TV shows that STILL aren't available on DVD!?!?

Sad but true. If they didn't make it happen when the Seth Rogen movie came out, I don't think it's ever going to happen.

 

To me, a somewhat related issue to "TV shows not available on DVD" would be modern TV shows that were mastered in digital HD and broadcast in digital HD, but then subsequently released only on DVD but never on blu-ray. This seems to happen most often with shows that only last a season or two, such as "Vegas" with Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis, and "Almost Human" with Karl Urban and Michael Ealy. They already have the source material in HD! Would it really cost them that much to release it on blu-ray?

Kor

 

Someone will eventually try another remake so it could happen then. Not to mention as physical becomes more niche so will some the stuff that sales better. If someone is a collector then chances are they will be more interested in Green Hornet than the latest season of NCIS. Might be expensive though. Jason

 

I'd rather like to see all of those as pressed DVD's/Blu-Ray's.

Said DVD-R's will have to stay, as Marvel considers that show to be an Old Shame (only two official VHS cassettes were released from Rhino, both being the 'movie' episodes.)

 

You have to realize that Blu-Ray never really hit it big like DVD. Blu-Ray is kind of like Laserdisc or Betamax in the 80’s & 90’s, they offered a higher-quality image, but the general public preferred the lower quality VHS. Same goes for Blu-Ray, people prefer the lower quality that streaming 4K/HD offers for the lower price. Or if the really want a physical copy, a DVD usually suffices, as most people still have a DVD player. And an upscaled DVD looks about as good as a broadcast-/streamed 720p version.

. There were more than 2 official VHS tapes released. There were 6 tapes released with 12 of the 13 episodes (and they were also released on Betamax in the 80’s by CBS/FOX, Rhino was in the 1990’s). And those releases contained extra scenes that were shot specifically in the late-70’s for home video release, in order to connect the two episodes. These scenes were never aired on TV either during the original broadcast or in Syndication.

 

Some movies are available MOD on blu-ray instead of being widely released. They could do the same with these shows.

Kor

 

Still I think I’ve only seen Warner Brothers offer MOD Blu-Ray. But a lot of MOD releases are on burnable discs, and those discs are not as compatible with players as VHS in the 90’s (The last MOD I bought, I noticed that Warner Brothers has put a warning on the DVD case saying that it may not work in all DVD players, recorders and computer drives).

Also with MOD a lot of times the studios use whatever Videotape master is available. (The 1989’s “Superboy” Series I remember that when I watched the entire series a few years ago on DVD, I found the quality on Seasons 2-4 varied from looking like it came from Digital Betacam all the way down to a VHS copy being used as a master), So for HD, they might use a master that was prepared for the Japanese MUSE system in the 1980’s or HD Laserdisc in the early-1990’s. But at the same time, for modern shows, the master may only be in 1080i or 720p HDCAM/SR as that would be the resolutions and format that TV stations and networks would want for HD broadcast. (There might be a 4K, 1080p or film Master somewhere, but the closest/easiest one might be the lower resolution. Also, 4K videos on iTunes or YouTube or other streaming sites usually have bitrates in the 35-45 Mbps range, while 4K Blu-Rays Need bitrates between 50 & 100 Mbps, but for broadcast TV networks require bitrates in excess of 200 Mbps.)

So the question would be does the source work for Blu-Ray and would people buy it? I don’t know about you, I don’t know of too many Blu-Rays encoded at 720p or 1080i.

 

Blu-Ray players are no longer super expensive, many retailing for about $100.00 USD. People should be buying those.

 

Yeah, but they can also get a DVD player that upscales for $15 USD.

 

Not the same, especially when seen on a HDTV set with a great Blu-Ray player (go to Home Theater Forum, check out the gear section, and you'll see what I mean.)

 

Maybe not, but still it’s the price. When people only have to spend $15 dollars vs $100, they’ll go for the $15.

 

You can buy a decent Blu-ray player for $25-30.

 

Multiregion DVD players are easily available for not much money. Worth getting one of them and U.K. Blakes 7 type releases.

Flip side is I purchased as mid range Bluray player and had it chipped to play U.S. and other regions. Only cost about £200 all in.

 

Indeed, I brought one (a Panasonic) cheap here in Canada for about $150.00 in the mid-to-late 2000's.

Exactly that, which is why I can't understand people's reluctance to get a Blu-Ray player all of this time (as well as Blu-Ray ROM drives for their computers.)

 

Also with DVD-R’s, one type that really doesn’t work well is the dual layer. That’s because a DVD player needs a really strong laser (a lot stronger than what is needed for the playback of the pressed dual-layer discs that studios use for TV-on-DVD’s that you buy in stores) to playback the second layer. And with computer DVD players they’ll usually state whether they can read/write dual-layer discs. But even with set top DVD players, as they get older and the laser gets weaker, they’ll start to skip and DVD-R’s are the first discs (either single or dual layer) that won’t play.

But with DVD vs. Blu-Ray it really comes down to cost. DVD players are $20-$40 cheaper than Blu-Ray players, and the discs themselves are also cheaper. So for most people as well, if they can get a video cheaper by even $5 they’ll go for the cheaper option. We saw this back in the 1990’s with VHS vs. Laserdisc. Laserdisc offered better picture and sound (even digital sound), and the players could play CD’s. But consumers went for VHS. Sure at first VHS was expensive, but by the early 80’s tapes and machines were cheap. And VHS offered poor quality. And we are seeing it now with Blu-Ray vs. Streaming vs DVD where Blu-Ray is like Laserdisc, but people go for the poorer quality DVD/Streaming because it’s cheaper (and most people find upscaled DVD’s to offer similar quality video to Streamed HD and broadcast HD.

 

The show was called The Industry in the U.S. when it was shown on individual PBS stations.

The popularity of these shows will determine if they will be on DVD, along with the business case for having the shows be on DVD.

 

I was scrolling through this thread and suddenly I remembered this show which I hadn't even thought about in many years, and then I came across this post. Life is weird sometimes.

 

I have the same issue with When Things Were Rotten. They are made-to-order DVD's. They play fine on my Sony blu-ray player, but no luck in the DVD drive of my laptop. This is intentional, but I can't remember why.