Back from Los Angeles

[Jason R]

First, if you wrote to me between Wed-Friday, I will respond tomorrow and Monday. I got back in NY at 6AM this morning, and I am zonked out. Just wanted to give a quick summary of my trip. Will go into more detail tomorrow or later today.

1) Went to AIX, the company doing the authoring. It is moving along well and the estimated completion for authoring is about 5 weeks. You will recall that we lost time due to clearances. They will try to make up for lost time, but at the same time we have to review the masters for video quality. Gord from TVShowsOnDVD.com and I took some pictures of the studio. It is a pretty impressive place. I hope it shows in the photos. (He said he will develop them within the next week or so)

2) We also went up to Van Nuys to the headquarters of GWhiz, the company making the lunchboxes. We were very impressed with their list of clients. The lunchbox is basically the same construction as the one being used for the Upper Deck baseball lunchboxes. Gord, being a Canadian and an avid hockey fan, even snagged a Wayne Gretzky lunchbox. In about a week I hope to have a 3d rendering of the box. Most of our discussion with GWhiz focused on making up for lost time and rushing the boxes from Hong Kong.

3) I contacted BMG a number of times from LA, and each time the first word out of my contact's mouth was "i am working on your press release." Heck, i know a press release does not equal a set, but I am looking to put everyone's mind at ease. Getting them on the public record, to me, is a way to do this. Should have it this week.

Visited a couple of other studios. Hope to have some good news about some other shows in the near future, but I am not really putting much of attention on those until this one is done.

[jehnidiah]

nt

"You can still love someone, even if they're not THE one any more."

[Krakolano]

the thing i don't understand here was why we were quoted a date in the first place -- was it just a mistake? what i find most frustrating is not waiting, but being fooled into thinking it was coming much sooner than it seems it will.

i'm sure this is much tougher on jason's end to deal with, as he's got frustration on either side of him. don't mean to put the pressure on, but i'm just kind of curious as to what went wrong.

cruel, cruel phoney ship date. fie!



"i don't believe in making plans...whatever happens... happens."

-- Bjordan Krakolano

[Jason R]

i never hid anything on this board. this should have been completed long ago. BMG was waiting for clearances from Buena Vista. It took much longer than expected. Clearances were obtained about a week before the intended ship date. Work could not even begin before the clearances were obtained. Got it now? Jason

[angelgirl]

i agree, i understand about it all being pushed back, but i am dying to know when these dvds are coming out. i was one of the first to pre order and i was really disappointed when they didn't come out that week since we've all wait so long anyway. i guess having no date is better than having a false date (tease) but i am just anxious. i know that jason is doing his best (thank you).

[Guest]

So the "authoring" takes 5 weeks to complete. Can I ask, how far along is AIX in the authoring? 5 from weeks from now is the 1st week in august. Maybe we can get this set out the door by the new year? Or do you guys want to keep our money even longer? Over-priced to begin with and now all this, I think I'm just going to cancel my order. That is if I can ever get a hold of a real person to to get my money back. ;/ oh well nice try, cya.

[jehnidiah]

Get some respect, man. This isn't like a regular buy from a company, this product was made only because of demand of the fans... it's the first of its time. You have to give it time to go through, unless you'd rather have things like music cuz out of the shows, or some scenes clipped. Is that what you want?

"You can still love someone, even if they're not THE one any more."

[Jason R]

If you want to cancel, I am going to kindly ask that you email me to cancel. Include your order number and I will see that it is done. My email is jasonr@mscl.com. I, of all people, don't want to see anyone unhappy with the process. I can't force the delivery date up, but I can tell you what I know.

I will just remind you that we are subject to BMG's delivery date here. As for why we quoted the initial June 18th date, it was because BMG said it would be done well before then. Then the music clearance issues popped up. But that is neither here nor there. I've written about it here each and every time the question popped up. I don't shy away from these emails because I believe that transparency of process is the only way to keep a pre-order together. I have not refrained from criticising BMG or AnotherUniverse.com, either. I've simply found "politically correct" ways of doing it.

The additional time is not being wasted on this end. I was serious about using it to get additional bonus material. I will also remind you that this is not a a bootleg disc. We are stuck with any bottlenecks encountered by BMG's lawyers.

If you are looking for a case study for a class on the entertainment business I can give you a textbook's worth. This is precisely why a music download/bootleg service will always be more responsive and enjoyable than a legal service.

If you want out, I will ask you to please, pretty please opt out. Email me and I will have your order cancelled. I can't possibly try to get clearer than that.

Also, if you are not getting responses to your emails, I suggest writing to the mscl customer service email. mscldvd@anotheruniverse.com. This goes directly to me. I respond to each mail (although I have a 3 day backlog due to the LA trip). Everyone will get a response tomorrow. I wouldn't be saying this (and people would be calling me on it) if it was not true.

Jason Rosenfeld

[GordLacey]

Jason and I had fun in LA, even though it was a business trip. I was really impressed with the studio in AIX media. Imagine a huge series of mixing boards with video monitors and kickass speakers in one room along with tons of other litle gadgets. I wanted to touch everything, but kept my hands in my pocket for most of the time. The photos I got won't do it justice.

GWhiz was also cool, and it was nice to see the quality of the lunch boxes. I spent about 2 years working at a sports card store, so when I was handed an Upper Deck branded lunchbox, I was really impressed. Like Jason has said before, this isn't a crappy lunchbox at all.

It was also cool watching Jason in action. He was responding to people's email while we were eating in Burger King. Try and find that level of service anywhere else (I think his fries even got cold).

[Jason R]

I didn't eat fries. I had a vegetarian whopper and an iced tea.

I should add, Gord is the founder of TVShowsOnDVD.com. He is also my new business partner. We want to see everything out on DVD. We hope to convince retailers that there is a demand for them.

[bellacat]

We will be lucky to get the DVD before Christmas. It seems like the company did not begin producing the DVD until after we paid our money.

[trtusc]

All I have to say is that waiting to get it , is better han not getting at all. Thanks Jason for keeping us all informed and up to date about the process of getting the set done. I am as anxious as everyone else, but hey, good things come to those who wait , and i will wait as long as need be for this set, although i am sure once I get it i will probably wear it out. And by the way Jason, what are the other ideas for shows to try and get released on dvd? any ideas yet or do you need suggestions? I have plenty that i would love to be released on dvd. Thanks alot Jason and keep up the good work! = )

[Jason R]

I believe it will actually be much sooner. However, I am seriously biting my tongue until I squeeze a release date out of BMG.

[Jason R]

We're looking at shows that would otherwise not have a chance at retail. So I guess that means no huge titles.

When all is said and done, I will write a pretty good summary of events, and also mail out a survey to all who bought the set. I want to separate customer service issues (AU) from delivery date issues (BMG).

And something I told AU early on: If they were more on top of responding to emails, they would be less likely to be blamed for BMG's delays. Delays were not a foregone conclusion, but I kind of have nightmarish memories of dealing with business affairs lawyers. I have been handling a lot of the emails myself now. I have noticed however that a lot of people are using different addresses. For example, the postmaster@anotheruniverse.com address is an automated system that was used for approvals. I'm not sure of how often they now read email there.

if you need info, email mscldvd@anotheruniverse.com. that goes directly to me, and also CC's AU.

[ClarenceWorley]

<font color=blue>> I should add, Gord is the founder of TVShowsOnDVD.com. He is also my new business partner. We want to see
> everything out on DVD. We hope to convince retailers that there is a demand for them.</font color=blue>

How cool is that!? Very. <img src="/forum/images/smile.gif">


Clarence Worley