What is your least favorite company TV-DVD company?

It could be that some of their TV-DVD's are edited, or they have a lack of extras, quality, expensive, the way they are releasing it, or they aren't releasing what you want, etc. Just to give you some ideas.

Personally, I think Lion's Gate doesn't put too much thought into their releases. They have edited just about ever season set they have released, and they are only interested in profit; which means less extras. I don't want to get into ALF: Season 1, so please try to stay away from it. I would just like to hear what companie(s) that you are least satisfied with.

Lion's Gate = don't own anything, but just think of the ALF fiasco

Paramount = overpriced too much, it should be illegal how much advantage they take over Trekkies and Lucy fans. $140 for Star Trek seasons is a sin!

Universal = overpriced too much, and except for Quantum Leap, they seem to take forever in announcing season 2's for all their shows

A&E = overpriced too much, luckily Ellen's the only one of their shows I want

Showtime = overpriced too much

Buena Vista = overpriced too much, especially on their dramatic series, $50 for Golden Girls is a little steep considering 1. the age, 2. how much it's been rerun and 3. the only extra is a crappy Joan Rivers commentary, who cares about her?

HBO = if only for how they treated Sex And The City fans over seasons 5 (which was 8 episodes and should've retailed for $39.99 or even $29.99, but still sold as much as seasons 2-4 which had twice the episodes) and 6 (which was broken off into 2 seperate releases, both for $49.99, instead of putting all 20 season 6 episodes into one set). They also charge an arm and a leg for their hour-long shows

The only companies I have no complaints over are Fox and Columbia, but even with Columbia, the beef of not really having a concrete release schedule (with Fox, you know there's a 5-7 month window between seasons, with Columbia the wait is anywhere from 4 months [Sanford And Son season 5 to season 6] to 18 months [All In The Family] to beyond [The Jeffersons, Mad About You, etc...]). Luckily Columbia and Fox have two of the best libraries IMO.

Lions Gate and Colombia Tristar. Lions Gate because the DVDs are edited and Comlobia because they dont always release all the seasons of the show- and they release their shows EXTRMLEY slow. But Lions Gate is def. the worse

Paramount - Most of their TV-DVDs are quite expensive IMO especially the I Love Lucy sets and the first seasons of Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley. I think they charge too much money.

Columbia Tri-Star - barely any one of their TV-DVDs have extras included.

MGM - Same as Columbia Tri-Star.

everyone hates Columbia TriStar. They aren't good with extras, and they are very sporatic with their releases, but... their DVD's are inexpensive, which IMO more than makes up for the cons. When you see the prices Paramount and Universal try to get away with, Columbia's prices look even better.

Originally posted by BuffySlayer79
everyone hates Columbia TriStar. They aren't good with extras, and they are very sporatic with their releases, but... their DVD's are inexpensive, which IMO more than makes up for the cons. When you see the prices Paramount and Universal try to get away with, Columbia's prices look even better.

I've gotta agree with you here. They may not be the fastest, but they are one of the cheapest, and IMO they did an excellent job with the Who's the Boss? release, the picture quality and sound are great IMO :D

My least-favorite is probably Lions Gate due to their tendency to release edited shows. (Alf, Saved by the Bell, Will & Grace etc) My other gripe is with Columbia, and their erratic release schedule, but other than that, I like them.

Fox and Shout! Factory are my favorite TV-DVD companies right now. They both release great quality sets at fair prices, IMO. Also, both are generally good with extras and consistent release schedules.

Originally posted by Angela Micelli
I've gotta agree with you here. They may not be the fastest, but they are one of the cheapest, and IMO they did an excellent job with the Who's the Boss? release, the picture quality and sound are great IMO :D Thats true.

Originally posted by BuffySlayer79
everyone hates Columbia TriStar. They aren't good with extras, and they are very sporatic with their releases, but... their DVD's are inexpensive, which IMO more than makes up for the cons. When you see the prices Paramount and Universal try to get away with, Columbia's prices look even better.

The picture quality on the DVD's that Columbia puts out look like ****. Yes, they cleaned it up,

BUT IT STILL LOOKS LIKE ****!

My other beef is with Anchor Bay. UGGGGGGG. And yes, Lions Gate too.

Originally posted by PZelda
The picture quality on the DVD's that Columbia puts out look like ****. Yes, they cleaned it up,

BUT IT STILL LOOKS LIKE ****!

My other beef is with Anchor Bay. UGGGGGGG. And yes, Lions Gate too.

:eek: Really? the picture quality on my WTB DVD was great :)

Originally posted by Angela Micelli
:eek: Really? the picture quality on my WTB DVD was great :)

There are episodes on the Soap and All in The Family dvds that look really bad. Some are better than others. What's Happening looks pretty good, and Good Times is decent too. So's Diff'rent Strokes.

