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Hitchhiker's Guide DVD to be released on January 28
hitchhacker writes "It looks like The BBC series version of 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' is being released on DVD January 28, 2002. 'disc set contains all six episodes from the classic BBC sci-fi comedy as well 10 minutes of additional footage which was cut to acheive the 30 minute run time. Also included are a few additional features - making of, deleted scenes, interviews and more.'" CD: Word has it that this is a region 2 dvd.
What's that?
affect the average /. reader? All of our dvd players ignore region codes ;P
I remeber seeing this on video ages ago. My favorite were the Vogons- proof that men in rubber suits look like men in rubber suits even when they're shouting "Resistance is Useless." IMHO one of the world's greatest B movies ever made... Combined with *an interview with Douglas Adams* and whatnot, it'll be worth every penny of the ~US$40... I just hope ThinkGeek manages to import it, or I can find it on eBay... :D
And it's too bad they're doing reigon crap for this. Don't they know that H2G2 is an international phenomenon with millions of fans? Or are they going to release a special 'americanized' version? >:(
This
I remember, the first 10 minutes were the worst. The next 10 minutes, they were the worst. The next 10 minutes after that were even more horrible. After that, it went into a bit of a decline...
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I was a 5th Grader who had read a few things, you know read some books on cool stuff, had a z80 computer, the basic programming guide for the rest of us, etc. but I had little interest in school, I was a beach-bum loser. This friend of my Mom, he hands me this dog-earred paper-back book with a black cover and a little green sphere man sticking his tongue out at me... the guy, Dennis, tells me "Hey read this, you WILL like it." I was like, "sure, whatever".. I read the first few pages, and I couldn't stop reading.. I can honestly say I have about 4 copies of almost every other DA book, mostly first edition hardcovers. Big deal, everyone does? The thing was, this guy who gave me the book, pretty much the same day said to me that I should go to school more often, and I should really (in his words) "do something with your life." Maybe it was the book, maybe it was DA, maybe it was nothing, but certainly, it tied together and I started to go to school... I saw all of the HGTTG episodes on local PBS here in the states, and they are hilarious... I highly suggest them. They gave me a great cast to play out the rest of the books in my head with.. uh.. anyway.. I like them.. ALOT.
I had a sig, but
Beg pardon? Surely you mean region 42?
(No, and don't call me Shirley.)
"And like that
the list of extras is impressive, but it would have been really nice to see:
1. text of the original novels.
2. audio if the original radio show.
The mini-series was alright, entertaining at least. The radio show on the other hand was brilliant.
lysergically yours
Why would the the BBC region encode a circa 1990(?) miniseries? The purpose of region encoding is to ensure that a movie leaving US markets can be "staged" into foriegn markets, forcing DVD sales to be after film sales to avoid home viewing cutting into theater reciepts. Region encoding old TV material serves no purpose other than to simultaneously reduce sales and annoy customers. Why would the BBC want to stop sales of this DVD to the US? The math is simple...more sales means more money when there are no greater revenue streams to cut into. If the people at the BBC are half as smart as their accents make them seem, this DVD will be region-free ;)
Gosh, I guess that means I just won't be able to play it here in the US, with my US-bought DVD-ROM drive, huh?
High-speed Road Trip (18.000KPH)
liked the radio broadcasts (kazaa rules!) and turned the BBC crap off after about 1 and 1/2 hours. That drek is unwatchable. This coming from someone who likes Red Dwarf! The special effects are worse than cheesy, the acting wasn't, the costumes were rotten and they seemed to change stuff simply for the sake of changing it. All in all, to say I was dissapointed would be an understatement... Save your money and spend it on that new Holy Grail dvd....
For some reason, it just seems bizarre that BBC would region-code something. I thought they were legit.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
The Hitchhiker's DVD may only be region 2 for now, but on the other side of the coin, the March release of the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1 box set will be region 1 (U.S.) only.
:-)
How about a trade? We get the BBC to release the six episodes of HHG in region 1 over here, and we'll give them 26 episodes of ST:TNG for region 2 in return. I think we'd come out better on the deal, but hopefully the Brits will be too busy watching the ST:TNG episodes to notice.
BBC DVD releases are usually regions 2 and 4. The reason for this (more specifically, no region 1) is because BBC Worldwide handles the marketing of BBC video releases in the UK and Australia/NZ. However for the US it sub-licences the rights and BBC video releases are issued by Warner, who decide their own release schedule. It's because of this contract that the discs employ region coding to "prevent" them being played in the US. Although you can import the release and use a region-free player, remember you will need a PAL (or dual-standard) TV set and these are AFAIK less common in the US than they are in Europe! This applies even if using a computer DVD drive to play the disc, unless you just want to view it on your monitor.
