Sitemap
Contact
About
Episodes
- My So-Called Life (Pi... - #1 »
- Dancing in the Dark - #2 »
- Guns and Gossip - #3 »
- Father Figures - #4 »
- The Zit - #5 »
- The Substitute - #6 »
- Why Jordan Can't Read - #7 »
- Strangers in the Hous... - #8 »
- Halloween - #9 »
- Other People's Daught... - #10 »
- Life of Brian - #11 »
- Self-Esteem - #12 »
- Pressure - #13 »
- On the Wagon - #14 »
- So-Called Angels - #15 »
- Resolutions - #16 »
- Betrayal - #17 »
- Weekend - #18 »
- In Dreams Begin Respo... - #19 »
Cast
Forum
DVD forum FAQ - READ THIS BEFORE POSTING! - Feb 11 2004DVD forum FAQ - READ THIS BEFORE POSTING! - Feb 11 2004PLEASE READ OUR FORUM RULES WHICH YOU CAN FIND HERE: http://www.mscl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2789
By posting in this forum, you are accepting these rules. Note: The AU sections in this FAQ are no longer updated. Please also read this announcement regarding postings about AnotherUniverse.com or Ross Rojek Updated by GaryEA, 9/20/03: In an effort to make crucial information regarding the AU DVD set easier to find for visitors both old and new, certain threads in the AU DVD forum will be designated as an **OFFICIAL THREAD**. The reason for doing so is to keep discussions and the dispensing of info regarding AU, refunds, or the bonus materials going within single threads rather than over the course of multiple threads. Please do not designate a topic that you have started as an **Official Thread**. This is a function of the moderators. Please contact one of the mods if you think your topic would benefit everyone more by being labeled.. If the topic warrants it (and this is in no way to suggest that topics will be graded or deemed unimportant), it will be labeled as an **Official Thread**. This is in no way to suggest that you cannot start a topic. However, please look to see if a similar thread already exists, or if there is an official thread. It is here that I encourage everyone to use the SEARCH FUNCTION of the site. Duplicate threads are subject to closure (of course, we will discuss it with you first) and redirected to existing threads.
Last edited by Sascha on May 11th 2004, 11:30 am, edited 7 times in total.
DVD FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND THEIR ANSWERSQUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
This is the unofficial MSCL.COM DVD Forum FAQ. Last update: February 11th, 2004. (General update) SHORT FAQ (for the impatient): - AU shipped all DVD boxes in November / December 2002 without bonus stuff. - There was no difference between the box sets sold at AU and the box sets available in stores - except for the price and partially unfulfilled promises about bonus stuff. - Some customers received finally a refund for their overcharges after filling out a form AU sent them - almost 12 months after the overcharges. (see here) - But many customers are still waiting for refunds. (see here - The lunchbox and the bonus disc are shipping since October 2003 -- as of February 2004, they are *still* shipping... - An unknown fraction of all customers have received their bonus stuff so far, AU seems to ship it in several installments over a period of several months. - We don't know in which order AU sends the bonus stuff out - some customers in Europe have received their bonus stuff, while customers in California are still waiting. - The bonus stuff include only the lunchbox and the DVD with an 90 minute interview with Winnie Holzman and Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz. Nothing else. - A french DVD distributor was considering releasing the DVDs in Europe in late 2003 - no updates since. - If you had problems with AU, report them to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center: http://www.ifcc.gov Contact addresses for AU: We don't know how to contact AU, they have been irresponsive for over an year now. Here are some older addresses which may still work: http://www.AnotherUniverse.com 7975 Ramona Ave Suite B Sacramento, California 95826 Telephone numbers from their websites: (916) 451-5741 (888) 526-6427 E-Mail addresses they mentioned in this forum or in mass mails: customerservice@anotheruniverse.com dvdsupport@anotheruniverse.com mscldvd@anotheruniverse.com ross@anotheruniverse.com ross@comicshop.net freakbiscuit@yahoo.com (Someone named "Colleen McNiece" sent official announcements to all AU customers from this address in late 2003) For address changes and other things try these addresses above. Maybe they'll read it. THE LONG FAQ ============================================== I. INTRODUCTION I'm collecting here the