The Official Network Thread

[Man From Hammer]

Originally Posted by Fnord Prefect

Death Line, Assault and Teddy Bear are listed as being £9.75 ppd on the Network website, though infuriatingly it looks like they'll be following the standard Network practice of the releases not going live on their site until the day of release.

http://networkonair.com/129-comingsoon

Even after 3 upgrades over the years Network still won't tske preorders. With the higher profile releases they do pre BUY sometimes but it means paying up front when the title might be a few months away.
They really are stuck in the dark ages but at least they do usually beat Amazon prices which is how it should be when you cut out the middle man. Labels like Indicator and Arrow offer little incentive to buy direct as their prices sometimes are higher than Amazon

[Man From Hammer]

Originally Posted by the blob

Noone seems to know much about Deadly Strangers whenever I asked about it. I can only imagine it's some kind of rights issue or something as it's never had a legit DVD release anywhere.

According to IMDB it's a Rank film production which places ownership under ITV. I have a poor quality dvd taken from a VHS recording but its not good enough to watch.
Can't see any reason why its not had a legit release

[CouncilSpectre]

Originally Posted by Man From Hammer

Labels like Indicator and Arrow offer little incentive to buy direct as their prices sometimes are higher than Amazon

Only advantage I see is that sometimes you'll get them early. Indicators in particular used to arrive sometimes weeks ahead of release. Sadly, they've passed distribution across to Sony DADC so that's kind of gone out of the window now...

[Man From Hammer]

Originally Posted by CouncilSpectre

Only advantage I see is that sometimes you'll get them early. Indicators in particular used to arrive sometimes weeks ahead of release. Sadly, they've passed distribution across to Sony DADC so that's kind of gone out of the window now...

Same with Arrow. Early delivery is very hit and miss and its damned annoying when you see Amazon buyers getting deliveries earlier than direct purchasers.
I've given up with Arrow direct anyway. After a couple of questionable decisions regarding so called Limited Edition Exclusives getting separate releases and so many changes to the points system so now I don't even know how it works any longer I just stick with Amazon.

[CouncilSpectre]

Originally Posted by Man From Hammer

Same with Arrow. Early delivery is very hit and miss and its damned annoying when you see Amazon buyers getting deliveries earlier than direct purchasers.
I've given up with Arrow direct anyway. After a couple of questionable decisions regarding so called Limited Edition Exclusives getting separate releases and so many changes to the points system so now I don't even know how it works any longer I just stick with Amazon.

I never even bothered resetting my account when Arrow moved to their new website. I used up my last points before they switched and now I just order from HMV/Amazon.

Indicators tend to get to me on day of release, or sometimes slightly earlier, but I usually go with HMV for the pure points.

[Man From Hammer]

Originally Posted by CouncilSpectre

I never even bothered resetting my account when Arrow moved to their new website. I used up my last points before they switched and now I just order from HMV/Amazon.

Indicators tend to get to me on day of release, or sometimes slightly earlier, but I usually go with HMV for the pure points.

If I wasn't Prime I'd go with HMV more often too. Got my first £50 free spend a couple of weeks back although while the 150000 points have been building up I've had to contact HMV a few times about points not appearing

[Reddington]

Great to see this coming soon on BD. Especially as I recently picked up the DVD...

I'm sure I'll double-dip.

[Fnord Prefect]

Just got an email from Network announcing their website is now price matching or beating "most major online retailers" with around 1,500 items already permanently reduced.

Looks like it's still a work in progress but just browsing the blu-rays there are already some very tempting offers though for once no hurry.

Also, got home to find a DVD order I ordered only yesterday waiting for me as it had been sent Royal Mail 24. Wonder if this is now standard policy? If so it'll be like the new releases £10.99 with free next day delivery glory days of HMV.com again (if HMV.com only stocked Network releases)

[XGEEKEDGERX]

Originally Posted by Fnord Prefect

Just got an email from Network announcing their website is now price matching or beating "most major online retailers" with around 1,500 items already permanently reduced.

Looks like it's still a work in progress but just browsing the blu-rays there are some very tempting offers though for once no hurry.

Also, got home to find a DVD order I placed only yesterday waiting for me as it had been sent Royal Mail 24. Wonder if this is now standard policy? If so it'll be like the new releases £10.99 with free next day delivery glory days of HMV.com again (if HMV.com only stocked Network releases)

Just looked at some of their blu-ray pricing, some great titles down to less than £5!

[Ste7en]

Just about to post this. Some great deals!

[Man From Hammer]

Just a couple of days since we were discussing Network price matching - makes you wonder if they keep an eye on our comments

[dublinbluray108]

The Complete Series of UFO has had a very big noticeable drop in a price. Was that priced at £75 at one point?

