TOS DVDs "discontinued by the manufacturer"

[Extrocomp]

I just looked on Amazon.com and I was shocked by what I saw. The 2004 TOS DVDs are listed as discontinued by the manufacturer and the first and third seasons only have 4 available copies each. I understand that Paramount would stop manufacturing them, now that the remastered DVDs are out, but I don't understand how they could become extremely rare so suddenly. By all logic, there should be many people trying to sell them to make room for the new editions. The old 2-episode DVDs are still available in large quantities. So are the 1-episode VHS's that came out back in 1994.

So what happened to the 2004 TOS Season DVD sets? Does anyone have any ideas? Will they become more available in the future?

 

[James Bond]

This is gonna drive the Trek XI haters absolutely nuts.

 

[Outpost4]

And the connection is...?

Things come. Things go. The current sets have been dropping in price over the past few years. Who knows what CBS will come out with next? A combo Blu-ray/regular DVD set? Or maybe a combo standard graphics/remastered set? How about a traditional graphics set without the fancy packaging for less money?

The one thing you can be sure of is that Star Trek will continue to be available on DVD. There is money to be made there.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I understand that Paramount would stop manufacturing them, now that the remastered DVDs are out, but I don't understand how they could become extremely rare so suddenly.

No DVDs are kept in perpetual availability. They commission a batch of a certain size, sell them all off, and then decide how to re-release, repackage and re-market another batch.

Shops don't want to stock old, dog-eared product that's been out for so long it's gathering dust in back rooms. They want new, pretty, fresh stuff, hot-off-the-presses.

There's also the law of supply and demand. Even if regular TOS stays out of print on DVD for a few months or years, it'll be back. Paramount is probably gearing up for a new release on Blu-Ray, and wants to see if ST on DVD still has a future.

The next edition of ST:TMP will be the theatrical version, which hasn't been seen since the widescreen versions of the first eight movies on VHS. There were some who claimed we'd never see that for the home entertainment market ever again.

No need for panic in the streets.

 

[Extrocomp]

Amazon.com does not keep old stock itself, but it does host other sellers who sell old products. VHS's of many movies are on sale for $0.01 with more than a hundred of copies available. If VHS's become very common and very cheap when a newer edition comes out, why would a DVD set become very rare and very expensive when a newer edition comes out?

 

[Trekwatcher]

I would not sweat it. You can still find the 2004 versions in many stores (new and used) for about $30-50 a set. Plus, these abound on ebay.

 

[Forbin]

"Don't worry about the remastered episodes, you're old original DVDs arent' going anywhere..."

My ass!

 

[Noname Given]

"Don't worry about the remastered episodes, you're old original DVDs arent' going anywhere..."

My ass!

I guess reading comprehension ain't what it used to be. As stated above, NO DVD set is constantly pressed and shipped forever. Get the tinfoil hat off your head.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Paramount probably want to spruce the DVDs up, get them some nice shiny new packaging, maybe find one or two new extras to stick on the discs, although they probably won't waste any money on improving the transfers, and re-release them with a big fanfare and on the coattails of a multi-million dollar advertising campaign, at a slightly higher retail price to cover costs of course...

I wonder if anything is happening next May?

 

[number6]

"Don't worry about the remastered episodes, you're old original DVDs arent' going anywhere..."

My ass!

I guess reading comprehension ain't what it used to be. As stated above, NO DVD set is constantly pressed and shipped forever. Get the tinfoil hat off your head.

..But it looks so good on him.

 

[Kryton]

A tinfoil sombrero would be more apropos.

 

[Nerys Myk]

"Don't worry about the remastered episodes, you're old original DVDs arent' going anywhere..."

My ass!

So someone took yours?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

J.J. Abrams is buying up every available copy of TOS on DVD. His plan is to use them as drink coasters at a huge bacchanal in L.A. on May 8. He's acquired the original 11-foot studio model of the Enterprise from the Smithsonian and precisely at midnight it will be set ablaze to fuel a free Victory Barbeque for 100,000 Star Wars fanboys.

 

[Igni Ferroque]

This makes the fact that I can't get my old laserdiscs to digitize properly even worse...

ah, well; if they're rereleased, I'll grab some, and if they're not I'll stay up at all hours either sniping on eBay or hounding the TVMax tech support. ;3

 

[milo bloom]

This makes the fact that I can't get my old laserdiscs to digitize properly even worse...

ah, well; if they're rereleased, I'll grab some, and if they're not I'll stay up at all hours either sniping on eBay or hounding the TVMax tech support. ;3

I had a little over half of the 2 ep/disc DVDs when the first of the season sets were announced. Upon learning that the boxes would be in airdate order vs the production order of the single disc volumes, I decided to keep going with what I had started. I began keeping a list in my wallet of what volumes I needed, and managed to pickup the last dozen or so I needed for $3 a piece at a used CD/DVD shop. The 40 cases take up a lot of space, but I think it looks pretty impressive on my DVD shelves.


And I can't imagine Paramount passing up the opportunity to sell us the same product twice: the episodes with the original FX and the remastered ones. Since I have the originals on DVD, I'll be waiting for Blu-ray (or something comparable) for the remastered ones, though I'm in no real hurry to pick them up.

 

[Igni Ferroque]

I don't mean DVDs.

I mean laserdiscs.
Anybody remember those? The record-sized DVD-looking things? Sure, they're terribly outdated and you'd be lucky to have a functioning player by now, but you can get a box of five hundred (good) movies for a buck, so I keep 'em around.
(Also, the 2 ep/disc LDs are in... no order whatsoever, as far as I can tell. It's kinda funny.)

 

[Delta1]

This makes the fact that I can't get my old laserdiscs to digitize properly even worse...

You might ask around at originaltrilogy.com; they have lots of experience at LD captures.

 

[milo bloom]

I don't mean DVDs.

I mean laserdiscs.
Anybody remember those? The record-sized DVD-looking things? Sure, they're terribly outdated and you'd be lucky to have a functioning player by now, but you can get a box of five hundred (good) movies for a buck, so I keep 'em around.
(Also, the 2 ep/disc LDs are in... no order whatsoever, as far as I can tell. It's kinda funny.)

Sorry, yeah, I actually have a handful of LD's myself. I don't have a lot of experience digitizing them though, have you tried running them into a set-top DVD recorder?

 

[Dayton Ward]

I still have a complete set of TOS (along with TAS and the movies) on LaserDisc. Haven't done anything with them since I converted to DVD, but they're still here. My player still works, so I was at least able to convert my original and longer versions of ST:TMP to something which could be stored on DVD.

 

[Seven of Five]

Well in the past two or three years, Paramount stopped pressing the original DVD releases of TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT, and brought out new cheaper, slimline boxsets with funky new art. All of the special features and menu graphics were the same as what was released with the original packaging, but the price was a good two-thirds lower than the original cost. The same is probably happening with TOS, especially with Trek XI coming out.