Coming Soon on VOD...

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I'm surprised they just tossed out the announcement of the next Transformers riff. Those are huge sellers, aren't they? I would have thought they would make more of a fuss about that one coming out.

They did do a fairly long video bit about it that they showed during the Vodka Smackdown, with Bill running away from Mike and Kevin.

[Darth Geek]

I'm surprised they just tossed out the announcement of the next Transformers riff. Those are huge sellers, aren't they? I would have thought they would make more of a fuss about that one coming out.

They did do a fairly long video bit about it that they showed during the Vodka Smackdown, with Bill running away from Mike and Kevin.

*sigh* Can we PLEASE have reruns of these?! Seriously, for those of us left that actually have a damn 9 to 5 job!

[doggans]

Wow, they are cranking out the VODs this year aren't they?

It makes sense. It's the same amount of work for 2.5 times the profit.  Of course they probably sell fewer, but still. 

Plus, it allows for possible future DVD/Hulu/Netflix/Live opportunities, AND it appeases the people who are still confused by the prospect of syncing an MP3.

[I Was A Teenage Wharwilf]

Same director as Escape 2000, and pretty much made back to back with i think. I'm very VERY excited about this, because, if memory serves me, something happens between the hero and villains in this movie that I have NEVER seen in what's supposed to be a straightahead "action" film before. I'm pretty sure if Mel Gibson came to a page in the script with a scene like that on it, he'd be backing out of the project immediately. And I do mean "backing" out.

[AbsoluteDeicide]

Wow, they are cranking out the VODs this year aren't they?

I actually prefer the VODs to the audio only tracks or even the physical DVDs.  There's no sync work so you don't end up watching half (or more if there's issues) of the riff before you're done, and the obscure stuff they choose for them is usually pretty classic. 

[MrTorso]

Wow, they are cranking out the VODs this year aren't they?

I actually prefer the VODs to the audio only tracks or even the physical DVDs.  There's no sync work so you don't end up watching half (or more if there's issues) of the riff before you're done, and the obscure stuff they choose for them is usually pretty classic. 

Not sure how you sync but when I do mine I only ever hear Disembaudio.  I love the style of movies that they are doing for the VODs I just can't stand the quality of video. At least when MST did really bad looking films you had the shadowrama to help dispel the look. So far I have only been able to upgrade Crater Lake Monster to a great quality video file as that was released on blu-ray.  Don't worry I am not holding my breath for a blu-ray Sons of Hercules or Laser Mission!

[eegah]

I love the style of movies that they are doing for the VODs I just can't stand the quality of video.

Here, here. I still haven't "finalized" any of my DVDs for those because I'm hoping to find better quality videos.

So far I have only been able to upgrade Crater Lake Monster to a great quality video file as that was released on blu-ray.  Don't worry I am not holding my breath for a blu-ray Sons of Hercules or Laser Mission!

The archive.org version of Laser Mission is much better, even though the file size is small and the top and bottom of the video are slightly cut off to make it "widescreen". Nice, consistent audio is the best thing about it. Bad audio is even worse than bad video on these things.

[AbsoluteDeicide]

Wow, they are cranking out the VODs this year aren't they?

I actually prefer the VODs to the audio only tracks or even the physical DVDs.  There's no sync work so you don't end up watching half (or more if there's issues) of the riff before you're done, and the obscure stuff they choose for them is usually pretty classic.  

Not sure how you sync but when I do mine I only ever hear Disembaudio.

Yeah, when it works like it's supposed to it's fine, but I've had a couple nightmare senarios.  Most notably the Star Wars Holiday Special sucked big time for me; I tried getting it presynced at first (donate button ) and it didn't work, so I tried syncing it myself with the four Disembaudio lines that never quite lined up for me.  After getting them close, I burned the DVD and got about thirty minutes into it before I realized all of the jokes were out of sync.  Went back into the editor and basically had to go joke by joke to make sure it was okay, deleting/adding silence to the Rifftrax.  I think I burned three or four DVDs and was never satisfyed with the quality.  By the time I finally found a bootleg copy at a convention, I probably spent 10+ hours watching the movie and by then it kind of ceased to be funny and was more of a monument to frustation than anything else.

