I've only bought South Park, Friends, and Band of Bros. The others I rent and watch w/ netflix, they're just too expensive to own.

Jack, azn is not the preferred nomenclature.
Actually there at 2x as many discs in the boot verions. There are 7 or 8 discs per season of Sopranos for instance, and the bitrate is the exact same for a/v on the discs. They are indeed clones (albeit split up into single-layered discs). If posting this info is in violation of forum rules yada-yada feel free to delete mods.

It all depends on if you like the show. If you are a big fan of Profiler or La Femme Nikita, that price isn't going to deter you. It is totally worth it. Still, that price probably discourages the idle viewers and/or new recruits from making the jump and buying the sets.

I've spent ridiculous sums of money on TV box sets before (including two hundred for the 36 restored episodes of Macross from AnimEigo when it first came out). But I've had to cut way back, seeing as how I am currently looking for a job. Otherwise, I would have already bought a bunch of series I don't have yet, including Farscape.

I get more value buying TV shows than I do movies. The shows are easier for me to fit in my busy schedule. I can squeeze a 25 or 45 min show into my day before I goto bed or when I'm eating but I only get to sit down and watch a 2 hr once a while.

I paid $100-110 each for seasons 1-6 of the X-Files and it was worth it to me. I can and have watched those seasons over and over and won't get tried of them. I wouldn't pay $10 for seasons 7-9 because I don't like them.

To me the shows I own are worth every cent I paid for them. I have all the seasons of Futurama, Simpsons, Family Guy and XFiles 1-6 and these are shows that I watch over and over. I'll be adding Threes Company to my collection soon.

I bought ER Season1 for $45 (I think) and to me it wasn't really worth it because it didn't have replay value so I sold it. ER is a great show but if its not something I want to watch more than once.

I'll never spend more than $50

There is a big difference between Song of the south and Star Wars Original and getting a bootleg copy of the Sopranos. The difference. One is made very open and freely to get by the studio that produced it, the other is a company choice not to put it out.

I own many different versions of star wars and frankly, I don't mind that people have bootlegs of the ORIGINAL trilogy because it may not be around in that way ever. So no one is losing cash out there since people aren't choosing not to buy the legit one over the bootleg... Since there is no legit one.

In the case of sopranos and other shows that are out there but are bootlegged. You aren't telling a studio to lower the price or "sticking it to the man" in any method by supporting bootlegs.

Infact you are supporting hong kong mobs and other crime rings. You are also telling the studios that you do not want said show on dvd because they see a lack of numbers and stop producing the dvd in that fashion or make radical changes in the way it is produced often times lowering quality or effort put into the production of the dvd.

How about this logic. If you can't afford it, DON'T BUY IT! Live within your means, even if that means you wont have _____ dvd in your collection.

BOOTS ARE VERY BAD. suggesting otherwise on dvdtalk is support bootlegs. Sometimes the means is helpful. In the case of Fansubs which are free and do not take away from sells of the anime, infact they help increase awareness of a show which may otherwise not have the appeal to many without some exposure the distribution company can't afford, you provide it with a much needed boost of free advertisement. Boots of shows already on dvd, say the hong kong version of x-files and sopranos, etc. are bad. they do not support in any means the show, they do not promote it, nor do they bring in any cash for it.

I've been on the TV on DVD bandwagon from the start, enduring all the delays that The Simpsons and Buffy experienced before finally getting released. And I agree with an earlier poster in that I seem to get more use out of my TV DVDs because it is often easier to squeeze in an episode of a show than sit and watch a movie. I also enjoy introducing my friends to shows they never watched so it is the perfect opportunity for me to see the shows through fresh eyes again.

And as for the HD-DVD question from an earlier post, just think about how long it took some of these shows to be put on DVD. Let's be realistic, there is a good chance, even after HD-DVD has gotten a foothold, that we won't be seeing many of these shows released for a while on the new format, some maybe not at all.

Alot of the box sets out there are reasonably priced. The only ones that I have paid over 100 bucks for is the Star Trek: TNG, DS9 and Voyager series. I never paid over a 100 bucks on the X-Files season sets. I have been paying between 30 through 90 for alot of them. They average around 50 or so.

I think you'd all do well to start looking for these sets used - most of the used stores I go to are exploding at the seams with used TV show sets - I see dozens upon dozens of CSI's, Alias, Xfiles, Star Trek of every stripe, Sanford & Son, etc etc etc etc -- shows I never even knew were on tv. And sometimes you can get really really good deals -- I've bought all my (legit, NON-bootleg) Sopranos sets for less than $25 each, Alias for and I've been seeing several Voyager Season 3's already for $58 (no i will not buy it for you and ship it to you).

Some other minor deals:
Alias Season 1 for 17.50 at a Wherehouse that was going under.
Ken Burns Civil War $23.99 at a store that probably doesn't appreciate the value of good documentaries!
Space 1999, The Prisoner and Avengers series for around $12 each 2-disc set, at Half Price Books - and they are a nationwide store so you should be able to find some of them still there.

And please, save any "but buying used you are not giving your money to the studios" blah blah -- I refuse to pay the ridiculous prices, and since buying used is not breaking the law, I am fine with it

(funny aside - the major recording studios tried to break down our successful used market here about 10 years ago -- they were threatening to refuse to send some used/new shops new product, such as Garth Brooks new cd's. So, in protest, one of the store chains decided they'd throw out/destroy all their Garth Brooks cd's, used and new, in response. It worked! They got tons of free publicity, exposed the record companies as the greedy bastards they are, and underscored the real legality of selling pre-owned product).

You wont hear that from me. Atleast when you buy it used you know that someone at some point bought it from a store and supported them.

