What is it about October and anniversaries?

Monty Python’s 40th anniversary was this month, as was Saturday Night Live’s 35th anniversary, and now we have the 30th anniversary of the end of what some consider the all time best British sitcom, Fawlty Towers.

If you have never heard of this series, you are really missing out.  In 1975 John Cleese of Monty Python fame, and his then wife, Connie Booth, wrote a series about a poorly managed sea-side hotel in Torquay.  The series revolved around Basil Fawlty, played by Cleese, and his inept attempts at running a high-end hotel.  Beyond his own shortcomings, he is also hampered by his over bearing wife, Sybil Fawlty (Prunella Scales), Polly (Connie Booth) the maid that dreams of a better life and Manuel (Andrew Sachs) the bell hop/waiter from Spain who speaks very little English.

The second season didn’t appear until 1979, a full four years after the first, and it ended up being the last, ending on Oct. 25th, 1979.

Although the series only ran for 12 episodes, it has not stopped numerous attempts being made at launching a version in the United States, and all of them have failed in disaster: Two of them never made it past pilot, and the third, named Payne, did make it to air, but was quickly canceled.

So, why mark the end of the series as opposed to its launch?  Well, I got an email from the BBC America PR department informing me of the new DVD set coming out today for the series that has been digitally remastered, features commentary tracks from Mr. Cleese on every episode, new interviews with John Cleese, Connie Booth, Andrew Sachs and Prunella Scales, outtakes and more.  Basically it sounds like a killer set, and even though I already own the set, I am tempted to buy it just for the Cleese commentary tracks.

If you haven’t ever treated yourself to this gem of a series, now seems like a better time than ever.

With all of that being said … why should you go out and buy a copy of the DVD set when I can just give you one?  Yes, that’s right folks, the kind folks over at the BBC have teamed up with me to give away not just one of these fantastic sets, but TWO!  (You can only win one … stop being greedy!  Someone else gets the second one!)  These sets have a suggested retail price of $49.98, but you can get one completely free courtesy of SeanPAune.com and the BBC!

So, how do you win one of these sets?  Well, it’s a two step process, but fun!

Step 1

Make a video of yourself reenacting your favorite Basil Fawlty moment from the series.  Beat on a car with a tree branch … tell people not to mention the war … hang a moose head on the wall, if Basil did it in the series, you can reenact it!  (It is not required to dress like Basil, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt either)

Then post the video to YouTube with the following in the info section:

Entry for the SeanPAune.com and BBC America Fawlty Towers DVD set giveaway

And make sure to tag them with SeanPAune.com, BBC America and Fawlty Towers.

Step 2

Come back to this post and leave a comment with a link to your video so everyone can enjoy it.  I will also create a playlist with all of the videos so everyone can easily browse them.

I will choose the two best videos posted by 11:59 PM CST on Friday Nov. 6th and will then contact the winners for their mailing addresses  shortly after that.  I will also post the winning videos on this site to share with more of the world.

The Small Print

Contest is limited to residents of the United States and its territories.  Only one entry per person.  Void where prohibited by law.  Have fun!

Want in on even more Fawlty Towers fun?  Join the Facebook Fan Page for the series, or follow them on Twitter @FawltyTowersDVD for the latest news surrounding the 30th Anniversary where you can use the #fawltytowers hashtag.  And if you just can’t wait, and need to have the DVD set immediately, you can always head over to the BBC America Shop and purchase one, but where’s the fun in getting one of these sets the same way anyone else can?

I really wish DVD releases would just stick with a design through a logical stopping point.

I just picked up Saturday Night Live season 4 on sale, and while moving all of my TV show DVD sets to a new shelving unit, I popped it in its rightful place next to Saturday Night Live season 3 … and immediately cursed.

When I had received the set from Amazon I thought something felt “off” about it, and I was right.  Not only is the package of a cheaper material, it’s shorter.  I can understand wanting to save money, but couldn’t you have waited until a more logical changing point like season 6 (no original cast members remained after season 5)?

Other series have done this to me over the years, and it has always been annoying.  You like some uniformity to your sets, you like them to look like they belong together, but then they change up the appearance with no rhyme or reason, and you’re stuck.  The worst case of this was when the X-Files went from their original “fat packs” to the “slim packs” in the later seasons.  They were so radically different that it made them difficult to store together at all, let alone look nice.

