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DVD news from Usenet

J

Joseph DeMartino

Moderator
No, it isn't an announcement from JMS or a press release from Warner Home Video. Officially, they're still not talking. But somebody else might have let the cat at least partially out of the bag.

Cynthia Delmar of the National Captioning Institute posted a request on the mod. Here's part of it:

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>I work for the company doing the closed-captioning of Babylon 5 for DVD release. We are reformatting the captions from the original files, which were mostly done without scripts. We have the first six episodes here already (I'll be doing 1 & 2 myself tomorrow) but alas, still no scripts...

... Anyway, does anyone have suggestions as to where the best, most authentic sites would be for verifying things like spellings of names/places etc? Someone who might have had access to those scripts and would therefore have it for-sure right? I'd REALLY like us to get this stuff right.

Thanks,

Cynthia Delmar, Senior Caption Editor
National Captioning Institute
Burbank, CA<hr></blockquote>

Naturally, I offered to proof-read the captions personally, all they have to do is send me each disc as they finish it, but somehow I don't think they'll go for it.

If this is a legit post, it sounds like things are proceeding apace. /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif

Regards,

Joe
 
<Mr. Burns>Eeexxcellent!</Mr. Burns>

Whoo-hoo! I do hope it's true.

So Joe, you're usually in the know (har har /ubbthreads/images/icons/tongue.gif) about these things ... if they are close-captioning the DVD's right now (for just season 1 I presume) ... on average how long before they would come out? (I know other factors can delay or speed up the process). Like ... if they're at such-a-stage it will usually be six more months or if they're at this-stage they could have them out by the end of the summer (could have, not nessarily will have), etc. Just wondering. /ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif
 
Many thanks for your news, Joe. If they have "six episodes here already", one may easily consider the cat's tail out of the bag. /ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif
 
The cat almost got out! /ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif This is great news! (hope it's true) Without B5 on DVD, it will die.
 
Something about this post really makes me think. While I'm a trusting fool (would like to believe it), the cynical-wierdo part of me is sounding alarm bells on this one.
 
I prefer to expect the best, but prepare for the worst.
 
Now all us fans need to step up to the plate and make sure they sell by the truckload so we can ensure we get all 5 seasons. /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif
 
It's real. I posted this on Firstones.com:

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
>The jollies I'm getting right now is that it looks like DVD is for real....

Yeah, it's real...I was holding off saying anything until WB or someone else
could announce it, but since it's come up here via the captioning
institute...yeah, as noted, it's real.

Season One will be out in a boxed set this Fall, and they're going to be
including at minimum two commentaries from me, probably on Signs and Portents
and Chrysalis (it's a matter of how much time and energy I can give to it given
that there's no fees involved and I'm in the midst of Jeremiah), and if
possible, Babylon Squared, maybe Sky Full of Stars. They'd also like to film
an on-camera intro by me (but I guess folks will buy it anyway, even with that
particular horror included).

They're pulling together a lot of stuff on this release so that there are
plenty of extras this time around, now that the value of the DVDs has been
shown by the first release
..

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)


[/quote]
 
You beat me to it, I was just about to post that! So its finally offical, and in a box set too! I really thought that captioning thing was a hoax. But now that we know its not, I can only imagine the elation seething from the grin plastered to Joe DeMartino's face! /ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif
But anyway, can someone give me a date range for 'this fall'? Being in Australia myself i've never know excatcly when those vauge US release dates are reffering to...
Thanks,
Tim
 
There's no set date yet; I'd imagine fall is a little too soon. I'd say winter is probably a better bet.

As for the cost, I don't think even Warner Brothers has an idea of cost yet; they're still hammering out what features to include.
 
Great news! It's about time, and I hope it does come out this fall, the earlier the better. But my money's on later rather than sooner. Still great news though!!
 
</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
How much do you think it is going to cost?

[/quote]
Cost matters not!
 
Great News!!!

I plan to buy 2 copies of each season since I can afford too....
One set for watching and one set that never even gets opened /ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif

I would imagine the 1st Season Box Set will probably cost around the $100.00-$150.00 range, judging by both the X-Files and Star Trek Box set prices....

BTW, JMS added this....

">Have they decided on aspect ratio?
>

Widescreen.

jms
jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)"


--------------------------------------
"If you want to make us stronger, attack and we unite."
Adam Mayblum, WTC Survivor
 
Interesting question re: cost. The figures given for The X-Files and ST:TNG are the "list" prices. If you know where to shop, you can find them cheaper. (I've never paid more than about $90 for an X-Files set, despite list prices of $125 to $150 USD.) But some recent one-hour series boxed sets have carried street prices as low as $59.99, so the trend may be downward these days. $100 is probably a good ballpark estimate, but I wouldn't be terribly surprised if the final cost is a bit lower.

"This will be a day long remembered..."

/ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif

Sorry, we don't have an emoticon with a grin big enough for the way I'm feeling right now. I've just been exchanging e-mails with Niall Young, who runs the B5 Widescreen DVD Petiton site, and he's beside himself. He and I have been fighting to get this show released - and released right - since 1998. The number 1 thing we've pressed Warner Home Video for was JMS's involvement in the project. (He was almost entirely out of the loop on the VHS and LD releases.) We knew that if he was involved we'd get virtually everything that any of us could want on the discs. His latest post tells me that this set should be everything I could have hoped for even if Warner Bros. had let me design the release myself. He's even planning to do commentaries on the two S1 episodes I thought had to have them, and thinking about a couple of the ones I thought it would be nice to have him do.

The only thing that could make this day better would be landing a full-time job - so I can afford the damned thing when the time comes. /ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif

Regards,

Joe
 
[quote ]<font color="yellow"> Well, does anyone know how much most DVD's cost if they have a complete season of a show?
</font color>


[/quote]

As an example DVD Planet has the first season of Stargate SG1 with a list price of $89.96 but an actual sales price of less than $70.

The second season of Stargate SG1 shows the list price has dropped to $69.96 and the actual sales price is less than $49.
 
Essentially the cost is how they think they'll best make a profit on them. I'm hoping the B5 DVD's will cost less than the above mentioned TNG and X-Files - though I guess the reason being isn't good for the B5 universe in general ...

TNG and X-Files box sets are going for around $100 (and usually less if you shop smart). Meanwhile, the Buffy DVD Season 2 box set is only $40 (and possibly less if again shopping smart). Buffy S2 is a full 22 episodes and it does have some features (maybe not as many as other box sets but not $60 less!). My guess for why Buffy is so much less is the show has a much smaller audience than TNG and (definately here) X-Files. With the big names, they know they can sell enough to generate a nice profit even at $80-$100 a set. For the shows where fewer people will buy, they want to encourage more purchasing by much more inexpensive prices.

Sadly, B5 does not have as big a following as TNG or X-Files or other season box sets. The bad news is ... it's hard to get anything done with the B5 universe (as we've grimmly seen the past few months) ... the good news is they will want to encourage us and everyone else to buy it - meaning lower prices probably. Especially if they are still speculating on making a season 2 release - as far as I know, TNG, X-Files, and even Buffy already have plans to make a full series release over the coming years. They may not care about giving us B5 but they care about making money so the more B5 they can sell and the more seasons they can sell, all the better. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />

Still ... even at $100 a season ... that's under $5 per episode (not even counting the extra features). That is so worth it. /ubbthreads/images/icons/wink.gif

*edited because he's been doing too much HTML and not enough UBB lately* /ubbthreads/images/icons/tongue.gif
 
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