The £ symbol buggers up our RSS feed something chronic. So that's why your headline got tweaked. I think that's the third issue of the Buffy Collector's Edition DVD boxset in the UK. And holy crap, that Angel boxset is a real bargain.

Simon | November 06, 02:16 CET

Argh! Wish I hadn't got myself into such dire financial straights now. Is this just a pre-order price or will it sustain about that level after release? I can probably afford it next year, but not this year... what a pain; I've been waiting for this price drop for ages and suddenly I can't afford either!

Incidentally, the sets work out at £10 per full season (Buffy season one being a half season) - so they're as much a bargain as each other.

[ edited by daylight on 2007-11-05 23:42 ]

daylight | November 06, 02:33 CET

I think I may have a problem with the obsessiveness. Just bought the US edition about 6 months ago and now i'm considering this one just so I have it in Widescreen.

Any non-maniacs out there care to give an objective opinion as to whether it's worth it ?

Saje | November 06, 02:46 CET

With the relative decline in the value of our currency, that's like $10,000 US, right?

stevekaw | November 06, 06:47 CET

Uh...where does it say on the Amazon UK page that the Region 2 set is in wide screen? I looked, but I couldn't find any indication of screen orientation.

Still...this is definitely dirt-cheap. Really makes me wince at spending like $250 for the R1 set recently.

And not quite 10k, stevekaw...;)

[ edited by BlueEyedBrigadier on 2007-11-06 03:59 ]

BlueEyedBrigadier | November 06, 06:58 CET

I have been trying to work out what this Angel set has that makes it so much more collectory and special than the other one. Any ideas? Or is it a case of 50 quid less and a shiny different box?

curlymynci | November 06, 11:33 CET

Those are amazing prices. Pity I bought them at twice those prices (2 years ago).

"Uh...where does it say on the Amazon UK page that the Region 2 set is in wide screen? I looked, but I couldn't find any indication of screen orientation."

The region 2 DVDs of seasons 4-7 have always been in widescreen. I'm sure the DVDs in this set will be exactly the same as before, just with new packaging. Personally, though I've never seen the original 4:3 versions, I think I'd prefer them.

"I have been trying to work out what this Angel set has that makes it so much more collectory and special than the other one. Any ideas? Or is it a case of 50 quid less and a shiny different box?"

I'm surprised this is described as a limited edition. With Buffy, the limited edition sold out within a year, and since then they've only sold non-limited editions. It's now 2 years since the Angel limited edition first came out. I wonder whether...
(a) they decided to do produce the Angel limited edition in larger numbers than Buffy;
(b) it didn't sell as well as Buffy, so they still haven't sold the same number;
(c) the original Angel limited edition has nearly sold out, and this is a second "limited" edition (which suggests the question "is there any limit on the number of limited editions?"); or
(d) the Amazon page is wrong, and it's not really a limited edition.

tichtich | November 06, 12:52 CET

By the way, contrary to the title of this entry, the new Buffy set is not described as a "collector's" set, as far as I can see.

Judging by the second picture on the Amazon page, this new edition has standard style packaging for the individual seasons, with a typical open-front sleeve for the entire series. Existing editions have digipak (square) style season folders with a slice of a Buffy portrait, making up a full portrait when they are together in the outer box, which has a lid. Personally, I've never much liked the existing style of packaging. It looks good, but it's not very practical. If anyone buys the new style and wants to swap their packaging with me, I'd be happy to. ;-)

tichtich | November 06, 13:14 CET

Personally, though I've never seen the original 4:3 versions, I think I'd prefer them.

Yeah, I gather that Joss (and the other directors) designed the frames for 4:3 so widescreen sometimes actually dilutes the impact of scenes but it's how i'm used to seeing Buffy since (IIRC) that's how the Beeb showed them. 'Angel', conversely, was always meant to be widescreen so that's how it should be seen.

Hmm, may have to still my internal completist this time.

Saje | November 06, 16:26 CET

Simon, (ampersand)(hash)163(semi-colon) should work just fine as a pound sign in both HTML and RSS.

mjwilson | November 06, 16:32 CET

Exceptional price. I remember when £50 wouldn't even get you a season......



Angel S1 is only available 4:3 though? For both regions 1 & 2. If not I'd like to get my mits on a 16:9 version (if it exists) I already have two versions of S2.

The Do That Girl | November 06, 16:44 CET

Angel S1 is only available 4:3 though? For both regions 1 & 2.

Yep, though as I understand it, it was shot with widescreen in mind from the start (may well be wrong about that though) so that a widescreen version wouldn't have e.g. crew members in shot occasionally as Buffy does.

