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No Blu-ray for Burn Notice Season 3
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Posted March 9, 2010 07:09 AM by Juan Calonge
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  20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has announced the release of Burn Notice: Season Three for June 1. Unfortunately, it will come out in standard-definition DVD only. This is a new chapter in the erratic hidef career of this TV series: Season One was released in June 2008 on DVD only; a year later, Season Two was released on DVD and BD (but the studio didn't release Season One on BD); and now Season Three goes back to DVD only.
Burn Notice thus joins the ranks of other TV series whose studios have pulled back from BD releasing and gone back to DVD only, such as Sony with Rescue Me and Damages, and Warner with Nip/Tuck.
But it is another Fox series, Prison Break, that has the most chequered BD history: Seasons One and Three got a BD release, as well as Prison Break: The Final Break, but not Seasons Two and Four: whoever wants to have the complete series in hidef must turn to importing from France or Germany.
When Burn Notice: Season Two was released on BD, it received poor reviews in the audio/video department. This, coupled to its high list price ($59.99, while the DVD listed for $39.99), may account for poor sales for this BD season set, despite its action/espionage genre: it didn't make the top 20 in its first week, and its percentage of sales from Blu-ray was only 8%.
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Source: Blu-ray.com |
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rich_adamson
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Mar 09, 2010
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Well isn't Fox just always so good about this stuff... This is eerily reminiscent of the Prison Break series. When oh when will Fox pull their heads out of their asses? They have to have the most incompetent executives in charge over there, as why would a fan buy any of their shows on blu-ray anymore with the past experiences of knowing they will most likely not continue to release future seasons on blu-ray. If they want an example of how best to handle the release of TV shows on blu, they need only look at ABC / Disney's release of Lost. Come on Fox, its 2010! |
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SDon1969
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Mar 09, 2010
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Prison Break was the first thing that came to my mind as I read this, as well. Bad news for fans of the show.... |
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itswez
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Mar 09, 2010
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WTF why fox are you kidding me! And no wonder there sales are crappy is they release them here and there. I'm not really a fan of prison break but hell release all the other sets here in the US . It's not fair to the fans . |
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mstari
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Mar 09, 2010
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I love Burn Notice and would probably have make it part of my collection. No season 1 on Blu-ray is the first reason I have not purchased season 2. I will not buy seasons of TV shows unless they are ALL on Blu-ray. Why would I want a part blu-ray / part DVD collection of one show? I guess it saves me money at least. Fox is dumb. |
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dmarvin
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Mar 09, 2010
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Man, another blow for TV on BD. We just aren't progressing very far with it and that's a bad sign. |
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bookcase
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Mar 09, 2010
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I was burned by Grey's Anatomy (which i actually re-bought on BD when the next season was announced for BD, only to be scrapped later), so unless I feel a show is going to continue on Blu, I won't buy them. |
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gamma626
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Mar 09, 2010
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Well, now I know when season 3's DVD hits. I can't wait to pick up the DVD. I'd prefer blu, but I'm not going to miss something just because it's not in HD. |
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bboisvert
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Mar 09, 2010
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And of course, later Fox will be shocked (SHOCKED!) when other TV shows don't sell well on Blu. *rolleyes* |
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rmainhammer
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Mar 09, 2010
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I guess studios just don't see the point in putting out content that wasn't originally filmed in 1080p or better resolution. Which is a shame, because all the TV shows I own on BD look fantastic (Mad Men, The Office Season 5, South Park Season 12, Family Guy's Something...Darkside). |
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EvolutionCherry
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Mar 09, 2010
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What a jip for the fans of this show who owns BD players. They have better not pull this s__ with dollhouse Season 2. |
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blindcat87
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Mar 09, 2010