Either way coming down to over £23 is a huge difference.

[stepeanut]

The recent Prisoner documentary, In My Mind, is down to £3.99. Ordered.

[Man From Hammer]

Originally Posted by dublinbluray108

The Complete Series of UFO has had a very big noticeable drop in a price. Was that priced at £75 at one point?

Either way coming down to over £23 is a huge difference.

I think the more expensive option was the one with the book and the cheaper version is without.

Originally Posted by stepeanut

The recent Prisoner documentary, In My Mind, is down to £3.99. Ordered.

Odd that because the dvd version is over £7.
Disappointing documentary though I thought. If you're not familiar with the C4 documentary Six Into One The Prisoner File though you should enjoy it more than I did

[stepeanut]

Originally Posted by Man From Hammer

Odd that because the dvd version is over £7.
Disappointing documentary though I thought. If you're not familiar with the C4 documentary Six Into One The Prisoner File though you should enjoy it more than I did

I noticed a couple of price anomalies like that.

Yeah, I heard the new doc isn’t that great, which is why I didn’t buy it upon release. I have the old Prisoner BD set already, so I was waiting for a significant price reduction on the In My Mind single disc.

[gouryella]

You have to wonder with these price drops what it means for future sales. I mean 40-50% sitewide would make some of these prices extremely low. Unless of course they only have non permanently reduced items in a sale or a smaller percentage discount. I guess we shall see.

[ravenus]

1988's Jack the Ripper (JtR) made an impression on me when I saw it as a kid on Indian TV where it was screened in its original 2 part mini-series avatar, possibly in the same year or only slightly after its UK premiere. It was possibly the first time I'd heard of the killer although now I can't be sure (because around the time I also had a World's Greatest Serial Killers book. Like the Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett, this was another prestige production from British TV, shot on 35mm film with handsome production design recreating Gaslight London, and thereby rendered immediately attractive to me. Childhood favorites can often be disappointing from a more mature POV, so how does this one hold up?

This telling of JtR purports to be a researched account of the original killings and their investigation under Inspector Abberline, with a preamble stating, “Our story is based on extensive research, including a review of the official files by special permission of the Home Office and interviews with leading criminologists and Scotland Yard officials.” As horror/fantasy specialist critic Richard Scheib points out in his (ha!) surgical dissection of the film, the claim is rather bogus. The writers are guilty of cherry-picking some facts of the affair, while ignoring others and exaggerating or outright inventing new elements for drama or sensation. While that is certainly a failing, as is a certain half-bakedness that comes from shoehorning characters simply to fit in US marquee friendly names (like Jane Seymour as a former flame of Abberline), the film manages to keep up pace and maintain interest. Without giving out spoilers, the solution offered in this interpretation is even less convincing than the Freemason conspiracy. But unlike the aggravating movie they made of From Hell, JtR manages to be entertaining. Michael Caine is a sturdy Abberline (even if they invent a drinking problem for the character and seem to cram in unnecessary shouting scenes to make him earn his star-actor's paycheck). The production design and Alan Hume's cinematography bring the period to life and editor Keith Palmer does a good job of keeping the momentum going.

Network's 2-BD set contains the entire 2-episode airing on the first disc in the original 4:3 aspect ratio with authentic lossless stereo. The image looks quite good, supportive of the textures of the production and Hume's evocative visuals of night-time Victorian London. On rare occasions the accents can slightly obscure a line but optional English subtitles are present for any such difficulties. There are about 20 mins of extras of a previous run for this project when it was going to be a lower budget videotape production with another actor (Barry Foster) playing Abberline - After American producers showed interest it was remounted as a lavish 35mm production and Michael Caine was solicited as a star name. The second disc (which I haven't yet seen contains a re-edit of the series as a single film, framed for 16:9 widescreen with specially commissioned 5.1 audio. I might give it a look on some future occasion.

[Aunt Peg]

Who Killed Teddy Bear? with Sal Mineo & Elaine Stritch is up for pre-sale on Amazon.co.uk for an August 27 release.

I'll be able to retire the crappy DVD.

[BigNickUK]

Originally Posted by Aunt Peg

Who Killed Teddy Bear? with Sal Mineo & Elaine Stritch is up for pre-sale on Amazon.co.uk for an August 27 release.

I'll be able to retire the crappy DVD.

See post 1610

[Doff Hat]

Originally Posted by gouryella

You have to wonder with these price drops what it means for future sales. I mean 40-50% sitewide would make some of these prices extremely low. Unless of course they only have non permanently reduced items in a sale or a smaller percentage discount. I guess we shall see.

Is there any indication Network's website will still be doing sales this year and onward as normal, or has this price matching thing changed that?