Besides that, buying used is still legal. Opposed to bootleging which never helped the studio at all to see any sort of support.

I highly suggest anyone who feels prices are to high to go check out the used store. they will find the product cheaper. Atleast it's the legit product.

Most of the time it's not cheaper. I went to a pawn shop that had season sets of the Simpsons for 30 bucks Canadian. You can get them almost brand new for that price.

Well it really ranges and it all depends on the people behind the counter. You can't say that one example on either cash makes the statement of it being cheaper or more expensive true because it will range greatly.

But if you look around used stores you will find that a lot of them have lower prices.. Besides that, a pawn shop isn't into the market of dvd's, so it would be like buying a dvd at sav-on with their high prices since they don't deal with that one area only.

Only TV show box sets I got were:

BoB - Father's Day present
CSI: S1 & S2, Deep Discount coupon sale ,waiting for S3 to drop.
Alias S1 & S2 - Overstock & Costco Purchase
Dawson's Creek S1- S3, got S1 &S2 used, ordered S3 from buy.com with $5 off

The Freaks and Geeks Yearbook was worth every penny of the $130. Other than that, the only TV show I would spend over $50 a season for would be Buffy. Under $50, I'm willing to experiment.

How much a tv series is worth depends on how much you'll watch it. I've bought tons, but the only ones I consider keepers are Babylon 5, Farscape, and The Black Adder. I'm also keeping Buffy, but mostly for my daughter--I loved it, but watching it twice is enough for me.

I found many great shows on DVD though (The Shield, Nip/Tuck, Six Feet Under, etc.) and think they were very worth buying--just not worth keeping because I know I won't watch them over and over. Best bet is to buy used so if it isn't a keeper you can get all your money back.

tasha

I think the box set would be worth it is they were under $40. The funny thing is how cheap I'm getting. I used to not even think twice about paying $40 plus dollars for a laser disc. Netflix is a great way to watch all the show that you missed. Especially shows like Sopranos and Six Feet Under when you dont subscribe to the movie channels.

Mathys

Morality question:

If you buy a TV set on DVD legitamitely, then make a copy, sell the original DVD TV set (keeping the copy for yourself), is that wrong?

1) You paid to own it, so the DVD/Production/Home Video companies get their money.

2) You sell the original (not a bootleg).

It is not only morally wrong but also, as far as I know, illegal (not that the feds are going to bust down your door or anything). Any copies you make are for your own use while you have ownership of the original set. Once you sell the original set, you are effectively selling the license to view it, and you are no longer allowed to enjoy the duplicates. It's no different than having a bootleg.

I've had terrible luck with pawn shops in the past (though to be honest I haven't been to one in ages and I know some people on this forum just love them). You are right though, some used places charge more than the new price! It helps to know the going price for the stuff you want to make sure you aren't being ripped off. Sometimes I just laugh at some of the prices I see out there -- like one place is charging $97 for used Star Trek TNG box sets! Ridiculous. Wherehouse is a good example - you have to be really careful there as their prices are really hit or miss.

I recommend checking around with your local independent music stores, especially ones that carry used cd's. They have almost all converted their businesses to include dvd's, and you may not even be aware of it (i.e. they are still under 'cd stores' in the yellow pages). Django's in Portland is probably the most famous example, since they sell online as well.

A lot of the larger indie used book stores have also started carrying used dvds, so those are worth a look too.

I wonder if someone on the web somewhere has compiled a list of really good indie used cd/dvd/book stores around the country? That'd be really handy for me at least, since i travel so much.

They're not worth it to me. I'm not a big TV and just don't find many shows to have much replay value. Even great episodes I generally don't want to see more than once for most shows.

The only TV on DVD I own is Boomtown Season 1. It was one of my all time favorite shows and I was able to get it for $24.99 shipped so it was worth it. But most are $40-80 which are just way too expensive for me to even consider.

22 episodes = 22 hours = 11 movies

At about $15 a movie, it should cost $165

Here's another morality question:


There are a number of Japanese TV series box sets that I would love to have but there are two issues:

1. They cost anywhere from $400 to $800 per set (and people complain about spending $100 for a box set )

2. No English subs (this is the big issue for me. I would be more willing to shell out some big bucks if there were subs)

Region compatability is not a problem for me. Now, some of these shows are available as much less expensive Chinese boots WITH English subs. I haven't purchased any, because I'm suspicious about quality. But, does the fact that these discs are the only way I can see these with an English translation make them less "bad".

This pretty well comes under the anime "fan subbing" excuse. And lets face it, 10 or 15 years ago, people interested in anime, Asian films etc. living in North America had almost no choice but to buy/trade boots back then. There was almost no other way to see this stuff. And this set the initial groundwork for more wide spread interest that later allowed legitimate companies to start selling licenced releases of this stuff. So, boots aren't always "bad", there are some grey areas, as far as I'm concerned.


Anyway, didn't mean to get a bit off topic.

The thing for me is that I'll watch any movie I buy repeatedly (otherwise I wouldn't have bought it), but not many TV show episodes do I ever desire seeing more than once.

Thus the value equation doesn't hold up for me.

I'm not really into TV so much. The only ones I have are Batman AS cause it's cool and it has superheros, Twin Peaks Season 1 (which I picked up used) becuase of Lynch and Dick Van Dyke Show Season #1 that I picked up when Amazon had it for $19.99. Dick Van Dyke is my favorite TV show of all time so I eventually plan on picking the rest of them up but have been holding off because of the high prices. I need to look for them used.

PS. I Don't buy boots, but if there was something that I really wanted that not available for purchase otherwise, I'd consider buying one. Fortunately my want list is very large so I can keep myself busy with other purchase while I wait for a legitimate release.