Medialoper

Chasing the long tail of new media

DVD

How Paramount Steals My Life, A Few Minutes at a Time

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Warning: This DVD forces you to watch evil previews!!In our house, we watch an embarassing amount of TV on DVD. My guess is that we pretty much jumpstarted the entire market. Just me and Rox.

Me the second I realized that I didn’t have to keep my old VHS copies of the original broadcasts of The Simpsons (I started taping it from the very first show, since I figured out that something so awesome would never ever last, and once I got locked into it, I couldn’t really stop, could I?), and Rox, who has already purchased the entire runs of both Buffy and Angel. Twice.

We have a 5-disc carousel that is always full of various TV shows. For example, right now, we have:

  • Veronica Mars Season 2
  • Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 2
  • Arrested Development Season 1
  • Battlestar Galactica Season 2.5
  • Taxi Season 2

It’s this last one that is causing all of the consternation. Not because of the show, which is an all-timer (and we haven’t even got to Reverend Jim yet!), but because some marketing genius at Paramount has decided that they want steal my life, a few minutes at a time.

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Why HD DVDs Won’t Save Hollywood

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On the surface of it, I’m a natural candidate to upgrade to one of the latest HD DVD formats: I have an extensive and ever-growing DVD collection, and I have a pretty decent HD TV and sound system.

So it would be logical for me to take the next step — upgrade to either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. But I’m just not going to do it, not yet, and maybe not ever.

I’m also guessing that I’m not alone. Here’s why:

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Only Spielberg Can Mess With His Movies, Dammit!

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In a bit of good news for censorship foes, a Federal judge in Denver has ruled that retailers who were “sanitizing” films by removing all of the good parts prior to selling them to a probably-witting niche were also violating copyright laws.

This case has been in motion since 2002, when CleanFlicks tried to twist the First Amendment by claiming that they had the right to do whatever they wanted to these films prior to sending them out to the public. The judge, however, saw right through that bullshit:

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Monkeynews: Downloading Kong in Europe

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King Kong is coming out on DVD on April 10th. In and of itself, that isn’t extraordinary — it’s been a few months since it hit the theatre, and now those interested in Peter Jackson’s take on the tale, but didn’t want to be bothered with sticky floors, ringing cellphones, commercials and overpriced vats of food can watch it in the privacy of their own homes. (Why they even had wait a few months is another discussion for another time).

That week, millions of people will trundle off to their local Best Buy or Blockbuster or rip open a package from Amazon, and pop King Kong into their DVD player. Unless they live in Europe, where instead, they can download it.

For the first time ever, a major Hollywood movie will be available for downloading on the same day as the DVD release. A non-self-destructing file, unlike other downloads in the past; and while it is more expensive than just purchasing the DVD, they will also send a physical copy of the DVD. Right. A physical backup copy for the downloaded digital file. And also, to give the consumer more choices on when and where to play the movie.

If successful in Europe, it’s only a matter of time before they try it here: and that will be long after shared copies of those downloads have already made it here. Given the time difference between here and Europe, it’s possible that a shared download of Kong will be played on some college kids laptop before his local DVD store even opens.

But maybe, just maybe, the movie studios will look at what they call “piracy” as indicators of demand — what people are willing to pay for if it was only available — as opposed to indicators of just how contemptible their audience actually is. If so, it’s another major step to anything, anytime, anywhere.

TV Shows on DVD I’d Like To See

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One of my favorite niche sites out there is Gord Lacey’s TV Shows on DVD, which is exactly what it claims to be: a place where you can learn about TV Shows on DVD. It’s essentially a compendium of news/rumours/release dates (Battlestar Galactica 2.5 is coming out in early September?!?), reviews, and a place where you can vote for shows that haven’t quite made it to DVD.

Anyways, just for the hell of it, here’s my list of shows that I’m still waiting to see on DVD (or On-Demand) (or even downloadable):

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