I saw a version of the Martian Chronicles on the BBC (it went out very late at night) in the seventies and I wondered whether anyone knew anywhere I could buy a copy of it video or DVD to play on a British video or DVD player (British format).

Any ideas?

Thanks

As far as I can tell (after checking IMDb and Amazon.com etc.), the last VHS release was on NTSC and even that seems to be out of production.

I'll always have a soft spot for the Martian Chronicles mini-series despite its flaws. It was one of my first introductions to Ray Bradbury. And there is something irresistibly charming and imaginative about 1970's sci-fi production design.

There is so much of Ray's stuff that could benefit from the DVD treatment. Here's hoping that will come to pass...

Michelle:
I have a catalogue somewheres in this house that has about every video made... it's like a telephone book. I have to locate...shouldn't be too difficult...hmm!

I'll see what they have for 'The Martian Chronicles.....'

The best place I know where you can find a copy of the mini-series would be on ebay. There are so many different formats for the VHS versions of the 1979 production, that it should not be hard to locate the one that you are looking for. I was lucky to find and purchase all three parts of the six-hour production at an old video store. And it is still in good condition, too.

I knew that the format for videotapes was different in Europe, but are DVDs different as well?

That I don't know. The mini-series has not been released on DVD, yet. There are plans to release it in the DVD format. The best place to find out that information would be the Dark Horizons website. Word of mouth has it that MGM/UA is releasing the mini-series on DVD sometime this year.

I don't think the format for DVDs is different, but DVDs have "region codes" so that a release specifically for, say, North American cannot be played on a machine in Europe and vice versa.

Some DVDs are "multi-region" and will play anywhere, and for a while there were some models of DVD players that were "region free" so they could play any disc, but I think that's been clamped down on.

If you are desperate to watch a release from another region and you have a DVD player on your computer, I think there are certain software fixes to allow it.

A rare ebay all 3 tape collection now being offered: we don't usually advertise here, but interest may make it worth a look! 3 days until closings.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2168018526&category=153
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3319219244&category=18862

[This message has been edited by fjpalumbo (edited 04-03-2003).]

You might to be careful when it comes to playing DVDs being played on the computer. Sometimes, the system causes the DVD to be locked or paused during the run of the film. You might want to consider not stopping or pausing the film while it is being run in the computer DVD drive. That also causes the film to stop or get locked up during the run of the film.