RD Series I – XIII Boxset

[Android 72264Y]

I received the boxset coinciding on my birthday, if anyone has any related questions let me know  

Topic

[Flap Jack]

Cheaper and no more bulky than a Blu-Ray

Of couse, but we’re talking about enthusiast consumers in particular, so the small extra expense seems like a pretty fair trade off for the huge bump in quality (not to mention how much more scratch resistant the discs are). Plus while I’m just speaking for the UK, if you’re patient enough the price difference between a new movie DVD and a Blu-ray of the same movie collapses to, like, £1.

Also for what it’s worth DVDs sometimes are more bulky than Blu-rays (as well as being taller). The thinner cases are becoming much more commonplace nowadays, while DVD cases remain the same thickness, and TV Blu-ray box sets are often smaller than their DVD equivalents due to needing fewer discs.

[RunawayTrain]

I do have a Blu-Ray player but currently stuck without ready access to a TV to use it with (health situation – not well enough to go downstairs very often at all, and no space in my room for a TV; and family situation – even if I did, other family members are at home watching the TV most of the day anyway).

However if it hadn’t been for the remastered TNG set I think it’s fairly likely I wouldn’t have bothered buying a player yet, as most things are available to stream in HD or I have HD digital copies, or they’re only available on DVD so HD isn’t an option at all anyway (most older BBC sitcoms).

[Ben Saunders]

I’ve never watched a Blu-Ray. I have watched many Blu-Ray rips downloaded off the Pirate Bay. I’m sure one of our Xboxes could play one if we really needed it to.

I watched remastered TNG on Netflix in 2019/20 and the quality seemed good to me. Perhaps I’m a philistine.

I prefer downloading stuff to watching on iPlayer though because iPlayer quality is shit and inconsistent.

[RunawayTrain]

I watched remastered TNG on Netflix in 2019/20 and the quality seemed good to me. 

It is for me too now.  At the time I bought the Blu-ray set, TNG on Netflix was still SD.  Although even if things had been different, if I’d learned about the remastered box set later, I still would have bought it and the player for the many many extras.  But if I hadn’t been fussed about those and just wanted the episodes, streaming would have been fine with the remastered on Netflix.

(Voyager and DS9 are a bit of a shock if you go to them straight from TNG!)

[International Debris]

I don’t have a telly, always watched DVDs on my computer, which is next to impossible with BluRays. 

HD is definitely an improvement, but not a big enough one for me to bother getting a new telly for; ultimately, script and performances are much more important to me than image quality, with DVD being clear enough. 

[Warbodog]

I could never afford all the videos and DVDs I wanted growing up, but still spent all my money on them. Then after moving around and living abroad for years, it’d be hard to convince me to get back into physically buying shows I can watch for free online. If I do, I’ll buy this Red Dwarf set (or the next one). I spend it on kids’ stuff and board games instead.

[Dave]

I’ve always been able to play the latest formats purely because I’m a gamer and have had the latest PlayStation, which has been able to play Blu-Rays ever since the PS3 in 2006, so nearly 20 years ago.

More recently I’ve been able to play 4K discs too thanks to the PS5, and while I can’t see much difference in clarity between that and Blu-Ray (partly my eyes, partly the size of my TV) I have noticed that the enhanced colour of HDR makes a big difference for films that are dark and shadowy like Alien or The Dark Knight, so I do have a limited few favourites in 4K too.

[Technopeasant]

and Blu-ray is the only way to properly own HD media.

A DRM-free download IS effectively owning, even if that is rare for film and TV.

which i coveted and eventually got as late as 2020 when I moved in with my future wife who had a player in the house

That’s one reason to marry someone I guess.

 still would have bought it and the player for the many many extras

Which is why I buy the Classic Who sets despite having Britbox (which my wife mostly uses to watch Call the Midwife). Working through the TOS sets as well, which don’t have a lot of features, but I have no interest in Paramount+ otherwise…

I don’t have a telly, always watched DVDs on my computer, which is next to impossible with BluRays. 

You can if you know what you are doing. The difficulty truly arises in storing all that HD content. I am going to need to buy a storage drive just for Who at this point.

[Ben Saunders]

There used to be a Russian Facebook-type site, VK, that had every single Dr Who DVD uploaded WITH all of the extras. It was truly a treasure trove, I watched an utterly insane amount of content on there. But over time it became harder to access, and at some point disappeared entirely. There were also rips of entire disc images on tpb that had the extras too but I can’t find them either. The extras are about the only reason left to buy physical media imo, and I hope they eventually just dump that shit online too. Any DVD I buy gets watched once or twice and then ignored for the rest of eternity. 

[Flap Jack]

A DRM-free download IS effectively owning, even if that is rare for film and TV.

Right, I just considered it so rare that it can’t really be a factor when deciding how you want to access media. Unless the only movies and TV shows you want to (legally) own in HD all just so happen to be in a specific subset of independent productions, you need to embrace the Blu-ray disc as your saviour.

And as much as I understand Ben’s position, it’s not really an argument against Blu-ray as a format, more an argument against the basic concept of paying for things. It is hard to compete with free, admittedly.

[Technopeasant]

And as much as I understand Ben’s position, it’s not really an argument against Blu-ray as a format, more an argument against the basic concept of paying for things. It is hard to compete with free, admittedly.

Even if I admitedly watch more of the DVD era extras in the case of Classic Who (I always skip Behind the Sofa) I also like contributing to the production of more.

Right, I just considered it so rare that it can’t really be a factor when deciding how you want to access media.

Yes, but it should be. Beyond the aforementioned lock-ins that have to be bypassed on Bluray, it provides for the no shelf space set and mitigates the risk of disk rot.

[RunawayTrain]

Since then young ones & blackadder have joined my must have list on the format. 

Slightly off topic but I didn’t realise Blackadder was available on Blu-ray – I’ve just gone Googling and WOW!  Serious investigations into an external Blu-ray disc drive are required.

[Dave]

Since then young ones & blackadder have joined my must have list on the format. 
Slightly off topic but I didn’t realise Blackadder was available on Blu-ray – I’ve just gone Googling and WOW!  Serious investigations into an external Blu-ray disc drive are required.

I think we briefly discussed it somewhere here when the recent set came out, but it’s well worth it if you’re a fan. A real treasure trove of extras.

Edit: ah, here it is.

[RunawayTrain]

^ ha, I even commented, really truly had completely forgotten about it 😅 (I’d blame covid memory loss as the thread/comment date around the time I had it, but realistically I may well have forgotten anyway even without that.)

[tombow]

posted onto facebook by one Keiron Reeves and appeared on my timeline

[Warbodog]

[tombow]

another one from Keiron, who’s just admitted he’s making them with AI – and this one didn’t turn out so well

 

[Ian Symes]

Rimmer genuinely looks like Jimmy Nail there. Have we infected AI with our bullshit? I do hope so.

[tombow]

more Kieron fun

[Dave]

[tombow]

a couple of people pointed out the Freddy Kruger Rimmer

[Dave]

More shocking is the lack of ampersands.

[Technopeasant]

Is it bad that genuinely looks delicious?

[Dave]

Is it bad that genuinely looks delicious?

[Unrumble]

[Moonlight]

You know, I genuinely have every single thing I need to put Series X on VHS for real. The main thing stopping me is I can’t decide what to do about it being widescreen. Letterboxing feels against the vibe of a 90s television release, and cropping would cause a lot of problems unless I manually created a pan and scan edit which I am only slightly not insane enough to do.

[Technopeasant]

[Dave]

[Warbodog]

[Author]

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