Originally posted by vashti1999
There are episodes on the Soap and All in The Family dvds that look really bad. Some are better than others. What's Happening looks pretty good, and Good Times is decent too. So's Diff'rent Strokes.

Yes, I have AITF S3 and the picture on it is PURE ****. The picture keeps skipping...not major ones, but noticeable enough to piss you off.

It did that with my WTB DVD's too.

the only Columbia titles I have are Charlie's Angels and Diff'rent Strokes and the picture on both of those are very good, especially considering the prints are over 25 years old.

If the master print looks like garbage, sometimes there's not much you can do to make it better.

Originally posted by BuffySlayer79
the only Columbia titles I have are Charlie's Angels and Diff'rent Strokes and the picture on both of those are very good, especially considering the prints are over 25 years old.

If the master print looks like garbage, sometimes there's not much you can do to make it better.

My WTB DVD is very good quality picture, yeah the picture moves slightly a few times, but I expect that since that season was from 20 years ago :)

Originally posted by Angela Micelli
My WTB DVD is very good quality picture, yeah the picture moves slightly a few times, but I expect that since that season was from 20 years ago :)

I don't have WTB, but I do bet it still looks better than Nick At Nite if you compare the two. But as you said, it's 20 years old. Some people don't realize you cannot demand the same picture quality from a show from the 70's or 80's as you should from something from the past 5 years, unless they really went all out and spent big bucks restoring it, which is the reason we won't be seeing the rest of the Mary Tyler Moore sets anytime soon, because of what Fox invested in remastering it so much (instead of cleaning the prints but not making sure it looks brand new like most old shows are). I don't expect shows like Charlie's Angels, Facts Of Life, One Day At A Time, Diff'rent Strokes and other 70's/early mid 80's shows I'd own to have the quality I'd be seeing off a Buffy The Vampire Slayer or Roswell set... why? those prints are a lot more recent, they should have the advantage of looking better.

I see reviews complaining about the sounds of a lot of 70's and 80's shows... they sound better than they do on N@N or wherever else, you cannot expect a 25 year old series to have THX quality.

Originally posted by Riff
You get what you pay for. In CTHE's case, you get crap. Maybe they should crap in a case and sell the sets for 5 bucks. Hey, it may be crap, but at least it's cheap, right?

hmm... Diff'rent Strokes cost me all of $22. The video quality is about as good as something from 1978 shot on video will look, the sound is decent, the packaging is decent, and the bonus featurettes aren't bad.

Sorry, I am not one of those people who thinks paying $60 for an old series is a good deal. If I Love Lucy was $40 or less, I might consider it, but I'll be damned before I spend $90 on season 1.

Hell, I even refuse to spend $50 on the Golden Girls.

HBO is the only company i have a problem with..

and I love Columbia Tristar:D

Originally posted by Riff
You get what you pay for. In CTHE's case, you get crap. Maybe they should crap in a case and sell the sets for 5 bucks. Hey, it may be crap, but at least it's cheap, right?

WOW what did CTS ever do to you to warrant such hatred? :confused:

Originally posted by Angela Micelli
WOW what did CTS ever do to you to warrant such hatred? :confused:

exactly, I'll be the first to admit that maybe they aren't as good as Fox, who always seem to go out of their way on their titles, but they've done decent enough jobs with the shows I wanna buy from them. Hopefully DS is the wave of the future with them (as they put featurettes and commentaries, and the video/audio is decent, and it still retails less than $30)

Originally posted by Ant-Lox
HBO is the only company i have a problem with..

and I love Columbia Tristar:D

HBO is waaaaaay too expensive. I can handle S&TC even if it is a bit overpriced because it's overpriced at $50 (and you can get them for $30 their first weeks out). They want $100 for freaking Six Feet Under. I think SFU is a good show, but I refuse to spend $100 on it.

Originally posted by barwars
I would rather have the discs be double-sided.

:eek2: ohno: Maybe it's just laziness on my part but I hate double sided discs. But you know, I'm so used to having 8 half hour episodes on a disc, it's been weird watching I Love Lucy with only 6 eps per disc. It almost feels incomplete because I haven't been used to it.