most frequently asked questions on this DVD forum. It is not official, I have no connection with AU, BMG, Buena Vista or Bedford Falls, I'm just a fan like most of you. This list is a summary of the recent postings (mostly by Jason) concerning the DVD release to reduce the amount of recurring questions. I can give no guarantee that everything in this FAQ is absolutely correct, but it should represent the current "state of affairs". I'll add to this list whenever I have some time. For anything definitive and official about the MSCL DVD boxed set, including order status, please contact the retailer from which you ordered it. ============================================== II. HISTORY What's the history of this DVD project? Who's Jason anyway? Does he work for AnotherUniverse? BMG Video released the first 12 episodes of MSCL on VHS back in 1998/99. When the company went bankrupt, the rights went to BMG Special Products (SP). At that time, Jason Rosenfeld was an employee of BMG SP, and being a fan of "My So-Called Life", he managed to convince his boss to release MSCL on DVD. The first three episodes were released in early 2000, but sold very badly. Around that time, Jason contacted the MSCL.COM team and updated us on the chances of MSCL being released on DVD. It became more and more clear that no more discs will be produced. That was when MSCL.COM started the online petition and later the so-called pre-pre-order list where more than 4,700 fans left their names. But BMG wasn't impressed. Other companies weren't impressed. But AnotherUniverse / CMIHolding and its CEO Ross Rojek were: Jason convinced them to produce the entire series on DVD. Jason consulted AnotherUniverse during the production process of this DVD box and provided customer support for quite a long time. He established his own company: Dry Grass Partners LLC. Without Jason Rosenfeld, there would be no DVD box set at all: BMG did not see any chance to make a successfull project with the MSCL rights back in 2000. You can read the official press release from BMG at their website bmg.com. Look at "news" -> "general" -> "july 1st, 2002" or use this link: http://www.bmg.com/news/archive_general ... 20701.html But note that this press release was incorrect in stating that AU had the exclusive rights for the box set. The boxes are available since October 2002 in stores everywhere in the US. They are no longer produced and will probably be out of stock by the end of 2004. ============================================== III. THE DISCS How many episodes are on each disc? What's the bitrate? Disc 1 (bitrate around 5.6 Mbit/sec, DVD-9): #1,#2,#3 Disc 2 (bitrate around 5.4 Mbit/sec, DVD-9): #4,#5,#6,#7 Disc 3 (bitrate around 5.4 Mbit/sec, DVD-9): #8,#9,#10,#11 Disc 4 (bitrate around 5.4 Mbit/sec, DVD-9): #12,#13,#14,#15 Disc 5 (bitrate around 5.4 Mbit/sec, DVD-9): #16,#17,#18,#19 What are the technical details of the DVDs? 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound, Fullscreen (1.33:1) Format, Region 0 (can be played in players around the world, Note: Your DVD player or your TV must be able to display NTSC standard - modern DVD players can transform the NTSC signal into PAL or PAL60, see your owners manual for details). Huh, are they *really* Region Code 0? The product listing at my retailer says something else...? Nope, those Region Code 1 listings (e.g. amazon.com) are WRONG. The discs are indeed Region 0. Definitely, we checked it ourselves. Can I watch the discs on my PAL TV? This depends on your TV. The discs are in NTSC (US-american TV standard). Most PAL DVD-players can transform this NTSC signal into the so-called PAL60, but your TV must be able to display PAL60 (see users manual). Some TVs can even display NTSC. You may notice some loss in picture quality though. You have no problems if you watch the DVDs on your computer. Help, I only get a black and white picture on my european TV!!! What's wrong? This is probably a NTSC/PAL problem. (See above). Either your DVD player isn't set up to output PAL or PAL60 or your TV doesn't "understand" PAL60 / NTSC. Check your owner manuals of the DVD player and your TV for details about NTSC->PAL/PAL60 mode. There's another possible reason for a black/white picture: You connected your DVD player with an S-Video cable to the SCART-connector of your TV and your TV is not compatible with S-Video. Solutions: 1) Check you TV manual for details how to enable S-Video input mode or 2) Don't use S-Video cable. Connect the DVD-player and TV either with Composite ("Cinch") cable or only with SCART cable. Are the discs copy-protected (Macrovision)? No. Are there any language dubs on the disc? What is the sound quality? The original episodes were filmed and produced in Stereo 2.0. The DVDs are remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1. There were reports that the 5.1 sound is slightly async in some episodes. The stereo track is okay. Only English is available. The costs for additional languages would have been too high for this small run. Are there any foreign language subtitles on the disc? There are only english subtitles. The costs for additional languages would have been too high for this small run. But some fans have started to subtitle the episodes in various languages. It will take some time until completion though. See http://www.mscl.com/dvd/dvdstuff.phtml for some self-made subtitles for your PC. ============================================== IV. ANOTHERUNIVERSE.COM Is AnotherUniverse (AU) the exclusive retailer for the box set? No. Who is Ross Rojek? He is the CEO of AnotherUniverse.com. Note: AnotherUniverse.com was sold in early 2003 to a new company called American Entertainment Group. It looks like Ross Rojek is still CEO of that new company. So not much changed. Why are there so many "Fraud Complaint" topics in the forum? Customers who have pre-purchased AUs "My So-Called Life" DVD Collectors Edition Set have reported -- on the so-called forum http://www.mscl.com/forum and elsewhere -- instances of: double and treble charges to their credit cards; unresolved billing issues; and, slow response times to their inquiries. Many customers still claim to have not received a refund of their overcharges from March/April 2002... MSCL.COM does not recommend doing business with AnotherUniverse. However, we encourage you to make your own decision based on information within this FAQ, and reports from AnotherUniverse' customers, which you can read in our MSCL.COM forum Dry Grass Partners LLC, Jason Rosenfeld's company, did pull out of the MSCL DVD project citing a lack of trust and good faith with Another Universe in October 2002. MSCL DVD customers have written an Open Letter of Complaint to AnotherUniverse.com. You can sign here: http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/AU2/ Why were there two sets? Many fans already bought the first DVD, released by BMG Special Products in 2000. You don't have to re-purchase that disc. Both sets were absolutely identical except for the first DVD. Note: The 4-19 box set is no longer available, AnotherUniverse now only sells the so-called "lunch box edition" for $115.00 with all episodes 1-19. It is not known whether AU actually still ships the boxes. How many DVDs will the AnotherUniverse set include? Six discs (five DVDs for the episodes, 1 bonus disc) Note: The bonus disc doesn't exist yet, AU claimed to ship it several times over the last months. But even more than 14 months after the first orders AU hasn't made any progress in regard to the Bonus Disc (April 2003). What is so special about AU's "special lunch box edition"? Additionally to the 5-disc sets (also available at other stores), AU announced to add a real metal lunchbox and a bonus disc. The lunchbox got manufactured in HongKong by G-Whiz. I did not pre-order, any chance I can get the lunchbox too? AU CEO Ross Rojek posted here that the first 2500 orders will get the original lunchbox and a Certificate of Authenticity. What is on the bonus disc? The “question and answer” footage is from the Museum of TV and Radio from a special "My So-Called Life" session during the "Museum of Radio & TV 12th Annual Television Festival" in March 1995 with complete cast & crew & fans. Dan (from our MSCL.COM team) has already seen the footage and was really enthusiastic about this stuff. It was never aired. But you can probably watch the material for a small fee if you go to the museum in L.A. Please note that all this information is based on comments made by Ross Rojek. We have no way to confirm the contents of the bonus disc until somebody actually receives this disc and in April 2003 was no additional information available. Update: Only the original interview with Winnie Holzman, Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick is included on the bonus disc. NOT the Museum of TV and Radio footage. When will this all ship? The first wave (1000 sets) started shipping on November 4th 2002 via UPS Ground (mostly US customers). The second wave (all remaining sets) started shipping on November 19th 2002 via UPS. The bonus disc and the lunchbox started shipping in fall 2003 - and they are still shipping in spring 2004. Note: Another Universe does not