Sentinel DVDs!

[dimity_blue]

Guess what arrived today? Yes, my Sentinel DVDs! Good grief, they're really here.

I got a ransom** demand letter from ParcelForce at the end of last week. It basically said, "Pay up or the DVDs get it." Naturally, I paid up (customs charge plus fee), so they returned Jim and Blair to my neighbour and failed to leave any kind of delivery note. Fortunately, my neighbour is honest (and had no idea of the awesomeness contained in the box), so she handed them over to one of my carers.

**What a weird word ransom is. Middle English: from Old French ransoun (noun), ransouner (verb), from Latin redemptio (noun). So now we know. :oD

So...

The box is nice. There's a pic of Jim with gun on the front, plus the sense logos down one side of the pic. 'The Sentinel' in blue letters at the top, with 'the complete series' underneath. The individual season cases and DVDs are themed: bronze/gold for season 1; blue for season 2; green for season 3; purple for season 4. Each season's case has a different pic of Jim on the front, shaded to match the season's colour, and the same pic of Jim, Blair, and Simon on the back, ditto shading.

There are 3 DVDs for season 1; 6 DVDs each for seasons 2 and 3; 2 DVDs for season 4.

In tiny writing on the back of the cases, it warns: Some episodes may be edited from their original network versions.

Interesting, no?

Run times:
Season 1 - 7 hours 30m (10 episodes)
Season 2 - 18 hours (24 episodes)
Season 3 - 17 hours 15m (23 episodes)
Season 4 - 6 hours (8 episodes)

As for actual content, I'll let you know!

Comments

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, fabulous! After all these years... Go you!

I'm dithering on getting them - but oh so tempted! I'm going to wait a month or two and see if the price goes down, or I can find a cheap multi-region DVD player.

Dying to hear what you think of the eps after so long - enjoy!

[leesa_perrie]

Yay!!! Though that editing warning is a little concerning! Still, sounds good!

I'm not getting them at the moment as I don't have a multi-regional DVD player and am unlikely to be getting one any time soon - and also, the price!! I can't afford that!!

[vamysteryfan.livejournal.com]

After all these years!

[garettgal.livejournal.com]

"Some episodes may be edited from their original network versions" does indeed sound interesting.

I thought we were getting the unexpurgated versions of the episodes. After all this time it would be rather disappointing to think that was not the case.

Look forward to hearing what you think of them. :D

[swordznsorcery.livejournal.com]

DVDs! It's nice when they turn up in the post. (It would be nicer if they'd turn up spontaneously, without the paying for them first bit, but it remains an imperfect world)! Not a series that I ever got into, but I was quite into "Highlander" fandom back in the nineties, and the two shows seemed very much to share fans, so I used to hear quite a bit about it.

Grr to customs fees though. How dare they come between you and your viewing!

ETA: The edits are almost certainly due to music rights.

[andeincascade.livejournal.com]

I'm really looking forward to seeing what fanvids these dvds inspire. We've never had high quality source material until now. It's about damn time.

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

I thought most DVD players were multi-regional (or regions 1 and 2, anyway) now? I know lots of them are labelled 'region 2 only' but they're frequently region 1 too. I know when Christine bought her super-duper, all singing and dancing VCR/DVD recorder, it stated 'region 2 only' but the salesperson said that's due to some law and it's actually both regions. Christine has a number of region 1 DVDs and they play just fine in it. The same thing happened with the DVD player I got from Amazon.

Anyway...

The price was high, but I decided I'd rather get the DVDs now than risk doing without.

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

I got the DVDs from Visual Entertainment. (http://www.visualentertainment.tv/products/the-sentinel-the-complete-collection) They were a lot cheaper than Amazon, though the postage was $45. Add to that £21 customs charge/fee, and it added up to a lot. :o( I don't blame you for being put off.

As for the DVD player, like I said to Snailbones, tons of DVD players are marked 'region 2 only' when they're actually regions 1 and 2. It's due to some law, so far as I know. The regions are completely ridiculous. I don't see why we have to have them at all.

Thanks though! I'm planning on watching some today. I had to watch White Collar yesterday to find out what happened with the art collection stolen from Adler.

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

It's taken them long enough, hasn't it? :oD

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

Hey! Are you still on LJ? I thought you'd left! *goes off to refriend Garettgal* (I hope you don't mind me refriending you...)

Swordznsorcery suggested it could be because of music copyright. I'll let you know if I think anything's been cut, but I'm hoping the actual episodes are complete.

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I hadn't thought of music rights! I hope you're right!

I expected the custom fees. I don't mind them - it's the £8 charge they add on top (for telling me about the custom fee) that I object to. The post office charges £12 to tell you about custom fees, which is extra annoying when the custom fee is 1p but you have to pay £12.01.

I'm laughing about Highlander! as I was in the Sentinel fandom and they shared a lot of fans, I heard quite a bit about Highlander! :oD

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that's a good thought about fanvids! All I was thinking of was screencaps. :oD

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

Ah-ha! Bless you, I hadn't realised that most will work okay - I've had to hack my old DVD player that many times the poor thing is getting a tad temperamental with me. So maybe a cheap new DVD player is the way to go - yay!

Let us know what you think of the DVDs, please? I can't believe they're finally available after so many years!

[swordznsorcery.livejournal.com]

I wish I could recommend "Highlander", but it has not aged well! Although I do still maintain that Methos, the oldest man in the world, is awesome.

And yes, I've been bitten by customs charges before. The charges themselves aren't bad at all, but quite how it can cost the Post Office that much to do the administrative bit is baffling!

[mab-browne.livejournal.com]

There is actually a lovely new high res vid on AO3 now, using Pink's Blow Me One Last Kiss. All very angsty - and of course, pretty! :-)

[mab-browne.livejournal.com]

Hooray! I am still waiting, due to round about circumstances, but elaine/cross-stitchery has hers. So I know the awesomeness is in the country, because she texted me in triumph. :-)

I would be hopeful that changes are indeed just musical. Nothing they used was notably famous or great (imo) although I hope that they did get to keep the rather nice incidental music on Vow of Silence. And if not, I'll watch the original release.

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

I got my last DVD player from Amazon. You might want to get one from there, and check out the comments before you buy to make sure it is both regions. The one I bought had stacks of comments about how it played region 1 as well.

And I will let you know. Fingers crossed they're complete with awesome quality. :oD

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

It looks like the listed run times allow 45 minutes for every episode, which would be right, wouldn't it? I'm hoping it'll just be music that's changed.

And yay! You're one step closer to getting your own DVDs!

[stargatesg1971.livejournal.com]

YAY!! Lucky you. They arrived really quick too.

I know they were a little pricey, but they were worth it.

[garettgal.livejournal.com]

I am indeed still here and very happy to be re-friended. Thank you. :)