Love this kind of discussion. I've never seen a Hellraiser film (and don't specifically plan on doing so), but I think it's increasingly rare to see discussions about releases - about how a blu-ray version is missing a bunch of commentaries from a prior DVD release; how the source of various releases of the same content differs; finding old Dr Who episodes, or animating them with the remaining audio when no video exists; that piece by David Simon about the SD vs HD cuts of The Wire. Unless it's a hyper specialized collector's edition I suppose. I can't tell you how long it took me to figure out which version of the Deadwood Blu-rays to pick up so I wouldn't lost the commentary tracks.
Thanks! I’d say such discussion still exists but has largely moved more towards specialized sites like 'The Digital Bits,' dvdcompare.net and 'Home Theater Forum.'
I'd say dvdcompare.net is pretty great if you're looking for a handy list of all the exclusive and overlapping supplemental materials that you can find in a given release. Sadly, they don't cover Digital Video Releases (eg. Itunes), which can also sometimes have exclusive features.
Oooo thanks! I didn't know this existed, this is amazing. And I can imagine that the overlap between people engaging with physical vs digital content (especially in this kind of environment) is not high. I want my physical releases because I'm annoyed about how digital releases seem to be so much less consistent / come with so few "extras." There are some exceptions (I think the House of the Dragon 4K release did NOT come with the Max behind the scenes specials, for reasons I cannot fathom).
Yeah, I use that site a lot to determine the best combination of releases. There are some really nice DVD sets that used to be available only outside the US and now that's become even more so with BluRay, though BluRay is more accessible.
I personally get annoyed with retailer exclusives - there was an article on Digital Bits a few years back about how studios started to really disperse BluRay bonuses across Target, Best Buy, etc., rather than making a single consistent release.
I don't know about the commentary track. One thing I've gathered is that studios became over the year far less interested in spending money on extras and I believe commentary tracks were among the first things they wanted to cut.
Eg. Josh Friedman wanted to record tracks for all S2 episodes of 'Sarah Connor Chronicles' for the 2009 DVD release, but FOX only had the budget for four episodes. Nowadays, it's also hard to find booklets - even for older catalog releases that used to have them (eg. Das Boot).
One thing I've always wondered - Blu-rays (in Canada) used to be released with digital versions. Now they basically never come with them. It's a bummer, I do like having both.
There's been a similar decline for US releases. Imo, this was a strategy of getting people hooked on Digital - initially digital downloading was an add-on. Now, it's a parallel format, so they separate them and release the digital version weeks before the physical.
Love this kind of discussion. I've never seen a Hellraiser film (and don't specifically plan on doing so), but I think it's increasingly rare to see discussions about releases - about how a blu-ray version is missing a bunch of commentaries from a prior DVD release; how the source of various releases of the same content differs; finding old Dr Who episodes, or animating them with the remaining audio when no video exists; that piece by David Simon about the SD vs HD cuts of The Wire. Unless it's a hyper specialized collector's edition I suppose. I can't tell you how long it took me to figure out which version of the Deadwood Blu-rays to pick up so I wouldn't lost the commentary tracks.
Thanks! I’d say such discussion still exists but has largely moved more towards specialized sites like 'The Digital Bits,' dvdcompare.net and 'Home Theater Forum.'
I'd say dvdcompare.net is pretty great if you're looking for a handy list of all the exclusive and overlapping supplemental materials that you can find in a given release. Sadly, they don't cover Digital Video Releases (eg. Itunes), which can also sometimes have exclusive features.
Oooo thanks! I didn't know this existed, this is amazing. And I can imagine that the overlap between people engaging with physical vs digital content (especially in this kind of environment) is not high. I want my physical releases because I'm annoyed about how digital releases seem to be so much less consistent / come with so few "extras." There are some exceptions (I think the House of the Dragon 4K release did NOT come with the Max behind the scenes specials, for reasons I cannot fathom).
Hot Take: Streaming killed the DVD Commentary.
Welcome!
Yeah, I use that site a lot to determine the best combination of releases. There are some really nice DVD sets that used to be available only outside the US and now that's become even more so with BluRay, though BluRay is more accessible.
I personally get annoyed with retailer exclusives - there was an article on Digital Bits a few years back about how studios started to really disperse BluRay bonuses across Target, Best Buy, etc., rather than making a single consistent release.
I don't know about the commentary track. One thing I've gathered is that studios became over the year far less interested in spending money on extras and I believe commentary tracks were among the first things they wanted to cut.
Eg. Josh Friedman wanted to record tracks for all S2 episodes of 'Sarah Connor Chronicles' for the 2009 DVD release, but FOX only had the budget for four episodes. Nowadays, it's also hard to find booklets - even for older catalog releases that used to have them (eg. Das Boot).
One thing I've always wondered - Blu-rays (in Canada) used to be released with digital versions. Now they basically never come with them. It's a bummer, I do like having both.
There's been a similar decline for US releases. Imo, this was a strategy of getting people hooked on Digital - initially digital downloading was an add-on. Now, it's a parallel format, so they separate them and release the digital version weeks before the physical.