Originally posted by vashti1999
:eek2: ohno: Maybe it's just laziness on my part but I hate double sided discs. But you know, I'm so used to having 8 half hour episodes on a disc, it's been weird watching I Love Lucy with only 6 eps per disc. It almost feels incomplete because I haven't been used to it.

me too, I HATED it when HBO split the 8 episodes that consisted of season 5 of Sex And The City onto 2 discs... they could've easily fit all 8 onto one disc.

what I hate about double-sided discs is the fact that they are so much more fragile than "one side art, one side play" titles. I have movies that are double-sided and they are so much harder to keep in good condition. I try my best to keep my discs as close to mint as possible, but with double-sided discs, it's really hard

Originally posted by BuffySlayer79
what I hate about double-sided discs is the fact that they are so much more fragile than "one side art, one side play" titles. I have movies that are double-sided and they are so much harder to keep in good condition. I try my best to keep my discs as close to mint as possible, but with double-sided discs, it's really hard

Yeah, they're easier to smudge. Dallas season 1 is two-sided, I think that's the only one in my collection. Another thing that always confuses me is if I want to start with side 1 of disc 1, should the side that says "Disc 1. Side 1" be facing up or down. :doh:

Originally posted by barwars
That has nothing to do with how old it is.
Its because CTHE stupidly puts 8 or 9 episodes on the discs (for some series, 11 per disc on MAY:Season1)

That's my only gripe with CTHE.... they cram too many episodes on each disc. I would rather have the discs be double-sided.
Ohh, and the fact that they left The Jeffersons and The Larry Sanders Show in the dust.... but I dont want to bring in "abandoning series" into this, thats an entire different discussion.

I can understand that ;)

They did put alot of episodes on the first two discs of WTB DVD, the last disc featured only 3 episodes, plus the first disc had the bonus features.

Originally posted by Angela Micelli
I can understand that ;)

They did put alot of episodes on the first two discs of WTB DVD, the last disc featured only 3 episodes, plus the first disc had the bonus features.

And there was 22 episodes, right??
That's just stupid.

Originally posted by barwars
And there was 22 episodes, right??
That's just stupid.

:nod: they put like 10 on the first disc, 9 on the second and 3 on last :rolleyes:

Originally posted by Riff
Do you think Paramount's prices on "Happy Days," "Laverne & Shirley," "Taxi" and "Mork & Mindy" are outrageous, too?

Taxi and Mork And Mindy aren't too bad as they are full seasons. But since Happy Days and Laverne And Shirley AREN'T, yes they are.

Originally posted by Riff
It's great that you have two CTHE releases and have become an expert.

I never said I am an expert, I have just said that the Columbia shows I like enough to buy have been decent enough for the money

Originally posted by Riff
Like your precious Columbia would ever do that.

actually, if you knew jack about me, you'd know FOX is my company. I just happen to commend Columbia for the fact they don't like to take advantage of their consumers the way someone like Paramount does. Actually, how would Columbia be my "precious" when they have the worst scheduling of any tv-dvd company period. I feel bad for the way they've treated Jeffersons and Mad About You fans, and to be truthful, I honestly have doubts we're going to see a Charlie's Angels Season 3 box set. But... with the titles that I have been interested enough in to buy, I feel like I more than got my money's worth and I'm glad Columbia realizes that not everyone can afford $70 titles.

Originally posted by Riff
I'll be spending $31.80 on it. Other people are free to spend $50 if they so wish. Unless of course an extra 9 bucks for good transfers, uncut masters, attractive cover art, and a lack of compression artifacts puts Buena Vista in the "bad deal" category.

well, my beef with the Golden Girls price is the fact that IMO, after a show has been on for 15 years... it should automatically be considered part of the domain (well, not in the sense that all these generic companies release DVD's of it like Andy Griffith) so the companies should just be "you know, we've made our money off this, no need to gouge fans anymore". The Golden Girls has been shown nonstop on Lifetime for seven years straight, Buena Vista must be crazy to wanna charge $50 for a show that you will see on television six times any given day. Newer shows have that whole "we're still fresh" thing with it, but after a show hit the 15 mark... it's different. The reason Mary Tyler Moore flopped on DVD is because they were trying to charge the same price for it that something like Frasier or Sex And The City can get away with... but the difference was, MTM was a bit older so it didn't really have the "wow, I love this show and last season was so good!" to it that they had, and sales were so bad Fox cancelled seasons 2-7.

Originally posted by BuffySlayer79
actually, if you knew jack about me, you'd know FOX is my company. I just happen to commend Columbia for the fact they don't like to take advantage of their consumers the way someone like Paramount does. Actually, how would Columbia be my "precious" when they have the worst scheduling of any tv-dvd company period. I feel bad for the way they've treated Jeffersons and Mad About You fans, and to be truthful, I honestly have doubts we're going to see a Charlie's Angels Season 3 box set. But... with the titles that I have been interested enough in to buy, I feel like I more than got my money's worth and I'm glad Columbia realizes that not everyone can afford $70 titles.



well, my beef with the Golden Girls price is the fact that IMO, after a show has been on for 15 years... it should automatically be considered part of the domain (well, not in the sense that all these generic companies release DVD's of it like Andy Griffith) so the companies should just be "you know, we've made our money off this, no need to gouge fans anymore". The Golden Girls has been shown nonstop on Lifetime for seven years straight, Buena Vista must be crazy to wanna charge $50 for a show that you will see on television six times any given day. Newer shows have that whole "we're still fresh" thing with it, but after a show hit the 15 mark... it's different. The reason Mary Tyler Moore flopped on DVD is because they were trying to charge the same price for it that something like Frasier or Sex And The City can get away with... but the difference was, MTM was a bit older so it didn't really have the "wow, I love this show and last season was so good!" to it that they had, and sales were so bad Fox cancelled seasons 2-7.

