MovieChat Forums > Santa Barbara (1984) Discussion > Release the series on dvd

Release the series on dvd

posted 16 years ago by rosegruccio
21 replies | jump to latest

Why not just release the Santa Barbara serial on DVD. It's discontinued and obviously Soap Net is no where near actually caring what their viewers want so they won't run it again. I think the same should go for Loving, Port Charles, Ryan's Hope and any other daytime favorite that is no longer available to watch. I know I would be more than happy to purchase the series and watch it when I want. I would love to see the beginning episodes of All My Children, General Hospital and One Life To Live.

[–] mmiha-kokalj 14 years ago

because it would take about 200 dvds

[–] noelhirsch 14 years ago

Unfortunately, nobody in this world owns the entire collection on DVD. Believe me, I checked and learned the hard way by getting swindled out of money by a poster on this board. Its up to New World Productions to release the series on DVD, but that will never happen.

[–] profilergirl 14 years ago

noelhirsch, was it somebody that uses the name mike something or email Californiawoman. They stole my money to but I disputed it with the bank and reported her/him for fraud (I got my money back) report them for fraud!

[–] raleighmatt 9 years ago

I can't swear that someone owns the entire collection, but I'm almost certain they do. I know because I bought all of 1984 and 1985 from someone who claims to have all of the episodes. And I've watched the first 200 episodes and they are legit. Each episode is 42 minutes, many have subtitles in Swedish, BUT the audio is the original English.

So, they are out there and I know it for a fact.

[–] leglos24 9 years ago

This channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh_QRtlajbfEqRFe1rhyLXA posted the first 17 episodes. I just binge watched them all, and I hope they continue to post.

[–] dneaeade 14 years ago

I've tried to make the count. Knowing that 1 DVD can contain approx. 4 hours of video (I mean with DVD quality, not VHS), even if the record company would make sets of 12 dvds per season instead of the standard 6 (with slim cases, it could be a great idea), knowing that there is (according to imdb) 2137 60 minutes episodes, it would take almost 45 dvd sets with almost 540 dvds. Am I right ?

So I'm pretty sure, it would never happened.

But would I buy them all ? Off course, in a hearbeat ! :)

[–] thames-5 13 years ago

I did the math based on how dark shadows was done, please see my post farther down the page

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] 13 years ago

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[–] HarlowMGM 14 years ago

It would be way too impractical to release a DVD set of a long-running daytime soap however I think they wuuld be ideal for being made available for downloading online sales (if they were very low-cost because who could afford a buck or more an episode) at some point.

I've often wondered how many fans of soaps record every episode of their favorite show. I'm not really a fan of them so I don't but I think it would be a fun hobby to have if I were. Imagine having years worth of episodes!

[–] prettyreminder 14 years ago

The entire show could never be released on dvd, but perhaps they could make a "best of" series of dvds with collections of episodes pertaining to certain storylines that were viewer favorites... Or heck, even just a dvd with some of the more memorable episodes...

[–] Gonzo_Knight 13 years ago

The disk count could be descreased siginificantly if the show was released on Blu-Ray.

[–] thames-5 13 years ago

mpi released dark shadows on dvd 26 collections, granted 1245 episodes is far less than the 2137 that santa barbara had. Plus SB was 60 minutes vs 30 for DS so if we figure out 5 episodes a disc as DS had 10 per disc with 20 eps a collection it would take approx 107 collections of 4 discs to complete the show on DVD This is purely based on comparison due to dark shadows being the only soap on dvd, but that may change with constant improvments in technology

[–] bumblebee75 13 years ago

I'd love to see this released on DVD and would pay for the lot in a heartbeat. I realise the likelyhood of this happening is slim though :(

[–] slayer-62 11 years ago

For what it's worth, with commercials edited out, it would be 40 to 45 minutes per episode. They could easily put 5 episodes on a dvd, more if they used blu ray. 5 dvds to a box set, 25 epsiodes per set.
The entire 5 year run of Dark Shadows is on dvd (it was a 30 minute soap).
About the first year of The Bold and the Beautiful is being released in Europe on DVD.
They could always release the beginning of the series in a box set, say 20 to 25 episodes like a normal sized prime time series box set and see how it sells. A burn on demand set up would minimize expenses as they'd only have to make the dvds that are actually purchased.
A lot of the series is available to buy from fans on iOffer.

[–] evangr03 10 years ago

This show is absolutely legendary to a foreign fan like myself,it helped me improve my english growing up,what an excellent writing,amazing dialogues,acting,thrilling and intriguing storylines,soundtrack!I would buy this in a heartbeat,thank God for youtube!

http://Fifille1.glbonus.info

[–] chained-in-human-body 9 years ago

In fact, today there's no excuse to release them on DVD's (*), they could've easily released them through iTunes or Google Play. Properly filtered and encoded, 45 min live action episode encoded in H.264 (standard for BluRay) can take ~400 MB and still be in decent quality. Although in 99% of cases released video has much *beep* quality than it could've had...

(*) DVD uses extremely old standard MPEG2 or H.262 (not sure about H.262), which takes 2--4 times more space than H.264. In fact, there's more recent standard that has been developed which is 25--75% more efficient than H.264 and will require less CPU resources to be decoded/played back. So, in the end, all episodes of Santa Barbara should fit in to $50--100 external HDD.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] PopperTheKungFu-Dragon 9 years ago

Yeah. Releasing the entire series on DVD is sadly nearly impossible, but a "best of" series of dvds would be great. I hope that happens one day. Unfortunately, I'm posting this 5 years after your post and still no sign of this getting any sort of DVD release.

As someone else said, thank God for youtube.

Very good. But brick not hit back!

[–] joannebmcmillan-168-156063 9 years ago

I would welcome the re-release or a marathon on Soap-Net. This was the ONLY soap opera that I have ever watched - loved the Cruz/Eden love story and don't believe I have ever seen another to match it. I just wonder if someone would take on the cost to remaster the film for all of the old fans.

[–] Suprdict 9 years ago

I would welcome the re-release or a marathon on Soap-Net.

No offense, but SOAPnet folded at the end of 2013.