A not-so brief rant on the Sloooooow DVD release schedule in U.S.

POSTED BY: Hjermsted
UPDATED: Sunday, October 6, 2002 03:00
VIEWED: 10551
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GUANTES

Tuesday, August 6, 2002 11:23 AM

Must take the point tho.... UK yay! Early DVD release!

UK boo! Less cool extra features.... since they have to be rated here, AND they charge per minute!

Plus I heard that Seasons 1-3 were being re-mastered from the original (and UK releases) for better picture and sound quality. Add to that the prohibitive cost (£44.99($69) S1 £79.99($123) S2+) makes the import seem all too tempting..... still 6 months!

Phil
"I'm not ashamed. It's the computer age. Nerds are in. They're still in, right?" -Willow

SILVERSTAR

Tuesday, September 17, 2002 4:35 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Ness:
Maybe as fans we should start a letter writing campagin. We bother the people at FOX long enough, they'll crack eventually.

Well, considering that it took BMG a few years to take the My So-Called Life DVD petition seriously, we should get started now!

On a positive note, the entire MSCL series is now being released on DVD as a result of fan "persistence" aka endless nagging. If you can believe it, BMG/ABC/Disney thought they wouldn't make any money from a DVD release.

Riiigghhhhtt!!

They greatly underestimated fan OCD. I mean love.

Anyway, sometimes those suits just need a little motivation and encouragement ($$$) from us!

SHUGGIE

Tuesday, September 17, 2002 5:03 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by silverstar:
On a positive note, the entire MSCL series is now being released on DVD as a result of fan "persistence" aka endless nagging. If you can believe it, BMG/ABC/Disney thought they wouldn't make any money from a DVD release. Riiigghhhhtt!!

Don't get me started on MSCL DVD set.

It' priced at $115 - which I think is steep but I'd pay it. So I go to order it and the there's a little information page that's specifc to MSCL which tells me that shipping to the UK is $18.

Only when I fill out the order form I get to the shipping costs and I can only choose $0 for the US or $75 for the rest of the world!!

As much as I'd love a copy I'm not paying nearly $200 for it.

I emailed anotheruniverse.com for a clarification and got an automated thing saying they'd reply in 10 working days.

Which come to think of it has past now so maybe I'll go chase that up.

I just wish someone more organized like Amazon had rights to it be anotheruniverse have this exclusive deal.

Shug

SILVERSTAR

Tuesday, September 17, 2002 6:11 AM

I agree that $115 is a LOT. I received a $20 discount and free shipping for preordering back in February, but soooo many people that preordered ended up having problems with their orders.

Anotheruniverse, who is the exclusive retailer for the MSCL set, was not prepared for the huge response that this release would provoke among consumers. The first problem that occurred was that we were supposed to pay a $20 deposit and then the balance would be charged to our cards when the product shipped in June. Despite this plan, everyone was charged the additional $79.95 shortly thereafter with not a DVD in sight. This was due to the fact that the credit card processor that AU was using was not able to hold everyone's credit cards for longer than 60 days so we were all charged for the balance 60 days after we approved the balance.

Although that did suck, I thought okay I was going to end up paying the balance eventually so I guess it's okay that they took my money sooner rather than later. Thank goodness I had just gotten paid because some people's credit cards were declined (due to the fact that they thought they had a few more months before the second charge would go through). Then BMG held up the authorization on some stuff. Every single song had to be cleared, otherwise they would have to insert a new song or remove a song that wasn't cleared. People were already freaking out that the set wasn't ready AND AU had already taken their money.

Then things got worse - people started finding out that they had been double charged due to another problem with AU's credit card processor. AU is a relatively small company, so when a couple hundred people started calling every day to ask WTF happened and why they had just been charged yet again, their poor receptionist was trying to handle all of their queries. Needless to say, people were starting to get REALLY irate. Then some people report being charged for a THIRD time. If you want to scare yourself off from ordering this set (just in case I haven't), read the DVD forum at [url] www.mscl.com. I am not a naysayer - I placed my order and am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my DVDs, but just be cautious. If you do order, use an international money order so that you don't get double or triple charged.

That said, AU has obscenely high international shipping rates. They sent out an email offering to sell MSCL t-shirts to all of us for the bargain price of $20 - but the international shipping was $40! We thought that they would use their noggins and think to ship the t-shirts with the DVD sets and save everyone some money, but noooo. I believe that some other people from Europe who ordered the set reported that their shipping costs were quoted as $18.

...Yup, AU has a separate shipping chart just for the MSCL set at [url] http://www.anotheruniverse.com/mscldvd/shipping.html and shipping to the UK is $18. I think that you have to type MSCL in as a coupon to get that price though.

The good news is that one of the good guys :) previewed the discs last week and they are being pressed as we speak so this will in fact move from fantasy to reality soon.

Sorry I got so OT so quickly - but I hope that I answered your question. If you don't buy the set, you can fly to California and we'll have our own MSCL marathon.

SHUGGIE

Tuesday, September 17, 2002 3:10 PM

Silverstar,

Thanks so much for your informative update. Maybe I'll wait a while and let AU get a chance to catch up with themselves.

Thanks for the tip about the coupon. Is that on the site somewhere? Did I miss that?

Anyway thanks.
Paul

Shug

KAYLEE

Thursday, October 3, 2002 9:21 PM

I'm not gonna gloat. I'm not. Just because I'm in the UK and Season 5 is out this month and Angel Season 3 is out in Dec. and.......you guys are going to smother me with my pillow when i go to sleep, aren't you

LIVINGIMPAIRED

Friday, October 4, 2002 12:06 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Kaylee:
I'm not gonna gloat. I'm not. Just because I'm in the UK and Season 5 is out this month and Angel Season 3 is out in Dec. and.......you guys are going to smother me with my pillow when i go to sleep, aren't you

noooo... I would neeeever do that.

________________

"You still don't get it. It's not about right, not about wrong... It's about Power." —Morph-O-Monster, "Lessons"

BUGDOG

Sunday, October 6, 2002 3:00 AM

for those interested in modifying their existing DVD player to region free without opening the unit -
http://www.regionfreedvd.net/players.html

keep in mind this is fooling around with what is generally an expensive piece of equipment and that the Buffy DVD sets are hidiously expensive, especially when you factor in shipping, so your results may vary.

Just the same, I have a Venturer DVD player (cheap home theater set I bought at Walmart) that I've modified with a few button pushes on the remote and I'm scoping out DVD sets on ebay :)

Then there's always hacks for the DVD software on your PC that will set it to Region 0 (region free, same diff). Same site has the info.

~bugdog

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