re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

This may sound like "bottom feeding", but the only way I would be tempted to pick up some of the current tv on bluray season sets, is if I found them in the bargain bins for $10-$15 a pop (or less).

For example, recently I found and picked up the season 1 bluray of Hawaii Five-0 from a local dump bin for $14. (The dvd version was the same price, and also in the exact same dump bin). I haven't seen these episodes in over 2-3 years, and they were great to watch again.

Considering Hawaii Five-0 might be discontinued on bluray, at this point I'm only willing to buy the season 2 and 3 blurays, if I also find them in the dump bins for $15 a pop or less.

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

The Complete I Dream of Jeannie DVD set with all five seasons is only $17.99 on Amazon at the moment. I know someone reading this thread will be tempted at that price. It is never going to hit Blu-ray.

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

Wonder if Sony is having a hard time liquidating all that old tv on dvd inventory, after licensing a lot of the same sets to Mill Creek.


(On a very unrelated tangent).

Speaking of Larry Hagman and complete series dvd sets, the one "complete series" dvd set I'm willing to buy (again) is if the original Dallas was re-released entirely as single-sided dvd9 discs. (Except for the final season and tv movies, the seasons 1 to 13 dvd sets were all originally released as nasty double-sided dvd18 flipper discs).

It looks like Sleepy Hollow season one is getting a release on Blu.

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

I enjoyed the first season of Sleepy Hollow but no way would I buy it. Kurtzman and Orci are co-creators so I expect it to go to shit anytime soon.

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

So wait, you're not going to buy it based on the potential that subsequent seasons won't be good? So why not buy season one and if other seasons aren't very good just... you know, don't buy them?

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

Because they aren't stand alone episodes for the most part. It would be like buying a few chapters of a book but not the rest because the ending sucked. For me the entire thing has to work as a whole. I bought the first four seasons of Chuck but after that shitty finale that basically ruined the entire thing for me I sold them off.

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

why Fox Home Video is relegating 'Bob's Burger's to DV-R release seems so stupid - I WANT this on bluray! goddamn it!

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

I feel the same way about serialized shows. (Even some semi-serialized shows, like Fringe).

Especially if the writing quality really nosedives in the next (or later) seasons, such as season 2 of Homeland. (I really like season 1 of Homeland). The bluray season sets aren't exactly that enticing anymore, with crappier writing.

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

The show which really epitomized this for me, was "Mad Men".

Back in 2011, I picked up the first four seasons of Mad Men on dvd and binge watched through them all. (I didn't own a bluray player at the time). I really liked the first four seasons.

By the time the new season 5 first-run episodes were on in 2012, I was wondering if I was even watching the same show. Season 5 seemed like a shadow of its former self.


EDIT: Since then, I haven't bothered buying any subsequent seasons of Mad Men. I have also felt no desire to upgrade seasons 1 to 4 to bluray. (Not even at $10 a pop, or less).

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

That's one I bought BECAUSE it was a DVD-18! I always thought those were cool, and don't see why there's so much hatred for them. (Yes, there was the ton of Universal ones that were defective, but that was ONE manufacturer.) I never like when there's an unnecessarily large number of discs in a set, especially when they use those stupid cases that overlap discs so you have to take the one on top out to get to the one under it.

It seems REALLY counter-productive to put out current stuff on DVD only- Netflix HD usually looks better than DVD can, and those who buy discs of stuff already on Netflix are going to be the quality-conscious people. I've seen $40 Blu-Ray players out there, so why even make DVD-only players anymore? You can't buy standard-def TVs anymore.

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

Apparently they aren't completely pulling out of the Blu-ray market, I was just offered to review Fargo: Season One on Blu-ray. I presume a hip show will still be given chances to sell on home video before going DVD only.

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

I reviewed Charlie Sheen's "Anger Management" show on here, and I noted that the picture quality of the Blu-rays was one of its few redeeming features! Can't imagine watching that on DVD.

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

Good question.

As a guess, either the individuals calling the shots (at the movie companies) really don't give a damn, and/or the movie companies really enjoy giving the "middle finger" to quality conscious people (such as many of us on this thread).

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

First seasons are always a huge unknown, with very little to no previous direct data to base decisions on. Second and subsequent seasons can always look at the sales data of previous seasons to make decisions on continuing the bluray releases.

In terms of "indirect data", this is probably where the fantasy/sci-fi and premium/basic cable thing comes in, when it comes to decisions to release first seasons on bluray. After 5+ years, the movie company decision makers probably have enough such indirect data to know what is worth rolling the dice on as new first season bluray sets.

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

No need to spend $30+ on tv season sets anymore. I usually wait a year or two, and find them in the local dump bins for $15 a pop or less.

Do you watch any live broadcasts at all? (Whether OTA, cable, satellite, online, etc ...).

It's easy to skip over commercials on a dvr. (Similar thing with a vcr, back in the day).

In regard to on-screen logos, the only reasons I can think of offhand for their constant existence is stuff like: easy advertising for the network, and as a way of tracking where pirated copies were sourced from.