Also with MTM they retouched the episodes so that they looked like they were filmed today and that jacked up the price big time :(

Also Buena Vista is high, but I got my BMW DVD for about $35 they knocked off $15 from the price at Target :)

Originally posted by Angela Micelli
Also with MTM they retouched the episodes so that they looked like they were filmed today and that jacked up the price big time :(

Also Buena Vista is high, but I got my BMW DVD for about $35 they knocked off $15 from the price at Target :)

I think $40 should be the maximum list price for a 30-minute TV-DVD (and $60 as the maximum for an hour-long series). I can excuse Seinfeld where I can't excuse Golden Girls at $50 because at least Columbia is going all out and really putting bang for the buck. Golden Girls, all you are gettng is a vicious Joan Rivers commentary that most fans won't wanna listen to (who wants to listen to Joan warble on when we mute her on television?), but with Seinfeld, they really are trying to make it as worthy of it's price as possible.

Originally posted by BuffySlayer79
I think $40 should be the maximum list price for a 30-minute TV-DVD (and $60 as the maximum for an hour-long series). I can excuse Seinfeld where I can't excuse Golden Girls at $50 because at least Columbia is going all out and really putting bang for the buck. Golden Girls, all you are gettng is a vicious Joan Rivers commentary that most fans won't wanna listen to (who wants to listen to Joan warble on when we mute her on television?), but with Seinfeld, they really are trying to make it as worthy of it's price as possible.

:rotflmao: that's true about Joan and Melissa Rivers is on it too I think.

BV doesn't seem to be much into extras, I mean BMW only got 4 episodes, with commentaries which they were great,and one was a bonus episode from the 4th season, but there could have been more done the actors were def. willing, Home Improvement is getting a bit more with some commentaries and something else the Golden Girls should have gotten commentaries from the actresses and producers or something

Originally posted by Angela Micelli
:rotflmao: that's true about Joan and Melissa Rivers is on it too I think.

BV doesn't seem to be much into extras, I mean BMW only got 4 episodes, with commentaries which they were great,and one was a bonus episode from the 4th season, but there could have been more done the actors were def. willing, Home Improvement is getting a bit more with some commentaries and something else the Golden Girls should have gotten commentaries from the actresses and producers or something

exactly, I know Estelle is very ill now... but I think at least Rue and Betty would do commentaries (not so sure about Bea) along with Paul Junger Witt. Maybe even a few featurettes on the show. If Disney wants to justify $49.99 for TGG, why not go all out and really give people a reason to buy it. The Three's Company DVD's retail for $39.99 (and you can get them for $25.99 at Best Buy), and Anchor Bay puts 110% effort into seasons 2 and 3 to really show "you might be seeing this on TV Land a lot... but this DVD really will be worth your while". Columbia is doing that with Seinfeld too. Buena Vista just figures $49.99 for a series nearing 20 years old is normal, and it's not.

Originally posted by BuffySlayer79
exactly, I know Estelle is very ill now... but I think at least Rue and Betty would do commentaries (not so sure about Bea) along with Paul Junger Witt. Maybe even a few featurettes on the show. If Disney wants to justify $49.99 for TGG, why not go all out and really give people a reason to buy it. The Three's Company DVD's retail for $39.99 (and you can get them for $25.99 at Best Buy), and Anchor Bay puts 110% effort into seasons 2 and 3 to really show "you might be seeing this on TV Land a lot... but this DVD really will be worth your while". Columbia is doing that with Seinfeld too. Buena Vista just figures $49.99 for a series nearing 20 years old is normal, and it's not.

Yeah I think some would have done commentaries, I don't think Betty would have hesitated for a moment to do them.

You're right about BV they are a little high, but I think they know that the fans of these shows will buy them if they want it bad enough.

I do have to admit that my BMW DVD had excellent picture and sound quality especially with the first season being 11 years old, I know that's not very old, but it's still pretty good. I wanna see how great the sound and picture are for Home Improvement and The Golden Girls.

I do have to say that Colombia Tri Star has a great catalog of shows, they just need to release them, they have some of the best shows that were ever on tv, facts of life, silver spoons, and many more

a Joan Rivers commentary should bring down the MSRP

Originally posted by barwars
a Joan Rivers commentary should bring down the MSRP

:lol: