Fourth Season DVD ruined with edited episodes !

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al bundee
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Post by al bundee » Tue Aug 23, 2005 9:50 pm

I only thought the Season DVD releases were only available in R1.

When I found out about S4 using edited eps, straight away I cancelled my preorder

JUst have to hope an unedited release of S4 appears in other regions

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Daniel
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Post by Daniel » Tue Aug 23, 2005 9:53 pm

al bundee wrote:I only thought the Season DVD releases were only available in R1.

When I found out about S4 using edited eps, straight away I cancelled my preorder

JUst have to hope an unedited release of S4 appears in other regions
If you haven't already done, please sign the petition.
Thanks.

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Post by timskold1986 » Fri Aug 26, 2005 6:31 pm

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread ... ost6278272

read the complete thread and cry!
seems that sony is just stupid. one episode features the original theme song in the ending credits!
:(

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Post by Daniel » Fri Aug 26, 2005 6:52 pm

As I wrote already in the german section.
If they were realy so stupid it is one more reason to never buy anything again .

The thing with the theme credit is also funny.

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Post by timskold1986 » Fri Aug 26, 2005 7:24 pm

i hope if they note their mistake they´ll release it also uncut in usa(if we germans get it uncut) or if not, that at least so many buy the us boxes so that the series continiues---

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Post by Zypherix » Fri Aug 26, 2005 9:10 pm

Response from Sony:
Married... with Children - Syndicated Episodes Explained - Studio Response
Posted by Gord Lacey
8/26/2005

The other day I wrote an editorial about "sloppy" DVD releases, and how we were going to start covering them regularly. The plan was to call studios when there's a problem, and then report the problem and studio explanation to our audience. This is the first report on the subject.

A few readers tipped us off to an issue with the Married... With Children Season 4 DVD release (releases on 8/30), and the possibility that it contains some syndicated episodes. A review by "skees53" at SitcomsOnline.com mentions 7 episodes with shorter running times (approx 22:30 instead of approx 23:10). One of these episodes, "Rain Girl," appeared on the "Most Outrageous Episodes Volume 2" release, but ran 23:12 (as timed by "pilot" at DVDTalk.com).

Armed with this information, I went to Sony Pictures to ask how this could happen. How could 7 episodes out of the season be syndicated, while the others are fine, especially when one of the episodes was already released uncut on a previous DVD from the same company? The answer isn't "sloppy work" by the company; it's much more complicated.

Please indulge me for a moment while I explain something about audio on TV shows. I'll simplify things a bit and say that shows have two sets of audio tracks; "music and effects" (M&E) tracks, and dialog tracks. This allows the companies to use the same music and effects while swapping in a new set of dialog in another language for overseas broadcasts. They go back to these original elements when they have to replace music on the DVDs since they can replace the background music while leaving the dialog intact.

When Sony Pictures and the music publisher couldn't reach a reasonable price for licensing the Married... With Children theme song it had to be replaced, starting with season 3. This caused more problems than we could have imagined at the time. Sony had to go back to their vaults and find the original episodes, along with the dialog and M&E tracks so they could replace the opening theme. Unfortunately they didn't have some of the original audio tracks for the episodes, but they had them for the syndicated episodes. With their hands tied by the material they had access to, they used the syndicated episodes and audio tracks.

I asked whether a combination of the elements could be used; the opening using the syndication audio tracks (with new music) blended with the original episode and audio. While this is technically possible, it would require hours in the studio mixing the audio tracks, and then the result may not match and be noticeable to everyone who views the DVD set. With the added cost to mix this, and the possibility that it wouldn't sound right, they decided to stick with the syndicated episodes.

Hopefully this helps to explain what happened with the title. What appeared to be a sloppy job by the studio was actually a complicated process filled with decisions from various departments that came as the result of music replacement (who would have guessed?). Special thanks to the asset management manager, and the marketing manager from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment who were kind enough to speak with me regarding this situation. I hope future reports are as informative as this one.

Link to this page:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=3994

All news for this show:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/shownews.cfm?ShowID=2250

More info on this show:
Married... with Children

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Post by Daniel » Fri Aug 26, 2005 9:28 pm

Thanks for that info.

That's an explantion what happened. But it's no excuse.
Sorry, but I can't be a problem to mixe the original and the syndicated episodes.
And it must be even more easier to just extract the original theme from the masters and put the new one over it.

Daniel

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timskold1986
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Post by timskold1986 » Fri Aug 26, 2005 9:38 pm

yea that´s right, i guess even i could mix in the new theme into the old episodes...it´s not that hard even with simple tools like virtual dub it´s very very easy sony

:(

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Post by Zypherix » Fri Aug 26, 2005 9:40 pm

hehe yea vdub is nice but i think they have somewhat more professional tools lol

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Post by Daniel » Fri Aug 26, 2005 9:43 pm

Zypherix wrote:hehe yea vdub is nice but i think they have somewhat more professional tools lol
Of course they have better/professional tools.
So you can't be sure:

If everyone with some pc-knowledge can do it.
An Sound-expert with professional tools can do it too!

I think that would never coast more than 100.000$. And that's no money for Sony.

I'm realy pi%%ed off!

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Post by timskold1986 » Fri Aug 26, 2005 9:46 pm

yea of course they have
i just wanted to say that it must be possible to change the theme in the uncut episodes without much costs! but they didn´t give an answer why episode "buck saves the day/wochende im wald["oder?] features the original theme in the ending...
this is very sad sony...
so the next seasons would feature some syndicaded episodes too right? by by bundy-dvds....:(

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Post by timskold1986 » Fri Aug 26, 2005 9:50 pm

well sony if you read this: i´ll change the music for free in that episodes you couldn´t change ;)

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Daniel
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Post by Daniel » Fri Aug 26, 2005 9:52 pm

To addept Al's words.
"If Sony only had one throat...."
"Wenn Sony nur eine Gurgel hätte, dann..."

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timskold1986
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Post by timskold1986 » Fri Aug 26, 2005 9:56 pm

well i guess these are just "ausreden"(whats the english word for this??) from sony. just as lion gate did it with the cut alf set(thecut versions would have better quality LOL)

well i guess, at least with cheap virtual dub, i wouldn´t take one damn hour to change the song in that 7 episodes...so i guess with a professionell tool it would take max. one day or something...

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Post by Zypherix » Fri Aug 26, 2005 9:58 pm

"excuses"?

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