I also had a problem with Jurassic Park, but after about two hours dicking around I kind of just said, "good enough" and went with it.  Even when everything does work perfectly you still have to take the time to convert the DVD, download the Rifftrack, sync the two, then burn the DVD.  Then you're also left with two versions of the same DVD (one with the Rifftrax one without).  

I do very much enjoy the "mainstream" riffs I just prefer the simplicity of downloading one file, burning it, and having something I've most likely never seen or even heard of before to watch.

[Darth Macho]

So I got a question. For these VODs does Rifftrax (Legend Films) buy the rights to these movies? If so, does that mean they can sell DVDs of the unriffed films? I really want to get a decent copy of Santa & the Ice Cream Bunny in time for the family Christmas gathering.

[Darth Geek]

So I got a question. For these VODs does Rifftrax (Legend Films) buy the rights to these movies? If so, does that mean they can sell DVDs of the unriffed films? I really want to get a decent copy of Santa & the Ice Cream Bunny in time for the family Christmas gathering.

The movies they do as VOD are Public Domain. So they don't have to buy the rights to them.

[Edward J Grug III]

All copies of Santa & The Ice Cream Bunny are indecent.

[AbsoluteDeicide]

So I got a question. For these VODs does Rifftrax (Legend Films) buy the rights to these movies? If so, does that mean they can sell DVDs of the unriffed films? I really want to get a decent copy of Santa & the Ice Cream Bunny in time for the family Christmas gathering.

The physical DVD version of Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny has both the riffed and unriffed versions on it.  But like they said above, it's more than likely public domain so I'm sure you could find an unriffed version somewhere online for free.

[Thrashalla]

So I got a question. For these VODs does Rifftrax (Legend Films) buy the rights to these movies? If so, does that mean they can sell DVDs of the unriffed films? I really want to get a decent copy of Santa & the Ice Cream Bunny in time for the family Christmas gathering.

The physical DVD version of Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny has both the riffed and unriffed versions on it.  But like they said above, it's more than likely public domain so I'm sure you could find an unriffed version somewhere online for free.

Not only that, the VOD comes with the unriffed audio as an mp3 - which you can burn along with the mpg-2. Also, if you're referring to image or audio quality problems when you say you want a "decent" version - good luck, my friend. The DVD version's audio is superior to the VOD version, IMO, but it really is a crummy source regardless of where you get it. It's like no one wanted to keep this thing preserved for the future or something.

[ihavemyreasons]

Gotta say I'm pretty disappointed with the video quality of some of the latest VOD releases. Didn't expect the Sons of Hercules release to look that great after reading where it came from, but today's Warriors of the Wasteland is a perfect example of one that looks terrible compared to the version I picked up on DVD for cheap when this was annouced (picked it up because I anticipated the VOD to look terrible and the DVD was cheap enough that it was a good gamble).

[Thrashalla]

I'm doing the best with the sources provided. Sorry you're underwhelmed by them, but the mpg2 in particular is pretty much a lossless copy of the source that was used. Different collections have sources of varying quality and the work plate is constantly full over here so we're not always able to search for the highest quality transfers...I don't think the movie is anywhere near unwatchable, though.

I don't mean to be rude here, but I'm really not interested in an argument, just stating the facts as a trained video professional who wouldn't allow something to be released if the quality really hampered the enjoyability of the humor THAT much. (Also something I will not argue about.) That said, point me toward the version that you have on DVD and I'm more than willing to make an upgrade - that goes for any of the VOD releases (I did get the message about Laser Mission, eegah) and I'm working on upgrades for Crater Lake Monster and Laser Mission; the aforementioned full-plate just makes that take a little extra time, but they're coming soon since I have some breathing room on the schedule coming up.