So, feel free to change packaging when there is a major shift in the show, like when Simpsons season 1 – 5 had one look, and with season 6 they went on to another design.  That was fine, that made sense, this just seems random, and an obvious grab to save a few cents at the expense of the consumer who pays the same price for each season, and now has a totally random looking shelf.

Think about these things video companies, it will make your customers feel a lot less slighted.

(And, yes, I am aware only season 1 is unwrapped … I’m getting to the others eventually.)

Netflix added the ability to stream movies some time ago, and after taking the plunge to try it out, I have to say I’m sold on the concept.

At first I was hesitant to give it a try because you could only do it on your computer, and I didn’t feel like going through the trials and tribulations of watching Internet videos on my TV.  Eventually a company named Roku brought a Netflix set top box to market, but, I also didn’t feel like plopping down $99 for a dedicated device.

Then, in November, Microsoft updated the Xbox 360 dashboard and added the option to stream Netflix to your TV without any more equipment then I already owned.  With the temptation being too great, I finally gave in and reactivated my Netflix account and decided to give it a shot.

For as little as $8.99 a month (we’ll ignore the $4.99 option as that only gives you 2 hours of video streaming a month), you get one DVD rented at a time, but you get unlimited video streaming to your Xbox.  Quite a bargain if you ask me since they have over 12,000 selections for you to choose from.  True, the movie selection is mainly older films, but for a film buff like myself, I’m thrilled.  They also offer help a very healthy selection of older TV shows, all which are available on DVD, but for three months of streaming, you can save your self buying a DVD set you may not even like, and you will save room in your house.  I finally can try out an older British comedy I have been dying to try for years called Yes, Minister without rolling the dice on an expensive boxed set and risking not even liking the show.

The only drawback to the system is you have to go to the Netflix site to add more videos to your queue.  You can only have 6 active selections show up in your Xbox dashboard at any time, but that is plenty for a night of video watching.

My biggest fear was that you were going to end up with heavily pixalated veiwing since it was streaming over the Internet and being blown up to the size of a TV screen, but I am pleased to say I was totally wrong about that.  Last night my father wanted to watch a movie since he is laid out on the couch recovering from knee surgery, and he chose The Illusionist from 2006.  What little I watched of the movie since I had work to do was just stunning in its quality.  It might not be true high def, but coming over an HDMI cable to our 42″ Toshiba Regza LCD, I noticed little to no “image noise”, no buffering except before the film started, and an overall better experience than a standard definition DVD played on a standard DVD player.

I would still like to see a broader slection of films to watch, and also the ability to add new things to your queue on the fly, but overall, if you have an Xbox 360 already, or feel up to getting a Roku device, this is well worth $8.99 a month.  Also, keep an eye out, but some Blu-ray DVD players are starting to add the ability to stream the videos also.

Can any one, or anything, stop the money making machine that is The Dark Knight?

As the film stands as of today (December 11th, 2008) it has had a box office haul of $530,594,370 domestically and $465,956,888 internationally for a total of $996,551,258 gross. This isn’t to short change the fact it cost $185 million to produce, but it is still a highly successful film no matter how you slice it. There has also been the surprising news that the film will be re-released to theaters on January 23rd, 2009 for another go, and this all but guarantees that the film will break through the $1 billion dollar level.

I bring all of this up because earlier this week the film was released on DVD.  While I certainly expected it be successful, I knew something was up when I was at Walmart at midnight Monday night and there was a line in the electronics department of people waiting for them to wheel out their supply.  I can’t say I remember ever seeing that before any other DVD, so the writing was on the wall this was going to be big.  (For the record, mine was on its way via UPS, I was there for other reasons)

Well, the numbers are in, and the sales for the first 24 hours was 600,000 Blu-ray copies and 2.4 million standard DVDs.  The previous Blu-ray champ was Iron Man with 400,000 copies in its first week… sorry, Iroan Man.