This is why there is so much dicussion about the region coding - because there is no reason why any DVD cannot be played anywhere in the world, the 'region coding' has been added because the film industry has got very used to controlling when and where a product can be distributed by choosing what picture standard to release it in. By delaying PAL releases they have been able to release films later in UK cinemas without the cinema release clashing with tape sales and therefore decreases losses if the film is a flop.
I would guess that the BBC have decided to delay marketing this new DVD in the US, and so are pragmatically taking advantage of the region coding to see how it does over here first.
The only time a PAL/NTSC convertor might be useful is if a foreign DVD player were imported in order to play DVDs from another region, which at 100 dollars/pounds, it's quite a viable thing to do. Of course, here in the UK many off-the-shelf players will play any region.....
For the software side of things, I use DVD Genie, which works with a number of different players, including WinDVD.
However, you also need to have a DVD-ROM drive that is region-agnostic. You can check this with DVD Genie, one of the tabs in the program allows for this. If the drive is RPC-1(Region Protection Control, I think), your drive doesn't care what region encoding the disc has, and all you need is DVD Genie. Most drives are RPC-2, though, meaning that it will allow for a certain number of discs from different regions to be played before it "locks" on the final one, usually the fifth switch. Many can be changed to RPC-1 by installing different firmware(I did this with the drives on both my desktop and my notebook.). The best place I know to find region-free firmware is The Firmware Page.
Good luck to you.
DVDs don't need PAL to NTSC convertors. The whole point is that they don't conform to any type of picture standard other than aspect ratio.
...and of course frame rate. Even though the signal on the DVD is neither in NTSC nor PAL formats, the DVDs are made for either NTSC or PAL. The fact that the frame rate is the only thing that really separates the two types makes it an even bigger scandal that some players can't output both NTSC and PAL from any type of disc.
AFAIK, there is a region 1 version of Blackadder, and it's better than the region 2 version... Has more extras. One or two out of the series episodes and some historical stuff about the UK concerning the eras in which the four seasons of Blackadder are set... Stuff they didn't feel were necessary for the European release because they assume that the whole of Europe knows Brittish history, or so it seems...
Install windows on my workstation? You crazy? Got any idea how much I paid for the damn thing?
>My favorite was the poor, pathetic depressed robot. Some days I take after him just a wee bit too much :)
According to DNA, Marvin (the Robot) was heavily based on a real person - the script writer Andrew Marshall. "2point4 Children" (UK TV series) is probably his best known work.
You can see the rest listed at imdb.com
AJB
Thanks to new Babelfish technology there will be no multi-language versions of the HHGTTG DVD.
Just insert the DVD and let the fish do the rest.
:)
The sum total of Ed Bye's "direction" seems to have been to just stick the camera in the middle of the set and make the actors run through long scenes in one (often awkward and badly timed) take. It's like watching a stageplay that hasn't been rehearsed, only a stageplay wouldn't have been lit with 40,000 flourescent tubes. Even worse is that they changed Trillian from a no-nonsense scientist type into a squeaking brainless gangster-moll. I'm not sure who was behind that decision but her performence alone is bad enough to make you want to shove a fork in your eye. There's a few points that are kinda ok, like the sequence on the Vogon ship, but overall it's a mess.
I grew up with and love the radio series and the books. I really want to see this as a show/movie done right, and I only hope that DA's death won't derail the plans for the movie.
This is easily one of my most favorite of Adams' explanations on where he got an idea. This is a quote from The Original Hitchhiker Radio Scripts:
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
Perhaps making it viewable in non-domestic regions could be construed as making it available to non-domestic markets, making the BBC liable for additional licensing fees, royalties to actors, or what have you. Or perhaps locking out other regions gives the BBC the option of licensing it through another distributor for overseas markets.
Given that we also have MP, Blackadder, and Faulty Towers now out on R1 DVD sets, I very much doubt BBC is *stupid* enough to not put out a HHGTTG R1 DVD.
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
You can get the text of almost any book at Project Gutenberg (http://promo.net/pg/)
Yeah, but they won't take anything first published on or after 1923 because of the Bono Act. You'll have to request it in one of the alt.binaries.e-book groups.
Will I retire or break 10K?
The computers I've seen that have a video-out(Composite or S-Video) usually allow for the output to TV to be set to either NTSC or PAL.
