Network DVD has gone bust :-(

[NY]

I thought it was odd that their web site had stopped working today.

[NY]

Sorry, wrong newsgroup

[Brian Gaff]

Its as good as any. People post all sorts here. Who were they, anyway? Brian

[NY]

They were a creator and supplier of box sets of archive TV programmes from the 1950s onwards: they obtained rights to the masters (presumably having negotiated royalty payments) and created/supplied DVDs, either by their own mail-order or via Amazon etc.

I have a horrible feeling that a lot of programmes from the archives that would have been released will now languish unseen on the archive shelves.

[alan_m]

Probably falling victim of the death of DVDs now that there are so many streaming services and fewer people having the equipment to play DVDs.

[RJH]

I'd imagine that the bulk of their stuff isn't available on streaming services.

I'd hope that the whole lot gets digitally archived - and open access would be nice.

[Adrian Caspersz]

The recordings won't go lost. It will just take time until someone finds another way of making money out of punters to see them. Unlikely to be free.

Big business archiving things for onwards distribution to the masses.

"SEE HOW PERISCOPE FILM RESCUED A MASSIVE COLLECTION OF CELLULOID MOVIES FROM DESTRUCTION !"

[The Natural Philosopher]

It is a problem how to pay for all the hard work in preserving stuff and putting content online and elsewhere.

Youtube is full of stuff that used to cost money, but is essentially free, especially with a good ad blocker

[RJH]

Well, I hope so. It does take at least some effort to archive from DVD and VHS, and some of that content does look, um, eclectic.

Nice one them, good work.

I've been trying to get what I reckon to be one of the best sitcoms of recent times - Bakersfield PD - but can't. I was sold a DVD with huge advert watermarks on the low res content, but accessing the original is proving impossible.

[Andrew]

Cough. The sort of people who bought these DVD's always had a DVD player.

What's happened in the last 3 years is that not only the DVD player had died, the operator of the DVD player has also probably snuffed it.

[Bob Henson]

That's about it. My Blu-ray player and I are hanging on by a thread.

[RJH]

I think modern games consoles have a DVD player built in. My PS4 does.

The kids are, on this occasion, alright.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Any computer can have a USB DVD reader plugged in.

And you can rip the DVD to other formats using HandBrake, stuff it on a server and dish it up via DLNA to your smart telly.

Ive got shit loads of ripped DVDs on my server and in many cases the original DVD too.

[Andrew]

But no longer one that plays SACD discs, which was a useful facility at some point in the past.

[alan_m]

A falling customer base and if many people no longer have a DVD player no new custom.

[Rod Speed]

Some foreign person has been posting some cleaned up and colored mostly ancient footage from even the 19th century as facebook video shorts and produces a brilliant result.

Corse none of that has any audio but it would be trivial to do that with the 20th century TV footage.

It appears to be an automated process.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Increasingly people are streaming this stuff. Probably someone will buy the archive, online it and charge a subscription

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

Sounds like a job for Talking Pictures TV.