I bought a DVD set

I did order some DVDs several months ago, I think from TheDVDPlanet.org , which has since closed its doors. But, just so people will know what it is they will get, here is my review!

The Covers: The set that I bought were in these nifty DVD cases that has a swinging inset that would hold two extra disks in a regular, classic sized DVD case. The outsides were red, black and white, and looks like the Asian hut design that served as the background to the end credits of the show. They look very nice. The downside: They smell funny and break easily.

The Quality : Now, I had most of the show on tape already, recorded off of TV and edited onto another videotape to get rid of the commercials; so, the quality of the copies I had were not all that terrific. This was fortuitous for me, as the episodes on DVD were not of any better quality. The first couple of seasons are almost exclusively taped off the Showcase channel. The editing is very smooth and nearly seamless, they did a good job. Then we see more and more episodes that were originally taped off of TNT. It looks like those episodes were transferred from really old videotapes, and the colors look faded and washed out. The editing also gets choppy here, and parts of a couple of shows are missing, due to what looks like damaged videotape. (I know the choppy editing wasn’t entirely their fault, because I taped all my episodes from TNT.)
The episodes come 8 to a disk, which totals 6 hours. For those of you out there with DVD recorders hooked up to your TVs, you know that is very poor quality. Any quick movement, (like a spinning kick or jab), or shots where the background moves, (like mist or scenes shot with a large body of water in the background), the moving parts lose their focus and become pixelated. The Showcase Channel’s ID bug in the bottom right corner is barely legible. So, although the cases can hold 4 disks, they are each holding three.

The Upside: I got to see episodes I never managed to catch on TNT, such as the Pilot, Sunday at the Park with George (stupid cable went out that day), and the episodes with the weddings.

The Downside: Well, the quality, one, and although I made sure ALL the episodes were listed on the product description on the website before I bought the disks, when they arrived, the last episode, Requiem, was missing. It wasn’t even listed on the back of the case, the last disk ended with May I Talk With You? You can see a quick shot of Kermit from Requiem at the end of the episode, like they tried to include Requiem and just couldn’t manage it. Luckily, I still had the episode edited on tape. (If you never saw it are just dying to know what it was like, look for Ok, Here’s How It Ends for a full description.) But those who don’t happen to have the episode just sitting around their house already are out of luck.

If anyone out there bought the set with the white covers and the extras, I would love to hear what those are like. If you have a set, please let us know!