The first DVD is 40 complete episodes, not edited like the first 8 (I think) VHS releases were.
I, too, was glad to have this point clarified. As I had mentioned in a thread started Dec. 12 and found in Current Talk X, "Dark Shadows on DVD," a recent catalogue I received from MPI did not even show any DVDs for the pre-Barnabas episodes.
But this new information still raises the question of whether or how long the pre-Barnabas DVDs will even be available, if they aren't even listed in MPI's catalogue!
PennyDreadful, you might want to check out the earlier thread for comments people made about pricing, picture quality, and so on.
Last night I was at my local BestBuy store and spontaneouly purchased my first two DS DVD sets (and probably my last two for the foreseeable future, if I pay any attention to my finances).
The ones I got were Collection 12 & 15. So far I've watched about the first two hours of Collection 12, and I must say it really got me into the show. It's just so well done and well written - a great story, good acting, incredibly atmospheric. Also, the story is nicely paced so you get a real sense of the characters and their relationships. I feel skeptical that any revival series would take the time to do this since today's younger audience seems to prefer fast paced shocks.
I thought the picture quality was surprisingly somewhat blurred on what I've seen on the DVD, though.
I think MB has recommended BestBuy as a place to buy the DVDs, so I decided to go ahead and make the purchase without having checked online prices; having checked now, I'd say their prices are comparable to ordering online.
Not so, unfortunately, for two other purchases I made on the spot: The second year of "Forever Knight" was $5 more than I would have found at amazon, and the recent Hallmark "Frankenstein" was about $4 more. Factoring in tax, I basically paid more than $10 more for these two items than I would have ordering online.