questions about television and DVDs in 2003

[edenfalling]

(The random plotbunny that ambushed me is not going away, damn it.)

Does anyone remember when season DVDs of television series became available as a general rule? When I try searching, I keep getting sale offers for shows with "history" in the title instead of anything useful. (Search = not my forte. *sadface*)

I have a vague memory that somewhere between 2001 and 2003, I watched some of BtVS season 4 on DVD when I was visiting a friend, but while I am pretty good at remembering fictional plots, my memory for real life events is a sieve, so I don't trust that.

These days it seems you can get episodes on DVD even in the middle of a season (though not before they air, obviously), and there are all kinds of ways to watch things streaming online, or download them, and so on. But in 2003, how long was the average wait between the end of a season and the collected DVD release? More specifically, when was the season collection of Firefly released? How much did it cost? How common were DVD players?

(On a vaguely related note, does anybody know when the two seasons of Dark Angel were released, and how much they cost?)

I am trying to figure out if it would be feasible for the characters who survived BtVS season 7 to watch Firefly on DVD in the summer of 2003, or if it would make more sense for them to have borrowed VCR tapes from somebody once they reached Cleveland, or if Willow and/or Andrew might have downloaded the episodes (legally or not)... and if the last, how complicated would it be to make the computer holding the episodes talk to a television set?

Help, anyone?

Comments

[lycomingst]

Just passing by. The release date for Firefly dvds according to IMDB.com was Dec, 2003.

[edenfalling]

Thank you! So in the summer of 2003, I am definitely restricted to VHS, unless I want to get fancy with pirated internet stuff. Good to know.

[lady_songsmith]

In 2003 I was ever-so-slowly inheriting the collection of VHS of a show my whole family liked from my parents, who were buying the DVDs a season as a time when the prices dropped from heart-stopping to reasonable. So yeah, it was definitely available. Wikipedia, bastion of weird information, says that Firefly: the Complete Series was available in December 2003 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_%28TV_series%29#Home_video_releases ).

[edenfalling]

So season DVDs were available in general but Firefly wasn't released until December. Gotcha. Therefore, in July or August, the only options to watch that series were VHS tapes recorded during broadcast, or pirated copies from the internet.

[redwolf]

Release of The X-Files was initially individual episodes on VHS. I can't recall if season sets on VHS were ever available or it didn't become a ready option (for physical size alone) until DVD became more popular.

I remember the DVD season sets for Babylon 5 were prohibitively expensive for years after the series ended, but can't recall if they were available soon after the airing or years later. Be aware had a huge delay between the US and local screening, which would also delay a DVD release here. None of which explains the high cost of the season sets. I think I ended up sourcing them from the US in the end.

The only leftover episodic DVD releases I can think of are related to licencing issues that meant I had to source The Professionals and The Avengers from the UK.

Then there's Prisoner (released overseas as Prisoner: Cell Block H or Caged Women to avoid confusion with The Prisoner) which is slowly being released in chunks due to restoration of the footage and there being nearly 700 episodes to deal with. This is Australia only, I don't think the DVDs are available overseas.

I still can't get a DVD release of Lipstick on your Collar, even though it was available on VHS, due to licencing of the music. Where there's music involved, there's a horde of scummy lawyers trying to scam more money as the production moves between formats. The music in the aired and DVD releases of shows like Life On Mars differs for this reason.

[edenfalling]

Interesting! I didn't know music licensing could be an issue with DVD releases -- if it's okay for broadcast, you'd think it would be okay on DVD too, right?

[redwolf]

We live in a world of logic where the music licencing would be across the board, but the scum in the MPAA and its global equivalents are greedy bastards who demand a cut at every format. It's ridiculous.

I've noticed that one of the shows I can't get on DVD is available in the UK via online streaming, so the broadcast rights for television and internet (provided it's going through a television portal) don't seem affected by the extra licencing grab or the lawyers can't figure out how to spin it yet. Trouble is that it's region locked to the UK.

Dark Angel DVD release

[lynati-1.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Angel_(TV_series)#DVD_releases
The grid has the specific dates.

And, let's see...The price sticker on my roommate's still-unopened copy of DA season two says $39.99, from Best Buy.

If I'd had TV reception in 2003, I would have totally still been taping things to VHS. So there is always going the route of, "Tapes? How quaint," even if the DVDs for a series *were* available at the time.

Re: Dark Angel DVD release

[edenfalling]

Awesome! So Dark Angel season 1 is available on DVD in the summer of 2003, but season 2 would only be around on VHS tapes or maybe illegally floating around the internet. (Which I think people managed back then? I have a vague memory of one of my then-roommates watching season 7 of BtVS on his computer because nobody in that apartment had a television set, besides which I'm not sure Ithaca had a local affiliate of UPN anyway.)