AFAIK, they've never prepared Angel S1 for widescreen showing, so there is no version like that anywhere. 10th Anniversary special maybe ? ;)

Saje | November 06, 17:32 CET

Well I'd probably buy it along with all the other merchandise. I just didn't want to miss out on one that may have been already available.

The Do That Girl | November 06, 18:06 CET

Well, Joss has said before that Buffy was always meant to be see in full-screen, he said that it's how he wanted it...so if the seasons weren't shot in widescreen, how then can these be in widescreen? *shrug* Also, I'm noticing the packaging is severely different from the 'collector's set' that is sold in the U.S. (the red and gray box). Is there really a difference other than the fact that this UK set is in widescreen? How many versions of the U.S. full set are there? I'm thinking of buying it for Christmas, and I'd like to know exactly what I'm getting into.

YellowBear | November 06, 21:11 CET

... so if the seasons weren't shot in widescreen, how then can these be in widescreen?

Special movie magic ;).

(they were definitely shot in widescreen since they were shot on film, I can attest to that because that's how I saw the later seasons on TV - as mentioned, the BBC broadcast them in widescreen - they just weren't framed that way, so we had basically unused space at the sides, sometimes with camera people sat in it ;)

And I doubt this boxed set has the extra extras disc that comes with the US collector's edition since no UK version has had it up to now, so as well as being a bigger package and shown in widescreen it's also missing content (relative to the American Grey/Red "box-packaged" set).

Saje | November 06, 21:27 CET

Yes! Fox should do this for the remastered Blu-ray edition. Well at least in my dreams...

TwisTz | November 07, 01:33 CET

Damnit!!!! It's already gone right back up. Just when I was in the process of ordering it. :(

daylight | November 08, 15:50 CET

In case anyone's still considering whether to buy R1 or R2, here's a list of the differences. (I haven't watched the R1 myself, but I looked into this quite carefully before buying the R2.)

- R2 is 16:9 widescreen (anamorphic) for seasons 4-7. R1 is 4:3 (so-called "full screen") for all seasons, except the "Once More With Feeling" episode, which is letterboxed widescreen.
- R1 does not have the "previously on BtVS" recaps for any episodes. The rather special recap for "The Gift" was apparently added as an extra feature in the next season's DVDs.
- R1 has an additional featurette on Oz in season 3, and in the same season there is a commentary including Seth Green which is replaced by a different commentary in R2. There may be some other additional extra features in R1, but I'm not sure.
- R1 complete set has a bonus DVD with extra featurettes.

Although I've read about microphone booms and crew members being visible in the extended area of the widescreen picture, I've never noticed these myself. I think they're very rare, and I suppose the focus of attention is elsewhere on the screen. However, I do often notice that the composition of the widescreen picture feels wrong. Occasionally this is very obvious, with the characters artificially bunched together in the middle of the screen. Usually, though, it's more subtle, and much of the time it's not apparent at all. Sometimes the widescreen picture looks very good and might just as well have been deliberately framed that way (although it wasn't).

If you have a 4:3 (conventional) TV then you are definitely better off with the 4:3 version. The widescreen version will give you the worst of all worlds (except that you get the recaps). If you have a widescreen TV then the choice is more difficult, but purists will still prefer the 4:3 version.

By the way, using the term "full screen" to mean 4:3 is anachronistic. For owners of widescreen TVs (which seems to be most people in the UK) it's 16:9 pictures which occupy the full screen, while 4:3 pictures only occupy part of it!

[ edited by tichtich on 2007-11-10 12:24 ]

tichtich | November 10, 14:59 CET

Angel season 1 was not composed for widescreen, though perhaps like Buffy seasons 4-7 it was filmed on stock which allowed a wider picture to be recorded. Even if that's the case, I doubt it will ever be released in widescreen.

I think I've also read that Angel season 2 was not composed for widescreen. It was released in widescreen in both regions 1 and 2, but apparently not in Australia (R4).

tichtich | November 10, 15:17 CET

By the way, I was watching "Fool For Love" (Buffy season 5) yesterday. I noticed the recap included clips from season 2, and those clips were widescreen, even though season 2 was only released in 4:3. I just now did a comparison between one of those clips and the original scene from the season 2 DVD. It turns out that scene (and probably the whole of seasons 1-3) actually was available in widescreen. They didn't just zoom and crop the 4:3 picture to get a 16:9 picture. The recap has extra material at the sides of the screen, not visible in the season 2 scene.

tichtich | November 10, 15:42 CET