indicate what this certificate specifically authenticates, or what intrinsic or perceived value such a certificate offers. Update 17th December: According to Robert from GWhiz (the lunchbox manufacturer), the lunchbox production will be finished around Christmas. Shipping to the US will take another 3-4 weeks, probably arriving at AU around end of January 2003. Then they'll have to ship it (if the bonus disc is finished). So don't expect your lunchbox before February 2003 (one year after the pre-order phase started  ) Update April 2003: According to sources at GWhiz, the lunchboxes are still in Hong Kong. There seems to be serious legal issues between AU (Ross Rojek) and G-Whiz. Noone knows whether those lunchboxes will ever ship. Update February 2004: The lunch boxes are now shipping. Can you tell me the exact amount of the shipping costs? According to AU, there are no shipping costs (this applies also to international orders). But you have to pay taxes and customs! I heard about a MSCL T-Shirt being available at AnotherUniverse? Yeah, here: http://www.anotheruniverse.com/store/br ... SCLSPECIAL (or search for "MSCL" at AU's site) But I have no clue which shipping costs apply. Some fans already ordered and received the shirts.  Search here for topics about the shirtsWhat are the reasons for the delays? Shipping was originally announced for mid-June! There were several problems: The biggest delay was caused by the clearence process of the music rights. Songs like "Everybody hurts" by REM and other popular songs used in the show are very difficult and costly to license. At the beginning of the project in early 2002, everything seemed already cleared, but suddenly some new legal problems arose and they delayed the production. I don't know what those problems exactly were or who's responsible for them. But hey, there were lawyers involved, that should explain all  But thanks to this careful clearence, the episodes will be uncut and include all songs from the original airing. All clearence and copyright issues have been solved. The DVD box is 100% legal, this is no bootleg production. Other delays were probably caused by the non-payment of suppliers by AU. AU paid the lunchbox manufacturer in parts on October 21st 2002. AU paid BMG in full on October 17th 2002. If AU doesn't ship the bonus disc or the lunchbox, will I get a partial refund? Noone knows. Until today, AU assures that they will ship the bonus disc and the lunchbox. The shipping date is unknwon. So noone can give an answer to this question. Update 11/28/02: I don't live in the US. What additional charges will apply to international customers? This information is also valid for customers of the other retailers: You have to pay customs and tax. These charges have nothing to do with AU, they apply to all items shipped from one country to another. In Europe, only items with a value higher than 25 EUR will be taxed. Here's an example how these charges are calculated in Europe: item value = $99 shipping costs = $50 (even if you don't have to pay the shipping, they will still be added to the calculation!) ================== total value => $149 =~ EUR 150 Tax: about EUR 24 - EUR 31 (depends on your country, in Germany 16%, in France 20%) Customs: about EUR 5.7 (depends on your country, in the European Community 3.8% for DVDs) Customers in Canada and other countries may have to pay other local taxes. You have to pay these taxes in most cases when your package gets delivered to you by UPS. But: Not every shipped item gets taxed. You may be lucky and your package goes through customs without any charges. Customs is not an automatic process, it involves humans who check every package - sometimes they miss one. UK: http://www.hmce.gov.uk/index.htm , especially http://www.hmce.gov.uk/forms/notices/143.htm and http://www.hmce.gov.uk/business/importing/faqs.htm : Germany: http://zoll-d.de/faq/index.htm France: http://www.finances.gouv.fr/DGDDI/ http://www.finances.gouv.fr/DGDDI/foire4.htm All other EU countries: Try to find something on http://europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_customs/index_en.htm and http://europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_cust ... slinks.htm I have a problem with my order at AnotherUniverse! How can I contact them? There are several ways: AnotherUniverse recommends to send an email to dvdsupport@anotheruniverse.com Other e-mail adresses are: ross@anotheruniverse.com, mike@anotheruniverse.com It looks like AU often processes the emails without actually replying. So your problem might be taken care of, even if you haven't