<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Now how much space does one episode take? How do they compress? How many megabytes per minute?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
It varies.
That's one of the things that makes DVD work, the variable bitrate compression of MPEG-2. So things that compress well (like relatively static scenes where not much changes from frame to frame) can have the heck compressed out of them without loss of quality, while "busy" scenes can be allocated more bits. MPEG-1 used a fixed bitrate scheme, which is why VCDs are often blocky and pixelated during scenes with lots of motion. So there is a good chance that no two episodes will take up
exactly the same amount of disc space, and that's why DVD capacity is expressed in megabytes, not time units.
The rule of thumb, however, is that you can get about 2 hours per layer - regardless of whether there are two layers on one side, or one layer on each side of a disc. (In practice, the second layer of a two-layer disc holds slightly less than the first.)
So you can easily put 4 episodes on one side of a two-layered disc, as Fox does with
The X-Files and still have room for some extras like commentary tracks and deleted scenes. More extensive and less episode-specific extras can and should go on either a supplemental disc or the last disc in the set - assuming that has space left over. Doing two episodes per side of a two-side disc adds no advantage, while making it more annoying to run straight through the contents. (The show is a whole different experience when you watch several episodes back-to-back-to-back, as many of us have discovered when watching an EP tape with many episodes on it.)
Anyway, that's how I prefer to watch them. Two-sided, dual-layered discs (DVD-18) would allow for fewer discs, but aside from saving a little storage space, they don't offer any real advantages. Disc replication is one of the
cheapest parts of DVD production. It is the fixed cost of actually mastering each episode that absorbs most of the money - and that's going to have to be spent regardless of how many episodes go on each disc. So WHV wouldn't be able to sell a 3-disc DVD-18 season set at a substantially cheaper price than a 6-disc DVD-9 (dual-layered, single-sided) set. In fact, the DVD-18s might end up costing
more.
Production yields of DVD-18 are lower because a flaw in any one of
four layers means the disc has to be junked. Even when they pass factory QA, DVD-18s often have undetected problems that show up when consumers get them - leading to higher rates of returns and replacements. (The 1 disc version of the
T2: Ultimate Edition was a nightmare for the studio and fans alike.)
Finally production capacity for DVD-18 is limited. There are only one or two replication facilities that are set up to handle the "double double" discs, which can lead to competing studios paying a premium to get time on those production lines.
Then there is the psychological factor. Paying $100 or so for a six-disc set "feels" more reasonable than paying the same amount for three discs to many people - even if they know intellectually that they are paying for the same content. This was one of the reasons that Fox Home Video Chief Peter Staddon told me that Fox will not use DVD-18 and definitely prefers two-disc special edition releases to cramming everything onto a single disc.
DVD-18 also makes it impossible to use silk-screen artwork on the disc, and forces the label information into the tiny space around the hub. (I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm getting to the point where I can't read that tiny print.
) This is another thing that adds to the perceived "value" of the set - and for good reason.
Lastly, DVD-18s - because they have data on both sides - are more prone to damage than DVD-9s. If the phone rings and you have to put a 9 down on the table, you can set it down data side up and not worry about it. If your finger slips off the edge on the label side, you don't have to worry about finger prints messing up the playback. You have to be a lot more careful in handling a DVD-18.
So for a host of business and practical reasons, I suspect that Warner Bros. will follow the Fox model and release boxed sets with four episodes per DVD-9 disc, with supplements on disc 6. (I hope.
) I'm very sure that they will be going with boxed sets. WHV concluded a long time ago that the
B5 audience is more like the
X-Files crowd than it is any other, and that a similar release would be the only one that fans would accept. It is precisely
because they know that an expensive full-season set with at least some extras is the minimum that fans will buy that they issued the TV movie disc to check the size of the market. They didn't want to spend a ton of money mastering 22 episodes and distributing a $100 set that nobody wanted to buy.
Fox took a
huge gamble doing this with
The X-Files, and the other studios expected them to fall on their faces when they did it. It was Fox's success, combined with the lukewarm response to Paramount's earlier
ST:TOS discs, that changed the thinking at WHV. However they were also aware that at its best the
B5 audience is a fraction the size of the
X-Files fanbase, and they had seen the VHS tapes tank. They also knew that there was a lot of interest in the widescreen version of the show - but there was no way that
they were going to pay for new widescreen masters. Once Warner Bros. Television and The Sci-Fi Channel solved
that problem for them, most of the pieces were in place for releasing the series, which is why they announced that they planned to do so a little over a year ago.
(The screw-up with the Sci-Fi widescreen masters probably delayed the project - which was projected to start with S1 this November or December - somewhat. In the meantime they started getting cold feet again and decided to rush out a cheap "test disc" to reassure themselves that somebody was really going to buy those boxed sets when they came.)
I'd say now is the time to start snail-mailing WHV with suggestions for extras. I am also agitating for WHV to abandon - in this unique situation - their reliance on the horrible cardboard "snapper" case. For once they should go outside the company that they own and use a case that is really designed for this kind of multi-disc release - the folding "accordian" case that Fox developed for
X-Files. It is incredibly compact (a 7-disc
X-Files set requires less shelf-space than my 5-disc U.K. version of
The Prisoner.) It is an attractive design with tons of room for artwork, both inside, outside and on the "slipcase". Besides, I can just imagine a side-panel mural with the station stretching across all five seasons, and portraits of the various characters surrounding it.
Even Paramount has learned its lesson in this regard. All indications are that when
ST: TNG arrives on DVD next spring it will do so in season boxed sets - released every two or three months, instead of every six months as Fox is doing with
X-Files.
Here's an Associated Press article on how the season boxed set phenomenon is taking over the TV-show-on DVD business:
DVDs Can Hold Entire TV Seasons
Regards,
Joe
------------------
Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net
[This message has been edited by Joseph DeMartino (edited December 07, 2001).]