Warner Brothers is trying to woo Christopher Nolan & Jonathan Nolan, the brothers who wrote the movie and Christopher directed, back for another installment, but they are currently not jumping at the chance.  Christopher has been quoted in numerous interviews of fearing the curse of third film in a series (See Spider-Man 3), and he has also said he hasn’t been struck by an idea yet for another outing of the caped crusader.

I have to say, “Stick to your guns, Chris”.  If we only get two movies from him of Batman, then so be it.  Sure I would like to see a third film in the series, but I want it to be ‘right’, and not just made to be made.  Sure there are more Batman villains he can tackle, but would they be worthy of carrying a film?  Catwoman is possible… The Riddler is a bit weak… Mr. Nolan has publicly declared he doesn’t like The Penguin… Harley Quinn couldn’t carry a film on her own, and without The Joker, she would be hard to do… Posion Ivy couldn’t do it on her own… Mr. Freeze is too silly and so on and so forth.

With these new sales numbers Warner Brothers is sure to be courting Mr. Nolan harder for a third film, but what say you, should he go for it?

With another year under their belt, why does Blu-ray still seem to be another “also ran” in the home media market?

It was one year ago today that I announced that I had decided to go with HD-DVD, and I knew full well that probably meant I had picked the wrong format in the high def war.  I was proven right in February of this year when HD-DVD threw in the towel, and it looked like a lock that Blu-ray would become the dominant format.

So, why hasn’t it happened?  Blu-ray is still languishing with only a single digit percentage of the home media market, and it doesn’t look to be gainging more traction with the economy in its current uncertain state.  As I see it, Blu-ray is fighting a multi pronged fight that it didn’t even ponder it was going to have to.

• As people have said everywhere, DVDs still look too good on a high def television to warrant people running out and buying yet another format.  With upconverting DVD players pushing standard definition discs to near HD quality, and those players still selling for less than a Blu-ray player, it’s hard for people to make the justification for going with Blu-ray.
• Even when people do go with Blu-ray, they are not buying films in the numbers they were with regular DVDs.
• Streaming media is becoming more common, and on numerous devices people already own.  For instance, the fact that you can stream Netflix films via the XBox 360 now.  Why purchase what you can stream, and be out more money and space in your home?
• The prices for Blu-ray players and their accompanying discs are still just too high compared to their standard definition counterparts.

You add up all of these problems, and it doesn’t look too promising for the high def format.  Yes, I fully admit that this may sound like sour grapes over me goign HD-DVD, but it isn’t, because I have been very close to throwing in the towel and buying a Blu-ray player several times since February.  At this point I don’t think buying into an HD format is a wise choice for any one.  Streaming is becoming more and more prevalent, and I don’t see standard def DVDs going anywhere, so I’m thinking it may be wise to just sit out this home media iteration and see where the chips land.

In short, don’t be me and put all your money on what could be a losing horse.

I’ve just about had it with HBO and their DVD shenanigans.

I’ve talked before about my love of The Wire, and I have picked up the DVD sets as they came out.  Before season 5 premiered, they ran three prequel stories that took place well before season 1 on Amazon.  These were not included on the season 5 set, but they will be in the complete series set… meaning those of us who supported the series for 5 years don’t get the spiffy extra.

I was a huge, INSANE fan of Deadwood.  I think it is quite possibly the three greatest seasons of television ever aired, but it was sadly cut short without any resolution to a few story lines.  HBO promised that they would produce two 2-hour movies that would finish it off, but those have yet to happen.  Now the complete series set is coming out, and, again, I have supported the show as each season was released.  As I am sure you guessed, the complete series will have some extras I don’t have, and normally I survive without them, but this time I am furious.  One of the extras will be a n interview with the creator of the series about what happened after the end of season 3 and what would have happened to each character.

… say what?

Not only did HBO cancel the series due to budget concerns, leaving us without a resolution, then they broke the promise of the movies.  Now they top all of this off by shoving a knife into my heart by saying that by my supporting the series all this time, I don’t get to know what happened to the characters.

Never mind the fact HBO charges far more for their DVDs than standard television sets, so we aren’t talking a $20 a season or anything.  Do they really think I am willing to pay twice for what will end up being a few minutes of footage?  Sorry, but it’s not going to happen no matter how much I would like to see it.