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I don't think it was the reviews that held down sales of Burn Notice. I think it is the fault of whichever marketing geniuses/execs were responsible for Prison Break. The only reason I bought Burn Notice Season 2 was because I already had Season 1 on DVD and hoped I could replace it with the BD version later. I should have known better. Fox needs to realize they have trust issues with consumers and that has an effect on sales. To the studios, I know TV releases can be tricky, but one thing that needs to be learned is that TB seasons are bought by collectors. How many collectors do you think would have been happy if TV seasons were released as they are now in the early days of DVD with Season 1 of a show on VHS and Season 2 on DVD? Collectors want all seasons of a show they wish to collect on the same format. It is truly annoying to get only one or two seasons of a show on BD and the others on DVD. When working through seasons, the transition from upscaled SD to HD and back is distracting and annoying. While complete series on BD would be preferable, until that is feasible, at least there is only one transition and the collector can hope that the studio will eventually go back and fill in, but with staggered releases, many collectors feel that to be a giant middle finger pointed in their direction and one will only tolerate that so many times before taking one's dollars to somebody else. If you think that this issue does not lower your sales, do some market research. Seriously, I am a big TV collector, but I've gotten very gunshy because of things like this and no matter how much I trust a studio on film releases, I have serious problems trusting anybody on TV releases right now, but particularly Fox. If they went back and filled in Prison Break and Burn Notice for that matter, I think they would see a big surge in their sales. I feel much better about buying TV seasons when I know I can get an entire series on BD. Between this issue of on and off BD seasons, lack of going back and filling in series that started BD releases in the middle, and lack of lossless audio on a certain studio's TV releases, is it any wonder TV titles are having some trouble. Studios need to make the same dedication to quality, consistency and consumer trust on TV seasons as they have on film releases. Doing this won't make TV BD sales take over DVD sales overnight, but it might lead to the sales ratio coming much closer to catching up with that between film BD releases and their DVD counterparts.
If you look at the number of series on DVD that have only been given one or two seasons, you will see that this issue exists for both formats. The sales of the initial release don't meet expectations, so they stop work on the next. I wonder if anyone at the studios have considered that each time they do this, it is a blow to consumer trust and sets them up for more of the same. I have so many partial series like Ani-Maniacs, The Equalizer and many others that I am leery of getting started even on some of my favorites because I want the whole series and find being stuck with only part of a series. In discussing the possibility of releasing series that can only be presented in SD because of being shot on video on single BDs someday, it has been stated that the studios have done market research and believe that consumers see more discs as more value despite the content being the same. They can do enough research to figure that out, but they can't figure out that consumers concerned about only getting half a series before the studio shrugs their shoulders and turns their back on the fans of that series are less likely to buy? They seem to have this idea that all fans will simply go for any releases of the series they are a fan of and I think that is a fundamental misunderstanding of fandom. It can be more frustrating in some ways to be able to watch only part of a series they want in the format they want and then be stuck with either nothing or going back to the lesser format. I know that TV seasons are more expensive to produce and market and that they are riskier, but the studios need to learn that if you keep dipping your toe in and pulling it out, eventually your friends will go swim with somebody else. Either dive in on a series or wait until you are ready to do it all and commit to growing your consumers' trust. |
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HeartPalmeiras
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Mar 09, 2010
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Blindcat87
I have the same problem with my DVD collection of certain series. One of my favorit shows (The Sentinel) got a season 1 release, but most likely will never get another release. I have Burn Notice season 2 on BD and season 1 DVD. This type of thing just drives me crazy. The other major thing is the idea of not putting lossless audio for tv series. I just don't understand the idea behind it.
Like you said, if they can figure out people want bigger sets even if content is not any different from that of a BD set with a smaller number of discs, ti shouldn't be difficult to see that making these misguided decisions about tv series will lead to poorer and poorer sells of tv shows on both formats.
Then you get the complete Rome series that got a 10 BD set: the same as its DVD release. Though it is clearly not necessary to use 10 discs for the whole series. At least that way HBO can charge you more for it. Good job HBO! But know what? At least they are taking full advantage of the format and know how to please the targeted buyers of the show. |
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Frozenpinky
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Mar 09, 2010
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Way to take a step backward, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment! I bet in 2004 you were releasing home video on VHS |
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Cyan
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Mar 09, 2010
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FOX has always been erratic when it comes to treatment of their series.
Of course, Burn Notice is a shitty show anyway, I can't understand why anyone watches it, nevermind actually buying the seasons. Same goes for Prison Break, which should have just been a mini-series or something. |
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tobi316
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Mar 09, 2010
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Not surprised its not being released on BD, it looks horrible on FX HD over here (UK). I read somewhere that the way its filmed may be what's holding it back per se.
Still a great show though. |
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circlesky88
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Mar 09, 2010
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Agree tobi316, it looks horrible in HD on the USA Network here in the United States. Not having blu-ray is no big deal in my opinion. |
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