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Ray Bradbury Theater Series on DVD

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27 November 2004, 07:14 AM
Nard Kordell
Ray Bradbury Theater Series on DVD
bjs435

My past experience is when a copy pixelates the screen, and turns black, it means the player needs a cleaning disk, one of those with the tiny single fine line of copper brushes. Something inside the player gets musty and the 1 minute cleaning usually eliminates the problem.
27 November 2004, 03:57 PM
biplane1
Nard,

Interesting observation on the pixelating (if I got that spelled correctly) as I just purchased a brand new Panasonic TV with both built-in DVD and VCR players and just on a couple of brief, and I mean brief, moments the screen broke down into pixels, but I have not experienced the black screen. With this being a brand new TV I wouldn't think that it would need cleaning yet. I wonder if it is just a glitch in the process of re-recording the material from film (or tape) to the DVD format? But then I am no technical expert when it comes to these things.

Yet, I am quite satisfied with the overall quality of the DVDs. Of course, I am almost through one disc, I will let you know how the others are.

[This message has been edited by biplane1 (edited 11-27-2004).]
28 November 2004, 05:36 AM
bjs435
Nard,

It could need a cleaning, but it was also reacting the same way on my computer. I'm fairly certain it's the disc.

biplane1: I didn't mean the screen went completely black, rather, the pixelating happened when there was a lot of darkness on the screen.

But, like biplane1 said, we're happy to have the discs. And for the price, you can hardly go wrong.

brian
29 November 2004, 08:11 PM
aperry52
Thank you all for researching where I could purchase the dvds for The Ray Bradbury Theater.Both the Best Buy in Tulsa, OK doesn't have any copes of the Ray bradbury theater and Deepdiscount dvd ran out of copies.I will continue to check weekly for my copy.


Angela Perry
30 November 2004, 04:43 PM
aperry52
Thank you for all of the responses. I tried to order a copy of the set off deepdiscount dvd. The series is currently out of stock. If anyone knows anywhere else I can purchase this series. Both the Best Buy and Circuit City do not carry a copy. I would be will to purchase it from someone who has access to a copy from a store in their city. I have a Pay pal account.


Angela Perry
30 November 2004, 09:08 PM
aperry52
I found a copy of the Ray Bradbury Theater on Dvd at my local Best Buy.


Angela Perry
14 December 2004, 11:18 AM
bjs435
It's strange, but individual volumes (1 and 2) seem to be easy to come by, but not the whole series.

Last time I checked Amazon (a couple weeks ago) the complete series wasn't even listed (though the two individual DVDs were).

Lesson: Grab'em when you see'em! And get one for a friend while you're at it!

Brian
14 December 2004, 11:44 PM
patrask
quote:
Originally posted by aperry52:
Thank you for all of the responses. I tried to order a copy of the set off deepdiscount dvd. The series is currently out of stock. If anyone knows anywhere else I can purchase this series. Both the Best Buy and Circuit City do not carry a copy. I would be will to purchase it from someone who has access to a copy from a store in their city. I have a Pay pal account.


I ordered the set from DeepDiscount and it was back ordered, it took about two weeks and then it showed up as nice surprise. I would order it there and wait for more to come in, if you are not in a great hurry.
25 December 2004, 04:29 PM
biplane1
Daily I try to view one or more of the Ray Bradbury Theatre's segments. They go pretty fast without the comercials. It is very interesting to see how things were back then, particularly when you realize that they were produced in New Zealand and Canada.

Honestly I am aghast at some of the production values, or lack thereof, in some of the segments. Overall they are great, but I wonder how they might be critiqued by reviewers of today.

