Last weekend, I went for my monthly trip down to Chinatown to purchase the newest TVB series that have come out on DVD. As I was organizing my shelves when I got home, I realized that the majority of the series that have come out on DVD the last year or so have been "recent" -- meaning series from year 2004 and on...the older series from the 80's and 90's only come out a few times a year (if I had to put a number to it, I would say 2 out of 10 released each time are from the 80's/90's)...this means that many of my favorite series from that time period have not come out on DVD yet and probably won't for a long time....needless to say, I started feeling nostalgic and wishing the series from that generation would be released quicker.
To be honest, I don't really understand the way TVB determines which series it is going to release internationally on DVD each year. I noticed that most of the series released this year were very new (some from 2009 even came out already)...I read somewhere that TVB releases the newer series on DVD as quickly as possible primarily because of the huge DVD bootleg business that is very much active nowadays. Because their series are so popular and technology is so advanced nowadays, they are afraid that people who finish watching their series on TV in HK may somehow illegally record the series and pass them along to friends and relatives overseas for them to watch -- which could potentially affect the sale of their DVDs overseas. TVB probably figures that with the older series from the 80's and 90's, there is less potential for this to happen because these were made so long ago and may not be as "popular" as many of the newer series (or probably because the market is greater for the newer series, since many people -- especially the technology savvy younger generation -- only started watching their series in the last 5-6 years or so, which means they probably would only be interested in the newer series).
Not sure how true this is, but it sure does become a disadvantage for old-schoolers like me who grew up in the 80's/90's watching the great series from that generation (TVB's Golden Age). I end up waiting forever for my favorite series to come out, which is a bummer. Ah well -- I guess there is nothing I can do at this point except wait....
Look on the bright side, at least you would treasure them more once you get it? Yea, I'm being cliches again.
ReplyDeleteBut I get what you mean. Seriously though, I would be more likely purchase those old DVDs more than the new ones though since the most recent ones are quite disappointing, especially since this year. Maybe they're saving overly hyped series for later this year?
Well, I just want all those good 80s and 90s series (like DIF, UE, CBWH, SOTH, BP, BOGAE etc. etc.) to come out on DVD...at the rate it's going now (with all the new series -- even the 2009 ones -- being released first), I may have to wait several more years! :o(
ReplyDeleteWaiting always suck.
ReplyDeleteYou know TVB. Maybe you could channel your effort to something else for the time being? LOL! It's super hard, I know.
And you know what? I want ATV to release some of their old ancient series on DVD too but I guess there have been through some problems so they are slow on that.