got any response. If you want to make sure, you can always call them at 888-5-COMICS (888-526-6427) and ask for a confirmation. Office hours are: 8:30 - 4:30 PST. Best time to call them is after 3pm PST. My So Called Life DVD C/O AnotherUniverse.com 7975 Ramona Abe Suite B Sacramento, California 95826 In addition, now through December 16, 2002, at 12:00 a.m. EST, Dry Grass Partners, LLC will maintain a customer service page at http://www.drygrass.com/mscl/. You may use this page to request information or request that your order be cancelled. On December 16, 2002, at 12:00 a.m., this page was disabled. Note: Many of AU's phonelines have been disconnected over the past 14 months. We don't know which numbers actually still work. I have been overcharged by AnotherUniverse! What should I do? If you were overcharged, contact your credit card company and AnotherUniverse! Anyone who is still waiting for a credit can e-mail Ross Rojek with your order number in the subject, and preferably from the e-mail address you ordered from: ross@anotheruniverse.com Put a short note as to how you reported it in the first place - phone, e-mail, customer service form etc. Please consider that refunds take time. It can take up to nine days until a charge or a refund shows up on your credit card balance. If you haven't still received a refund after a reasonable time, consider contacting your local authorities and the FBI. You'll find forms and links in our forum. I haven't received any email from AnotherUniverse! But I'm definitely on their DVD customer list! Where's the problem? Some users reported that emails from anotheruniverse.com end up in their spam box (esp. on hotmail accounts). It could be that a few automatic mailsystems don't forward emails from anotheruniverse.com because it's on some spam blacklist. There were reports about spamming incidents from the former owner of the anotheruniverse.com domain a few years ago (which would explain these mail problems), but I couldn't confirm these reports yet. Here's the text of their mass email from September 6th, 2002: Here's the text from their mass mail from October 21st:
============================================== V. OTHER RETAILERS Are the discs be available through other retailers? Yes, the basic set with all 19 episodes are available through other retailers since early November. Ventura Distribution distributes the set without lunchbox and bonus disc to other retailers like amazon.com. (The lunchbox and bonus disc are made exclusively by AnotherUniverse). The Ventura Distribution website also mentions "interviews and commentary from the show’s stars and creators" which is a mistake because the interviews are only included on AU's bonus disc. Ventura is probably not the only distributor though. What's the difference between the sets sold by AnotherUniverse and those sets sold by other retailers? There's no difference on the five DVDs containing the 19 episodes. These first five discs are all manufactured by BMG. AnotherUniverse promised to add a so-called bonus disc (with cast & crew interviews) and a special MSCL lunchbox to the sets. Both were supposed to be exclusively produced for AU, but we haven't heard about these items for at least 7 months. So why is this thing now available at amazon.com and other stores? I thought it would be an AnotherUniverse exclusive item?? So thought we. When this whole thing started in early 2002, only AnotherUniverse seemed interested in producing and selling the set. They calculated to ship the complete box set in June 2002. It looks like AnotherUniverse agreed back then to let other retailers sell the box set after some "time window" would have passed (maybe to save some license costs?), but before the BMG rights expire in April 2003. That time window ends in early November 2002 (the perfect time for X-Mas shopping). In April 2003, the rights will fall back to Buena Vista. Until that date, BMG can still produce more sets if the demand exists. If the set would have been shipped by AnotherUniverse in June as planned, this so-called "window" of nearly 5 months would have guaranteed the special pre-order character of this Collectors Box. The fans who supported this whole project by pre-ordering would have gotten the collectors set 5 months earlier than everyone else. But that was only the theory. Because of many delays (see next question), the shippng date got pushed back to September 17th, then mid-October, then mid-November. This reduces the "retail window" to almost 1-2 weeks (actually only 1,000 AU customers ("the first wave") got their boxes 10 days before