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Discussion in 'RED DWARF UNIVERSE' started by Andrew, May 8, 2009.

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  1. Stephen

    Stephen Console Officer

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    Stephen, May 29, 2009
    #61
  2. HeadbangerHarris

    HeadbangerHarris Skutter

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    I want Back to Earth to be released in the US soon! I was so excited about the June 15 release date, but then I realized the DVDs won't work here. :crying:
     
    HeadbangerHarris, May 29, 2009
    #62
  3. HeadbangerHarris

    HeadbangerHarris Skutter

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    European DVDs will not work in North America, sadly.
     
    HeadbangerHarris, May 29, 2009
    #63
  4. jacksmith

    jacksmith Catering Officer

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    The ol' region free DVD player trick Mr. Harris.
     
    jacksmith, May 29, 2009
    #64
  5. drumjay

    drumjay Catering Officer Fan Club Team

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    You could even set your DVD playing in your computer to region 2. Admittedly only for 5 times, but this new DVD is well worth it!
     
    drumjay, May 29, 2009
    #65
  6. starbugtwo

    starbugtwo Second Technician

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    or just move to Britain :-D
     
    starbugtwo, May 29, 2009
    #66
  7. drumjay

    drumjay Catering Officer Fan Club Team

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    Britain is a viable but costly option. :-)

    Personally the US has the world market in DVD's and Blu-ray, and the best film to disk ratio anywhere!

    I wish I lived there sometimes. In this world of instant technology and next day delivery it's sometimes hard to except, you have to actually wait!

    It's down to supply and demand, if people want a Region 1 version bad enough, I'm sure it will happen, as with the previous releases they have been made available in time.
     
    drumjay, May 29, 2009
    #67
  8. bond_villain

    bond_villain Third Technician

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    D'oh! Forgot about that small, yet vital, detail.
     
    bond_villain, May 30, 2009
    #68
  9. telegramsam

    telegramsam First Technician

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    All you need is a computer with a DVD-rom drive and free program called VLC player and you can watch any region DVD you want to.

    http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

    Regions are stupid anyway, if you ask me.
     
    telegramsam, May 30, 2009
    #69
  10. dvd3500

    dvd3500 Catering Officer

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    It's no. 7 on the "most wanted pre order" TV series:
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/new-releases/dvd/342350011/ref=pe_11//
     
    dvd3500, Jun 4, 2009
    #70
  11. Pete78

    Pete78 Third Technician

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    Now it's number six. I wasn't too impressed by the positive spin people were putting on losing a million tv viewers, but you can't argue with no 6 in the amazon charts, up there with the massive shows. Makes a new season more likely, but who knows how TV insider minds work.
     
    Pete78, Jun 4, 2009
    #71
  12. Andrew

    Andrew Executive Officer

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    Whose spin?

    If you think it's a simple as 'losing' viewers, you need a little more understanding of the ratings system - not least the fact that those numbers didn't take recording systems into account, since the number of people who recorded to watch later could only be totalled later. The idea of 'losing viewers' is too easily linked to an assumption that the same people watch every episode, or that those viewers are 'owned' in the first place. That's not how it works these days.

    Dave had never hit a million viewers before Red Dwarf. 2 million tuning in to watch episode three is still more than double what the channel had ever done before that weekend, and still places Red Dwarf in (I think) the top ten of ALL TIME on digital TV. Bemoaning the dip is like complaining when your athletes get silver and bronze at the Olympics, even though you also had an athlete who won the gold.

    The first all-episode repeat on the Monday had escalating numbers, which is interesting. It suggests that people who missed episodes two and three picked them up later on. The subsequent repeats - in the last few weeks - have also done great numbers, way beyond the norm for Dave. At this point it's pretty clear that people caught up eventually, and that more joined in later.

    A general audience doesn't function like a 'fan'. It channel hops. It forgets. It doesn't memorise the schedule. Hell, I know some people thought the next episode would be on the following week! That Dwarf pulled in about two and a half million against the Britain's Got Talent launch show (a ratings juggernaut) and with a double-bank holiday weekend going on (where families go away on the Saturday morning for a couple of days' holiday) on a Freeview station is insanely impressive. That's not spin, it's the reality of modern television.