All in all, the 65 epsisode set is very much worth the $24.00 investment. I am so glad that these are being made available to all of his fans.
26 December 2004, 09:56 PM
BoogerBarbieDoll
Hello. I've never seen this series, but was thinking of ordering one of the 13 episode volumes from Amazon. Does anyone have detailed information on these? There are two volumes, am I right? What episodes do each DVD contain and seeing that this was originally an HBO series, does anyone know what this series is rated? Is it pretty family friendly? I'm anxious to see this show, but would like to try one of the volumes for $6 first to see if I like it. Any information would be appreciated. Thanks a bunch.
27 December 2004, 04:31 AM
philnic
I'm not sure which episodes are on which discs, but reviews I've seen suggest that Disc One contains the earliest episodes.

For information about the series, including reviews of a number of episodes, take a look at these pages on my website.

In general, I would say the series is suitable for family viewing. There may be one or two stories that are not suitable for very young children, especially in the first batch of episodes, which tends to focus on darker themes.

The early episodes were generally the better ones, as there was clearly some money being spent on them! Around the middle, the show began to move around the world in search of international co-producers: some were made in England, France, New Zealand. This is where the production values began to waver. Towards the end, it began to improve. So I would definitely recommend you start with Volume One.

Phil
www.bradburymedia.co.uk

[This message has been edited by philnic (edited 12-27-2004).]


- Phil<br /> http://home.wlv.ac.uk/~in5379
29 December 2004, 10:51 AM
BoogerBarbieDoll
Thanks so much for the information, Philnic. I might check it out.
30 December 2004, 09:34 PM
Mr. Dark
Since I first heard of the availability, I have gone to the tv on dvd section at Best Buy every time I go in (about twice a week). The day before Christmas they had one. I was delighted and shocked. I, of course, bought myself a new Christmas present!

I share the concern on the pixilating. It seemed to come up several times in several discs. I don't believe it is tied to the dvd player, but the quality of the dvds themselves. It is not serious enough on any of mine to be anything but a brief distraction, though.

I paid $23.99 for mine. Five discs, 65 episodes, and over 28 hours. Each has a little introductory of Ray -- some have a small section tied to the specific story, others are just the standard opening for the show.

Some of my favorite stories are here. I thought "The Playground," "The Dwarf" and "The Pedestrian" were really good -- although they can be a bit dated in terms of ambient. My kids have watched several with me and they were surprised at how "dark" Bradbury could be. They thought he did mostly lighter stuff. In spite of the fact that I think they're dated, it didn't seem to diminish my kids' ability to "get them".

Some of the stories represented on these discs include:

The Pedestrian
The Dwarf
The Crowd
Marionettes, Inc.
The Playground
The Coffin
The Small Assissin
A Miracle of Rare Device
The Lake
Skeleton
The Veldt
A Sound of Thunder
Here There Be Tygers
The Wind
Mars is Heaven
Usher II
Zero Hour
The Happiness Machine
The Concrete Mixer
The Martian
The Jar
The Long Rain
Tomorrow's Child
Sun and Shadow,
and a ton more. . .

Unless I'm misreading it, these are all adaptations written by Bradbury -- not written by others. So although there are obviously changes mandated by working in a different medium, they are Bradbury's interpretations of his own stories.

Well worth the 24.99. If you're a fan of Bradbury, these are definitely worth the money.
01 January 2005, 01:19 AM
spitman
quote:
Originally posted by Richard:
I also bought the boxed set of THE RAY BRADBURY THEATER, and I'm having a great deal of fun viewing episodes I have not seen in many years. However, I found the picture quality to be more than satisfactory. I agree, the picture quality is not up to the level of remastered films, or DVD releases of current films. However, I certainly do not think the quality is "shoddy" and "abyssmal."


If you watch it on a large screen TV it does look horrible compared to other DVD's. It looks a lot better if I watch it on my smaller 27" TV. It's worth the $24 but it's a shame they screwed up the quality.
02 January 2005, 05:57 AM
Herzeleid
Hello everyone, I'm new in this forum. Can anyone tell me if there is a chance to found those DVDs in Mexico? Or I have to go to USA to find it?