amazon and other stores shipped the sets) and results in a "price war" between retailers. But only the set sold by AnotherUniverse will (hopefully) include the lunchbox and the bonus disc with cast & crew interviews. The other sets only include the five discs with the 19 episodes (absolutely identical to those sold by AnotherUniverse) in a slipcase. If I don't order now, how long will the discs be available? Jason wrote that AnotherUniverse ordered 4,000 sets. So they will probably have stock left for some time (but maybe they could re-sell it to other retailers?). Ventura ordered 3,000 sets from BMG and they distribute it to other retailers like amazon, dvdempire, etc. This makes a total of about roughly 7,000 - 8,000 sets produced alltogether at the moment. (Remember, we had 4,200 signatures on our petition... ) But BMG can still produce more sets as long as there is demand from retailers/distributors. The rights to "My So-Called Life" will expire in April 2003, followed by a 6 months "sell-off" period. Around X-Mas 2003, there will probably no more discs available in stores. ============================================== VI. OTHER STUFF How can I find the latest postings from Ross Rojek and/or Jason Rosenfeld in the forum? Try these links: http://www.mscl.com/forum/search.php?se ... Ross+Rojek http://www.mscl.com/forum/search.php?se ... +Rosenfeld I want MSCL on VHS! Why don't you start a petition? Because it was a hard struggle to get MSCL released on DVD. VHS is a dying technology. DVD has a much better image and audio quality and is the perfect medium to archive your favorite show for the next 10 or 20 years. Who maintans MSCL.COM? We are just a bunch of fans of "My So-Called Life". You can see more details at our "credits" page at http://www.mscl.com/credits MSCL.COM has no business connection with AnotherUniverse.com, BMG, Amazon.com or other companies noted herein, or otherwise involved in the production/distribution of this DVD set. MSCL.COM is not an official or an authorized web site of "My So-Called Life". Please do not contact us with questions about refunds, missing bonus stuff etc. We don't know more than you do! Any questions regarding the MSCL DVD Box Set, including order status, should be directed to the retailer from which you ordered it. LOCATIONS - BMG is on the east coast. - AU is in Sacremento (West coast). - BMG is three hours ahead of California. - Jason is in NY (East coast) - G-Whiz is in California (West coast) - See current time zones information at the bottom of each MSCL.COM page. What about a My So-Called Life World Convention? Actually, we (the MSCL.COM team) thought about organizing a convention in Los Angeles a few years ago, but it turned out to be too difficult to realize. Maybe in 2004, when MSCL celebrates its 10th anniversary and if we find someone to sponsor and organize the event... (hint, hint ... ============================================== VII. THE END Again, this is no official FAQ and is far from being complete or accurate. Every information in this FAQ is based on my personal knowledge and does not necessarily represent the opinion of AU, MSCL.COM (except for the forum rules). I'll close this topic to make it a FAQ-only thread. I'll edit it whenever I have time for an update.
Last edited by Sascha on Feb 11th 2004, 12:48 pm, edited 16 times in total.
Where to buy the MSCL DVD?Where to buy the MSCL DVD?
NOTE: This list is outdated and no longer maintained. I'll keep it online for a while as a reference which stores offered the box set and at which price. This is a listing of stores selling the MSCL DVD Box - last update November 26, 2002 UPC: 0755174695094 The DVD box is now listed for price comparisons at http://www.dvdpricesearch.com Distributors Website: Ventura Distribution Other distributors are also expected to sell the set to retailers.
 Keep an eye on the small prints in the shipping information: Some retailers count each DVD as a seperate item (e.g. cduniverse.com: The number of Shipping Items for an order may be different from the number of actual pieces in the order. For shipping purposes, an individual CD, DVD, video game or audio-cassette is considered one shipping item. A VHS video, because of its larger size, is considered two shipping items. For example, a four CD box set is considered 4 shipping items. However, a three VHS video collection is considered 6 shipping items. http://www.cduniverse.com/policy.asp )
Last edited by Sascha on Apr 15th 2003, 12:36 pm, edited 6 times in total.
Who is onlineUsers browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests |
