Star Trek TOS DVD Box Sets Forthcoming 304
bluethundr writes "According to Trek Today: the diabolical Trek 'powers that be' have come up with yet another way to separate the hapless trekkie from his hard earned cash. The Original Series is being re-released as a Box Set. Reportedly, the sets should feature enough extras to make (they hope) the die-hard pony-up against their better judgement. They have an image of the box set on the R2 Project. One interesting aspect of this release is that the Region 2 release will package all original season eps in order of original air-date! One also has to wonder why in the world they are still refusing to offer the The Animated Series on DVD, forcing one to buy the bootlegs if you want to get your hands on a copy. VHS only, as far as official release goes. TAS featured most of the original cast, many of the original writers. What's more, is that one episode was penned by another author you may have heard of in which he mingled concepts of his own distinct mythology with that of trek-lore." Update: 05/06 14:54 GMT by S : Phrase by original submitter removed - apologies, I was completely unaware of etymology.
Experience... (Score:4, Insightful)
Is anyone else fed up? (Score:3, Insightful)
I know what I will do. I will wait until the boxed set is released, and then two weeks later I will call Paramount and tell them the disk with the special featurettes is not working, and ask for them to send me a replacement. I will then add that with my current TOS collection.
Or maybe I will put my old DVD's on sale on Ebay. Either way, this is a crooked way to conduct buisness.
SOLLY CHOLLY (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Is anyone else fed up? (Score:5, Insightful)
As many times as people will buy it.
How many times do the Studios want us buying the same movie/show?
As many as you can.
Either way, this is a crooked way to conduct buisness.
If people want to keep buying them, then the studios are right to keep selling them, surely? There's no law that makes people buy these things. If you think they are a rip-off, then don't buy them. If enough people think they are a rip-off, then the studios will stop doing it.
Solly Cholly??? (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh come on.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Noone is holding a gun to your head, telling you to buy the new super-shiny version of the dvd. All that the studios are doing here is responding to CONSUMER DEMAND.
There are plenty of other evil things that these companies do. Harping on SE dvds simply isnt worthwhile.
This problem is solved very, very easily. Just. Dont. Buy. It.
Re:Regions... (Score:5, Insightful)
Question: How many Hollywood movies were released in Region 5 this yr? The answer is FIVE, and LOTR was not one of them. So people in Asia have the choice of paying $20 for the DVD + $20 Shipping to Asia from America, to get a Region 1 DVD which their hacked DVD player will play...OR.... they could go down to the local bootlegger and get a pirated DVD/VideoCD.
Let's see what would happen in a non-region encoding situation:
LOTR DVD is released, simultaneously worldwide. Person in god-forsaken 3rd-world country has easy access to the legal, region-free DVD at local prices...
Re:SOLLY CHOLLY (Score:0, Insightful)
see here:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=106604&cid=90
Re:SOLLY CHOLLY (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Is anyone else fed up? (Score:4, Insightful)
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If people want to keep buying them, then the studios are right to keep selling them, surely? There's no law that makes people buy these things. If you think they are a rip-off, then don't buy them. If enough people think they are a rip-off, then the studios will stop doing it.
I agree with you, but what will probably happen is people are going to catch on and stop buying the first releases of movies. I know of several who refused to by The Two Towers since they knew they'd release the box set later. How this will affect studio sales is anyone's guess right now, but I doubt it'll fit into their plan. (Which obviously seems to be to get you to buy the same movie multiple times with a few extra goodies thrown in each time.) I don't agree with the grandparent that it's a crooked way to do business, but it's certainly very irritating and disrespectful of customers. While most people are just sheep when it comes to consumerism, even sheep notice if you keep kicking them over and over again and react eventually.So what do you want, anyways? (Score:1, Insightful)
Lots of other slashdotters complain when a record company or a movie company releases the *same* content in a new medium ("they want us to pay for the same album all over again!").
And if the media company doesn't put out anything at all, then people bitch that they're hoarding "our culture" in the vaults.
So what do you really want, anyways?
Not just for the money... (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, and well... no. (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, it's maximization of profit. First you take out the über-trekkies that'll pay almost anything, then the "normal" trekkies in box sets, then slowly slide price down. If you look at a normal price-demand curve, they're trying to grab it all.
The only thing they have to do is to draw it out enough that you can't "afford" to wait for the cheaper version or price cut - that "Star Trek now > Star Trek later + X$", for your personal utility function.
Companies can afford to be "time-indifferent". If they can sell you Star Trek exactly once - they don't care if it's today or in 5 years, as long as you pay the same in realdollars (compensated for inflation).
So yes... this is better value, because they've already sold it to all those willing to pay more. If by "rip you off" you mean "maximize profit", well they're still doing that.
This isn't just DVDs. CDs, computers, cars, cell phones, everything probably including the kitchen sink, if you want it the moment it becomes available, you're going to pay a premium.
Kjella
Re:Regions... (Score:3, Insightful)
There is an answer to this, which certain high-profile and high-revenue projects have recently used and made popular (Cf. Peter Jackson's LOTR project): release the damn theatrical cuts on the same day world-wide. The old communications barrier is non-existant, the only reasons not to do this are psychological, and as LOTR etc. proved you can make a great deal of money and generate a great deal of good-will very quickly by doing this.
Oh yeah, and it also completely eradicates the 'international piracy risk' argument.
~cHrisPrice Watch (Score:3, Insightful)
Babylon 5 is running $70 to $80 a season. That's a bit iffy. I already have the complete Bab5 on tape, recorded from broadcast TV. I'm not sure I want to go the extra mile for DVD, especially since I haven't watched much of it since I taped it.
I did end up buying all of the Stargate-SG1 seasons. They were only about $49 per season, and worth it at the time.
Star Trek is too proud of their stuff for me.
Re:Is anyone else fed up? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's because they can do it much more cheaply than they could in the Video Tape Era. They would have done it more then if it was cost effective.
Production, shipping, and storing DVD's costs quite a bit less than trying to do the same with VHS tapes.
Re:"Mingled concepts"? Worse than that (Score:3, Insightful)
TAS is so laughably atrocious that it depresses me anyone even bothers to argue about it being "canon."
-Carolyn
Re:Solly Cholly??? (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course that doesn't matter, since these debates are only about minorities and their narrow, politically correct agendas where abuse/degredation of whites is OK.