morriscroy

The Americans is possibly being discontinued on bluray, with season 2 going dvd-only.

http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Americans-Season-2/20387

slop101

At least it looks like they'll be finishing off Justified on blu.

Decker

That fucking sucks! I love The Americans and was certainly planning on buying Season 2 on BR next year.

How can these shows sell better on DVD than Blu Ray?

Ranger

Personally, I think streaming or iTunes is the way to go when it comes to TV shows. It's just easier for me to go on the computer to pull up an episode rather than fumbling through multiple discs and looking for the right episodes.

But yeah, there are some shows we love enough that we want a physical set.

PhantomStranger

It is less about sales and more about costs. People don't realize the studios have repeatedly fired their home video staff over the past decade, leaving skeleton crews to handle everything. It's why so many catalog films now get licensed out to other labels. DVDs are far cheaper to churn out and need less staff.

msdmoney

I know HD isn't necessarily a big deal for a comedy show like Modern Family, but since they aren't releasing a blu ray, I've decided to just record the episodes from the latest season from USA instead of buying it on DVD. All the previous seasons I purchased on Blu Ray.

hanshotfirst1138

It's getting them off of the DVR that's the hard part . I think it'd be a little more tolerable if a show which got an SD-only release came with an HD UV code. It'd still be disappointing, but be a manageable compromise.

PhantomStranger

That is definitely what they should do but studios are being run by dimwits.

maxfisher

I've avoided most of Fox's titles that shifted from Blu-ray to dvd only and will likely be forgoing the Americans. Several years back, I put in a projector and 10' screen and DVDs look like shit on it, which is the main reason I avoid the format if at all possible. It's too bad, because it effectively means the wife and I are just done with these shows. The only way we watch shows is on disc, as we don't have cable or dvr. Hopefully someday our local internet provider can offer us speeds fast enough to make HD streaming an option, but they're pretty far from that now.

morriscroy

(As an aside).

Presently I'm using this "fact" to avoid jumping onto the bluray/dvd treadmill of various tv shows I regularly watch. (Largely as another way of squelching my ocd compulsive buying/hoarding behavior).

I don't bother buying season 1 bluray sets anymore. I'll wait until season 2 (or 3 or 4) comes around, largely to see whether it is discontinued on bluray.

If a particular current tv show is discontinued on bluray (or is never released on bluray to begin with), then it makes my decision easier to not buy that show to begin with.

With that being said, a current running show would have to be something really good that I want to watch repeatedly, in order to overcome this self-imposed edict. (So far the only current running show I have in this category, is "House of Lies").


Another strategy I'm using to squelch my ocd treadmill, is waiting for tv shows to end their run, before buying any of the dvd/bluray sets. (I know I'll be waiting for a long time for some shows).

This is largely to see whether a particular show ends on a "cliffhanger". If a particular show ends on a major cliffhanger and/or has too many unresolved issues, then there's probably no point in buying the show at all on bluray/dvd. (Especially for highly serialized shows).

If a particular show catches my interest by the end of its run, hopefully the prior dvd (or bluray) season sets will already be in the local dump bins for $15 a pop (or less).

morriscroy

With all this being said, this will most likely take a lot more self-discipline than I am presently capable of.

PhantomStranger

I have no intention of finishing off shows that have permanently switched to DVD-only releases.

davidh777

The only shows I seem to be buying on BD these days is premium cable that I feel has rewatch value: Game of Thrones, Strike Back, Banshee. On the other hand, I used Xbox credits for True Detective, Homeland, and Masters of Sex, so maybe even the premium-cable rule is not true anymore. True Detective and Masters of Sex were semi-blind-buys, so that's part of it. Homeland I bought the first season of on BD then the second digitally.

I rewatch Game of Thrones so much that I like having a physical copy, just in case.

This is appealing for me as well. It's convenient to go to the series on your service and see how many episodes you've watched and which one is next.

Yeah, it's the two different SKUs that creates the labor. Yes, you'll lose some customers by going to DVD only, but you'd lose more by going to BD only.

Finish watching them or finish collecting them? It seems like a shame to just not watch a show anymore, though I get it. If I could only stream a show on my phone, I'd probably skip it.

morriscroy

For me, it will be show dependent.

At the present time, I'm only following two tv on bluray shows: "Person of Interest" and the revived Hawaii Five-0.

Since Hawaii Five-0 has been discontinued on bluray in america and europe, at this point I don't really care anymore. (Allegedly season 4 will be released on bluray in Japan at sky-high prices). I probably won't bother picking up the subsequent dvd-only seasons, unless I find them in the dump bins for less than $10 a pop.