    Put another way: the DVDs all sell in about equal numbers, but research suggests that, weirdly, it's not the same people buying every series. Outside of the fans - who simply aren't the majority of those who buy - people are picking up the couple of series they like best. The numbers equalise, but it's not the same ones every time. One girl owns the middle series, one guy owns the first and last.

    You can comfortably assume that it's the same with the TV ratings. That the people who watched episode three aren't just 'people who saw episodes one and two'. It's not as simple as that. It's not just the same group, shedding a few each time. It's a rotation.
     
    Andrew, Jun 4, 2009
    #72
  13. Pete78

    Pete78 Third Technician

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    I wasn't trying to create controversy. There is no question that it was spin on the news page at this site. I'm a journalist and I was pretty impressed by the quality of spin. The guy who wrote it managed to seem genuinely excited about losing half the audience! The figures in the article were 2.6m for show one, 1.3m for show 3. These were not correct, but the writer's reaction is revealing. There were extenuating reasons for a dip -- valid reasons -- but not HALF THE AUDIENCE! That's a stark figure. Plain and simple, there's no explaining it away; any TV show, anywhere -- if it loses half, it's a bad result. Can anyone name an awesome three-parter that lost half its audience? If you do lose half (as GNP initially thought) the guy writing the article shouldn't be excited about the fact. Imagine Seinfeld screened a comeback over three evenings on a minor channel and lost HALF the audience! Anyone outside the Seinfeld bubble would regard that as a relative failure. I don't know the inner GNP politics, but that statement seems to me like the chill wind of reality...
    The later figures were better. But as I stated, I wasn't impressed by the spin. Taking something as great as Red Dwarf -- characters we love -- and spinning it...it's just so alien to what the show is. Red Dwarf isn't about PR speak.
    Let the flames commence :P But if you think you lose half your audience -- HALF! -- it shouldn't seem like a good thing!
     
    Pete78, Jun 5, 2009
    #73
  14. Andrew

    Andrew Executive Officer

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    Sorry, but which of the points I just made do you find irrelevant? You're repeating the word 'spin' rather than debating any of the salient points.

    Also, 'not correct' is an odd claim to make without backing it up.

    Imagine Seinfeld staged a comeback...but not on a major network. That's the only way your comparison comes close to working.
     
    Andrew, Jun 5, 2009
    #74
  15. Mardroid

    Mardroid Console Officer

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    The new menu screen shots look nice!

    I do like the original idea in the older DVDs of combining menu options with the sets (i.e. console buttons or items representing items, etc.) However, since the pictures seem to be mainly actual stills and footage from the programme, rather than an animated representation, I can see why 'options in foreground' would be the way to go.
     
    Mardroid, Jun 5, 2009
    #75
  16. Andrew

    Andrew Executive Officer

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    Um...what?

    The only footage from the show that's in there is on the main menu - when the actors move around, it's captured from the original tapes. The main menu itself is a brand new CGI creation, and the 3D bunkroom and diving bell are 100% newly-created animations.

    I suspect you might have missed the description in the article. The animated tentacles, the 360 turns around the 3D sets, the skutters, the firing dimension cutter. It's all explained in the text. What parts did you think were 'stills'?!

    We had a lot of complaints over the years that the menus weren't the easiest to navigate, especially the bonus menu. This continues the style of the old menus...but hopefully makes for a much smoother, more mature, interaction.
     
    Andrew, Jun 5, 2009
    #76
  17. Stephen

    Stephen Console Officer

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    I personally think they look great! I like the inclusion of the skutter on both discs and does bring back the series 1 & 2 feel. Is there still nothing planned ala series 8 DVD launch at all Andrew?
     
    Stephen, Jun 5, 2009
    #77
  18. Andrew

    Andrew Executive Officer

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    Dunno what you mean by 'still' - I'd not heard of anything. It's very late to organise one if they are doing it (and getting Craig is always very hard!), since the website won't update again until next week.
     
    Andrew, Jun 5, 2009
    #78
  19. Stephen

    Stephen Console Officer

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    "Still" as in "still nothing" which is what I asked a couple of weeks back.

    Thanks for clarifying this for me :-)
     
    Stephen, Jun 5, 2009
    #79
  20. Andrew

    Andrew Executive Officer

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    Sorry, I totally mis-read what you typed. And I've no idea why. Apologies!

    But yeah, haven't heard anything.
     
    Andrew, Jun 5, 2009
    #80
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