Some people are asking when Season 5 of the show will be officially released on DVD. I don't know, though I read a rumour that it might come out in December. On the other hand, I wonder if the recent flap over The Fugitive where almost all the music was rescored, prompting a huge outcry from fans, will have some influence on Paramount's scheduling of future TV show reissues?
Another person wonders what is the quality of the "unofficial" DVDs you can get at various sites? Following is a selection from my e-mail over the last couple of years from people who have purchased these sets. The ranges from "crap" to "excellent":
I have tried to order from DVD Avenue.tv. This company is in my opinion running a scam, they go under a number of different names; DVD Hits, TVAddicts.tv, DVDCraze.tv and have a telephone number 1-877-7-TV SHOW. Once my order was made they debited my credit card the same day and have not made a refund as I have requested almost one month ago. My credit card company has taken up the fight. I have tracked them down to an address in the Philippines.
I have contacted customerservice@dvdavenue.com who say that they are aware that the company is using their name, but they are not connected with them in any way.
Nothing was sent to me. I became suspicious when they didn't send a shipping tracking number and debited my credit card the same day as I made the order. Every time they reply to me by email it comes from a different email address.Through Google I discovered a note from someone who wrote that the company was a scam and to be avoided at all costs. I asked for a refund immediately and am still waiting. My credit card will make a chargeback.
After your mail I had cancelled the order, which they confirmed, but then I got an order confirmation from another company that was credited an authorized agent of the DVD craze -- so they pretend the cancellation of the order and want to get the money of the client at any rate. So I notified my credit card company to refuse the payment and sent them the e-mail correspondence. It's a shame that these ruthless guys can place an ad first row on google when you search for hawaii 5-0.
I had already rec'd the DVD's and of course, you were right. The quality was indeed from the TV broadcast and from the VHS version. My home collection of VHS tapes are far better than these DVD's. The company goes by 2 names DVD Avenue for rentals and DVD Craze for the purchases. Rip off city but on the other hand they are excellent when it comes to capturing. Cystral Clear and Vivid Color. So I'm debating if I should return and wait til the Paramont's versions come out. I'm sending you a few captures. Anyway, I wanted to give feedback about the quality of the DVD's.
I purchased a set of all 284 hours from a seller on ioffer.com for $89. I am ver pleased with the quality. They come on 29 DVDs.
There are now enough complete sets in circulation that fans can get them at reasonable prices.
People need to understand that if they buy these, or copies of dvd's, the studios will not release the shows. Why would they? You'll also notice a LOT of pirate copies on www.ioffer.com. Notice how everyone has the same 29 dvd - 284 show sets. But wait! Hawaii Five-0 had 285 shows. Guess which one they're missing & won't respond to questions about? Why it's episode #41 (2-16)7 Jan 1970 "Bored, She Hung Herself". I also agree with you that DVDavenue should be avoided at all costs! They are VERY expensive & the quality is sub-VHS.
I'd just like to add the experiences of what I've bought. There are some 6 episode "Best of H50" DVD's on eBay. I bought one and it's pure crap. It has some commercials and also cuts back into the show late at times. Worse yet, they seem to be from the hacked up Family Channel versions. They even put part 2 of the 90 Second War on it with out part 1.
Then I got a $70 bootleg copy on eBay of the complete 12 seasons on 29 DVD's. Someone just copied the discs of the set found [at some WWW site] for $199. It came with no labels or DVD cases so I had to pop each one in then label the episode numbers. The on screen menus are great and show the titles of each episode.
The quality varies from fair to very good, tending to improve on the later seasons. Still, it's quite random as you can find some pretty good quality 1st season episodes and not so good 11th season shows. The dark episodes are greatly improved by turning the color and brightness all the way up on my TV.
I've watched about 50 episodes so far and none appear to be the hacked up WGN type. Some of the episodes like the V is for Vashion trilogy were taken from the Columbia House tapes as the color is more vivid than on the TV dubs. Other shows that appeared on CH tapes like The Jinn Who Clears the Way were taken from TV versions not the tape, so again, it's a random crapshoot.
One big flaw I've noticed is many episodes on seasons 5 to 8 do not have the period correct intro/theme song. Those intos shows Kono not Ben and/or Duke and thus have an older version of the theme song that changed every year or so. But for $70, not bad at all. No commercials and pretty clean editing. The audio is surprisingly good, actually better than some of the CH tapes while the video is most often not as good. I'll still buy the official DVD releases when/if they are finally released.
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