Watching Online

[Patti Feinberg]

During the recent Writer's strike, I kept hearing one of the chief complaints was that the writers weren't getting paid for show's being aired online. (Up until this point, I had never heard of show's being completely uploaded for viewing; I also found it peculiar that during this, certain shows were advertising to 'watch complete eps online'.)

Now I'm seeing more and more of the 'watch online' plugs; including shows which are 'off the air' (Charmed, Angel).

Does anyone know the logic of this? Will Buffy (oh how I miss Buffy) be on?

And here's the $64,000 question.....is it possible (I don't say plausible) that Dark Shadows could be viewed in it's entirety online? (What about other shows which have been off a loooong time, eg Gilligan's Island, I Love Lucy?)

Thanks,

Patti

[GooberCollins]

Hulu.com already has the first two seasons of Buffy up.

And watching online is a very cool thing, especially with Netflix's nifty video viewer. Until they inexplicably took them down, I found an occasional episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show delivered through their video player quite refreshing; I'm also relying on ABC's video viewer for my Lost and Desperate Housewives fixes this season, due to my new lack of cable. Anyway, I'd love to see more shows done this way, particularly for a network like TV Land, which could largely rectify its replacement or shortening of classics like I Love Lucy for mediocre movies.

And as for DS being available in its entirety, not yet... but there is someone on YouTube working on condensing the Beginning arc and releasing them in 10-minute minisodes.    Here's hoping that the whole series eventually makes it onto some form of online viewing! The only real caveat of online viewing is how poorly it works for those with dial-up access, though, so maybe once broadband penetration rates get higher... well, who knows. We'll just have to hope for the best! 

[Patti Feinberg]

Thanks Goober...I'm just not clear on one point.

You mentioned Netflix (which is a pay service); I believe the shows I mentioned are free online.

(Did you pay to watch Dick Van Dyke?)

Also, and perhaps MB or ClaudeNorth and Darrin can help....does viewing TV shows online 'use' alot of a computer's memory? Does it become permanently 'attached' to ones computer?

Thanks!!

Patti

[GooberCollins]

I'm just talking about online viewing in general. I technically paid to watch those episodes of TDVDS, but it was included as a free extra with my regular DVD subscription. As long as you get a plan that supports it, you can get unlimited viewing from there. But yeah, free services are far preferable. Hulu.com, which I mentioned earlier, is a good index - they have quite a few shows on there, and what they don't have, they give you links to watch on the network's site.

And from what I understand about how it works, basically the movie is downloaded to a cache area on the user's hard drive and then deleted once the viewing's finished. I could be wrong, though.

[joe integlia]

viewing episodes online from network sites or youtube or hulu do not take up space on your hardrive after viewing. that only occurs when you download the program and save it on your computer. network sites dont even offer a way to do that but there are ways of doing that from youtube if you do a google search for "youtube converter".

[loril54]

There is also Fancast.com.  When you watch online, you get commercials. Dark Shadows if it was put online, would have lots of commercials. It certainly wouldn't be free.

I wonder what the cost of the commercials would be?

[Nancy]

Yeah, I've seen DS online in various places too.  Only a matter of time before the copyright owner finds out and pulls them.  It always amuses me how devoted a DS fan will declare themselves to be of DS yet have no problem "stealing" the episodes by viewing them online and not paying for them.  Who does that hurt in the end?

Nancy

[Pansity]

It always amuses me how devoted a DS fan will declare themselves to be of DS yet have no problem "stealing" the episodes by viewing them online and not paying for them.  Who does that hurt in the end?

And to take this one step further, one also has to boggle at the number of people who openly post on groups about copying the Big Finish dramas for zillions of their bestest friends, bragging like it's something to be proud of.  Apparently these people are either so clueless or so ethically deprived that they don't realize that the money they pay for dramas like this is what influences the people running these companies to continue making more of them.  It reminds me of the fanzine bootlegging that was going on in certain fandoms about 10-15 years ago, where the photocopied product was so prevalent that it cut into sales of the zines to the point where the legit publishers couldn't break even. That caused a number of zines to go out of publication permanently, hurting the fandom(s) badly.  This is even more true with something like Big Finish, which is after all a business like any other, who has to make a profit to STAY in business.  Keep cutting into this profit margin with cottage industry cd cloning, and you make it harder and harder for anyone to produce NEW Dark Shadows productions.

It really annoys and frustrates me that a few bad apples have such potential to ruin things for the rest of us.       

Jeannie

[Brian]

As long as the producer/distributor is not making a profit (well, at least a lot of money!) from online streaming, I have no problem with DS and other programs from the 50s and 60s being streamed online, because the actors/writers/composers/directors are not getting any residuals from the streamed content anyway.  But if the owner of the show is raking in the cash, then I DO object, for without the talent, there would be no show!  That said, I have bought the VHS and DVD releases of DS over the past 20 years, putting my money more than twice for each episode in the two formats into the pockets of Dan Curtis Productions and his business associates.  Based on my conversations with some of the show's actors, I don't think they received any kickback, in the form of residuals, from the direct sales of the videos, which I believe is just WRONG.  But, I fault AFTRA for not having the foresight in the 1950s and 1960s to negotiate during collecitve bargaining for distribution of the content in unkown future formats.  Maybe now, both SAG and AFTRA will be more vigilant in protecting their members' future rights.

Brian

[Nancy]

Well, you are mistaken about payment some of the actors have received from the sales of the DVDs.  I know that much for certain.  The more people buy the DVDs, the more evidence is available that there is an audience for Dark Shadows.

I also object to the talent not receiving what they should but when the product is easily available for purchase, it's still wrong to take something for free when someone does indeed own the product and has the right to receive the money for it.    It's as if taking a DVD off the shelf in the store and putting it under your coat and saying "Well, the owners have made enough money already. . ."

The shows that are not available for purchase anywhere and old commercials are another story.

[Patti Feinberg]

I was going to IMdB (I can't remember why now) and I saw "Watch Full Episodes" and I did. That was cool. The ep I watched mentioned something (on a previous episode) which I hadn't seen, so I looked around, and sure enough, there's lots of full TV shows to watch:
http://www.imdb.com/features/video/

Have fun....hopefully, someday, DS will be on!!

Patti