joltman

I was just thinking today, after looking at my fiancee's ER sets, what's going to happen with TV shows that haven't finished being released yet? As in, when the new formats come out, when they release, say, ER or the Simpsons, where are they gonna start? Season 1 or whatever the next season is after the DVD releases? Obviously, I'm just looking for guesses, nobody knows for sure unless any shows have been announced already for Blu-Ray/HD-DVD.

Shagrath

I would assume that shows that have been remastered in HD, or shows shot in HD already, they could release all the old releases simultaneously with the new one, or at least without a huge gap in between them.

The studios also aren't going to abandon DVD right away, and the newer seasons will still get released on the standard-def format for quite some time.

The Bus

I can see why you might want to get CSI: Miami or 24 on HD/Ray but I think things like All in the Family and Small Wonder don't need upgrades.

darkside

This is definitely one thing I'm not worried about having to upgrade, but I would imagine any shows that can support HD transfers will get new releases at some point.

Drexl

Smallville season 5, The O.C. season 3, and The West Wing season 7 were on Warner's tentative HD-DVD release list. It seems that Warner, at least, won't be starting over.

I would think that will be the way it is for most shows, since they can simultaneously promote both sets if they release them along with the standard DVD releases. I imagine some people will just buy the new sets in HD, but it would seem kind of strange to me to have part of a series in HD and part of it in SD. I think I'd rather stick with SD for series I've already started, unless I decide to sell off the SD sets and start over with HD.

sdk

Im sure previous seasons will come out in hd also, and there are some shows i would rebuy for hd such as

Sopranos
Six feet under
Carnivale
Deadwood
Smallville
Battlestar galactica
Dead like me

Fok

The only shows that I'm worried about are: Married with Children and that 70's show. These releases are too far inbetween.

Damed

I'd buy Firefly in HD, in an instant.

fitprod

Considering the pace of the Simpsons, I would think they would just pick up in the middle of the run... Besides, by the time the Simpsons is released on an HD format, they'll only be up to season 11 at best.



fitprod

Qui Gon Jim

Hmm... I'm waiting out on Sopranos and SFU for full series sets ala Sex and the City but this is a new wrinkle to consider.

I too would happily double dip on Firefly as well.

Dogg

There are only two main reasons for releasing (rereleasing) TV seasons. The first being any of the new shows that are currently recording in HD. The second reason, would be the number of episodes that could be placed on each disc. Instead of having a 7 disc season , it could all be on a single disc. Imagine all 9 seasons of the X-Files on like 4 discs. I for one, could use the shelf space.

It would also be nice for other movie collections (Aliens/Friday the 13th, etc.), but that is a different topic.

ScandalUMD

The early Simpsons seasons were all remastered from video sources. This is the case with a lot of older TV sources.

I see no reason to ever upgrade most of this stuff.

Frankly, I'm pretty underwhelmed by HD discs as an image quality upgrade anyway.

flix1

In theory, this is true.

Although I can definitely see some "Entire Series" box sets being a reality, I would image the cost of the set would be too much for most consumers. The studios are probably content getting $30-$50 per season (average), rather than asking for ~$400 for an entire 9 Season set. Consumers are more likely to pick up sets at a slower pace or pick and choose which seasons they want, to lessen the impact, rather than dropping a big chunk at once. An impulse buy is less likely as the cost increases.

To the studios, it is all about the money ... nothing about convenience.

Drexl

Wouldn't TV shows shot on film, such as Cheers, Seinfeld, and many dramas, benefit from HD?

MEJHarrison

Imagine one of those 4 discs getting damaged, lost or stolen. You'd loose several seasons in one shot and have to pay a fortune to replace it.

If it was shot on film, then in theory it should benefit from HD. Not sure about 16mm, but 35mm for sure. Assuming there are good elements to work with. That's why the original Star Trek would look great on HD, but the later series wouldn't.

hondo21

For some TV stuff I'd agree. But HD discs will provide an enormous improvement over DVD for content that can benefit from the increased resolution, better color depth, and improved sound. Of course, you'll need a capable display/audio system to derive the benefits.

Dan Average

From what I understand, programs shot on film are still edited and mastered on video, so in the case of pre-HD programming they would have to go back to the original film elements (assuming they still exist), re-transfer them in HD, and basically redo post-production from scratch. I don't see that becoming very common.

Drexl

Thanks, I wasn't sure if they were mastered on video or not, hence the question mark. I would imagine that even if the original elements do exist in some cases, there isn't going to be much desire to see it in HD, when the way people remember it is on standard TV. It's not like with film, where people want the video to get closer to the way the film looked in theaters. Heck, standard DVD on modern displays already presents the shows in higher quality than what people saw when they first aired.

Kimiakane

How can THE SIMPSONS benefit from HD anyway, other than to have fewer discs and more bonus features? We are talking simple line animation here, not fully painted masterpieces like some of the classic Disney or Blum Studio productions.

madara

Companies will not be able to resist redoing nearly everything they think could sell fairly well I think. Considering how much studios like Universal messed up releases this is like a second chance for them. The buzz also seems to be that many think this will be last collectable media for sometime until something like 3D/Virtual Reality or a way too large to download medium comes out, so I'm sure studios will go gangbusters all over again when/if next gen dvd takes off.

Adam Tyner

...although Sony did do it with Seinfeld, and series that were cut on film rather than video are pretty painless to retransfer in HD. Some of the older TV series already available in high-definition include Charlie's Angels, Square Pegs, Knight Rider, The Equalizer, Hogan's Heroes, Wiseguy, and Quantum Leap. Cheers (and I Love Lucy, I believe) has also been remastered in HD, but I don't think any of those have aired.

T1000

Woot!

tonyc3742

I watch the new episodes of the Simpsons on HD, and it's noticeably crisper and brighter than the same ep on analog or an older ep on dvd. I don't think it would be an earthshattering improvement, but it's noticeable to me.

It would be cool to have an entire series on one disk or one set of disks, but yes, I could see it being very expensive, and while I haven't had an issue with breaking/scratching disks, I wouldn't want to start with breaking one of these disks.
Plus it's sort of weird and saddening, saying "Here's So-and-so's entire career" or "Here's 12 years of the Simpsons" on one or two disks.

Adam Tyner

You're watching an upconvert on a digital channel, but The Simpsons isn't produced in high-definition.

Nick Martin

It's kind of funny that the oldest Trek series could easily look better than the newer ones from the 80's and 90's.