Sure the information will make its way online, but it is the principle of the matter.  Why does the fact that someone waits to buy the complete set at the end of the run gets what amounts to the ultimate reward ofor Deadwood fans, but those who supported all along get nothing?  Not only that, but they’re paying less than the person who supported the individual sets!  Currently if you go on Amazon, the three seperate sets would run you $159.99, but the complete series set is preordering for $125.99.  So, come in late, pay less, and you get the spiffy reward?  How does this make any sense?

The simple solution, and the one I’m sticking to, is that I’m done with HBO DVDs.  They have done nothing but spit on their long time fans series after series.  The Wire thing is almost excusable, but I can’t forgive them for the Deadwood situation.  No True Blood DVDs for me… no Entourage… all shows I love, but clearly HBO really doesn’t care about my support, so why should I really bother?

While it’s not clear if anyone has actually requested a refund for buying an HD DVD player yet, Toshiba is making sure every one knows it’s not going to happen. They also said there won’t be any “sweetners” because the equipment still has an “inherent value” in that it can play CDs, DVDs, and your HD DVD collection.

Even as an owner of an HD DVD player I have to say this is the right decision on the part of Toshiba. As I said back when I wrote about why Steve Jobs was wrong to give a refund in regards to the iPhone, if you are an early adopter of technology, you have to expect things like this to happen. I knew exactly what I was getting in to with buying the HD DVD player when I did, and I didn’t expect any hand holding as I took the leap.

Steve Jobs explained it best in his open letter to iPhone whiners customers about wanting a refund when the iPhone dropped in price:

Second, being in technology for 30+ years I can attest to the fact that the technology road is bumpy. There is always change and improvement, and there is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever. This is life in the technology lane. If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you’ll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon. The good news is that if you buy products from companies that support them well, like Apple tries to do, you will receive years of useful and satisfying service from them even as newer models are introduced.

It’s all part of the technology “game”. If you want to play the “game”, then you need to expect to lose once in awhile, it can’t be helped. Sure, it feels nice to “win”, as the Blu-ray adopters did, but it’s not going to happen every time, the law of averages simply says that if you are an early adopter, you will “lose” sometimes.

I think this speaks to the current technology environment, though. There are so many innovations happening in so many fields that it is becoming more common for people to be early adopters of something or the other that never have been before.

Somewhere along the line there is a disconnect happening, a sense of entitlement that doesn’t make sense to me.  When you buy a car, do you whine when the next model comes out?  Do you whine when there’s a price drop?  No, you expect it and you deal with it.  So why do consumers feel they are owed something, or are somehow slighted, when there are changes in gadgets?  It makes no sense to me.

In short, yes, HD DVD is dead, and there will not be any new discs coming out in the format, but you still have a very nice DVD player that will upscale your standard definition DVDs to near high definition quality.  You bought into it, you knew the risks, you deal with it.  And, again, I have no clue if anyone did actually ask for refunds, but I sure hope no one did.

As was speculated the other day, HD DVD is dead.  Toshiba has made the official announcement in Tokyo just a few minutes ago.

Oh well,  I should have known I would be the curse that would kill it, but what ya gonna do?

Now… bring on the clearance sales so I can pick up some cheap final discs!

Well, it isn’t 100% official yet, but it looks like Toshiba is prepared to pull the plug on HD DVD fairly soon.

I knew this was coming once Warner Brothers said it was going Blu-ray only, it was just a matter of when. Last week was the killing blow when Netflix said it was dumping the format, and then Wal-Mart also announced they were. Seeing as Wal-Mart had been one of the biggest pushers of HD DVD, their departure pretty much sealed the fate of the format.

So, what do I do now? It’s too late to return my Toshiba HD-A35, and that’s fine, I just view it as having a really nice DVD player with upconversion.

When will I go Blu-ray?  Well, this brings me back to why I went HD DVD in the first place, and the fact that the format isn’t finished yet.  Profile 2.0, the firmware that will catch Blu-ray to where HD DVD was at launch, isn’t due for release until October of this year.  So, the first wave of Profile 2.0 players come out, they’ll be high priced through th holidays for sure, you’re looking at 2009 for the price drop.