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

I do have an antenna, but hardly watch anything- main things I've watched in the past few years have been news, which you sort of have to see live or there's little point to it. Even then I only watch that when there's something big happening. During 'slow news' times the reporters are just so phony, and of course they pile on the commercials during newscasts too. I also watch classic shows occasionally on the "Antenna TV" network, which is one of the only channels to respect its content and viewers enough not to put anything onscreen during the shows. (I don't count anything online as a "broadcast", at least as long as it isn't live.)

With the amount of commercials they show now, I see why those are popular. Since they don't filter out the onscreen logos and other crap the networks foist during the actual shows, I still have no use for a DVR. I have no way of recording TV at all right now, if I did care about it I wouldn't be satisfied with a DVR as I'd want a way to permanently keep recordings.

In 20 years, I've never heard a single valid reason for using them- in fact, nobody can give me a straight answer as to what CBS and ABC specifically (who were the last to jump on that wagon in 1998) have GAINED by doing it. I simply can't watch a show with that crap on the screen- it feels like I'm watching a promo spot for the show. Moving the logos closer to the middle of the screen so they won't be cut off if cropped to 4x3 is even more ludicrous. I would seriously be happy if everyone responsible for that were to be abducted by aliens or something. (And I continue to be baffled as to why there has been little protest from the creative community about this. I know Matt Groening and The Simpsons staff didn't like it when it started, as they sent me a letter back in 1994 thanking me for complaining. I had that letter on my wall for a long time until it got ripped and I threw it out, expecting that this fad would eventually be over.)

I used to want to work in TV, eventually running my own station, but I'm glad I didn't (instead I fell in love with the movie theater business and stuck with that until it started imploding.)

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

There was a really funny spoof of this on MAD TV. During the opening monologue with Neil Patrick Harris they started running pop-up promos that slowly became more and more intrusive and eventually just covered the screen.

Isn't that kind of like not buying Godfather 1&2 because 3 isn't any good?

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

Over the next year or so, there will be more indirect data on how Fox and others are thinking about basic cable shows when it comes to bluray.

It just happens that over the past 9+ months or so (and over the next few months going forward), there's been quite a few season 1 bluray releases of various basic cable shows, such as:

Fox
- The Bridge
- The Americans

MGM
- Fargo
- Vikings

Warner
- Longmire

Basic cable shows like "Witches of East End" and "Graceland" were only released by Fox as dvd-only for their season 1 sets, a few months ago.


The thing to watch for over the next 6+ months or so, is to see how many of these basic cable shows end up being released on bluray for their season 2 sets. (Season 3 for Longmire, due to the first bluray release being a combined season 1+2 set).

For that matter, one can also watch closely which new basic cable scripted shows are released at all on bluray over the next year or so, such as:

AMC
- Halt and Catch Fire
- Turn

FX
- Tyrant
- The Strain

TNT
- The Last Ship

Lifetime
- The Lottery

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

I think it's a bit different, as movies, particularly the Godfather films, tend to stand on their own better. The Godfather is a complete experience in itself, and when it was made there was no real intention to make a sequel. Likewise The Godfather 2. So if you don't like Godfather 3, you can watch 1 & 2 and pretend 3 never existed, and have a complete viewing experience.

With TV shows, especially the more serialized ones, they're made with the expectation of a series finale, and overall story arcs that are left open episode-to-episode, or even season-to-season. So stopping after a few seasons of a show can leave it feeling incomplete, even if the experience up to that point was good. It's a bit like a movie with a crappy ending; even though the rest of it is good, you know it's all leading up to something bleh. As in gymnastic's it's important in storytelling to stick the landing.

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

The Strain is the only one with a legitimate shot at hitting Blu-ray. The Lottery is terrible, by the way. It has already hit Under The Dome levels of stupidity in its pilot.

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

I would agree.

Speaking of Under The Dome, I was somewhat surprised season 1 was even released on bluray at all in the first place.

It seems like a whole batch of recent sci-fi/fantasy shows with mediocre/crappy writing has been released on bluray, such as: Under The Dome, Defiance, Helix, Revolution, etc ...

Over the next year or so, we'll see how much sci-fi/fantasy can sustain tv on bluray releases. Will the movie companies start discontinuing bluray for sci-fi/fantasy stuff with "Under The Dome" style of mediocre writing? (ie. Will we see blurays for the second seasons of Helix and Under The Dome, or a hypothetical season 3 of Defiance?)

Or is there a large enough hardcore sci-fi/fantasy crowd willing to buy (almost) every sci-fi/fantasy tv show released on bluray, regardless of writing quality?

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

I think they'll keep pushing sci-fi stuff out on Blu-ray. It hits the older male demo with disposable income that is the mainstay of the format.

re: Why isn't TV-on-Blu-ray getting any love?
 

As in the single-male basement dwellers types that spend a lot of their free time playing video games (or World of Warcraft), when not watching tv ?