BBC America: What are you doing to my show?!

spicysaurus

spicysaurus

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So I'm new to Top Gear fandom, but that doesn't make me any less rabid than anyone here, I'm sure. I watched my first several series via bit torrent downloads, then I caught an episode on BBC America (I live in Texas). I realized about halfway through that I had that episode on the computer, and switched over to get better quality.

And what the heck?!?! The American version cut the news down to a single item and left out Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car completely! They also chopped off several minutes of the challenge (amphibious cars, btw).

Now, I understand the BBC runs shows without commercials. And I understand I live in the U.S., capitalist country extraordinaire. But to lop a full 15 minutes out of my dear Top Gear is absolutely unforgivable!

Thoughts?
 
They also replace all of the music with generic stuff due to licensing issues (they're free to use any music they want in the UK, but would have to pay for it elsewhere).

This is why all real fans watch the original BBC versions. :p
 
i have noticed that some of the Dave Reruns have also had their original music removed or altered as well.
 
I know how you feel. Here in Estonia they cut out news and various studio bits out. They keep the SIARPC in tho.
 
"Thou shalt not taketh away from the most-high gear known as Top Gear. The three (men) in one (show) shall speaketh, and thou shalt listen." So sayeth the law of Top Gear. Amen.
 
nate_bartlet said:
i have noticed that some of the Dave Reruns have also had their original music removed or altered as well.
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Yep, because Dave is a commercial broadcaster and the catchall agreement between the record companies and the BBC that allows TG to use any music they want for next to nothing only covers public broadcasters in the UK, basically BBC and its affiliates only.
 
So does anyone know why the BBC hasn't released the show on DVD? I know series 10 is about to come out, but I can't figure that out either. Why start there?
 
Series 10 had 10 episodes... some of the other seasons don't. Maybe it fit on one DVD?
 
Thank God for the internet
 
Yeah, I'm very thankful that I can see the shows in all their original glory thanks to bit torrent. But I'd happily pay for them. I feel like everyone is cheated by the lack of DVDs.

Not to mention we're going to have to buy another hard drive just to fit them all on the computer....
 
spicysaurus said:
Yeah, I'm very thankful that I can see the shows in all their original glory thanks to bit torrent. But I'd happily pay for them. I feel like everyone is cheated by the lack of DVDs.

Not to mention we're going to have to buy another hard drive just to fit them all on the computer....
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External hard drives aren't all that expensive. Western Digital sells a 1Tb drive at Best Buy for $150.00- which, coincidentally is on sale this week.
 
DarthBane22 said:
Thank God for the internet
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How did we live before the internet???
If you missed a show on TV, you were just SOL.
Maybe you could catch in again in the summer reruns...
What a ripoff that was.

If you needed to know something, you had to get in the car and drive to the library and look it up in the card catalog and hope there was a book on that subject.

Jeezus, those were the dark ages...<_<
 
spicysaurus said:
So does anyone know why the BBC hasn't released the show on DVD? I know series 10 is about to come out, but I can't figure that out either. Why start there?
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See Dr_Grip's post above. DVD versions would have replaced music as well.
 
As wonderful as the music is on TG, I'm more inclined to buy something if it has full content (I LOVE The News) even if the music is lame. The music issue will likely never change. If you look through the What's That Song area, each episode has dozens of different songs by dozens of different artists, multiple labels. Licensing all that will simply never happen. MTV has had similar deals with the industry to use songs for broadcast only (Daria, for example).

It amuses me that they choose to cut out The News. I guess they assume Americans don't care about what amounts to British politics but it's positively hilarious. It's really too bad a better airing arrangement can't be found for BBC America. I'm sure we're missing a lot of good bits of many shows.

When we find out what the season 10 DVD pack is like, I'll decide if I want to buy that or if I want to buy the iTunes release instead (assuming it comes). I need to learn more about iTunes DRM, but I'm definitely buying series 12. It's certainly reasonably priced.
 
I have BBCA, but will not watch TG on it. I am too spoiled by the real thing. I want more TG, not less.

As for the season DVDs, I would gladly buy, but not chopped up versions. I want full hour shows. The music changes can't be helped, I undestand that, but there is no good reason to cut the actual show.

When I buy tv shows on dvd, which I often do, and receive even more as gifts, I expect more than I saw on the television, not less. I have many BBC comedy series on DVD, and not one has been cut. And most, except the really ancient shows have extras tacked on.

Full run TG on DVD would certainly entice the people that have become fans from BBCA. They would be in absolute heaven because they would be getting more than they saw on BBCA.

But in the end, those TG DVD's need to be region 0. I have never owned or seen a DVD player that does not do the NTSC/PAL thing out of the box. The region thing is where the problems come in.
 
Rumer said:
External hard drives aren't all that expensive. Western Digital sells a 1Tb drive at Best Buy for $150.00- which, coincidentally is on sale this week.
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dont shop for computer stuff at BB...you'll get ripped off. My pc broke and i was forced to spend $200 there for what wouldve been no more than $100 at Frys/newegg. For some reason the same 500GB external HD at BB was more expensive than the internal...same brand, line, and specs! go figure...

annnywho...looking for cheap HD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136321

A little more gets you the more popular MyBook series http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136186

:)

As far as BBCA goes...they cut out all teh News segments. Then they make small/meduim cuts here and there in all segments to meet the time limit. They also censor the alraedy censored show to meet america's childish tv regulations. Ive never noticed them changng music though...i usually pat attention to the music too since they use movie music. But then again, I havent watched it on BBCA in a while.
 
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Rumer said:
External hard drives aren't all that expensive. Western Digital sells a 1Tb drive at Best Buy for $150.00- which, coincidentally is on sale this week.
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Try newegg.com. They have some internal 1tb drives for a hundred or so.
 
Rumer said:
External hard drives aren't all that expensive. Western Digital sells a 1Tb drive at Best Buy for $150.00- which, coincidentally is on sale this week.
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You an get a 1.5TB drive for less than that on Newegg. ;)

1TB starting at $90 (free shipping): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0014 103530090 1035313496&bop=And&Order=PRICE
1.5TB starting at $130 (free shipping): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0014 103530090 1035324341&bop=And&Order=PRICE

Best Buy is a complete ripoff.
 
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