DVD ITEMS

ITEM: Remember when Fox announced it's plan to encourage DVD sales by screwing renters out of the bonus features? Well, with that in mind, I enjoyed a hearty chuckle while reading this at The Digital Bits:

First up today, it looks like there was a mix-up at the replication plant, and a number of people have inadvertently purchased barebones "rental only" versions of Fox's Slumdog Millionaire on DVD - a title that's supposed to include deleted scenes and a behind-the-scenes featurette.

Right off the bat, Fox screws up and screws the people they're trying to reward.

ITEM: Speaking of getting screwed, many people have had less-than-stellar experiences with Deep Discount, online merchant famous for semiannual 20% off sales that add value to already low prices. I never really had beef with them...until now.

They recently conducted a sale with a bunch of titles for $3, $5, and $7, and I ordered the third "Rocky and Bullwinkle" set for 5 bones. Now, Deep Discount offers free but not always timely shipping, to put it mildly, so after placing my order, I waited. And waited. And waited.

Finally, I logged in and checked my order status. Turns out that "too good to be true" deal was. My order was listed as "cancelled." Maybe, just maybe, I missed a notification of this, but I sure didn't SEE any e-mail telling me the order was eliminated. This is just weak all around (And so, of course, is the fact that we're all still waiting for the rest of "Rocky and Bullwinkle" on DVD).

ITEM: A successful DVD purchase garnered the "Classic TV Games Shows and More" cheapo collection from Mill Creek. I was waiting to get this one till I knew if the "and More" section, which touted a lot of vintage kiddie shows, duplicated the episodes on Shout's "Hiya, Kids" set. Well, I never did find that info anywhere, but for 6 bucks, I didn't care.

I rarely buy a DVD now without due diligence to protect myself from negative surprises. As a result, I often know quite a bit about the ones I DO get. Hey, I don't want to throw around my medium-earned money and wind up with something substandard. The thing is, there are rarely any surprises when the package comes, even in a big collection of TV episodes like this one.

It's nice that for a change I have the opportunity to explore a bit and see what's on this one. I'm not about to ignore that due diligence when I buy discs, but every now and then it's cool to get the kind of deal where I can just buy something and not really know all of what's included. It's a fun element that I don't get regularly in DVD collecting.