bit too frugal to purchase it at the price they set. However, I lucked out and someone got the second and third seasons for me as a gift.
There is another rub to television shows on DVD and one that is quite serious in my case. The series are shot in 4:3 format and when you have a 16:9 set this really is a letdown. I just hope that in the future, when television makes the leap to HD that we will be able to get our favorite shows in the newer format.
But just like everything, there are both pluses and minuses. For instance, another show that us old timers really like, are the old Andy Griffith episodes shot in black and white from the 60's. The entire first season of 32 episodes was recently released for the first time by Paramount Television and the series was digitally re-mastered. When this show is played on a good set or computer, the quality is stunning. I can even read the information on Barney Fifes deputy badge! Plus, all of the show is there again and nothing has been cut out.
Luckily, the Andy Griffith show is still popular, a quick search on Google has revealed that the second season is on it's way, May the 24th and pre-orders are being taken! Furthermore, it's less than 30 dollars and this is a five DVD set so life is good. If you know of any shows that you bought season sets for, that you think is a particularly good value, pass it on here and tell us why you think it stands out. We would all like to hear about them.
Source: Sun-Sentinel