If "Person of Interest" goes dvd-only, I'll continue buying the subsequent dvd-only season sets if the show doesn't turn into shit in the meantime.

PhantomStranger

I would stop collecting them. Most of the shows I purchase I've already seen during broadcast.

Warner is the one studio still fully committed to television sets on Blu-ray, you do not have to worry about Person of Interest. They've made small compromises (cutting down the number of discs, generic menus, etc) to keep pushing them out. Here is the review of Season Three's BD set:

http://www.doblu.com/2014/09/04/pers...lu-ray-review/

morriscroy

In practice, I find that most current television shows that I regularly watch, have very little to no rewatch value for me, whether in reruns or on dvd/bluray.


Most of the tv season sets I have purchased, falls into one of three broad categories:

1 - Stuff originally broadcast during the 1990's or over most of the 2000's, when I was hardly watching television at all. (During the entire 1990's and up to the mid-late 2000's, I was largely clueless and ignorant of then-current television shows).

2 - Stuff I haven't seen since the 70's and/or 80's. (ie. Tv shows I grew up watching).

3 - Stuff I like watching repeatedly.


For the third category, it's mostly stuff like Star Trek, CSI, Law & Order, etc ...

(I won't go into the second category).

For the first category, a lot of it is sci-fi/fantasy shows from the 1990s/2000s like Babylon 5, Stargate, X-Files, Xena, Hercules, etc ... which I completely missed in their original first runs. Also various cable and network shows which I completely missed during their first-runs during the 1990s/2000s such as: House MD, Nip/Tuck, The Shield, Numb3rs, Mentalist, Psych, The Closer, Mad Men, La Femme Nikita, 24, The Unit, Prison Break, Lie To Me, Burn Notice, Fringe, etc ... Mostly stuff I haven't watched before.


With all this being said, there's only two current tv shows that I'm buying on bluray where I have seen all the episodes previously: Person of Interest and the revived Hawaii Five-0. Previously I watched the final season of Fringe and season 3 + 4 of Nikita in their original first-runs. Other than that, I haven't really purchased the latest season sets of current shows I've been watching.

morriscroy

I suspect Warner may start to "wobble" on some tv on bluray shows, if they completely drop the bluray + dvd + uv/digital copy combo pack format.

Warner shows which had the bluray "piggybacked" with a dvd copy, would most likely be vulnerable to discontinuation. For example, shows like: The Following, Person of Interest, Shameless, and maybe even The Vampire Diaries and The Big Bang Theory.

bruceames

Is that because there is far more infrastructure for pressing DVDs? I remember during the format war that the main advantage of HD DVD was that they could use the existing DVD lines and just retool the lines for HD DVD as needed.

morriscroy

In a scenario of Warner wobbling and having their own "saint valentine's day massacre" for tv on bluray, I wouldn't be surprised if it's mainly the sci-fi/fantasy and DC comics based shows which end up surviving on bluray. For example, stuff like: Arrow, The Flash, The 100, Supernatural, and maybe The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, etc ...

Less certain for their other shows like: The Following, Person of Interest, Shameless, The Big Bang Theory, etc ...

PhantomStranger

Warner believes in corporate synergy and that the Blu-ray's mere existence helps advertise the show to possibly new viewers. They were the one studio all along pushing home video product as the solution instead of a problem. I doubt they would pull the Blu-ray plug on a running show that has already seen the format. These decisions always come down to one or two key executives, you never know what someone might do if faced with a budget crunch.

morriscroy

Warner has pulled the plug already several times, albeit after one season.

Past precedents were:

2 Broke Girls - season 1
Mike and Molly - season 1
Nip/Tuck - season 4


Offhand, I can't think of any Warner shows where they discontinued the bluray after 2 or 3 (or 4) seasons, and releasing subsequent seasons as dvd-only.

PhantomStranger

Television comedies sold very, very poorly on Blu-ray. All the studios learned fairly quickly they were money losers.

morriscroy

If a particular show is already towards the end of its run (whether officially or unofficially) and the bluray sales weren't a total disaster, then perhaps Warner might see a complete series bluray set as an easy way to clear out old inventory from their warehouses.

Such as what was done for Fringe and Chuck so far. Perhaps over the next year or so, we'll see complete series bluray sets for Nikita and Falling Skies.

morriscroy

I can see something like this possibly happening in the HBO division within TimeWarner. Dunno about the rest of TimeWarner.

davidh777

Wow, good memory on Nip/Tuck. That was quite a while ago, though, and not really the same rules.

Well, Shameless is a comedy of sorts, but not a network sitcom. Plus, Emmy Rossum.