Hey guys just thought i'd try another incentive for the money men to finish the series, before the sets are sold off.

Please let me know what you think of the following:-

QUESTION 1. Would you buy repackaged versions of 1-6 in HD if they included the original pilot and a dedicated finale?


QUESTION 2. Yours ideas for extras to cement purchase.




Many Thanks
Billy

P.S. Its been great sharing/reading the enthusiasm for the show with you all over the years.

Hell yes I would. I buy anything taht has a dedicated finale to the Dead Zone in it. =D

I signed up to these forums just to answer this question. I have not watched Dead Zone but I have been considering purchasing the complete series as it looked interesting. I would purchase this series on Blu-Ray if the option was made available.

... Um. No.

Between you and me, through an incident far too embarrassing to go into, I've actually bought the first four seasons of "The Dead Zone" TWICE. On two different occasions. And I only got a refund for the third season DVD set.

Anyway. When I own something, I own it, I'm not buying it again. If the transfer wasn't reasonably adequate, I wouldn't have bought it in the first place.

But. I'm cheap.

- Ibrahim Ng

When shows are rereleased with different extras after folks have been buying the seasons individually it is a deliberate fleecing of consumers. USA makes enough money and so does Lion's Gate. Paramount has done this full series release trick recently with MacGyver and I've seen the same sort of nonsense with MASH. They released the landmark finale episode of the latter series as part of the 11th season but also marketed it separately and added a bunch of old specials and interviews just to sucker consumers into buying it twice. It's unfair to fans who have supported this show in the past with their cash and I don't see how it would do anything but line the pockets of Lion's Gate execs this time around. A set will not get us a finale.

Well, I didn't feel ripped off when I replaced my VHS cassettes of "Casablanca" and "You've Got Mail" with DVD versions. I think a bluray/HD DVD set wouldn't really qualify as a ripoff. It's a different format. High definition television screens will eventually become commonplace, and when that happens, it'll probably be expected that video image detail is up to the standard of what the screens can show. Normal videos on a high definition television screen can often look grainy, blurry and washed out because the lines of resolution are being stretched by the high definition display.

People don't generally own HD TVs right now, however, and aren't really aware of the difference. As someone who watches his movies on a flatscreen 16:9 monitor hooked up to a laptop, it doesn't matter to me personally. But I imagine there will eventually be a preference for the HD format.

- IBrahim Ng

Me too Ibrahim, I mean once you've given up expecting laserdisc quality on a CRT and analogue in general, and settled for Big Youtube/Digital, you can easily settle for a 400MB divx file, and follow the story well enough. But to get anywhere near laserdisc quality HD is the way (I know about all the differences in resolution blah blah blah) but for sheer depth of image it was generally better, any specialist will tell you the same. If you ever owned one you'll know what I mean.

Either way theres still the problem of which format to release it on.

To slow piracy I think they should be region free if its Bluray, for HDDVD it does'nt matter because everything is region free anyway. They should also include 'digital copies' as seen with the region 1 Die Hard 4 disc, to allow easy 'legal' transfer to portable devices.

Anyway to answer my own questions:-

Q1 Yes, I would definately buy because SD just does'nt cut it on a flat screen.

Q2 Extras, I think they should include retrospective documentaries which span all of the seasons and segment them across each season(like the batman beyond series if anyone got those), one documentary for writers/directors, one for cast. Also a 'what could have been' section where writers discuss in-depth, where the show was going next and how they would've concluded the story. Whats next for everyone and Final goodbye's. Best blogs, website videos included.

Folks, my answer has nothing to do with the quality of digital and bluray, though I realize that was part of the original question. My answer refers to simple economics. I am a person of modest means. I've purchased my discs of various series when I could afford to and not necessarily when they were first released. In the case of DZ I did buy on the release date. In the case of MASH I still don't own them all but they are all available and so are the 'special' packages. It's unfair to ask consumers to purchase the product more than once. Until the majority of dvd media sold is HD and bluray most people I know will not purchase new copies. They simply can't.