!! 20 QUESTIONS - 3/23/07 !!

[Pak-Man]

Hey I have to drag my Xbox 360 into a different room to take it online. Does anyone have quick access to their X-Box to see if Lost is one of the TV series they sell individual episodes of?

[MrTorso]

Good idea!  Hmm...  My fear is that they'd charge me the full box set price.  Are you sure they wouldn't?

You could always "lose it" then call them and see how much the charge would be and if it is too much then all of the sudden you "found it".

[Sharktopus]

the pilot episodes (alone) are available on a UMD for your PSP

Why on earth would someone want to own the pilot episode of a TV series that will only play on a 4 inch handheld screen?

[6079SmithW]

Good idea!  Hmm...  My fear is that they'd charge me the full box set price.  Are you sure they wouldn't?

You could always "lose it" then call them and see how much the charge would be and if it is too much then all of the sudden you "found it".

It's not even that complicated anymore, there's a price on the receipt you get when you rent the video for how much it will be to keep it. When they instituted the 'no late fees' policy, they put in a whole thing for backdoor purchasing of movies so they'd have something to charge you if you kept the disc forever.

I used to pick up Criterions and out of print stuff for like $15 with this, but a lot of other people apparently had the same idea because I never see them anymore, and I stop in almost every Blockbuster I find. But yeah, suffice it to say that this will work (and I'm 99% sure they'll only charge you for the one disc, although the charge might be $15-$20.)

[SmilinJackRoss]

It's not even that complicated anymore, there's a price on the receipt you get when you rent the video for how much it will be to keep it. When they instituted the 'no late fees' policy, they put in a whole thing for backdoor purchasing of movies so they'd have something to charge you if you kept the disc forever.

I think they actually want you to keep the discs, with the price being right there on the receipt.  They make more money that way.  And there's no way they would charge you for the whole set, it would be $15 at the most, but I'm thinking more like 10 or 12.  Come to think of it, before you rent it, check to see if they have a previously viewed copy for sale.

[PlayMSTie]

I COMPLETELY forgot about the game on Friday! Figure skating worlds were going on and that tends to distract me from the rest of life. The new riff sounds like fun. Only ever saw one episode of "LOST" (second or third season, I think), but I'm all for giving this a try!

[MrTorso]

Shows you how long it has been since I have been inside a Blockbuster. I haven't rented a movie in over 3 years.

[Wiseblood]

Also for Netflix if you go to "Help" at the bottom are the discs you have at home with "Report a problem" links for each one.  There's an option for "I have lost or damaged the disc and would like to pay for it".  I wonder if they would get suspicious if a lot of people this week happen to "lose" Lost Season 1 disc 1...

[Sharktopus]

I COMPLETELY forgot about the game on Friday! Figure skating worlds were going on and that tends to distract me from the rest of life.

That may be the first time I've ever heard anyone besides my mom admit to watching figure skating.

[Quicksilver]

Hey I have to drag my Xbox 360 into a different room to take it online. Does anyone have quick access to their X-Box to see if Lost is one of the TV series they sell individual episodes of?

I'm sure you already checked, but no it's not available

I dont know about this rifftrax, might be the first one I skip. Especially being potentially how hard it could be to get this dvd. 

[torgosPizza]

Hard to get the DVD?

Blockbuster memberships are free, and I'm sure you have one near you. It's 3 bucks to rent a single Episode of Lost from there, and I can almost guarantee you they'll have it.

[SmilinJackRoss]

Yeah, Cocktail and STV were much harder to come by than this.

[wrinkle releaser]

You can rent just disc 1 (they had three copies of this disc on hand) from blockbuster for 3.99. If you decide to keep it the cost is an additional $5.

[SecretAgentSuperDragon]

Yeah. Blockbuster and Hollywood video's previously viewed movies for purchase include a lot of single discs from the tv series. Like you can buy disc 4 of season 2 of 24 for $5 or something around there. Also, itunes can make it extremely easy if you want to reauthor.

If you download the pilot episode off of itunes, put it into a program called Super video converter.

Make the setting for mpeg II. Make sure the video codec is mpeg II and the audio codec is AC3. Then just drop in your lost mp4 episode, click encode, then you'll get an mpeg. From there on, you can split it into m2v and ac3 with tmpgenc, and do your normal authoring deal.

A lot simpler than it sounds.

[NickE]

Okay, I downloaded both parts of the Lost pilot through Limewire (in 16x9 HD), and have burned it to a DVD. I have even watched the first two minutes of it, which consist of the word "LOST" spinning through the void followed by a giant eyeball opening up, followed by (in my case) a loud "GAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!  GIANT EYEBALL!!!!!!!"

However, I've just noted that at 3:20pm this coming Friday I will be on a plane leaving for Florida and Sunday morning's Disney Cruise.  And by the time I get back on April 9th there will probably be another shiny new RiffTrak already waiting, probably starring some meatwad with muscle definition but no acting ability in a movie contrived by Plot Gnomes, but which will hopefully unspool without my being accosted by giant eyeballs.

Therefore, I need someone to buy the"Lost" RiffTrak for me while I'm away.  In exchange, they may have my DVD.  And they must also laugh during the entire 1-1/2 hours, thus sparing me any and all obligation to find out if anything of any import happens to that eyeball after it opens (I'm assuming some sort of post-airplane-crash grit may be involved, although whether there's enough drama in that to support a 90-minute two-part episode is questionable).

-- Nick