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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.
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 ;)
Well, if you can't even view it outside of a single DVD region, it's not much of a guide to the galaxy, now is it?
.sig last updated Jan. 14, 2000
Yeah, finally the region coding is effective. They've managed to stop you buying a copy to play at home (they frown on 'fair use'), and forced you to download a DVD rip from kazaa.
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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.
Then check out DVD Region X for the PS2. Older versions came with a special memory card, newer versions just take up space on a standard memory card. You boot from a special disc, then it prompts you to choose your region. You select it, the disc tray opens, you replace the disc, push in the tray and then select the DVD in the browser.
It is simple and it works. I use it all the time to view R1 DVDs with my R2 PS2. Your TV has to be capable of outputting the PAL source though, which is one area where Europe has an advantage. Our TVs these days are almost always PAL/NTSC compatible, whereas US TVs rarely have PAL compatibility.
You have to get an NTSC version of DVD Region X. I know it exists, but I don't know where you buy it. The PAL version is widely available and is made by Datel Electronics.
Finally, you can plug in codes from the website, if you update your PS2 DVD driver version.
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.
:)
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
The disc, like most BBC DVDs, will probably be dual region 2 and 4; so the Australians will be able to see it.
Different companies have different rights areas; the BBC will want to release a R1 version for NTSCers out there, but it's not such a high priority for a company which is resoundingly Region 2. Also, BBC discs are released by Fox in the States, who won't want their area treaded upon. Complain to them.
Maybe also the rights to HHGTTG are owned by someone else; "Monty Python's Flying Circus" and "The Avengers" are owned by A&E, for example.
Now you get all the problems we have every time something cool is released in the States that we can't get; e.g. "Almost Famous" bootleg cut, Monty Python series box sets, Criterion "Life of Brian" and so on. That's why a lot of British people (including me, and most of uk.media.dvd) have their players modded. You should too, even if it's just a DVD-ROM drive and DVD player software (or a H+ hardware card.) Enjoy a whole new world!
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.
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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.
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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!
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Again I ask this: why are they region protecting DVDs of things that haven't been in any international theaters for a loooong time anyway? The MPAA is demonstrating quite clearly here that their argument for region protection (skew releases so a particular region can't have it on DVD when it is still showing in the theaters) is a lie, and that their real reason for having region coding is different.
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of the Corporate States of America...
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"