Yes, but they also allow apps (such as DVD player) to override such a setting. Otherwise, the drivers probably won't get Microsoft's signature. I haven't read anything important about this exact issue, but if MS Secure Audio Path is any indication of the direction Microsoft is heading for the operating system that will come with your next PC...
Besides, the telecine method is different. With a 50Hz video technology like PAL, they just speed the 24Hz film up 4% and draw each film frame into two video fields. In 60Hz formats such as NTSC or PAL-M, they draw each frame for three fields, then two, then three, then two... I doubt that most DVD players can convert NTSC telecine to PAL telecine or vice versa, so they just output the format that most closely matches the encoded frame-rate.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I just wrote a feedback to BBCShop explaining that where I grew up, I had access to the TV series via a PBS station. That's what got me started on the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I also mentioned that I had purchased this on VHS a long time ago, but the tape has long since died from age and tape wear. :-(
I explained I was really looking forward to purchasing a DVD of one of my favourite (spelling intentional, when in Rome...) series, but was vastly disappointed to learn that they had chosen to encode it for Europe (region 2) only.
I wonder what kind of response I'll get...
If I get one in a timely fashion, I'll follow up my own post and place the information in this thread.
If you go to write, don't forget to site the ISBN number for this product, specifically: ISBN: BBCDVD1092
whats the point? doesn't everyone realise that the TV series was absoloutely dreadful next to the radio4 dramatisation and of course the books, and all the hardware you need for that is a cassete player and imagination.
Software Freedom Day!.
Oh geez...why. I cannot figure it out...there isn't even a sound business reason.
Note to whoever: Release it region 1 in a timely fashion (i.e. like how about at the same time) and I would buy this. Release it late, it will get ripped and distributed all over the net, and I won't feel particularly guilty about copying it. You will never be able to prove that you lost money from me, because you will have to prove that I would have bought a region 2 dvd player and your flic.
You know what? Pretty much goes the same for over seas. I don't think that other countries should be deprived of our cinema just because you are staging releases all over.
-- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --
The BBC now has its own TV channel in the US - BBC America. When ATT called me up to try to get me to switch to digital cable they led their pitch with BBC America. Of course I have had Dish TV for that purpose for years (with PVR).
Dr Who has appeared on BBC America in the past and given the number of episodes they have and the time to fill it is likely to appear again. The price that PBS was paying was ludicrously low, in many cases $50 an episode, the BBC can make a much better return by marketting its product itself.
The other reason that the prices of BBC programs have been going up is that the actors have renegotiated their deal on repeat fees to include foreign markets. The BBC persuaded Equity that it will eventually turn BBC America into a 'must carry' cable channel which would give it a revenue equivalent to that of CNN. So Equity was prepared to take a lower up front pay raise in return for repeat fees on the US network.
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After all, it's the Americans and especially their movie-industry that came up with this insane region-system. And the main reason they got away with it is that their domestic audience would get the releases first anyway. So I think it's only fair that some Americans get to experience what it is like to be on the 'wrong' side of the region system, and I hope it happens more often. Who knows, they might even learn something from it. I mean, you can only get shafted by the big corporations so often in return for brown-nosing them, somebody is going to get the hint, right?
I'm not trolling, I'm just bitter.
Holy Zarqoun's Knees! You mean I won't be able to use this on my Region 1 DVD player? Belgium!
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
- android
.It's a two DVD set, where DVD 1 contains the six episodes of the TV series in their longest cut available, coming to 3hrs and 20 mins. The DVD includes "Production Notes" which come up like subitles and are snippets of information about the scene you're watching.
The second DVD is stuffed to the gills with extras, some of which have never been seen before.
It's a tremendous package and an essential purchase for all Hitch-Hiker fans.
"Information wants to be paid"
Remember, May 25th is Towel Day in honor of Douglas Adams. On this day, you can carry a towel with you everywhere you go. If your boss rips into you during the day, just cover your head with the towel. If you spill your coffee, you can always use the towel to wipe it up.
"Normality, I repeat, we have reached normality. Anything you can't cope with is therefore your own problem."
I have no desire to reach nirvana.
StarTrek for HHGG ? I think not. On the oneside we have one of the funniest and best scripted Sci-Fi programmes of all time, on the otherside we have a very large budget and bipeds...
HHGG is the question as well as the answer
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
Frame rate is probably the easiest thing to automatically convert. You simply either duplicate or delete frames as required.
I got my reply from the BBC regarding region 1 releases.
From: Laura Palmer address_removed@bbc.co.uk
Subject: RE: This is feedback the BBC Web Shop
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 15:04:37 -0000
"Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" will be released on DVD in North
America in late April.