Great, well, at least I’ll enjoy the HD DVDs I bought already and just bide my time again.  Still, an interesting war to watch play out, too bad it’s over.

Well, I said on November 23rd, when I ordered my HD DVD player, “Now that I’ve picked a side… expect a surge in Blu-ray sales.”  Well, instead, I got the death of a format.

No, HD DVD is not officially dead… yet… but the news that Warner Brothers is going Blu-ray exclusively as of May, pretty much seals the coffin.  This is going to give Blu-ray control of 70% of the released content, meaning HD DVD will slowly choke on a lack of product.

It’s unfortunate because I genuinely believe HD DVD is the superior format for a laundry list of reasons.  The format will probably not die off until February of 2009, when the exclusive deals with Dreamworks and Universal end, but it’s not going to be pretty for the next year.

*Countdown to Roy mocking me… 3… 2… 1…*

Over at TECH.BLORGE.com this past week, I’ve been writing a bunch of stories about the HD DVD vs Blu-ray war, and it’s getting more and more interesting.

It seems that hardware manufacturers are getting more enamored with the idea of releasing dual format players. LG has already done this, but ringing in at a cool $999 (list price of $1,049.99), it’s not exactly a super fast moving device. Now there are rumors that a sub-$500 model may appear next week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and this is followed by news that by 2012, 66% of the HD drives in computers may be dual format.

So, is it the hardware manufacturers who are behind this?  Have they seen that their lack of sales of the HD players is due to the studios being stubborn, and it’s time to take the decision away from them and the consumers?  One has to wonder what’s causing this move.  They obviously see the war as being in a stalemate or else they wouldn’t be investing the money in these new players.

Could it really be this simple?  Could we really see the ‘war’ settled with both formats just co-existing for their entire product life-cycle?  It would make me laugh if this is how it all finally shakes out.

In what is becoming an annual list, I’m going to share the holiday programming I enjoy every year.

A Christmas Carol – Patrick Stewart is a classically trained actor and he brings a powerful tone to the role of Scrooge. A fantastic version of this classic tale of Christmas spirit.

A Christmas Story – Set in the 1940’s does nothing to diminish the fun or relevance of this movie. Every kid has had that “dream” gift on their Christmas list that it seemed no one wanted you to have. Fun, cute and so many quotable lines. “You’ll shoot your eye out” if you miss this one!

It’s a Wonderful Life – Come on…do I even really need to discuss this one? Is there anyone alive who hasn’t seen this? Actually I did find someone this year…and I promptly pointed her out for the heretic she is. This is one of my all time favorite movies. Jimmy Stewart is amazing.

Love Actually – Really, the only connection to Christmas is the time of year, and a couple of holiday jokes, but it’s cute and sweet. Never mind it has a stellar cast of English actors and actresses.

Miracle on 34th Street – While some can believe it’s like a film length ad for Macy’s department store, it’s still a cute film with a central message that Christmas can be magical for any numer of reasons.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – The Vacation movies have been a mixed bag (as has most of Chevy Chase’s career), but this film is so easy to relate to. We all have those dreams of the perfect family Christmas, just to have them dashed and never have them live up to our hopes. Plus, the Cousin Eddie scene in white sweater, with green dickie, is worth the entire price of the movie!

The Nightmare Before Christmas – Not only is it a sweet story, and amazing to watch, how can you not love a movie that can make both the Halloween AND Christmas movie lists?

The Original Television Christmas Classics (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer / Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town / Frosty the Snowman / Frosty Returns / The Little Drummer Boy) – I recommend this primiarly for Rudolph, but now you can only get it with all this other stuff. Oh well. What is Christmas without Rudolph? Nothing I tell you!

Santa Claus – The Movie – This movie got ravaged by critics, but it is cute, funny and warm. Deal with it.

You have a fave? Talk about it!

And yes, I know a lot of these movies show up on TV, but if it’s something like It’s A Wonderful Life, PLEASE don’t watch it on commercial television. It is deserving of your hard earned money being spent on a DVD of it. Same with Christmas Vacation. Christmas Story I don’t mind because it’s a 24-hour marathon, I usually watch it 3 – 4 times through out the time period. Yes… 3 – 4 times, I love it that much.